Leonard Pitts: Dems aren't articulating any vision

MiamiHerald.com | 03/13/2006 | Don't assume Obama will be a modern savior: "Say what you will about the Republican Party and its leader, our regrettable president, but give them credit for this much: They know what they believe and they know how to package it in the simplest, most attractive way: traditional values; fighting terrorism; tax relief.

Granted, some of us think it would be more accurate to describe the foregoing in terms somewhat less simple and attractive: turning back the calendar on the non-white, non-male, non-Christian and non-heterosexual; lying and bungling our way into and through a war that does nothing to make us safer from terrorism; running up a massive deficit while spending with all the judicious restraint of a 10-year-old in a candy store.

But you know what? Tomato, to-mah-to. The Republicans have their vision, and it works. By contrast, can anybody tell me what the Democratic Party stands for?

Yes, I know that's a setup that will have the GOP faithful slipping in their own saliva to offer a punch line, but leave it stand. Because if anything has characterized the Democrats in the years since George W. Bush won the 2000 election, it's an inability to articulate a coherent competing vision. It is not enough to be the anti-Republicans. Those who are so inclined already know what they are voting against. It is incumbent upon the other party to offer an alternative people might want to vote for.

This, the Democrats have, for six years, failed to do."