I think a great mistake is being made in the examination of this election. They see that a majority of the people that voted against Kerry did so on moral issues. Democrats are going crazy trying to figure out how to appeal to this portion of the electorate. This is a mistake. As long as Democrats are associated with the gay rights movement, these people will NEVER vote Democrat. I don't think we should abandone the gay rights movement, so we will never reach those people. While we should not sound hostile to the religious right, we should not pander to them. We will lose that way.

    I've read a ton of editorials over the last few days. They act like because a certain percentage of people voted for Bush who normally don't vote came out because of social issues (ie: gay rights, abortion) then that's what all people who voted for Bush believe. I think a large and significant portion of republicans who are traditional republicans (ie: fiscal conservatives, gun rights, small government) don't realize exactly what this administration is going to do to placate this dangerous radical base it has mobilized. I just think moderate republicans have a profound misunderstanding about where George W. Bush stands. I think a lot of moderate conservatives are going to learn how wrong they were about this president and just what a huge mistake they made by voting for him. I believe most people who site "Moral Values" as a reason to vote against Kerry did so as a cop out, not that they are staunch Pro-Life and hate gays and absolutely vote that way no matter what. What they ment is, they can't trust Kerry. And Kerry did nothing to disuade this.

     A majority of people in this country are pro-choice, are interested in seeing stem cell research progress, aren't fundamentalist christians even a lot of evangelical christians aren't and yet these are the issues that are going to be forced upon us, as a smoke screen while this administration sells off social security, medicare, and other government functions to the highest bidder.

    I think the democratic party should bring people like Jesse Ventura, someone who can appeal to this portion of the republican party (because I believe these independants did vote for Kerry) into the fold because at this point in time there is no place in the republican party for fiscal conservative, socially liberal people. The fact is that: Those people have a lot more in common with most democrats than with the republican party they have in front of them today. The solution is to reach out to those people and become what the republican party gave lip service too for years, which they have now squandered in their lust to appeal to the religious right: a true party for the common American.

The great failing of the Democrats this year was not the way they ran the campaign, or not understanding these social issues. It was bringing in a candidate who had the baggage of a liberal lifetime senator. He alienated far to many independent and republican moderates. I've talked to many republicans who have said "I wish the Democrats had run a candidate I could vote for." Anyone who has been in politics at a national level this long is bound to evolve in his political beliefs, and thus seem like someone who doesn't have a core set of beliefs. That is why people didn't trust Kerry: because he has had some pretty major changes in some of his stances. And he can be painted as being someone who doesn't stand for anything. People were voting not so much against the John Kerry of 2004, but voting against the John Kerry of 1988 and the John Kerry of 1972.

In order to reach the moderates in the republican party we need a candidate who will stand up and state his beliefs without being worried that something he said 15 years ago ON TV is going to come out and bite him.