A Democratic Platform

I think Sirota is right. The Republicans have replaced a debate over policy and how if affects our daily lives, with a debate over "personal and religious conviction." They have built an ideological movement while the left has offered little in response.

Also, Sirota briefly raises the war issue. Noting that in their post-OH2 analysis, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee doesn't even mention the fact that Hackett ran on a strong anti-war platform. This is particularly discouraging. Regardless of the state of our party in '06, potentially the biggest issue for Democrats will be the public's dissatisfaction with Bush's handling of the war in Iraq. Learning how to speak about the war should be a primary focus for Democrats moving forward.

Obviously, if you're an Iraq war veteran you have immediate credibility on the issue, even with conservatives, as Hackett showed. Fortunately eight have announced plans to run next year, all but one are Democrats. But all Democrats should now understand that they can't run their midterm campaigns without confronting the war issue head on. Many have created problems for themselves by clinging to their earlier support of the invasion. It is important that more Democrats step forward and side with a majority of Americans and claim that the invasion was a mistake, that their earlier votes were made amid a sea of misinformation coming from the administration about Iraq's supposed WMDs. It is essential that any Democrat who intends to tackle the war issue who voted for the war resolution establish basic credibility by saying their earlier vote was a mistake.

The natural next question is what to do now that we're there. One of Hackett's often made points was that the training of Iraqis can be done better and faster by integrating them more with American units. He offered not only an attack on the president's policy but also an alternative. It is likely we are past the point where this war can be "won." But Democrats should offer answers to the sort of questions many Americans are concerned with. What are our goals in Iraq? Can we leave Iraq a more or less secure nation thereby claiming some measure of success? If so, how? I imagine different Democratic candidates will answer these questions in somewhat different ways. But it is a conversation we as a party should be having. Leave it to the GOP to stand blindly by a president who most Americans believe is doing a bad job.