The "conventional wisdom" of the Democratic Party, along with GOP dirty tricks and superb campaigning on pure bullshit have kept Dems from winning elections they should easily win. The GOP campaigns unashamedly on their core belief's--greed, fear and American exceptionalism while the Dems have forgotten how to stand firm for bettering the lot of the working class by being equally firm on core issues such as single payer, re regulating our financial system, global warming etc.