To entice you click onto the article for a really good take on the problem facing the Democratic Party and the challenge that bloggers and activists really have, I am giving you teasers from the article.   Despite its national and current events soul, remember this was written in 2006 when our Dem. Gov. ran for re-election against the Amway dude.  

The purpose of this diary is to raise the questions of:

* How many Democrats can you name that fit this bill?  
 * Are their alternatives?
 * Can the party really be infiltrated and how long will it take?
 * What are the most effective ways to organize and mobilize resources to impact and influence the Democratic Party?  

I really think there needs to be some serious conversation about what ails America.   Here is deja vue all over again.

Essentially, the mainstream media functioned as Granholm's press section in that campaign. They were thrilled with the revolutionary thought that we might have our first-ever woman governor, and thought she was cute and warm and appealing and, well, cute. That Granholm stood for nothing, had done little or nothing as attorney general, and was a hack lawyer for the Wayne County political machine was not seen as relevant.

Well, she won. And now we have had four years of the weakest governor we have had in more than half a century. Michigan's economy is almost in economic freefall. This isn't her fault. Yet she doesn't show any signs that she gets it or that she is trying to do anything about it.

Nor does she show any sign of standing for anything at all, at least not without scrutinizing the latest polls. Meanwhile, workers and those hanging on to a decent lifestyle by their fingernails are getting the worst of it. The middle class as we knew it, the quality of life generations fought to achieve, is being eliminated nationwide -- faster here than elsewhere.

--snip --

What I thought was that the Democratic Party -- make that the state of Michigan -- badly needs somebody to get in the race and challenge Democrats to be Democrats again. The Granholms want you to believe that common sense "realism" means that we should accept as inevitable that employers are going to happily ship as many of our jobs as they can to sweatshops or call centers in Slavelaboristan or someplace.

Trying to stop this is a bad idea, they will tell us, because if we do the company might move its corporate headquarters and its last 75 domestic employees to Indiana. We should also accept the Republicans' recommendations to build a chain-link fence or a wall across our borders to keep immigrants out (and maybe to keep our labor-serfs in) and we should all learn to love our new fast-food jobs and diminished lifestyle.

Yes, the old days are gone. But we can't protest too much, and we better not push Governor Jenny, because, you know, if she looks too liberal, why, that old devil Dick DeVos will get in, and he'll be even worse.

That certainly is an inspiring vision for the future.

Yet I still remember the refrain from the old civil rights song:

I know if there was one thing we did right

It was the day we started to fight

Keep your eyes on the prize; hold on.

The article is well written, transcends local politics, and worth the trip. When I read it, I couldn't help but marvel that no matter how much things change, they always remain the same.  Different day, same ol' shit.