Well, danged, GUEST, I ain't got a clue how the Dems is gonna fix themselves, but Ebbie's thoughts are close to my own. I bolted the Dems during Clinton's Repub. administration in favor of the Green Party and it seems thats where the "progressives" are hanging out while the right wing crapola shakes itself out of the Dems, which it must.

Now, as fir my own opinion, I'd like to see the Repubs with 75 Senate seats and 25 seats held by progessive Dems. That would suit me just fine if those Dems were indeed standing up for the working man and against corportazation, privatization, globalization pushing a foriegn policy that was pro-human, inclusive and not driven by greed.

Now, the Dems *DO* have to make some funemental changes if they are to survive and agreeing with Repubs ain't changin'. We'll just have to see if they are gonna become a party of leadersship. If so they are going to have to go out on a limb on campiagn finace reform and some system of universal health care for starters. Then their going to have to fight the good fight to keep the bucks in the public school system rather than let the Repub. bleed it with vouchers that only help the wealthy parents. They are gonna have to come up with some alternatives to the Repub ideas on Social Security, such as subsidized retiremnt accounts where lower earners would have their contributions subsidized on a sliding scale but not allow the Repubs to just let folks take the dough and go out and by stocks.

Yeah, the Dems have their work cut out for them. And if the progressives win out and decide to stand up for something, they won't have a hard time finding us. It ain't like we don't keep up with stuff. The progressives are paying attention.

Not much of an answer but somewhere in there are some pieces of the puzzle...

Bobert