To Democrats: SAY SOMETHING!!!

Feingold is the only candidate-to-be who has my vote so far (maybe Edwards, but he doesn't have a loud voice right now while being out of office. And if he did, who knows what he would do with it).

Patience is the strategy for party leadership. Reid, Schumer, Clinton, and others all think that republicans will screw up sufficiently to the point where taking risks would be a mistake.

Here are problems with that approach (as I'm sure you know):

With every minute of silence, democrats allow republicans to shift focus away from their screw ups and towards the empty abyss that is a democratic agenda. What makes this worse is the complete lack of power that democrats have right now to actually shape policy. That is, people don't know what democrats stand for because of their silence and because of their lack of power. This is, in part, why polls show that more people trust republicans with Iraq, national security, and foreign policy. Democrats need to take the opposite approach. It’s a terrible mistake to try to gain power as the default opposition party. Even if they win on this strategy, it’ll make the post-election period extremely difficult for democrats politically because they’ll cause division after people have voted for them, as policy decisions inevitably do. And these divisions will piss off many. And that’ll build resentment and opposition. And that’ll help swing power back to the republicans.

Democrats should have learned by now that hoping that silence will make them appear like the anti-Bush doesn't work. The media called them on it during the 2004 presidential campaign with the help of republicans and they'll do it again. Americans want to see leaders with confidence--not arrogance or blind stubbornness like Bush, but confidence in their principles and ideas. If democrats don't show that they can debate these issues successfully, Americans will remain unconvinced that democrats can lead.

Democrats are taking the easy way out. Because they don't agree on policy within their party, they avoid taking risks and hope that Bush's implosion will suffice. This is a mistake. It leaves just as much room for moderate republicans, who have fewer identity problems, to take the stage. If they continue on this path, democrats will hand the 2008 election over to McCain in a heartbeat. Democrats should embrace their internal diversity. They should sell the notion that in their party, all ideas are heard and talked about...including yours. This may be more important to people right now because this is what's missing in politics today and this is what's missing with Bush's approach to governance.

Finally, if democrats are not on the attack, they are, by definition, under attack. I like Ed Helm's analogy on the Daily Show:

"I got mugged the other day and this bum was beating me with a bottle. And I said, 'You know what? I'm going to sit back and wait for him to accidentally hit himself with the bottle.' Sure enough, he did. I mean, I was unconscious, but I think I won that battle."