I couldn’t figure out how to work this reference into the post below. M. and I have been talking about many of the same things the last couple of days. All of us hope this loss galvanizes the left to reclaim voters and a political future.

Maybe Kerry was just the wrong man, wrong time and the wrong battle. Maybe the Democrats have to be more confident, more focused, more honest with ourselves about what we need to do and maybe we need to take something from Karl Rove’s playbook. (In re Rove, though, I disagree with M. I don’t want to see the left become street fighters, because I don’t think we have to go as low as Rove.)

I would amend Baratunde’s essay to address a couple of other groups. Just as Blacks should not hate gays, homosexuals have to find some rhetoric that doesn’t automatically shut down a good chunk of the public. All legal rights for equality are important, but something is not working in the battle when union is seen as erosion of society by so many. Sure they are wrong to think gays are ruining the world, but we got to find some way of addressing that worry.

The same goes for feminists and pro-choice advocates. Personally, I think birth control and abortion can be choices that fall on the side of being moral. But, we need to work on getting people out of the narrow, baby-killing framework and offering them a new way of thinking.

Finally, you know what else isn’t working? Chanting “Hey, Ho, anything.” It’s fun to be out in the crowd with your friends, but protesting 60s style now just makes you a goofy and easy target for derision and mockery. God love you for trying, but you’re not changing any minds to your side or making your side seem viable. (This last bit comes from the number of people outside Fanueil Hall yesterday laughing at and making cracks about the protesters there.)