Last night I attended a showing of the Motherhood Manifesto documentary. This documentary highlights the work of MomsRising.org, a growing movement with over 50,000 members - and particularly their effort to end employment discrimination against mothers.

I'm all for ending that discrimination - my own mother was denied a job because she was asked a question to determine whether she had daughters or sons (one of the benefits the employer offered would have been considerably more expensive for daughters). Yet I was left with a subtle feeling of increased anomie after the show. 24 hours of thinky thoughts later, I think I know the source of my discomfort, and I also have a new outlook on business and labor law.

The question is on all Progressives' lips:  What issue can we claim for ourselves that mainstream voters find unifying as well as appealing in a bi-partisan manner?  Is there one that coincides with the core beliefs of Democrats, yet could hold an appeal for more moderate or even conservative voters?  Is there an area where Republicans are clearly out of step with mainstream America and where Democrats can be seen as being in step?

The answer to all these questions may be found in the policy issue of Democratization, or the promotion of Democracy abroad.  President Bush and the neoconservative leading faction of the Republican Party seemingly have abandoned cooperative and co-equal diplomacy and substituted aggressive promotion and establishment of so-called democratic governments as their main foreign policy thrust.

The success of this plank in the Republican platform under the neocons and this president can be deemed remarkably unsuccessful.  One has only to look at the single and primary example -- Iraq.  That is why Democratization is a superb issue on which to oppose Republican candidates.

Cross posted on Daily Kos and Booman Tribune

If we survive the next two plus years, I've started to think about what I consider to be non-negotiable demands I will make of the next president.

Here are some things that I've come up with, what about you?

A clearly defined strategy for dealing with Iraq. This does not mean a bunch of double talk, triple speak and hemming and hawing. It means a precise description of what will happen, how it will happen, and when it will happen. This must be articulated in clear and crisp sentences which contain a beginning, a middle and an end.