I’ve been pointing out here for the past few weeks–and this has been a topic discussed on other blogs that deal regularly with politics–how truly weak the Democratic party is. You could not have a more ripe environment to take back the government from the Republicans: Iraq, massive deficits, corruption, Katrina and, of course, stagnant wages, disappearing pensions and skyrocketing healthcare costs.

The problem is that we have two parties in America: one party represents evil and the other party has no spine to confront evil. The spineless party is more than weak–it obviously is also bound up in the corrupt system that lets corporations run wild.

Today, The New York Times catches up, sort of, with a front-page story headlined “Some Democrats Are Sensing Missed Opportunities.” In fact, I’ve been pointing out that the Democrats have a failed strategy based on one notion–let the Republicans fail while we offer no counter-alternative.

John Edwards has this observation:

“What the American people are hungry to hear from us is, what is the difference?” Mr. Edwards said in an interview. “What will we do? How will we deal with the corruption issue in Washington? How will we deal with the huge moral issues that we have at home? This is a huge opportunity for our party to show what we are made of.”

Yup. But, first, the party needs to figure out what it stands for. And there’s the rub: a majority of people want out of Iraq, a majority of people say they will pay more in taxes for real universal health care, and a majority of people are worried about abusive corporate power.

Until the party banishes from its ranks people who can’t articulate a vision that seizes the banner on these issues, it won’t–and should not–become the majority party.