One of the things Pope Francis teaches us is that we should share, and that those of us who have more should be willing to give to those who are less fortunate. Those of us who are Democrats follow proudly in the footsteps of real champions of this idea — individuals who have fought for progress, economic justice, and equity. People we can be proud to call Democrats: FDR, JFK, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama.

By contrast, our Republican friends have pathetically little in their past to honor. That’s why you cannot listen to a Republican speech without every other word being “Reagan.” They simply don’t have anyone else, except Lincoln, of course, but he would not recognize this Republican Party as his own. So they have to find someone new to talk about — after all, they cannot talk about Sarah Palin. And in their quest to find a new hero, they have decided to claim John F. Kennedy as their own. They have determined, apparently, that underneath it all he was really a conservative Republican.

I know your first inclination is to think, “How can they say this?” But I think we Democrats should take our cue from Pope Francis, and be charitable. As the holidays approach, we should actually feel sorry for the sparsity of gifts they have under their holiday tree and share.

Oh, and to the question of whether John F. Kennedy was really a conservative? Perhaps we should ask Kennedy himself, because he actually had something to say about that:

If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties—someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say “I’m a Liberal.”

If you are still wondering, ask yourself if this sounds more like Bill Clinton or Sarah Palin.

So, my dear friends in the GOP, I’m in a giving mood. And in the spirit of Pope Francis, we will let you use Kennedy for the holidays — and then we’re gonna take him back.

I became a Democrat because the defining issue of my formative years was race. In fact, it was almost the exclusive issue. It is hard to believe now, but when there was even a possibility that an African-American might turn up, back then the first reaction of the administrators was to close the swimming pool. It might sound surreal, but that actually happened when I was an undergrad.  My understanding was that black people were getting a bad deal, and it gave my already existing interest in politics a sharp point on which to focus.  My views and my party affiliation have remained the same ever since.

You can look back 50 years and mark all the progress you want, but the real question is not why I became a Democrat, but why I stayed one — and why we need the Democratic Party.

The ongoing challenge — as Stan and I talked about in It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! — is to have sensible policies, not just to increase African-American earning power, but household wealth as well. The minimum wage in real dollars was actually higher when Dr. King spoke 50 years ago than it is today.

At this time, when we’re looking back and marking so much progress, we would also be wise to remember that there is still much to be done.  We are living in a time when we are called to fight for pretty fundamental changes in the way our country and economy work. We need to create good jobs, improve education, and grow opportunity for the middle class, working people, and the poor. No, we are not finished yet. Not even close.

Photo: Rowland Scherman for USIA, via Wikimedia Commons

When I hear people talking about the troubled state of today’s Republican Party, it calls to mind something Lester Maddox said one time back when he was governor of Georgia.  He said the problem with Georgia prisons was “the quality of the inmates.” The problem with the Republican Party is the quality of the people who vote in their primaries and caucuses. Everybody says they need a better candidate, or they need a better message but — in my opinion — the Republicans have an inmate problem.

Slightly more sympathetic, my colleague Stan compares the Republicans to an “endangered species.” But we agree that the strange political obsessions of the Republican base — from denying global warming to defending assault weapons — continue to doom any moderate politicians within their party.  How should Democrats seize the political opportunity created by Republican extremism?

It’s Election Day…the latest and last pre-election Democracy Corps poll shows President Obama up by four points nationally…so Stan and I are feeling pretty good about today’s results. There’s nothing in other national polls or state polls to contradict our assessment about this election – and if anything, the president gained momentum in the final day or so.

Instead of learning from experience, the Republicans continue their war on science and facts. Now they’re furious that anyone would dare use polling data to predict an election outcome that isn’t going their way, and taking it out on Nate Silver, the polling blogger at the New York Times.

If a play were opening tonight, I think the title should be “The Ass-Whuppin’ Cometh.”

One of the things that drives me crazy about politics is this idea that both parties are equally extreme. In reality, one side’s facts are facts, and the other side’s “facts” are wild theories that any reasonable person would find very, very weird.

Republicans love phony wars: the “war on Christmas,” the “war on factcheckers,” and now they’ve started the “war on pollsters.” I always wonder, why do they persist with this nonsense? Maybe to distract voters from the real wars that they start once they get into office.