Howard Dean's screams. John Edwards' inexperience. John Kerry's lack of conviction. There were many bumps in the road to the White House for the Democrats in 2004 - concluding with a loss that was disappointing and disheartening for party faithful.
For many in the "blue states," with the end of the election came a dead end: what should the Democratic Party, facing four more years of the Bush administration, do now? That question is of importance to the Tufts Democrats, an active chapter of the national College Democrats of America.
According to sophomore Dan Grant, Tufts Democrats secretary, keeping people involved has been the greatest hurdle since the election loss. "It's really hard because everyone wants to help out with the presidential election, but we need to let people know that we need to keep working to build up the grassroots," Grant said.
According to Tufts Democrats President Jonathan Parnes, a senior, it has taken work, but the group has remained large. "When I was a freshman, there were no more than 10 people at any meeting, and throughout the years people didn't stay involved," he said. "But this year, we've done a pretty good job of getting people and keeping them. We have about 500 people on our e-mail list now."
Sophomore and Tufts Democrats Vice President Kayt Norris agreed. "Of course, there was more interest around such an emotionally intense election as this one," Norris sad. "So participation has gone down, but we are trying to keep people involved by giving responsibilities to everyone in the group and by focusing on policy issues."
In this vein, the organization has decided to initiate "issue months." Each month, the Tufts Democrats are concentrating on a different issue, bringing in speakers and politicians to educate the Tufts community.
Such selected issues include the environment, health care and Social Security. State Representatives, including Tufts alumnus Mike Festa (LA '76), have spoken to the group about how Democrats can win the battles on these issues - even if they have yet to win the war.
"We're bringing in speakers and trying to educate people on the issues, because we need to remember that that's what's important," Grant said. "We feel the Democrats are the best for the country and that we can make people see that. It's just how you frame those issues."
"The strong domestic policy of the party was overshadowed by the fear factor and the war on terror of this election," Norris said. "So we want to focus on the Democrats' stances on these policies now, which really should have been the focus of the election and should be the policy makers' focus."
Another factor in keeping the campus involved - and still trying to gain new membership - has been an attempt to diversify the group.
According to Parnes, "one of our biggest things is diversity in the Tufts Democrats. We are trying to get more people involved, but if you look at meetings it is not really representative of the Democratic Party or the Tufts campus."
As a result, the organization has enlisted former Denver mayor Wellington Webb (a prominent Democrat and African American) as well as Tufts alumnus Simon Rosenberg (LA '85, the President of the New Democratic Network, who is committed to reaching out to the Latino vote) to come speak on campus in the coming months.
"We are trying to get high-profile speakers; to reach out to people who don't usually care," Parnes said.
These leaders note, however, that there is more to being an active citizen and Democrat than just being educated on the issues. As a result, the Tufts Democrats have tried to get students involved in local politics, emphasizing the importance of making a difference in Massachusetts.
"In the Democratic primary in Massachusetts, there were a lot of progressive leaders who won, and we helped out on a lot of those campaigns," Parnes said.
"We're kind of hindered in how much influence we have because living in Massachusetts, there's not a great sense of what the rest of the country is like," Grant said. "But we are also fortunate to live in such a progressive state."
The group is planning to attend a meeting in which the Massachuesetts Democrats write their platform. "We're in the process of trying to write a Tufts Democrats platform, so we're going to go to the state party, and see if we can get some language from the state platform," Parnes said.
The Dems are also hoping to contribute to the state party platform themselves by petitioning to include a section about "voting and empowering young people," Parnes said.
In the end, however, the main goal of the Tufts Democrats is to keep the momentum going for the next four years.
"Kerry barely lost the election in the popular vote," Grant said. "Yes, it was devastating, but we have a direction we can go in, and there were pluses in the election, like the House and Senate seats we won - we can grow from that."
"Both parties have a wide range of people, with different beliefs, and I think the Republicans have dealt with that better in the past," he added. "They have been more unified and the Democrats need to work on that, but I think we are getting better.
Organization across the country is what we need, and people are starting to realize that you need to be working at it all the time to win elections."
Parnes agreed. "It's not about the election every four years or two years, it's about fighting for the ideals every day of the year, election or not," he said.
