Can we come up with a term here in the conversation diaries as to what we want to call the separation?

I hate the red / blue designations as much as anyone else. It just seems that we need to find a way to identify target areas for use of resources and areas to get those resources from.

democrat = little d = grass roots level, progressives, moderates, etc.: candidates for something

Democrats = proper noun = the party - DLC, DSCC, DNC, etc. status quo

I know it's a hair splitting on grammar or spelling but if we are going to do a third party within the existing one, let's take the name back.

I would say though that we have to be very careful not to over-engineer the message, and unfortunately, when times are tough, the tendency is often to do more engineering, not less.

To my way of thinking, if we could somehow vanish all the political consultants operating on individual Dems and on the party apparatus in general, we'd be light years ahead of where we are now instantly without having to do anything.

The calculus of ambition almost always crowds out principled action, and nowhere is this more true than in the political arena. But for me, even though this is true, even though I am embarrased at the shallowness and self-absorption demonstrated by so many of our elected officials, even when I cringe more often than not when they prance up to the microphones to perform, I still believe that it's possible that we can impress upon them the idea that if they don't get on the stick and start doing the right thing that we'll dump them. And, in a perfect world, if we could remove the consultants from the scene, getting our message through to them would be much easier. And maybe, just maybe, our elected officials themselves would learn how to speak their own words again.

When "We the People" can finally get our officials to listen to us more than to their paid advisors, then progress will be made. My hope is that by expanding these kinds ofdiscussions we'll discover the methods and the energirs to do exactly that.

Denial is our most dangerous adversary.