"People want us [Democrats] to fight...

... and we are here to fight"

What do I do while writhing in agony with my inflamed (and increasingly swelling) cheeks/gums and lamenting to God about this perfectly human tragedy? I watch C-SPAN.

Howard Dean had a meeting with leaders of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). I happened to tune in just as Dean was introducing the DNC pollster, who was explaining the ABC-Washington Post poll results (PDF file), and their implications.

The main points were 1) the GOP abuse of a so-called "mandate" backfired, showing a lack thereof, 2) the typical "conservative" voter agrees with Democratic Party principles and could vote Democratic at future elections, and 3) the Democrats can be the "moral" party.

From Washington Post:

The Democratic National Committee's lead pollster, Cornell Belcher, said that religious people who have been stymied economically represent a huge opportunity for the party, and that the challenge is to portray moral values as "not just gay marriage and abortion."

And he proved that by showing how, among "faith voters" (those whose religion is one of the most important factors at the polls), "moral values" ranked high on their list of priorities while things like abortion and gay marriage didn't. Personally, I still think the Dems need to get their message across that their stance on these issues are perfectly moral from a different perspective.

But Dean makes another point I liked:

"The truth is, we're Democrats because of our moral values. It's a moral value to make sure that kids don't go to bed hungry at night. . . . It is a moral value not to go out on golf trips paid for by lobbyists."

Belcher, the pollster, said the emphasis that many voters placed on moral values in November is "not a call to move to the right." He said that a lot of what he called "faith voters" -- those for whom religion plays an equal or more important role in determining their vote than conventional issues such as education -- "are up for grabs." He said those voters can be reached by acknowledging their fears about raising their children.

See, Karl Rove and Co. managed to combine abortion and gay marriage to present "moral values." But that's just their clever manipulation. Abortion is more theological and there's NO way the opposing sides will agree, since it's so rooted in personal beliefs. Gay marriage is totally not a "moral issue" and it's almost impressive how the Dubya administration has successfully convinced people that it is a national crisis. It's things like COMPASSION and TOLERANCE that are true "Christian" virtues. Maybe I'm being naively optimistic, but the Democrats can win this. The GOP, through their full exploitation of their "mandate", showed that they don't really have any idea what they're doing:

Dean derided the attempted congressional intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo, whose feeding tube was removed in March. "Do we think the American people want to have those kinds of decisions made by families, or should they be made by Tom DeLay and the politicians in Washington?" Dean asked. "A moral value is personal responsibility and individual freedom. And that is what Democrats are going to start to stand for -- moral values."

Still not convinced? Well, I really really really would hate to believe the American people are stupid enough to not vote for the party that manifests their individual and personal beliefs and goals. Dean again:

"People don't know where we stand on a lot of issues. I believe this country's a Democratic country, with a big 'D.' If we got 48 percent of the vote, with their machine and our 30 years behind theirs, then this is a country that if voters vote and if they understand what we believe in, we're going to win. Now, that's why Republicans like to suppress the vote."

Hear hear. And on a side note, my teeth still hurt like hell. This just... soothed the rage toward my really nice dentist who nonetheless was the cause of my pain.

Future discussion topics (ya'll are welcome to relieve me of any if you wish): U.S. "options" on Guantanamo, a Vietnam-Iraq War comparison (Wa Post, NYTimes), why CNN sucks and Christie is removing that from her Bookmarked news sites (Teagle? Up for the MSM bash?), and an analysis of the Clinton health care reform plan (Clinton in NYTimes, Executive summary of National Health Security Plan, Derek Bok of Harvard University).