mackknopf | Thoughts on Democracy and Political Parties

I am taking notes in my head (and on random scraps of paper, easily lost) for an essay about the Republicans' message (an easy sell of classical but simplistic "Good versus Evil"; the Democrats' current "We're the people who aren't the Republicans"; and the Libertarians' message of "get government out of our damn lives."

I think the Democrats need to come up with a stronger, unified message if they're ever going to stay relevant. I'm leaning towards a new version of the "Great Society" that President Johnson spoke of in 1964:

"And with your courage and with your compassion and your desire, we will build the Great Society. It is a Society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled."

This would either be a horrifying vision of a socialistic New World Order, or a spread of compassion towards "the least of these," (to quote the Bible). Viewpoints will obviously differ.