SOME DAYS...

Some days I am embarrassed to be a Democrat [a label I still in fact wear uncomfortably]. For example there was former Senator John Edwards on Meet the Press this morning. When asked about the DPW port deal he ran to a strangely isolationist position, suggesting that only American companies should manage American ports, as many democrats seem to be saying under advice that this will be the best way to make political points.

Unfortunately they are missing the real point of this issue [which happens to be the best way to make political hay out of this]. Democrats should be interrogating the process of over-site and transparency. Democrats simply need to repeat the statement, ”There is no area in which transparency is more important that in issues of national security.” Democrats should also be talking about the lack of support for a rigorous over-site and screening process for international shipping.

There are multiple issues at stake here that do not have to return to simple nationalist rhetoric, a run to the center right and a complete whiff on an actual Democratic message. This was especially disappointing to me coming from Edwards after the good and interesting work he has been doing at the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

But this seems to be endemic in the Democratic Party. More and more congressional candidates seem to be attempting to run as fiscal conservatives. They are certainly not calling it that, but instead us phrases like “budgetary responsibility” as a thinly veiled replacement in an attempt to capitalize on dissatisfaction among moderates who have voted Republican in the recent past.

Unfortunately, as has been said many times as of late, this is not advancing any real message. The claim “We can do what they said they would do better than they are doing it,” is not an actual position. What about any semblance of an effort to actually rally democrats during the mid-term election, to develop excitement about the upcoming presidential election in 2008? Instead Democrats seem to be running shortsighted campaigns, looking for little cracks that might lead to a temporary advantage, missing the big holes that the current administration has created.

While many of these candidates may be happy to win a narrow margin victory based on suppressed Republican voter turnout and moderate flight from a scandal-ridden majority, this simply ignores the larger issues that face the country. Even worse, these middle-of-the-road campaign promises set Democratic candidates for one of three things 1] to not really be democrats once elected, 2] break a whole bundle of campaign promises and then be unable to gain re-election, or 3] convert the Democratic party to a new Republican party.

What bothers me is that so many of the Democrats that are running, are thinking of running or have run recently are people I actually respect. The problem seems to be the advice they are getting. Democratic advisors seem to have nothing more in the bag than “Let’s sound more like them.” Haven’t any of them noticed that Republic success has not come from running to the center? Not that I am calling for screaming liberals [we all know what happens when democrats yell], but just give me a position. Go to the website of any new Democratic candidate and I bet you will get nothing more than thin, equivocal positions on any issue,

I guess what I am looking for are some candidates with a pair of balls/ovaries. That may be too much to ask for now-a-days, but wouldn’t it be nice?