Life of the Party

If you haven’t noticed already, I’m a big Salon.com fan. And today they’ve published their first installment of a series called Life of the Party – discussions with “policymakers, candidates, pollsters, analysts, big thinkers, bloggers -- you name it -- about the present and future of the Democratic Party.” I’m really excited about this series, because I really believe that the Democratic Party needs to change in order to get this country away from the ultraconservative, theological, and intolerant path it’s headed down so far.

This first installment highlights a discussion with Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democratic governor that managed to get elected in a red state. He offers some great insight as to how Democratic candidates can better appeal to “Joe and Mary Six-Pack.” Quite frankly, what Schweitzer has to say is nothing new that we haven’t really heard before, but his assessment does validate and highlight the need to understand this major part of the constituency (the gun totin’, church goin’, huntin’ and fishin’ kind) that has eluded the Democrats in the last two elections.