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one. When I say "we," I mean Democrats, liberals, the left, moderates, realists and humanists - you know, us.
There are terrorists. What are we going to do about them? And once we decide, how do we make it sound stirring? How do we speak of it with flags flying and the Marine band going oompah-oompah, so that the red-staters stand up and salute? How do we really reform education, so that the red-staters can see that it's better than Mr. Bush's fraud-ridden, test-taking, hide-the-failures-in-the-basement program? Do we dare stand up to the special interests and offer real tax reform? Make the tax code comprehensible? Make it so that GE pays taxes? Make it genuinely progressive?
The case for taxing people who make $1 million a year at a higher rate than people who make $30,000 is pretty easy to make. So is the case that making money from money should be taxed quite as much or more than money made from working.
The truth about private pensions is that they can be taken away, as Halliburton just did to a group of its workers in the process of selling a subsidiary. The truth about investing in the markets is that you can lose your money, as you would have if you invested in most of Mr. Bush's companies. That, too, is a case that can be made. But only if we have a different plan for "saving" Social Security.
The Democrats have been thoroughly and completely kicked out of office. It is their turn to watch the Republicans make a hash out of things. Based on the past four years, they most certainly will.
Based on their performance in this election, the Republicans are also brilliant at running against reality. So it is not enough to sit back and watch. It is the time to think. And rethink. And when those thoughts are strong and clear and useful, to phrase them and rephrase them into sound bites and test those sound bites on voters so that they convey, with power and brevity, the message that is intended.
Then, having saved themselves, the Democrats might be ready to return and save the country. Which will know, by then, that it needs somebody to set things right.
Larry Beinhart is a screenwriter and an author who lives in Woodstock, NY. He is best known for American Hero which became Wag the Dog. His newest book is "The Librarian," a political thriller.
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