No matter who wins the nomination and ultimately the presidency this year, the Democratic Party is in trouble. For almost two decades, after the economic successes of the Clinton administration went sour, after things got rough again for the 99 percent, my party didn't try hard enough to repair the damage. They made enemies on the left and made bullies on the right. And now, when it seems they're finally waking up, both the left and the right are going after them, loaded for bear.
George W. Bush and his cohorts systematically and deliberately destroyed a thriving economy, took away the homes and livelihoods of millions of Americans, and lied their way into a murderous, protracted trillion dollar war. And what did the Democrats do? Not a whole hell of a lot. With all of the excesses and outrages the GOP and the Right Wing were throwing at us, the Dems were in a perfect position to build a movement so big and so strong the painful realities of the Bush years would have been left to the history books and not to the burdens of generations to come.
Instead, leaders of the Democratic Party took us farther away from our Rooseveltian roots, playing nice while the demons haunted us. Their refusal to fight back was a puzzlement, disturbing to those of us who still believed our party could do great things. Then our knight in shining armor--Barack Obama--appeared on the horizon and we thought we were saved at last.
