When will the Democratic Party get it? You don’t win elections by trying to become a blurred copy of something else. They keep losing race after race because they act too much like Republicans and present no clear alternative to George W. Bush’s vision of America. For heaven’s sake, they should either buy or lease some guts, even if they have to do so on an installment plan.

No one can admire Democrats for having the courage of their convictions because they have neither courage nor convictions. They are Republican wannabes who can’t find their sorry butts with both hands and a map.

Consequently, African-Americans are forced to choose between weak-kneed Democrats who take us for granted and Right-wing Republicans who want to take us for a ride.

True to form, some Democrats are trying to attribute their glaring failure on Election Day to the purported low Black voter turn out. They are doing that even though they have no reliable figures to prove their point.

Melanie Campbell, executive director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, reminds us that after the 1994 Republican juggernaut, African-Americans were being blamed for the poor Democratic showing. However, Census Bureau figures later showed that Black turnout that year was higher than that of Whites.

Overall, voter participation has steadily declined since the 1960s when nearly 60 percent of registered voters cast ballots. The independent Committee for the Study of the American Electorate estimates that approximately 39 percent of registered voters went to the polls this year.

The real problem is not Black voter turnout but White voter tune-out. In the last two presidential elections, Bill Clinton and Al Gore received a minority of the White vote. In key states, African-American were able to supply Democrats with the margin of victory.

But African-Americans can play a pivotal role only if an election is close. When the Democrats get their clocks cleaned, they should look at the lack of White support rather than pointing an accusing finger at African-Americans, who support them more than any other segment of the electorate.

So what do we do?

In addition to challenging the direction of the badly flawed Democratic Party, we must accept the political reality of Republicans having taken over all branches of the federal government. That means we need to adjust our strategy.

Inasmuch as the GOP claims to favor letting local and state officials make most decisions, we should shift the bulk of our attention to electing office-holders at the state and local level. We should not give up on sending Black men and women to Congress, but perhaps we should devote a greater effort back in the home districts.

For years, I’ve argued that we’ve placed too much emphasis on electoral politics and too little on economics. Part of our political impotence can be attributed to our failure to flex our economic muscle.

The University of Georgia projects that the Black annual spending power will increase from $645.9 billion in 2002 to $852.8 billion in 2007. Just making the right spending and investment decisions can be the Viagra needed to transform our community.

Finally, we must look more to one another rather than at the federal government. I realize that the federal government has certain obligations to its citizens—and we should fight for them—but I also realize those obligations are unlikely to be met in this new political climate.

Consequently, we must assume a greater burden for looking after our own. The notion of self-help did not begin or end with Black conservatives. The NAACP was founded as a self-help organization in 1909. The National Urban League was established as a self-help group the following year. Various community development agencies, many of them in poor neighborhoods, are helping people trapped in poverty.

More important than merely replying on national civil rights groups, we need to return to the self-help and sense of community that has long been a tradition among us. That means we must support and mobilize our churches; that means that we accept a collective responsibility for keeping our young people on the right path and that means we must use our economic power to support and grow our own businesses.

Like it or not, there has been a regime change. And it’s here, not in Iraq. Therefore, we must make some bold changes. Clearly, we can’t wait for wimpy Democrats to do it for us.