Huh?

Shakespeare's Sister takes a look at the efforts by Democratic Senators to establish an agenda for '06 and beyond and applauds their desire to take on health care, something that only Democrats will really do.

I'm a bit taken back, though, by her analysis of the other issues the Senators are looking to address...

The other four are issues for which it’s necessary that the Democrats have a solid plan and a cohesive, easily-communicated message. But they’re not inspiring, are they? And that’s because they’re Republican issues. The Dems need to provide an alternative agenda on national security, energy independence, economic strength, and retirement security, but when the nebulous terms are reduced into what they really mean—the Iraq War, oil prices, taxes, and social security—it’s readily apparent that this is a reactionary platform. They’re still letting the GOP control the discussion.

C'mon, Shake's, you can't really mean it.

National security isn't a Republican issue, it's a central - no, the central function of any national government, and if it's not a central element of the Democratic agenda, we might as well hang up any hope of becoming the governing party in this country again. If it's not a central element of the Democratic agenda, we don't deserve to become the governing party of this country again.

Energy independence? Well, reducing it to a matter of oil prices is certainly a Republican perspective, but the issue is larger than that. Much larger. It's appropriately listed between national security and economic strength, because it's critical to success in either of those arenas. One of my continuing frustrations with the '04 Presidential campaign was the consistent failure to exploit John Kerry's expertise and vision in the energy independence arena. It's our issue, dammit, and we need it to win elections and to govern effectively.

Likewise, there's little prospect for Democratic success if we accept the Republican claim that they're the advocates for economic strength, and that the key to that strength is lower taxes in response to every challenge. Lower taxes haven't raised family incomes. Lower taxes haven't reduced the national debt. Lower taxes haven't made housing more affordable, food more plentiful, production more efficient or the American people more confident about their prospects or their children's. Accepting the Republican frame that economic strength is a matter of tax policy abandons vast areas of appeal that a Democratic agenda can offer. And again, this is an issue inextricably tied to health care policy, an issue that I agree Democrats must own to be successful.

We can only wish that retirement security was simply a matter of Social Security policy. The national consensus to retain and bolster the current SS system is overwhelming. It's a battle won. The next battleground in retirement security seems to be the desire of corporations to abandon their pension obligations, transferring them to the government or simply leaving their retirees hanging in the breeze. It's an issue that Democrats can use to highlight the pernicious influence of corporations in a Republican government that consistently compromises the people's interest to the greed of the corporate establishment.

National security, energy independence, economic strength and retirement security aren't Republican issues. They're the American agenda. Republicans didn't set that agenda, and they don't control the discussion. The agenda and the discussion belong to the American people, and any Party unwilling or unable to speak to every element of that agenda and take ownership of each is destined for failure.

Our nation is not secure. We are dependent on the benevolence of tyrants for essential energy resources. We are mired in debt and deficit, and few of us expect to do as well as our parents, or for our children to do as well as ourselves, as we watch the steady erosion of the middle class. Even the minimal promise made to Americans for a life of labor has been assaulted by the Republican government. They have no claim to those issues, unless they're going to argue that this is as good as it gets, the best we can do. They've had total power long enough to earn total responsibility.

As Democrats, we know we can do better. Kudos to Senator Reid & co. for preparing to stand up and say just what 'better' will look like.