Quit Crying and Lead

Digby is, as usual, absolutely right.

A party that is described as fumbling, confused and scared is unlikely to win elections even if they endorse the wholesale round-up of hippies and the nuking of Mecca. People will listen to us if we can first convince them that we know who we are and what we believe in.

I'm of the mind to adopt "give me liberty or give me death" as my personal motto. If I have to kowtow to a bunch of childish Republican panic artists who have deluded themselves into believing that fighting radical Islam requires turning America into a police state, then it's just not worth it.

I have seen with my own two eyes perfectly reasonable people turn into simpering "hold-me-daddy" September 12th Republicans, where they remain out of comfort four years later. I'm no longer interested in having a dialogue with chumps who would literally allow the executive branch to sacrifice young children if it would only make us safe. These whiners would immediately move to the periphery if Democratic leaders (besides Russ Feingold, I mean) would step to the podium and simply say "You know what, there's something called liberty. You did a paper on it in 6th-grade civics class, remember? Now get your head out of your ass and come on board!"

Digby is also right in saying that the public hand-wringing Democrats do with every issue seeks to reinforce the stereotype of having no principles. Consequently they are bullied by the Right into believing every issue "spells trouble for Democrats." Um, if you don't have a single branch of government, how much more trouble can be caused? Quit crying and lead. We're desperate out here. If the Democrats can't get on the side of "give me liberty or give me death" our of fear, then they deserve what electoral failures they'll surely get.