Carville Gets It: A Coherent and Clear Statement of Democratic Party Values

"I'm not in denial. Reality hit me," Carville said. "Let's take the greatest morality story of all -- we're born again," he added, in a play on words connoting both his view that the party needs a fundamental change, as well as the importance of evangelical Christians to Bush.

"We have to treat the disease, not the symptom," Carville said. "The purpose of a political party is to win elections, and we're not doing that."

Carville said that the party's concern about interest groups had resulted in "litanies, not a narrative."

"The party needs a narrative," he said. adding later that one possibility would to become "an aggressively reform, anti-Washington, anti-business-as-usual party."

This is welcome news. I think most Democrats are beginning to realize that the Republicans are waging a war against America. In pursuit of their view of "conservative moral values," they seek to destroy all of the real American values of freedom, equality, social justice and tolerance. It is heartening to read that the upper echelons of the leadership realize that winning this war requires more than just banding together a broad coalition.

Appealing to the Mainstream

Bill Clinton won 72 percent of the Hispanic vote in 1996; Kerry got 53 percent. Clinton not only won female voters overall, he also won white women (48 percent to Bob Dole's 43), married women (also 48 percent to 43) and moms (53 percent to 38). Unlike the unreachable evangelicals, these voters are not far removed from the values of the mainstream of the Democratic Party. They voted Democratic on the basis of balanced budgets, a fair immigration policy, expanded educational opportunities and greater protections for their kids from the dangers of tobacco and other marketing.

This perfectly highlights the problem we face. Our party espouses equal rights, education and protection against corporate abuses. Yet, we can't sell our message to those that agree with us. Fundamentally, the public thinks of these issues as "conservative" issues yet the Republican party gets their vote. That is our fault.

The country is begging for leadership and our party is failing our nation.