Make a difference now, argue about the fine points later.

But every once in a while, ya know, people need to vent.

So I will not take contention with anything people say.

I only ask that people refrain from the contentious commentary and go for the positive stuff instead

in this country. We haven't really tried, have we? We have been told 'it's not possible'.

Here's a suggestion, assuming there is any truth to the 'Dems can't get elected' claims, how about we do what the Third Way has done in our party, get Progressive Dems to run as Independents pushing what we KNOW are popular policies with people across the Political spectrum.

Once elected they can caucus with Dems. Also, they should go to DC with the intention of being there for ONE TERM, therefore not thinking about what they have to do to keep their jobs.

With that attitude, they can vote the RIGHT WAY and not worry about the next election.

I have a feeling though that IF they voted for real Progressive policies they WOULD be reelected. In the end, people vote for their own families and that is what we should always remember.

We still have to get beyond the stigma that Independents can't win in a two-party race. However, with the right campaign, and the right people running it, anything is possible

Seriously, me and my completely liberal family are seriously thinking about moving south. We can't deal with the cold anymore, lol.

But seriously, good post. Being from a much-maligned state, I really do feel your pain with all the bashing. It's counter productive but I guess it makes some people feel better in some way, so they refuse to stop.

I think we all know, too, that the arguing part is supremely addictive!

That's cool y'all want to move south to get away from the cold! I'm miserable when it's cold here, which you'll probably think is a mild spell!

Whereabouts are you thinking of moving to?

So I will cut them some slack.

Well, my brother is thinking Florida, where all northerns move, but I am actually feeling more Texasy myself.

are plenty blue. Fort Worth is more Liberal than Dallas, and it's not nearly as hot and humid up there as it is on the coast. Plus, while they do get snow and ice, they do not get hurricanes

The Purple Election Map that's going around shows all the big blue spots on Florida as well, with the very middle going from coast to coast as a solid blue. I was kind of surprised when I saw that, but it's encouraging

But, I'm going to bump it anyway for more visibility so y'all can start brainstorming ideas

Thank you for this.

My immediate family are all liberal democrats, except one brother. While he is not a nut-job teabagger, he can be conservative, which leads to a few arguments with his other three brothers (me included). However, the shutdown was the final straw for my brother. I almost fell out of my chair when I read his face book posts. Then I watched him get attacked by his friends for his "democrat ways." LMAO! He has ALWAYS voted Republican, despite the fact they decimated his profession. Well, he had to learn the hard way, and this shutdown really hit him hard.

ETA(sk): Do you really consider Texas the South?

It's great to hear he has changed his mind about it all, though. Good for him!

As for Texas being in or out of the South, I've never considered it part of the South. I have seen plenty lately defining it as part of the South due to its membership in the Confederacy. However, when we learned Texas history in grade school that part of our history wasn't covered nearly as much as our fight with Santa Ana. That's kind of ingrained in our brains, especially as I live near where it all ended, where the San Jacinto Monument stands.

I think it's best to just go ahead and put us in the South for convenience in these discussions. Most Texans (myself included) would never state that for accuracy reasons, but I do acknowledge that not everyone knows our history (or believes it!)

Sadly, sometimes people need a kick in the butt. Some people cannot understand theory, only experience. Don't get me wrong, I love him, but one can only spend so much time explaining something before giving up.

I agree with what you say about Texas and the South. I see Texas and Oklahoma as there own little 'region.' I am from the South, and when I say that here in OK, no one looks at me funny and realize it means I am from somewhere other than OK, of course, my deep Southern drawl is a dead give away! LOL!

I would never have pegged him as from OK.

I think, too, that the Texas/Oklahoma rivalry keeps us together. That and the fact that in our history, we were all one territory, or at least part of OK was (the Panhandle section.) As a Republic, our land covered all or parts of the current states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming!

And I learned quickly to avoid talking politics with my father (an enigma as he's a Republican, yet also a Master Naturalist with the State of Texas, making him a bit of an environmentalist. He used to be an oilman, too!) I don't know yet what he's thought of the recent fiasco and if it's changed his thoughts on any of it. It would certainly be nice when I visit at Thanksgiving not to have to listen to Fox news...

When we moved from OK to New Orleans, I fit in more than he did because I was used to Southern culture and my accent clearly identified me as someone from the region, though clearly not from NOLA nor Louisiana. His "accent" though, puzzled many people. It was kind of funny. Of course, when I am immersed in Southern dialects, my native one becomes more pronounced.

I can talk politics with all of my immediate family, except for that one brother, but that is changing. My brother, the doctor (who is single, straight, Jewish and very liberal for any women reading this), is as liberal as I am, so conversations with him are usually just screaming matches about stupid libertarians and republicans. LOL! We compete to see who has heard or seen the worst example of the aforementioned.

I can understand some of the posts in regards to the South, but some are just pathetically bigoted and short-sighted. In some of the posts, I can actually see the posters' own racism, usually ignoring that many "minorities" in the South can be just as bad as any "white" person in sending "crazies" to various parts of the government. I also wonder if some aren't calling for the removal of the South because it would make the new US much whiter, which it would.

but also duller. They'd lose so much richness in culture it's not even funny. That is, they'd lose all that, once they recovered from the worst depression ever (even greater than the depressions of the late 19th century; not sure which one was worst, only that they were supposedly worse than the one in the 1930s.) Then they can have their "Blutopia".

Well, I'm enjoying our conversation, but I need to get to bed. If anyone wants to discuss how to create a 50-state Blutopia, help them out in contributing

G'night!

Yes, the "new" US would be much whiter and much duller, IMO too. However, I really don't know if their "Blutopia" would be realized; if anything, it could be a threat to their perceived "victory." I think and feel many anti-South posters are so short-sighted that they don't realize we, the ones living in these states, are the ones they really need for their vision to emerge. We are the front line! We are the ones fighting the fight. We are the allies!

Hope you had a good sleep!

BTW...love your screen name...can you guess why?

It's likely a lost cause attempting to sway some of them, even on DU. So, we do our best with the ones we know, or get to interact with on a daily basis. As you have personally experienced, that's how you change minds and win hearts

And I can guess two reasons for why you love my screen name. One is that homosexuals (gays, specifically) have taken the centaur form as an identifying image. I'm fine with that, though it does make searching for the heterosexual kind on Google Images sometimes challenging for me

The other is that they are the symbol of KREWE in New Orleans. By the way, do you pronounce it "New Orlens" or "N'awlens"?

Oh, here's a link to a guy I know online with a similar fascination for centaurs, though the link isn't safe for work half of the time. Centaurica. His "About" page explains his connection to them as well.

And... kicking again!

Maybe, just maybe we'll be able to elect a Democratic Senator in GA next time around.

http://www.michellenunn.com/

And thanks for the link. I should probably amend my OP to ask if y'all know a link for someone you'd like us to help, go ahead and post it

I read her bio there, and I liked this quote: "She believes that coming together makes us stronger and that goals can be achieved by thoughtfully and respectfully focusing on what connects individuals rather than on what divides them." DU could learn a thing or two from her

Even now he's trying to get campaign funding laws changed to suit his campaign because he knows he's in real trouble.

Kick that turkey to the curb and let's get Alison elected!

Everyone should watch that, it's a hoot!

She sounds great, and just the kind of Liberal fighter y'all need; we all need 'em like Alison and Wendy

And for the ones I've invited from other threads to stop by and post their positive ideas for helping out.

for better response

and I'm from the south and live in a state that might as well be the south...

But, based upon what I read today about voter suppression tactics in Texas, I'd say one good strategy is to have women-to-women voter outreach.

Have women help to insure that women are registered to vote by helping them update information about name changes, etc.

Do this as a public service org. so it can get free publicity on radio stations, etc.

Make sure this outreach includes conservative women. Make sure they know the Republican Party is trying to disenfranchise women, and other women are reaching out, no matter what a person's political affiliation, to guarantee women the right to vote.

The right to vote.

Middle-class women are not going to take this information very well. Neither are poor women.

But southern women can engage in "preventive action" to keep Republicans from denying women the right to vote - if they're not already working on doing the same.

Need lots of publicity like the Salon reporter's fact-checking on Hannity's claims.

Personally, I think it would be good for some investigative reporter, etc. to look into various "end of the world" cults through history and interview religious leaders to talk about the differences of opinion about this issue. Maybe have a debate on public tv with religious leaders who are pushing this apocalyptic thinking.

This is for the good of the nation and the world, no matter the election outcome - but maybe it would help by suppressing the crazy.

thanks for the kind words.

obviously, Republicans are going to use this tactic elsewhere, too, and what better way to encourage women to turn out than to let them know the right to vote itself is being challenged in the same way other targeted groups have been challenged.

I think, for all of us in the U.S., low information and outright lies are the biggest problems. people have a right to free speech, but they don't have a right to their own "facts," so I guess you have to take on some of those lies/liars head on.

I would imagine those women in Texas have already thought of what I mentioned.

Another counter strategy would be for people associated with liberal religious groups to do things like... christmas carol, or have "sing-ins" (lol), with people from all demographic groups included, who can present a united front of religious voters who aren't republicans.

I don't know exactly how that would work - it would need to be grassroots, voluntary, I assume to avoid the mix of religion and politics, but if the other side is pretending they own christianity... maybe the "righteous progressive choir and voting registration society" could perform songs that are familiar and others can sing along to in outdoor open venues and pass out voter reg information or something. As I said, I don't know much about this stuff, other than knowing certain groups need to be countered in a positive, public way.

I'll stop now before I embarrass myself... lol.

Make it an Interfaith coalition. The UU's would be good at organizing such a thing, if they were keen on getting politically involved. I don't know enough about how Moral Mondays was set up to take it any further than that.

I know now that I'm going to have to read up on the 50-State Strategy. I mostly only know of it in passing around here. I don't know the details. If it could be restarted, that would go lightyears in taking the whole country back

Actually improve people's lives and get credit for it. ACA is a good start, but the work is just begun.

Yet the nice thing about baby steps is that they seem to have staying power

And helping people get into the ACA as well as figuring it out is another good start. As that law improves, we'll have to stay on top of it, too.

There's room for all kinds of positive outreach here. We only have to get started on it.

I just signed up to volunteer for the Wendy Davis campaign!

GO WENDY!!!

I'm going to send some money this weekend, and I'll look for how to volunteer while I'm at it.

GO WENDY in your pink shoes!!!

If not, please let me know, and I'll delete it.

http://bettergeorgia.com/about-better-georgia/

It's a progressive organization doing the good fight (not the repubs' "good fight.&quot

Thanks for adding it

Thanks for the thread, kentauros.

And now is the time we need to "strike while the iron is hot", while the repubs are imploding. We can fill many holes before they know what hit 'em

Peace to you, kentauros.

Probably best to keep our various focused efforts to each state, or do what we know. Those with experience in national organizing can go for that angle.

Namaste, Joe

Blacks, as a percentage of the population are larger in the South than in any other part of the nation, but voting among that group is low and spotty. The Vietnamese population in the South is growing, as are the population of all other Asian groups, and Hispanics. Meet activists in all of those groups. Develop REAL, RESPECTFUL relationships with them. Talk about your goals for the region, strategize on how the groups can work together to meet those goals. Don't try to fake act their cultures, that is insulting. Be you, your culture, but be on a mission and share common visions while talking through differences.

Do the ground work, build a voter base. Push the Democratic party to find strong candidates that have solid core Democratic principles.

Do the groundwork down there focus 100% on that effort, we will help you with the money.

That's great advice. Thank you!

Finally, a constructive outlook that takes the South's problems seriously and doesn't do the exact thing that makes that behavior seem justified. Since all of Mr. Bear's and my relatives are still and probably always will be in the South we're intimately connected to politics there, on all sides of all the issues. Shaming and dismissing does nothing. We go at it with sandpaper sometimes, but we do go at it.

Thanks, man.

nationally the attention is usually to pres candidates, the governor, senators, us congress. not much else is given attention.

so things like giving to candidates at lower levels helps.

Local politics are sometimes more important to more people because the effects are immediate. Build that groundswell locally, yet let it continue to grow if the support is there. Then go outside the state to the federal levels.

which lie on purpose.

people can personally show them why a certain law would help/hurt them.

And it really goes right to the core of people's emotions, and that's a big part of how people experience politics anyway. If go for that personal touch, people remember that, and respond in kind.

When they realized that their national-election days were numbered, they worked their asses off to infect state governments and gerrymander (and, in general, damage shit) to their black hearts' content.

i know North Carolina went red for 2012. but we did win in 2008 even if it was very close. so it's no longer reliable for Republicans and they have to put money into the state.

virginia even more so because the culture seems to be moving more liberal.

there are cases where specific Dems might do well but the overall culture isn't changing much.

Kentucky is another one to look at. while it remains mostly Republican and will be red at the Pres level , having a Dem Governor has helped. it's one of the states where Obamacare has been most successful and part of it is because of the Dem Governor . and why Mcconnnell may be in trouble.

I know the Moral Mondays garnered plenty of attention, but I don't know much beyond that. I hope it's done some good overall.

There was some other regular customer at the barber shop today, and confirmed that he was a repub pretty quickly. However, he seemed genuinely stunned to learn that Mitch McConnell was the source of the dam-project earmark. I guess Fox hasn't disseminated that info yet

I still have to sign up to help on Wendy's campaign, however I can, so I'll be researching that this weekend. Have a look around where you live and see how you can help. Doing whatever little bit you can is still help

Sounds like community organizers are needed.

our President got his start in it

That's the dream!

Namaste, MFrohike

I know my technique with the reachable and teachable is to ask them why they voted Republican. Often they reply with boilerplate about abortion or small government or low taxes. That's when I say "Yes, they say that and it all sounds really good, but here's what they did as soon as they got into office.... Every Republican, right down the line, has done this as soon as they lied your precious vote away, ever since the 1980s. How high has your own boat risen on those promises? They sank mine!"

Since I fled the south, I'm relying on reports from those states about any and all credible threats to the real nightmare candidates like Virginia Foxx, Smokey Joe Barton, Marsha Blackburn, or any of the other incredibly bad people that have been sent to Congress.

I've been contributing to Michele Bachmann's opponents for three elections.

The south is already reddish purple, putting it ahead of the Moron Corridor politically if not culturally. People around the cities are waking up to who and what Republicans really are. It's just going to be a very long haul to explain it to people outside the cities who keep the TV on CBN and are completely bamboozled by Pat Robertson and his ilk.

And it could apply to so many places

Thank you for reaching out that way, too. Whether you make progress immediately or not, you plant the seeds.

I know from seeing your posts in the Texas group that you get your info on us from there, and probably other sites. I was going to suggest Juanita Jean's, but I think you know of that one by now

This is our best strategy for turning the South blue, imho:

Kay Hagan in NC.
Wendy Davis in TX.
Michelle Nunn in GA.
Alison Lundergan Grimes in KY.

etc.

Racism is real, and pretending it doesn't exist is folly. Feminism is also real, and pretending it does not exist is also folly. For the red states and the red areas of those states, in particular, white women have the best chance of winning as Democrats, because they peel white women away from their Repbulican-voting husbands. There's only one white male left in Congress who's a Democrat from the Deep South, and that's Georgia's John Barrow. In the red districts of the Deep South, white, male Democrats are nearly extinct. In those same districts, I contend, a white female Democrat can win.

Flame-retardant suit on. Have at it.



-Laelth

You made excellent points and analysis

And, before Karl Rove got here, we had Ann Richards. (Rove also made us lose Jim Hightower to none other than pRick Perry for state Ag Commissioner.)

We've elected women to these higher offices before. We can do it again!

First of all I am a paid political strategist. I've worked on political campaigns for the last three years (and volunteered/interned before that) living in 5 states in the last three years. I'm a native northerner (or as southerners would say 'Yankee' although I don't consider myself one because I don't play baseball in the Bronx) currently living in the Tea Party state of North Carolina (GOP overreach on steroids) and very used to the northern culture (grew up in metro NY, lived in NJ as an adult).

Every district/state I've gone to has their fair share of progressives. Speaking for North Carolina, I've only been in the cities (initially was offered a position in Greensboro, then was transfered to Raleigh/Durham and I'm living in Durham now).

What the national Democrats need is an infrastructure of volunteers and a candidate recruitment pool at the local level. Since I used a baseball reference before, I'm going to use another one. The Democrats need to groom the minor league players for the major leagues. Start off with the school boards, council, mayor, county government, etc. Then look towards the state houses. Experience at those levels grooms them for Congress, and in a normal year, that is the experience voters like to see (there is always exceptions to this rule).

If you do not want to run for office (and you would be surprised at how many local races are unopposed. In the NJ town that I am a permanent resident of where I vote, only one person is running for four school board seats), then you should get involved with the local Democratic Party. I've been to many a Democratic county committee meeting (all over the country) where the average age of the attendees is 70+. Most campaign staff is not local, and when they attend the committee meetings, it is a very reassuring feeling to have knowing that the people in the room will help you get your candidate elected by knocking on doors, making phone calls, etc.

As for the 'progressiveness' of the candidate, that really depends on the makeup of the district. Blue Dogs were a key part of the 50 state strategy, and when your choice is a teabagger or a Blue Dog, most here would take the Blue Dog.