We cannot become Republican clones

Democrats should have talked more directly about fundamental values and ideals in last year’s presidential campaign, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said Wednesday, outlining a progressive agenda aimed at moving the party and the nation forward.

Democrats must do a better job speaking about the principles they believe in and that have guided the party, said Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, in a speech to the National Press Club.

“We cannot move our party or our nation forward under pale colors and timid voices,” said Kennedy, who has served 42 years in the Senate. “We cannot become Republican clones. If we do, we will lose again, and deserve to lose.”

But at the same time, Kennedy said fellow Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s narrow election loss also showed that the party must “speak more directly to the issues of deep conscience in policy positions we take.” (source)

Kennedy is right. As a party, the Democrats must make their positions better known and stick to them. You can’t switch position in mid-stream because you will lose all credibility.

After Bush won the last election, one of the most difficult things for me to swallow was the fact that President Bush won the election on vapor. Kerry brought a lot more substance to the issues at hand, but Bush was able to impart the impression that Kerry was switching positions left and right. After months and reiterating that message over and over and over again, President Bush’s efforts to deliver the message that Kerry was a waffler paid off. People bought it. The people felt that the President was believable, even though he could bring no hard facts to the debates. He would look at Kerry and say, “He’s not credible. He’s just not credible.” On one occasion when the President chose not to even answer a difficult question of how long the war in Iraq would continue, the President didn’t even answer the question. He kept saying over and over again, “It’s hard work.”

It was very obvious to me that he just didn’t have the answers. He came unprepared and was able to stumble his way through the debates, one after the other. I was sure he was in trouble and that Kerry would surely win. Yet, the weaker argument won the day and we will be paying for it for years to come.

I’m not saying this because we lost. I’m saying it because even today...

- we have no exit strategy for Bush’s war in Iraq
- we have no energy plan, other than plans to gut the Wilderness Act
- we have no plans to further help the environment
- plans are underway to weaken the Endangered Species Act to open up vast stretches of wilderness for development, at the wish of western Republican governors
- we are no more secure today than we were on 9/11/2001 (air plane cargo holds are still not screened for third-party freight companies)
- we need a smaller goverment. If you think Bush is doing that, just look at the deficit or the size of Homeland Security.
- Osama bin Ladin, remember him? He’s the one who ACTUALLY DID order those planes into the World Trade Center
- Saddam Hussein was captured, but he didn’t attack us, nor did he even have the ability to deliver his arsenal to the United States
- after attacking Iraq and getting hundreds of our troops killed searching for weapons of mass destruction, we have ended our search for these weapons

I could go on and on. The American people got what they asked for, a President with no answers.