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Their is an old saying that comes to mind when I disuse this.
A wise man need only whisper. It is the fool who must shout his wisdom to others.
Part of the problems that the Democrats are faced with is something called "retail politics." They sell a candidate, much like you would sell a TV set. The candidates vies are like features. They are "pro-choice", "pro-labor", or "pro-education," and so forth. And the features of each candidate are determined by the demographics of the area he is running in. This is so because when all you have is a TV add slot. But to even have the money to afford the TV time, you have to go to the corporations and Limousine Liberals who will NOT donate money to candidates they want. The people get first choice, are the corporations that attend the $10,000 a plate dinners. You then have to sell that choice to the voters. Hence the term.
The problem is that the people see right through this, and are not impressed. A "vote for Gray Davis" campaign add is just as likely to get surfed over as an add for laundry soap. To compensate, you need to increase your media saturation, buy more adds, and make yourself even more dependent on corporate donations, ending up with an even less attractive candidate. There is a point of diminishing returns with this strategy, and that point has already been reached.
Eventually, you have candidates like Clark, Leabermen, Kerry, and Gepheardt, who are virtual neo-cons and are just as conservative and pro-corporation as the Republican counter part. All the add time in the world can not make these candidates look good. Especially when their history follows them.
In contrast, as you noted, are the Republicans. They not only have inexhaustible financing, but control the media as well, and are not above violating the law when ever it suites them. Repugs have the capacity to literally inundate a district with their message, 24/7/365, on the radio, in print, on TV, even from the church pulpit. They only roll out the adds to "ramp up" the campaign. You can't just "tune them out" without also dropping off the face of the earth. Hell, do you realize that Ashcroft even has adds playing during Saturday morning cartoons?
That also means that in order for the Dems to get the message out, they have to push their way through all this. It's like a beach, crowded with Republican pundits, and the Democrat can only hold a few fingers above the water for 30 seconds, before going back under.
The first step to changing this is for the Dems to quit playing the fool. Of course, part of this means that they need to understand that the corporations are against the American people, but that is another issue. But when they truly start to address the concerns of the voters, the voters will seek them out to hear what they have to say. People will support liberal and progressive programming on the radio (they constantly prove that they can maintain high ratings, and make money) because they WANT to hear the left wing pundits. They aren't saying what the voters want to hear, but what needs to be said.
But when your primay mesage is "give me money" exactly how much support can you expect?
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