Election Reflection #2: Move to the Middle?

I was talkimg to a guy at work yesterday and he said he voted Republican even though he is generally a Democrat, or some such crap. He said he "just didn't like the face of the current Democratic Party." When I asked him what he meant he said "You know, Snoop Dogg, P. Diddy, vote or die..." This is a family man in his forties, but almost for sure not a racist, and he's got a problem with black people urging him to vote? I don't get it. Maybe I'm wrong about him. You can't just ask people if they are racists. They will almost always say they're not, at least in 21st century USA.

This got me thinking about what the Democrats (my party, for better or worse) is going to have to do to get his vote in 2008 (2006, being local, is a whole different discussion). There is a surprising amount of talk and writing already going on about this very subject, just a week after losing the White House for another four years. I suppose that's all we can do at this point -- at least we're not going through the denial phase of dealing with our loss (the hard core lefties are in denial -- they are pissed off that Kerry conceded so early, and want recounts in Ohio, New Hampshire and maybe Florida). What I hope we (the Dems) don't do is dump P. Diddy, or change our beliefs to make them more palatable to conservatives. I am willing to sign on to a large corporate political party, but I still think that politics must be based on what you really think, not what you think will win votes. I think the Party stands for things that a majority of voters can actually get behind -- more on this in a later post -- but we need to say it more clearly. If we find the right candidate, and he articulates basic Democratic values plainly and honestly, we'll be able to get the needed votes (including my colleague at work).