DU--the first progressive think tank

of its kind.

Seriously, folks. That's what we are. Question remains--can we do something with it?

There are plenty of ideas here...I've had a few good ones myself. But the problem is that the news is flowing so fast that a lot of good ideas drift downstream before enough people have a chance to look at them.

Maybe we should have a forum for positive, constructive ideas to help build a stronger, leaner progressive movement? Oh, I know we have the DU Activist Corps, but I'm talking about people willing to dedicate the time, effort, and mental energy into coming up with ideas to make a difference. It's one thing to write a congressman or a media outlet...it's something else altogether to build a operations center to affect real poliltical change.

Anybody with me?

read this and take it seriously....they should....proud to be a part of it all.

or just keep commenting on news stories?


Maybe we should have a forum for positive, constructive ideas to help build a stronger, leaner progressive movement?(snip)
Anybody with me?

I am with you! And I think we should be good citizens, and come up with ways to build a stronger, better civilization in general, not just progressive movement!

of the progressive movement in general...to build a stronger, better civilization. Right now too many of our "leaders" are more beholden to Corporate Interests than they are to us, the people they are allegedly representing.

Take a look at my blog http://sajewilliams.blogspot.com to get an idea about some of the things I've been working on.

I just had a chance to look over your blog, at least some of the posts. I enjoyed it. I will be stopping back by.

like 4 paragraphs and the link to the article. Check out the question/answer section. I've been delighted to find DU and welcome.

I can't join the Activist Corps. Rest assured I do participate in the political process. This may seem obvious but I do vote, I do write letters to my representatives regardless of what party they belong to, and I donate money to organizations like Moveon (In addition to DU ofcourse ;) )......

As far as what more I can do, I am not willing to take it to another step, simply because I like everyone else must make a living and contend with lifes other problems....

I'm not trying to disparage anyone's efforts. They're worthwhile regardless.

I'm just trying to figure out if we can start countering the 30+ years of Conservative Think Tanks by generating new ideas of our own that can be used to widen our circle of influence...to reach the people with a message of hope and freedom, and to look at building a stronger progressive movement and a more equitable civilization...

DU would be better if stuff didn't 'drift downstream' so very, very fast. A lengthy, thoughtful discussion is pretty difficult when a topic dissapears off the front page in a matter of forty-five minutes.

Actually, just changing its format so it worked like "Invasion Power Board" would improve that to some degree. More sub-forums would also help -- different sections for bitching about the freepers and discussing news, other sections for discussions of key policy issues, say a health-care section, an abortion-rights section, and so on.

Not sure what an "Invasion Power Board" is, however.

I like the design here in general, but it IS hard to keep up with all the stuff as it floats downstream. It's easy to miss stuff.

And, yeah, while it's important to get the news, it's also important to stimulate serious discussion about OUR ideas...which I don't think is happening nearly enough.

"Invasion Power Board" is a pretty common server for forums. The PBS forums use something very similar to it, actually looks like Invasion with some of the features turned off. Anyway, it doesn't stack stuff as replies, posts appear in the order posted so you don't miss anything, (you can actually click the thread to take you to the last post you read) and if you're referencing something way back in the thread, you've got to 'quote' a segment of it. It also just divides stuff into pages -- instead of clicking on the title of each post (there is no title for a specific post) you get pages, with many posts. Makes it faster to use. There are lots of other things about it I like better, but it's probably not worth going into great detail about.

Or the about.com forums...which were just changed...sucky changes.

Anyway, it's better. Easier to follow, and even with huge populations of users posting new threads all the time, it is somehow easier to keep discussions going.

no one else has said it yet...and even if they have...

Welcome to DU, Doc Bottom!

:hi: