Bill Allison referenced my Dear Liberal's piece and added on a great observation. Dems need to be the party of ideas again. I've done a lot of thinking and meeting and talking and pondering and WTFing since I wrote that piece, and he's right...

My friends and I have come up with a thousand ways to counter the messages of the Right, but when I told my mother about that she said "that's nice, but rather than spending all this energy opposing someone else, don't you want to return to the roots of what America is supposed to be? Don't you want to create a vision of that and lure people toward something positive rather than just scaring them with the negative?"

Yes, my momma is wise, and the point rings true. Republicans have their positive elevator pitch down: "lower taxes; free you from unnecessary government meddling; defend America at any cost; oh, and to hell with the gays." Pretty compelling stuff.

The democrats are all, "their tax plan is bad; their government deregulation is hurting the environment; they're waging the war on terror wrong... etc."

You can see the ultimate version of this whiny-anti-Republicanism looking at Social Security. No one has a real plan for SS, but the Republicans at least talk about one: private investment accounts. Do the Dems propose a solution? Not at all -- they simply say, "The Republicans are gonna cut your premiums!"

So what's the positive message?

How about exporting our Fair Labor agreements along with our products?

How about standing for the True Pro Life position: no death penatly, real combat against AIDS, reduction of unwanted pregancies and taking care of the born, not just the unborn?

This is only a scrappy start, but it's something. Discuss!!