Memo to Democrats Everywhere: If you want to win in November, here's how.

We Democrats have a problem.

Most of the time, we tend to screw up winning when it counts the most. Believe me, I've seen it happen again and again.

This year, however, we Democrats have the opportunity to not only change the direction of our country, but also to elect a man (or woman, if you want) with strong progressive credentials to help foster this must-needed change. What we do between now and November is absolutely critical. And, what progress is made over the next 4 years will be contingent on what we do over the next 10 months. There are many things progressives around this country can do to ensure this happens. The first one requires that we all work together.

The November 4th election is not just about who wins the Presidency, however. We have the chance to make the next Congress the most progressive and effective Congress ever. It's not enough to just send Barack Obama (or Hillary Clinton) to the White House; we must also give him or her a Congress who will support his or her initiatives.

In 2004, there were a host of groups hell-bent on making sure George W. did not win re-election. The problem was that none of them were working together. When trying to get things done in a political arena, the number one rule is to build coalitions with other like-minded organizations. Just think of the power we could have unleashed upon Karl Rove and his minions if we had all been working together in 2004!

As fabulous and easy as this sounds, it wasn't my original idea. In this recent article, Ken Brociner outlines what we, as progressives, can do to take back our country.

Brociner gives us a 2nd track to take back our country:

Track two: In order to seriously address the problems that are facing our nation and the rest of the world, we will need to construct a vital and visible left-wing of the progressive movement.

One of the reasons the progressive movement lacks a coherent left-wing is because the term “progressive” has lost its radical edge.

Yes, that's right, we need to become more progressive and, dare I say it, liberal.

30 years ago, top republicans met behind closed doors at the Cato Institute to craft a different kind of conservativism that they would slowly unleash upon us unsuspecting Americans. Since 2000, we have seen the worst of these policies and now, people are rebuking these policies by the thousands.

Many so-called 'red' states are now turning a bright shade of purple (and sometimes blue) because of the progressive people who have been elected to office recently. This isn't rocket science. People know that progressive Democrats have the right policies. Brociner again:

On practically every issue that we care about—from stopping the war in Iraq, to fighting global warming, to protecting civil liberties, to tackling economic injustice—the Democrats have far better policies than the Republicans.

As a Democrat and opponent of the Iraq War, I've often been called un-patriotic. But it's because I love my country that I strongly believe the Democrats are best suited to run our country and fix the problems we currently have. We can no longer sit around and complain about the problems in our country and just write letters to the editor. We MUST start working together NOW on progressive ideas and policies that will transform our country into the great power it once was.