Michael Silverstein of the Philadelphia enquirer wrote a good article on why the Democrats keep losing.

How Democrats can dodge victory yet again

By Michael Silverstein

Many political analysts are hard-pressed to see how the Democrats will lose this November's congressional election. The American people are fed up with one-party rule in Washington, and less than enamored with our Republican president. How, then, will the Democrats manage to achieve yet another stinging defeat?

Here are a few drop-the-ball tips they might consider to enhance their natural proclivities:

Depend for campaign advice on consultants and self-anointed gurus who have given you the wrong advice in past elections. Along with their other gifts, these people are highly articulate repositories of the plausible excuses needed to justify another failure.

Shun the innovative. Having been defined by your opponents as burned-out purveyors of an outmoded New Deal, any genuinely new ideas for governing will only confuse the voters.

...

If you do put forth alternatives, gear them to the most extreme elements of your party. Why appeal to middle-of-the-road independents when you can pander to vocal supporters who would back you anyway?

Spend a lot of resources on voters who will never back you. Take the advice of Democratic consultants to espouse religious and moral themes. You won't get ahead of Republicans with this group but you're guaranteed to come across as opportunistic hypocrites. What could be better for determined losers?

...

It's not yet clear how the Democrats will manage defeat this time around, but rest assured, manage it they will.

There is of course blame to go all around the Democratic party, but since the DLC claims to be the party's leadership, they get more of it. They especially get flak in my book for that paragraph on "spending a lot of resources on voters that will never back you." This whole 'moral values' flap was mostly disinformation from the right, but the DLC seems to have bought it hook, line, and sinker, and done stupid things like supporting relaxed gun control, or flag burning legislation, or more government intervention in cultural standards. If you have moral values, show it. You can't lead a country if you can't lead a party.