I’m just wondering today about November: if the Democrats don’t take back the Congress, will someone fire Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Rahm Emanuel? I know the answer is, of course, no because the Democratic Party power-that-be are all about making sure that those who have power hold on to it–no matter what.

This party has no soul. You almost want to scream–and sometimes I know I do. Bush’s poll ratings are in the mid-30s, Iraq, Katrina, huge trade deficits, pensions being ripped off, wages not going anywhere…and, yet, there’s no vision coming from the Democratic Party except “we’re not the other guys.” Whew, inspiring.

In today’s Washington Post, there’s a piece about the Democratic Party’s November “strategy,” if it can be called that:

Democratic Party officials continue to assemble the pieces for their midterm election strategy, but questions about the party’s overall message, differences on Iraq, reservations about their leaders, and debates about campaign tactics contribute to concerns that they may not be positioned to take advantage of the most favorable political climate since President Bush was elected.

Well, duh. The party doesn’t have a message. And there is, at least, some acknowledgment of the problem. Even after Howard Dean ran off a laundry list of policy ideas at a party meeting of honchos, there was an unease:

But Dean’s litany falls short of what other Democrats see as a comprehensive alternative to Republican governance, and while many of them believe there is still time to produce something for public consumption before the November election, there is not overwhelming confidence that the party can do it. On Iraq, there is a sharp divide over whether to embrace or eschew timetables for withdrawing troops.

Iraq will prove to be the downfall of the Democrats as it was for Bush and John Kerry. By supporting this immoral war, which any politician with a modium of principles should have known would be a disaster, pro-war Democrats have doomed the party for this election cycle and perhaps beyond.

And by trying to fashion a program based on focus groups and triangulation, rather than principle, the party has been incapable of articulating a vision of a different America. Frankly, I think we should get Molly Ivins to run the party–she’s got the clearest way of stating the obvious:

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy’s sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do “whatever it takes” to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

I gather the party is afraid of offending the corporate lobbyists, for one. The people running the party want to keep their own power and accumulate more power so badly that they have lost their ability to speak up. And they’ve lost their souls in the process.

And even if the Democratic Party somehow controls Congress in November, how will the people be better off if the party is not united against an immoral war, for single-payer health insurance, and for controlling the power of corporations?