I thought I'd add my two cents to the ongoing discussion about the future of our party.
The perspective I'd like to add to this discussion is that of someone who considers himself a "moderate" -- despite the fact that all of his colleagues think of himself as an unrepentant lefty!
But here's how I sized up this terribly sad election: Our problem was that Kerry -- who ran a pretty decent campaign IMHO -- was not able to give a coherent and compelling vision of why it was important to vote for him. Instead, his campaign was focused on the "Bush is a pretty disgraceful and incompetent President" angle -- indisputable to me, but not a reason to vote for anything.
That's why this moderate who is willing to give a fair hearing to a lot of ideas that aren't popular on the left -- major tax reform, welfare reform, occasionally hawkish foreign policy -- is arguing for the reformulation of the Democratic party as a true party of the progressive left.
Why? Because I believe more than anything else, this party needs to have a powerful vision, a "story" to tell that will be able to take hold of the hopes and aspirations of people. "Slightly left of right" positions are just not going to cut it anymore. The great magic of Clinton was that because of his astounding political skills, he was able to make a "lukewarm" left position palatable to Americans. And as nostalgic as I am for the 1992-2000 period as I am, Dems lost at almost all levels of government during that time.
Senator Kerry, not blessed with such political skills -- as Junior Soprano might have said -- just "couldn't sell it" to the rest of America. I fear that if we remain a "Republican-lite" party -- and here I'm criticizing myself as much as anyone -- we're dooming ourselves to minority status for a long time to come.
So, I say: revitalization must come from a proud embrace of the liberal/progressive tradition. Now here's the kicker: this reformulation may not work at the start. But as the Republicans continue their inexorable slide to the right, why should we be shadowing them and making our candidates center-right candidates? We must offer a real alternative; otherwise we'll get outmaneuvered every time. After all, if you're offering a Republican-lite candidate, why not go for the real thing and just vote Republican?
In the end, I feel that the best thing that could come from such a fundamental realignment would be the development of a truly centrist third party...but maybe that's just dreaming. Right now, I'd just prefer to have a real choice on the left.