Answers? Do We Have Answers?

By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted November 3, 2004.

It was the Ground War. It was the Air War. It was the youth vote. It was the 'Yalla' vote. It was the hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters. It was the millions of newly registered voters.

It was George Soros. It was the felons' list. It was voter suppression. It was voter fraud. It was the mystery bulge, and the wired president. It was the swing states. It was the battleground states. It was the computer voting machines.

It was the media. It was the blogosphere. It was Sinclair Broadcasting. It was Dan Rather-Biased. It was fair and balanced. It was Sun Myung Moon, it was Jon Stewart as a butt boy. It was Tucker Carlson as a dick.

It was ballot access. It was ballot security. It was election law experts.

It was the Bush twins. It was Vanessa and Alexandra. It was Teresa.

It was the economy, stupid. It was Iraq. It was staying on message. It was terror. It was terror. It was terror.

But most of all it was Ralph Nader.

Oops – that was four years ago.

Athough truly, it seems like just last night.

But if it wasn't Nader, what is the explanation for the Democrats going down, down, down this year?

After all, it's a Republican Senate. It's a Republican House. It's a Republican Supreme Court – poised to become vastly more so.

But if the Democrats can't blame Nader, as they have in increasingly vociferous terms for the past eight years – who can they blame?

Maybe they should start with themselves.

Maybe running as the Democrat wing of the Republican party isn't such a good idea after all. Maybe turning the convention into a four-day meeting of Securocrats was a bad idea. Maybe turning the conversation into a nine-month gabfest on strength and security, war and terror, terror and terror, only reminded people that they vote for Republicans in times of fear.

Maybe selling out to buy in was wrong. Maybe raising hundreds of millions from corporations means losing your soul.

Maybe being an anti-war hero who runs as a war hero was wrong. Maybe Howard Dean was right.

Maybe it's time for the democratic wing of the Democrat party. Maybe there really is a democratic wing of the Democrat party.

Maybe Kerry should have announced a plan to end the war. (After all, he seemed to have a plan for nearly everything else!)

Maybe it was the weapons of mass destruction. Maybe it was the weapons of mass deception.

Or maybe – just maybe – it was the Democrats.

Maybe it was the most inept press and communications staff and strategy seen in along time. Maybe it was the press secretary hanging up on the press, and the communications operation functioning worse than the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Or maybe – just maybe – it was the Democrats.

Maybe it was their platform. Maybe it was their vision. Maybe it was their values. Maybe it was their lack of them. Maybe it was the way they presented things.

Or maybe this is just a 'red' country. Electoral votes aside, three million more Americans just voted to re-elect George Bush.

Maybe the Democrats need to revamp.

Maybe the Democrats need to disband.

Let's just go ahead and blame Nader again.

After all – it's easier than looking in a mirror.

This and other articles by Rory O'Connor are available on his blog.

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