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Your solution is that we should each and all give up our pet whatevers in order to stand together as one unified party. Guess what, that's not a problem at all.
EXHIBIT A Howard Dean's candidacy AND his recent election as DNC chair. His presidential run attracted everyone but fundamentalist Christians -- and even one or two of them -- people from all across the political spectrum. He attacted Greens, Libertarians, Socialists, Independents, Libertarians and even Republicans. Why? Not so much his policies (because most of us disagreed with him re SOMEthing or other0, but because he recognized and spoke the Truth, stood up for what he believed in, wanted more than anything to empower The People again, etc. His candidacy, his wide-ranging support and his incredible organization proves that it's not so much individual policies that are the key ingredient. (And before you point out that he didn't win the primary -- let ME point out that he was gunned down by his own party, and the media helped toward the end. We don't KNOW if he could have won the primary or not; he wasn't allowed to sink or swim on his own.)
He was elected chair of the DNC NOT because of his policies (he's not supposed to SET policies, according to Reid and Pelosi), but because of his strength, integrity, willingness to speak out, honesty, organizing ability, vision for the party. Everyday Dems spoke up loudly and clearly and fomented a coup against TPTB in the Party. It was a revolution, frankly, a very welcome one.
EXHIBIT B John Kerry's candidacy. Not that many people loved Kerry or his policies, whatever they were. They just knew he was better than Bush. Furthermore, IMO evidence shows he actually won, which means there's NOTHING we need to do differently to win elections (altho a more exciting candidate with more clearly identifiable and internally consistent/congruent positions on things could only help).
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