WWHTD?

I think the new slogan for the Democratic party should be "What Would Harry Truman Do?" The party is supposed to be the party of the working family but it has let itself be taken over by narrow minded special interest groups. Asking "WWHTD?" on all issues would help bring the party back to it's moral center.

For example look at this from Sunday's New York Times (via Just One Minute):

For Many in Missouri, Picking a President Is More a Matter of Values Than Policy

ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Tom Ampleman, a blue-collar union member who lives near this suburb just outside St. Louis, says he voted for Bill Clinton twice and then Al Gore, but he is now grappling with deep religious misgivings about the Democratic Party.

"I haven't declared myself a Republican, but if I had to go in there and vote right now I probably would vote for the Republicans," Mr. Ampleman said recently, sitting in his pickup truck at a public park here.

"I'm not happy with the moral issues at all with the Democrats," continued Mr. Ampleman, who works as a welder at an aerospace company. "The Republicans will hurt me in the long run in providing for my family, but it's probably more important to watch out for the unborn and that kind of stuff."

The Democratic party has made abortion their litmus test and that is just crazy. You cannot be a major player in the party if you are not pro-choice. In effect the Democrats have said to Catholics - "you can be a good Catholic or a good Democrat but you can't be both." That's crazy.

The Republicans don't require a lock-step position on abortion - just look at Arnold and Rudy. They treat the issue as a matter of personal conscience not a matter of party platform and that is the exact same way the Democrats should treat it. If they don't they will just succeed in driving away more people like Mr. Ampleman. How many blue-collar union guys can the party afford to drive away before the Democrats go the way of the Whigs?