I believe that the Democratic Party rested on the laurels of 8 years of the Clinton Administration, and didn't do enough to fight for its principles and maintain power despite the previous 12 years of Republican disaster and the concurrent 8 years of Republican mongering during the 8 years of the Clinton Administration.

In effect, the Democratic Party took a blue-skies attitude and would not see the Republican Party for the insidious machine that it is. The fact that much of the American voting public was dragged along with it was only more telling of how skillful the Republican Party is at deceiving everyone for its own ends.

Even though the Democratic Party won the popular presidential vote in 2000, they nevertheless managed to lose the election in the Electoral College because, I believe, of their own shortsightedness. The did not plan to fail, they failed to plan.

The following 6 years of the Bush II Administration showed how weak and ineffective and irrelevant the Democratic Party had become. Even though they did not have control of either house of Congress, nor the executive branch, I believe they could have done much more to at least slow destructive forces in our country.

In fact, the Democratic Party is so weak, they could not stop, nor slow, the continued destruction of our country at the hands of the Republican Party, who became the minority party in 2006 in both houses of Congress.

If the Republicans can do whatever they want in Congress as a minority party after 2006, why couldn't the Democrats have at least stopped them in 2000-2006 when they were the minority party? It's because, I believe, the Democratic Party may be nearing the end of its power, the end of its relevancy, and the end of its life.

In the 2008 election, the Republicans went through the charade of having primaries even though the party itself had probably already decided on who they wanted to be their nominee. The years 1980-2006 are a classic example of how a political machine like the Republican Party can orchestrate the national landscape to suit the personal needs of the orchestra leaders. Puppets may look alive, singing and dancing on a stage, but they're nothing by objects manipulated by a puppet master. And so the Republican Party, with all its presidents, congressmen, governors, legislators, and registered voters are to the likes of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove (and whoever else there that we don't know about, like perhaps the owners of oil companies and pharmaceutical companies).

The Democrats however, refused to get organized and step behind the best candidate, and instead said "we'll let the voters decide." How much worse did this make the situation when one of the main candidates seemed to come from out of nowhere, with almost no national political experience. The fact that many of the party leaders are openly supporting a green, has-done-nothing-so-far, has-no-experience-or-plan candidate suggests they don't know what kind of forces they're up against. This has created a clear, near-equal division of the Democratic Party, one that they cannot possibly hope to be heal before the November election.

A terrible symptom of this problem is the Michigan and Florida primaries. The leadership of the Democratic Party has so far refused to acknowledge that, fundamentally, the date of the Florida primary was changed by the Republican-controlled legislature and Republican governor, that the minority Democrats in Tallahassee tried to have the date changed back, but were outvoted 2-to-1 by the Republicans. The fact that the date of the Florida primary broke Democratic Party rules is not the fault of the Democratic Party nor of the registered Democrat voters in Florida. Additionally, there was nothing illegitimate about the Florida primary: all the candidates were on the ballot there, and all candidates had the opportunity to campaign there (whether they chose to, or not). The reasons why Michigan changed their date is unclear, but it was Barack Obama's choice to remove his name from the ballot. He did not have to do that, and it was at great expense. Michigan and Florida's votes should count, 100%, hands down. The rule that these states couldn't have their primaries when they did is unfair since it gives unfounded influence to Iowa and New Hampshire at the expense of all other states.

The fact of the matter is, Florida and Michigan account for 9.3% of the total national population. If the Democratic Party thinks they can disenfranchise more than 1 out of every 11 people, all the while divided as it is among two nearly-equal candidates, and still win the election in November, they are very mistaken. George Bush I won the popular vote in 1988 by 7.8%. Bill Clinton won the popular vote in 1992 by 5.6% and again in 1996 by 8.5%. Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000 by only 0.5%. George Bush II won the popular vote in 2004 by only 2.4%. No president has been elected by more than a 9% margin since Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in 1984. I don't think the Democrats can afford to make the voters of Florida and Michigan unhappy, especially since those states carry 44 votes in the electoral college!

I believe, the Democratic Party has made so many poor decisions when it comes to national strategy, that they could be considered to have a death wish. Their bias toward one candidate over another who is clearly more qualified, electable, and resistant to the Republican Party political machine is misguided. There's no new dirt on Hillary Clinton that the Republicans could possibly dish up that we haven't already heard about. But, I don't believe for one minute that Barack Obama can withstand a campaign assault by the Republican Party who will stop at nothing to get their way (remember, they started looking for ways to impeach Bill Clinton before he was even elected!), and still be able to carry out an effective presidency.

The fact of the matter is that today we have (1) a foreign policy that is a shambles and has alienated every international ally we had and has created new foreign enemies, (2) a military that is so overextended and worn out that it is no longer effective overseas and is not available to help in natural disasters at home, (2) a Constitution that has been weakened far beyond any other time in American history (the Civil War included) including a loss of civil liberties that puts us back to the early 19th Century, (3) a domestic policy that has degraded our health and education systems and our national infrastructure and the environment to the point that we're now on par with many third-world nations with dictatorial governments, (4) no energy policy at all that has created an unprecedented instability and potential collapse of our energy supplies, which is leading to (5) the slow collapse of the world economy not seen since 1929.

I honestly believe that we're in for some serious hard times globally, where there will be a financial crisis that will cause energy and food crises that will take many years to stabilize (like they did in the 1970s). I believe that conditions will only grow worse if a Republican is elected to the presidency in November. I believe that a Democrat cannot win the presidency in November if the Democratic Party doesn't select (1) the candidate most able to defeat the Republican Party and (2) allow full delegate counts to Michigan and Florida. The Democratic Party must earn as many electoral votes as possible in November, or else we will have no hope of slowing down the collapse of the United States. Our way of life is already unsustainable and has been for decades and has toppled over the tipping point, but we need political leadership who will reduce the effects of the crash by steering us in a new direction. Republican leadership will only lead to a last-minute cash grab before impact. I do not believe, however, that the Democratic Party has the will to do what it takes to survive. Unfortunately, all of us will go with it.

[Update] The DNC Rules Committee just voted to disenfranchise 100's of thousands of voters who voted in good faith, regardless of what their party leaders might have or have not done. Hillary Clinton reserved the right to take this matter to the Credentials Committee. If the DNC does not reinstate ALL of the delegate votes, the Democratic party will lose the general election.