THE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGING. Jacqueline Passey laments the end of the Libertarian Party as a functioning political organization in the state of Washington. Why not make a play for the Democratic Party? There is an organization seriously in need of new, younger management. For too long it has been in thrall to Silent Generation types coasting on their civil rights credentials from the 1950s who still view the cultural carnage of the 1960s as desirable. And the party has been scrubbed by it, again, and again, and again. Laura at 11-D offers a number of explanations for the Democrats' failures, including the referenda on homosexual marriages bringing out the cultural conservatives. (The sexual underground -- LGBT -- is an interesting coalition of people perhaps driven together by perceived common oppressions. It also has too much baggage from the late 1960s. But that's a special case of a more general phenomenon.)

Cicero at Winds of Change notes the general phenomenon.

I hope the Democratic party goes to the woodshed and reinvents itself. They must. Kerry was no unifier, with his leftist anti-war past. Democratic leaders must rise within their party who recognize we are in a war for our way of life---leaders who have shaken-off Vietnam. They must distance themselves from leftists like Michael Moore. Barack Obama might be a rising star within the Democratic party because he has the potential to grasp the war, and what it means for all Americans. Democrats need to own the war, and wrest it from the domination of the Republicans. We would all be better off for it.

And he's right about accountability for the Republicans.

Broad expansion of government spending and military commitments abroad can't continue indefinitely. By the next election, Republicans will have dominated government for a long enough period of time to be held accountable for the state of the union at that point. Seeds planted in the early Bush years will blossom in the later ones. In 2004, the war was relatively young; by 2008, whether or not America is entrenched or winning the war will be apparent. The judgment of the electorate will be harsh if today's policies don't become the basis of our security in 2008, domestically and internationally.

We have some serious business on the blotter in the next year. We are faced with two rising nuclear rogue powers; Bin Laden apparently lives, and plans; Democracy is fragile in Russia; China's economy roils; Europe is in political realignment. May the seriousness of our world be matched by our own serious resolve to fully engage it. We can do it.

Quite. And there is work to be done domestically, including private retirement accounts in Social Security, an expansion of medical savings accounts, a transportation policy with greater freedom for state and local governments and businesses, and some serious thinking about immigration policies.

Dean at Dean's World parallels that.

The Democrats, as I see it, now face a crisis of conscience. They can angrily dig in, continue to embrace the Michael Moore/Joe Trippi wing of the party as their hope for the future, or they can realize that the center in American politics has shifted and they can begin the process of remaking themselves, pushing the more extreme elements to the side and finding ways to win back the votes of people they've done so much to alienate the last few years.

Wizbang is somewhat harsher.

Sure gay marriage bans were on the ballot in many states, but it was more than that. We have, in the Democrats, a failed party. A party more concerned with the acquisition of power than governance. A party whose motto is "win at all costs" and has shown a willingness to do just that.

In the last few years to say the Democrats have broken all bounds of civility and decency would be an understatement. They've played politics with national security and made slanderous charges against the President during a time of war.

They've shot up, broken into and vandalized GOP offices. Kicked people who wore GOP t-shirts and slashed tires of GOP vans. And that was just in the last 48 hours.

They have increasingly lost touch with the needs of the average voter and have been co-opted by the radical left. Where once the Democrats stood for the common man, now they stand against all his values.

But the electoral nightmare is not over for the Democrats. They predicted a large turnout would help them, but instead the good honest people who were disgusted by their behavior turned out in even bigger numbers and learned that they are indeed part of the silent majority. These people now got a vivid reminder that they are the majority and their vote counts. A lesson that won't soon be forgotten.

Is the Democrat party irreparable? Not by a long shot. They could turn it around in one election cycle.

Quit lying to the American people. Get a coherent foreign policy and plan for terrorism. Drop the class warfare and the victimology and appeal to what is best in America and not it's worst.

Don't bring the full force of law against someone who has the temerity to say the word God. Work to build poor people up rather than tear the middle-class down. Quit cheering for our enemy while we are at war. Admit the terrorists are responsible for terrorism and that we didn't "bring it upon ourselves."

Basically, quit being jackasses and the American people will support you.

Stephen Green cautions the Republicans not to become giddy with success, although he sees some gains overseas.