1. A loss of future investment and long term development
2. Continuation of tenacity
3. Articulation and discipline not to mention myopia
4. Beltway group think and forced top down methods
5. Contempt for non-beltway or non-establishment
6. Nationwide voter file
7. Empathy reduction
8. Still too close to big business & big donors (aka the role of money)
9. Irrational fear of micro targeting
10. Embracing outside the box ideas

1. A loss of future investment and long term development

With my urgency to get more people involved in young people number one should be no surprise to anyone. Republicans invest in three ways - the now, the soon, and the future. We are pretty good at the now paying big money in 527's and PACs but we suffer on the soon and the future. Republicans invest in think tanks and leadership development on a state and national level which results in laws that are passed a few years down the road and elections won 5-10 years later. We will continue to suffer until we get hip to the things that are coming up and think for the long term.

2. Continuation of tenacity

Tenacity is something that a few Representatives have but in all honestly many Congressional Democrats get the balls to do something but there is no continuation of the balls. They lost the Iraq timeline vote - they lost SCHIP - here's a thought - keep after it. Republicans steamroll over their opponents. They run into walls until they either move the wall or explode - now while that might not seem like a healthy means of operation selecting a few issues to be like that on shows the courage and unity of the party.

3. Articulation and discipline not to mention myopia

Democrats spent 2005 jerking off to framing and George Lakoff to the extent that when I think of an elephant I just want to vomit. Yet it seems like it hasn't really helped anyone learn how to articulate our issues or our policy and message distribution and discipline is pathetic. Every democrat should be on tv every Sunday morning saying the same thing about the same issue with the same words. They should have bloggers spinning using the same language because they have a talking points distribution list for bloggers - it should be a giant unified message party that is not just developed but distributed.

Sometimes, depending on the issue, you will see this but we are miles from where we need to be - and you have to really look for it and be a politiholic to notice when we are all together. The trick is to do so in a way that normal people "get it."

4. Beltway group think and forced top down methods

All of these things I can see and say because I live outside the Beltway. The group think that happens when you're in the same place for a long long time is dangerous. The echo chamber is worse when you encounter DC consultants who will tell you whatever simply to get you to buy their services. Then instituting a top down method from people who are easily manipulated by the DC establishment... well that just equals problem.

5. Contempt for non-beltway or non-establishment

Because you have so many folks who make money off of politicians in the beltway you have a large community of people who egg-on the contempt with non-beltway people. Whether that is state based consulting firms against bloggers and the new media world or Hill staffers who are too caught up in their campaigns the genuine contempt for people who live in the states amazes me. I know more non-DC consultants who are smarter and more attentive and I knew more operatives who work in the states who have way more skills than their Hill counterparts. Yet the DC establishment has an enormous amount of unearned and unacceptable power that reflects in the policy, campaign strategy, and attitudes of the party.

6. Nationwide voter file

In thinking about this list I talked to many of my friends who work in the field. A field operative for a state party told me that he wished there was a national voterfile.

"If somebody moves to Colorado from Kansas, we'll know their political leanings" he said. "It would take 4-6 years to put together but it'd be worth it. And the maintenance and upkeep would be insane."

I concur. You're only as good as your organization. Without a solid structure and data you lose an enormous amount of potential. Information is power.

7. Empathy reduction

Another friend of mine, a well known blogger from Philadelphia who is constantly fighting his disenchantment with the political establishment told me he wants more empathy. Another friend of ours - Brad Andrews who just joined us here at EDC told me that was what he thought democrats did the best - but my friend in Phily says otherwise.

"how could someone like Obama feel okay about saying: well, we can't have universal health care because you'd have to lay off people at Blue cross. Lack of outrage..."

He's right. The number of politicians I see who squash the possibilities of the middle class is heartbreaking. I know we want to live in a global economy and have more economic dealings with countries but NAFTA and CAFTA hurts middle class families not to mention labor - many democrats ignore this fact and walk on the broken backs of working people.

Some don't, some genuinely help people and set a standard for who they will and will not be but so many establishment democrats and ones who are very clearly in office for as long as they want to be forget to connect with their base. They forget the people who have no health insurance, forget the victims of predatory lending, forget the thousands of uniforms bloodied across Iraq - otherwise we'd have seen more support for SCHIP and a timetable for withdraw. Some things in politics really can be black and white. Empathy is one of them.

8. Still too close to big business & big donors

(aka the role of money)

Too our burned out friend from Phily says that he thinks dems are still too tied to big business. Let's face it ... everyone is from churches to colleges to politicians everyone is just trying to make their millions and get their power. But dems ties to big business prevent them from seeing the whole picture.

"Its not their fault, they think they need tons of ads to win, which costs tons of money. Then the media is brutal to them. Which means they need more wealthy donors to win and that's all they end up listening to - their big donors over the people they serve."

Would this be a good time to mention the public finance law in Maine? Or the fact that John Edwards didn't take lobbyist money and instead took public financing money?

9. Irrational fear of micro targeting

My same friend who thinks we need a national voterfile agreed that there is some irrational fear by the democratic party that microtargeting is a good idea. If you read some of the emails going around through list servs after the election a special story struck my eye. The California Labor Federation for the first time ever paid for some microtargeting to be done to determine where the labor friendly house holds were in California. Because lets face it... things change not everyone is living in the cities any more and to ignore the entire central part of the state and write it off as "red" is a strategic blunder that the CDP seems to perpetuate year after year... but I digress.

The folks who live in red areas of a state (or the country) are not always going to shout from the rooftops that they are moderate or liberal leaning. Why would they want to alienate themselves. Plus, older people still think talking about things like sex and politics is uncouth.

These people are compounded with republican message over and over and over and over again in churches, radio, TV, in the grocery stores, at bridge club meetings, everywhere they turn. Their values might still lean a little more our way, but not unless we ask them, target them, and understand them. Microtargeting within red areas of the country, or ones state, gives you a visual of where your democrats are and what they need from you or the party to show up to vote and support democratic causes. Republicans do this to the extreme; democrats snub their noses at it and instead compromise their ideology to get more votes.

10. Embracing outside the box ideas

All of these gets to the heart of the matter. Democrats - particularly older beltway and establishment people, fear ideas that are a little different. In five years the democratic party will be experts with new media, social networking, vblogs (any blogs for that matter), microtargeting, and the like. Trouble is, those won't be the new things anymore. But again, they'll be resistant to look at these new up and coming technologies as a means to their ends. Constantly searching for new ideas, looking for things that are new keeps the party with the ever changing world and it keeps it from growing stale and becoming out of touch with the members.

So there we go... my top ten list. Thanks to Zack for the ideas and to my other buddies who weighed in. Also, I'm not married to any of these and am really interested in other additions, thoughts by others and general participation by all.