While I normally have issues with the concepts that arise from Kos’ hard-left stance, I agree with some of the views in this column by Chris Cook, reprinted at Daily Kos:
Last Sunday, Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post reported that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada met with their party chairman and “complained about Dean’s priorities — funding organizers for state parties in strongly Republican states, such as Mississippi, rather than targeting states with crucial races this fall.”[...]
The Democratic congressional leaders’ shortsighted, penny-wise/pound-foolish complaints show why their party has become bicoastal. Congressional Democrats have trouble winning in many interior states, in part because leaders like Reid and Pelosi have failed to appreciate the importance of maintaining a strong national party apparatus. The Democrats’ inability to consistently win elections in places where gun shops outnumber Starbucks is a big reason the party controls neither the House nor the Senate.
Right now, one of the biggest obstacles to Democrats’ taking the House back is their failure to recruit strong candidates in many Republican-held districts that ought to be in play. Party building means lining up a solid team — organizing and winning lower-level offices that give the party a talented bench from which to draw for higher contests.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, summarizes one of the reasons a Democratic Revolution of ‘06 seems very unlikely. If the Dems want to be a viable, national party, rather than an opposition operating at the edges of the country, they need to be able to make a name for themselves, rather than only being able to sell a “hate the GOP” platform.
Until they have a message that appeals to a broad enough base, I won’t be able to discount Democrats’ knack for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. Until they make changes, if the GOP loses control of the House and Senate, it will be because of the GOP screwing up, rather than the Democrats winning in their own right.