Where's the Party?

Ideas from the left on how to save the Democratic Party. And so the Boston Globe asked 5 "astute" observers to offer their views on where the party goes in the wake of President Bush's election victory decided largely on voters affirmation of moral values.

Although they varied in their scripts, they all chanted substantially the same mantra, Back to the Past. Particularly lame in her post game analysis was Elaine Kamarck, of the Kennedy School of Government, former member of the Clinton Adminstration, and policy advisor the Gore presidential campaign. Her writing contribution to the Globe caught our eye because of her $2000 cash contribution to John Kerry which listed her address as Brewster.

So what was our fellow Cape Codder's take on the election debacle? Blame it on Clinton, Bill that is. "For red America," she writes, "he is emblematic of a culture and value systerm that they abhor".

Clinton never paid a price for his indiscretions inside the Democartic party, which led many Americans to view the party as out of the mainstream of traditional moral values. Kamarck recommends that supporters, such as herself, stop adoring Clinton, as the first step to regaining the moral high ground. That part she got right.

But here's where she gets lost. She further suggests in order to take the moral high ground, that Democrats talk about families, talk about security, talk about helping fathers and mothers be good parents, talk about the importance of stable marriages, and among other things she suggests going back to Humbert Humprey's America.

She wants to talk about moral values. She wants to speak the language of the moral majority, she wants the Democrats to show the evangelical nation that they too can identify with their moral values.

But this is not the same as being moral, it's not the same as living a moral life. It's not the same as incorporating faith into one's daily work.

The Democrats want to talk about how an abortion can be reconciled with moral values, how gay marriage can be explained in moral terms. They are willing to acknowledge the ten commandments, but not live by them.

Democrats can not take back the moral high ground. They shouldn't even try. They should stick to riding the cultural divide, and hope that they eventually outnumber the moralists. They do not need to find common ground, they need to find their way back to Ground Zero.