reaction rather than action.

thats the problem with the dems. or so says sf chronicle's jon carroll. ive been suspicious from the beginning of a liberal tendency for excessive self-analysis, and mostly have steered clear of or been bored with all the 'whats wrong with the democrats?' articles. the 'stolen election' thing kinda eclipsed all that for me. still, this one stuck me as a little more interesting and useful.

I'm not sure when I first became fed up with the Democrats. Probably sometime during the Kerry campaign, although at that time I was being eaten up by the Fear and not noticing the flaws of the Kerry campaign so much. I feel foolish now. Many of us feel foolish now.
But here's the moment at which it all crystallized for me: It was at the beginning of what was then called "the great Social Security debate," which was a brief fad that hit America at about the same time as the 2005 Rose Parade.

Congressional Democrats solemnly announced that they were not going to come up with an alternative plan, because that would be politically unwise. It would be much better for the party to just snipe at the Republican plan. Yeah, I know, Social Security was not in nearly as bad shape as the GOP said it was, but could certainly have used -- still certainly could use -- a little help. Innovative thinking, maybe. Or, you know, the appearance of innovative thinking. Something other than "This plan is very terrible, and that's good for our side."

But it's typical. The party of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson is back on its heels. It is reacting rather than acting. It is getting sucked into pointless debates. It is providing zero leadership. Some individuals within the party are trying -- hello, John Edwards -- but there's no vision.

What do Democrats believe? Well, you know what Republicans believe. Well, Democrats believe the other thing. Democrats stand for a vision to be named later.

Poverty was not a secret before Hurricane Katrina hit. The plight of inner-city African Americans was not a secret before the storm hit. If Democrats had wanted an issue, that was always there. If Democrats wanted to stay on message, there was that message. It's not the only possible message, but it's a pretty good one -- and it's a message that reaches across ideological lines to the so-called "values voters."

Here's the first thing the Democrats should do. Stop taking the pundits seriously. Stop responding to every mini-flurry of gossip or speculation that eddies through the corridors of Washington. That is not real life. That is not what we care about out here in people-land.
In the last election, when the Swift Boat Veterans for I'm-With-Stupid started their well-financed reputation-smashing campaign, the Democrats should have appointed one politician as Authorized Bull Catcher. Every Democratic candidate would refer all rumors, allegations, thunderings, rumblings and billingsgate to the Bull Catcher. The Bull Catcher would hold eight-hour news conferences every day and keep talking until everyone walked away.

Meanwhile, the candidates would insist on talking about poverty and racial justice and the benefits of peace over war. (In peace: less killing. You'd think that would be a selling point.)
It would help, of course, if the idiot press would not go chasing after every whiff of a scandal-like odor. Ooh, Teresa Heinz Kerry has a temper. Ooh, Jenna Bush may have gotten drunk. Ooh, someone saw Rick Santorum in a gay bar. Ooh, Russ Feingold is getting a divorce. Are we running a country or a hair salon? I mean no disrespect to hair salons.

The right-wing attack machine knows no shame. It will slime war veterans like John Kerry. It will slime badly injured war veterans like Max Cleland. It'll slime grieving mothers like Cindy Sheehan. It's not a fight the Democrats can win; it's not a fight that any decent person could win. Solution: Get out of the fight. Takes two to have a shouting match.

And Democrats might want to get off the "values" horse too. The fights are mostly futile, anyway, at least short term. Abortion is not going to be outlawed in this country; it's just not. Prayers in schools are not going to be allowed in this country; they're just not. Gay marriage is never going to be the law of the land; it's just not.

And, at the risk of alienating my base and some of my relatives -- I don't think gay marriage is that important an issue. I mean, dead citizens in Iraq; tortured Muslims at Guantanamo; AIDS epidemic in Africa; ice caps melting and fish dying pretty much everywhere. Gay marriage freaks people out -- it shouldn't, but it does. Heck, I think the failure of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is more important than gay marriage, and even that takes a backseat to, uh, some of the other problems the military is having.

I don't think the Democratic Party should be another talking-points-generating engine, as the Republican Party is. Democrats are always going to disagree; it's a good thing. But please, let us disagree about real things, about real policies and real ideas and real solutions. And, seriously, the Democrats really should find a candidate who's a uniter, not a divider. That job is definitely still open.

It's like, OK, I do not know how to fix this car, but I do know that sitting around hurling slogans rather than reading the manual is not the way to go about it.