true weakness and the democratic party

Thank you for Mr Berman's excellent article on Jim Messina. Among Democratic party consultants and smart guys and gals the Republican lite strategy has been the CW for "serious" Democratic party leaders and pundits for 35 years. This strategy does not work. Why the stubborn adherence to this losing tactic? One explanation is that the charges of elitism towards the Dem leadership are true; they believe that this is a very conservative country and progressive ideas must be snuck in. This does not jibe with reality. Any poll that asks about opinions on specific policy options and then asks about identification with "liberal" or "conservative" will find a disconnect. The number of people claiming to be "conservative" is always higher than the number taking consistent right wing positions. If this was an overwhelming conservative nation would all our presidential campaigns come close to 50/50? What is true is that our self- mythology has a conservative bias. The seamless Right -wing disinformation machine exists to use these myths to redirect us from reality. In the 1990's we were warned that Clinton raising taxes and the minimum wage would lead to economic ruin. I remember a boom that even reached the working class. That we can't even convince a huge majority that it was unregulated capitalism that crashed our economy, not Fannie Mae and Obama shows either a total lack of interest or mind numbing cowardice. If our elected Democratic legislators are scared of Atwater's disciples we truly have a negative voice, people stealing our name and votes to do what we see as evil. Americans think elected Democrats are weak. Our be-knghted consultants say it is because our candidates are not right wing enough. This is not true. Our abhorrence of standing up for a set of Principles, to fight like these principle meant something. THAT is weak and the American voter sees this. A bunch of ( derogatory word for genitalia). We elected a president who sold us out. Why can he get away with this? This is the question we must ask ourselves as we try to ride this wave of U.S, fascism that calls itself conservatism, 21st century style. Tom Cuddy 1124 Walton ln Austin Tx 78721