attention dems: here's your central issue

a major difference between gops and dems is what the military calls unit cohesion: gops move in lockstep, but the dems are a divided party.

sure, fracture lines occasionally appear within gop ranks—like over the torture issue—but when push comes to shove they pull together and follow reagan's 11th commandment: thou shalt not criticize a fellow gop. so most of them stay loyal even to nixon and bush as well as reagan.

dem division is both a weakness and a strength: they have trouble uniting around almost every issue—recall how 60% of house dems and only 42% of senate dems opposed the 2002 iraq force authorization resolution (while over 97% of gops voted for it)—but they have the potential for greater inclusiveness.

so, if you vote gop you pretty much know what you're getting, but if you vote dem it's hard to be sure: the gops have a fairly rigid platform, while dems have ongoing debates among themselves about almost everything.

public opinion changes. when most folk seek certainty, gops win. when folk begin to recognize gop certainty is only an illusion, appreciation for dem diversity grows.

still, it would help dems to agree on a vital concept on which they can focus undisputed unity.

that concept is oversight.

government must be accountable to the people. effective oversight is the only way to ensure that accountability.

gops abandoned oversight when the class of '94 took over congress. they replaced it with obstructionism to advance their partisan agenda and regain the white house. when they did take back the presidency, they rubber-stamped george w on virtually every issue, and oversight stayed in outer darkness.

thus, only dems can credibly claim to be able to restore strong, effective oversight, but they must explain its necessity to voters, and they must pledge to maintain it as long as they have a congressional majority, no matter which party occupies the white house.

let gops be the "party of ideas" as long as they want. we now see their ideas for what they are: smoke and mirrors.

forget worthless ideas.

dems must be the party of oversight!