"We just don't have one"

AP: Democrats Urged to Abandon Election Myths---

WASHINGTON (AP) - To regain political power Democrats must abandon favorite election myths, adopt a strong position on national defense and pick candidates who connect with average voters, two political analysts from the party said Thursday.

Political scientists Elaine Kamarck and William Galston, both Democrats, warned that the most important first step is to abandon beliefs they describe as "election myths."

The report, done for the moderate Democratic strategy group Third Way, compared the current situation to 1989, when they wrote a report that mapped a centrist strategy for Democrats.

The said the current "myths" are:

_The belief Democrats can win if they just do a great job of mobilizing their base. Republicans have improved at mobilizing their own base, so Democrats need to do more than that.

_The theory demographic changes over time will make Democrats a majority, a questionable concept with the Hispanic vote increasingly up for grabs.

_The belief Democrats can succeed politically if they simply learn to talk more effectively about their positions.

_The strategy of avoiding cultural issues, playing down national security and changing the subject to domestic issues. National security is too dominant a concern now.

The report noted Republican gains among married people, Catholics, Hispanics and women during the last presidential election.

Democrats must choose to appeal to a broader majority that includes many moderates, said Galston, a political scientist at the University of Maryland.

The Democrats also must develop a coherent foreign policy because "we just don't have one," said Kamarck, a political scientist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

This reminds me of a post I did about a Huff Puff editorial by Donnie Fowler, at the end of September. You can find a link to it here The Democrats have no unifying values (if one can call the various things they believe "values."). As a result, the party is made up of fractious fringe groups and wackos.

Really, the Dems have no coherent policies, foreign or otherwise, other than being all for everything about homosexuality, abortion, and hating the military.

Can they develop some by the 2006 elections?

(Curtsy to Drudge)