What would it take for me to vote for a democrat?

That's the interesting question I heard yesterday from a nondescript liberal-leaning fill-in host on a rerun of an October talk radio show.

The host, who admitted that the democrat party has lost its once prominent base of white male voters, acknowledged that the democrat party wrote off the voting bloc 30 years ago, and hasn't courted it since.

A quick google search suggests that the concept is not lost on many a democrat mind; some saying that the white male vote is a bloc forever lost in the democrat vest pocket; a prodigal son never to return to the fold. Others say that the white male voter is still a yet-untapped bloc of voters that if accessed, would assure a democrat juggernaut for years, if not decades to come.

The radio host went on to observe that all is not well in republican-land; that white male voters were becoming disaffected with the Republican party; and went on to cite the war in Iraq as the major factor in white male disaffection within the GOP.

I would submit that there may indeed be a growing disaffection with the GOP among white males, but the war in Iraq would be the least, if not nearly the least of the reasons. If anything, the disaffection of the white male voting bloc with the Republican party is due to the fact that the Republican Party, rather than governing under the principles that swept it into a decade-long majority, actually forgot who it was that brought them to the dance; and instead started acting like the two-bit tart that flirts with all the other guys while her frustrated date looks on.

The white male voting bloc signed on first with Ronald Reagan, then with Newt Gingrich's Contract With America; and not for democrat lite. President Bush received a hefty majority vote among the white male voting bloc, not because we were ecstatic over his expansion of Medicare into prescription drugs for seniors; not because of his endorsement of No Child Left Behind; but rather because between him and Jean Francois Kerrie, he was the one that we trusted to be a stalwart against the terrorists, and the one who actually gave a damn about protecting this nation.

So, back to the original question, what would it take for me, a white, middle class male, to be able to vote for a democrat as President of the United States?

Here is a non-inclusive, though important list of the top four traits that would make it so:

• 1. First and foremost: The democrat must put America first, not blame America first.
  

If your rhetoric panders to the European intelligentsia, go and run for German Chancellor or President of France.

If you put the "rights" of terrorists above the safety of the United States, its citizens, and its defenders in harm's way so that you can beat your chest atop your soapbox and claim that you're a morally-superior, caring, sensitive, feeling metrosexual, forget about leading the U.S.

Go and apply as a houseboy for OBL, sing kumbaya with Kalid Sheikh Muhammed; but get the hell out of my face and leave the leading of the Free World to the big boys, okay?

You want to know a secret? If the presidential race were between Ron Paul on the Republican side, and Joe Lieberman on the Democrat side, I'd vote for Joe Lieberman in a heartbeat, based on the above principle alone.

• 2. National security is serious business. Quit fucking with it.

The notion of National Security embodies the very fight for our survival as a nation and as a people. It is not a political point vending machine placed there for your convenience.

When you go and treat Iraq as a political football game to be won, rather than what should and must be a critical strategic victory over a deadly geopolitical enemy; going so far as to actually lay obstacles in the way of our victory, and putting those who put their lives on the line in additional and unnecessary risk as a result, that tells me you don't give a flying f*ck in a rolling donut about the security of our nation, and that you have no business leading it.

There really are people and even nations out there who mean to do us harm.

9/11 should have given you a clue.

• 3. The democrat must quit showing contempt for America and that for which it stands!

Trust me on this. You may get a pat on the back from your fellow limousine liberals over at the Yacht club, but you won't score a single vote among the "Joe Sixpack" crowd if you refuse to wear a flag on your lapel because you have contempt for the nation for which you are asking for the privilege and honor of leading.

It's OK to say you love America, that it is the greatest nation on earth, and that Americans have spilled more blood and have given more treasure to help the downtrodden than any nation in the history of the planet.

It's OK. Really, it is.

• 4. Don't tell us what our problems are. We know what they are.
  

Running a grocery-styled bitchlist of everything that's wrong, and portraying everyone under the sun as a victim isn't going to make anyone run through a wall to get you elected.

Here's a novel idea: Present a vision of what is right about America, and an accompanying vision of how to work with what's right so as to become an even greater nation (and--this is important-- believe in it!).

Ronald Reagan's Shining City on the Hill vision eventually garnered him two landslide terms as President. Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech, along with his inability to proffer a positive vision of America's future is arguably what lost him his second term, and what sealed his fate as one of the most ineffectual presidents in history.

Again, this list is far from inclusive as to what it would take for me to vote for a democrat as President, but it's a start.

I offer this in the knowledge that the ideas put forth in this screed will be summarily dismissed as hogwash, and also in the knowledge that some leftwinger will no doubt leave some "clever" comments about how wrong I am. But it was a democrat that asked the question, and since I am the world's leading authority on what I think and feel, I answered it to the best of my ability.

Fire away.