the sky is blue, no the sky is red

"I'm fine. I just threw up in my mouth a little bit."
--Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor) , Dodgeball

While those of us under the Big Tent struggle endlessly with our own identity, the Republican party is marching confidently into the next stage of its permanent war on progress/humanity/sanity -- appointing Ken Mehlman to lead the party and immediately launching their "Durable Majority" plan. They say they will (1) institutionalize their '04 grassroots operation (2) GOTV of presidential election voters for off-year elections, (3) target D base groups with specific issues, (4) use judicial nominations (affecting gay marriage/abortion) to mobilize the church vote, (5) keep working on redistricting and long-term candidate recruitment. And, of course, push Bush's agenda on Social Security, tax code change, and "fighting terrorism" (loosely defined as military aggression as it suits the administration's needs). And just when we thought we could put the elections out of our mind for a moment, take a breath and go back to fighting the good fight, Bush announced his plan to conduct an election-style PR campaign that will spend over $15 million to convince Americans to gut Social Security.

I know it's not just me that feels like we're trying fruitlessly to peel ourselves off the floor of the ring as Ah-nold sails through the air for another body-slam, because our side is debating literally everything -- trying to get at the heart of why we lost so badly (and unexpectedly), and what we can do to stop the bleeding:
-Do we just need a coherent progressive message that will unify us and help us frame the debate in our own terms?
-Do we need a progressive crusader to provide strong leadership for the party?
-Is the problem that we failed to put terrorism at the center of our message during a time when it was central in Americans' minds?
-Do we just need to expand and improve our grassroots mobilization operations? (After all, we only lost by a couple of percentage points.)
-Should we fire the consultants that keep giving D candidates bad advice?
-Can we relax because demographic shifts are eventually going to bear out an emerging democratic majority?
-Do we need to recruit party leadership and candidates from the South and West? Everybody knows those damn Yankees are wicked retaaaded, and snobby peaceniks to boot.

These are the questions that keep me up at night. And, lucky for me, working during the day. Hopefully we'll get to hash some of them out on this blog.