Why Can’t The Dems Capitalize?

Howard Fineman has a piece up that should be considered a must-read regarding how the Dems can’t seem to capitalize even with W and the Republicans ‘on the ropes.’ His last paragraph is the most on the mark, IMO:

What Big Idea would a Democratic presidency be about? No one seems to know, which is perhaps the main reason why the party faithful in that room seemed so lost.

Indeed – and they haven’t had a real message in years, outside of "the President is evil incarnate" and "whatever Republicans are for we are against." No real ideas that have resonated with a majority of Americans, and no vision for the future. What’s worse, they’ve got a bonafide Republican hater as the head of their party (Howard Dean) which stands to make them look more than just a little bit hypocritical when they call for a ‘healing of the nations divisions’ to begin – after all, Howard Dean is the one who said "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."

Consider this: The man DNC supporters have called everything from "Dumbya" to "Rovian Puppet" has managed to beat them the last three elections in historical defeats. What does that tell you about the DNC’s ideas? They don’t connect with the majority of the American people. They have no real message. No real vision. And no real leader. That’s about it in a nutshell.

Republicans aren’t perfect, and have their own house (in more ways than one) to clean, but America is fastly becoming a one-party country, and that can largely be blamed on the DNC and their lack of a focused message outside of the standard anti-W diatribes. And though I *am* a Republican, the thought of essentially having only one party out there that people feel comfortable with scares me. Because if we have no real competition with which to compete in the arena ideas, what will become of our party?

(Cross-posted at Blogs For Bush)