2 more years of * should just about do it.

We need to be ready with good solid candidates for 2006 and start now

with registration drives. There are millions of unregistered non

voters out there.


The falling value of the dollar and the resulting inflation, the

mess in Iraq and the soon to be restarted draft, cuts to social

security, the environmental crisis, and massive job losses, will make

a platform of Progressive Populism very attractive.


The biggest problem will be with the leadership of the party. They

must be replaced or we must bypass them with groups like Move-on.

if we do not, more ROb Georgia 1.4 will spread... no matter how good the candidates

without paper ballots, no election strategy will succeed.

can be manipulated by GOPig operatives -- is a waste of time.

How about our side go backward in time --

Paper Ballots -- hand counted.

result in Kerry winning the state and the election. If we can at least show fraud was committed we can push for election reform.

Extra-judicial execution for everybody at Diebold. (A similar solution would work wonders at preventing corporations and lobby groups from rigging Hong Kong's elections in conjunction with the CCP.)

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

We are in dire circumstances in outstate Missouri. Except for St. Louis and Kansas City the wingnuts with their divisive scams have managed to sell the Kool aid of gun control, Christian values, and anti abortion rhetoric.

Missouri is literally swimming in a sea of red Republicans. I would hate to count the number of delusional unemployed gun nuts who voted for Bush because they thought the Democrats were going to confiscate their Yugo SKS, or AK-47. I am totally convinced if Kerry would have kept quiet about the assault weapons ban he might have carried Missouri. I know no logic here, just what the unemployed need $3000.00 worth of semi auto assault rifles.

I could rant for hours. I am working on a plan to be adopted by Democrats in Blue states.

We worked our asses off here in southwest Missouri and got our asses

kicked. We had a Kerry coordinator here and I talked to him when he

first arrived. I suggested that we concentrate on door to door

canvasing and registering new voters. He said that The campaign had

lots of statistics that proved that we had plenty of registered Dems

and that we just needed to GOTV and convince some of the undecideds.

That proved not to be true. We need to concentrate on the

disenfranchised non voters to win. It is a lot more work than phone

banking but would be the key to turning outstate Mo. around.

For instance southwest Missouri is now 10-15 % Hispanic. Reaching

into this community will take time and lots of effort to earn their

trust. An attorney to help with naturalization issues would be a

big plus.

Robin Carnahan was a good omen for Missouri. Can you imagine Hannaway?

My 13 year old daughter chose John Kerry in her mock elections at school. She visited both George Bush's and John Kerry's web site. She knows the issues far better than most adults. She chose Kerry. Being the assertive young woman we have encouraged she spoke out in her class. The response she got from classmates was John Kerry was a "baby killer" and he wanted to take away guns. Her quick response was John Kerry was Roman Catholic, (like many of them) although pro choice (which they are not familiar and associate with encourage abortion) Kerry is opposed to abortion on moral and religious grounds. She also related that her brother and father have lots of nasty guns and strongly support Democrats especially John Kerry. She summed it up this way "they don't know anything even what Bush wants to do, I think they just listen to their parents who sound really stupid".

Yes there needs to be some education, and what I think is the key listening. I heard my candidate say he did not pay attention to polls. When you are talking about opinion polls and some strategic planning this has to be a mistake. Opinion polls are a way of listening. Get out the vote failed miserably this time. n/t

the GOP has become quite good at doing. No thinking person agrees that bush won 2004 or in 2000.

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They can have Reno and rural Nevada, since they effectively canceled out Vegas' overwhelming vote FOR kerry.

I know you probably didn't make it, but no need to name it United States of Canada- no reason Canada should lose it's naming because the US is fucked up.

are in two years people! We need to keep our seats, and take back some of theirs.

the republican party to define the democratic party and develop and implement a plan for defining the republican party.

For over 20 years the democrats have allowed the GOP to define the democratic party. That has to stop. When republicans lie about democrats they have to be called liars. An excellent example of this is the lies about democratic obstructionism on Bush's judicial nominees. Bush has had the highest percentage of his judicial nominees confirmed of any president in modern history.

But the democrats also need to show Americans the true face of the republican party. That face is the Reich Wing fundamentalists. Every incident of GOP extremism needs to be painted as showing the true heart and soul of the republican party.

An example of what the democrats must do is provided by the incidents of schoolteachers telling seven year old kids in their classrooms that Kerry is a baby killer. Democrats need to show that this is the GOP in action, not one or two isolated incidents of disturbed individual teachers. Every democrat who appears on any television show for the next several months should mention these incidents as an example of what the GOP stands for. Not just that the GOP is anti-abortion, but that the GOP believes that teachers must talk about baby killers to seven year old children.

Another example is the republican push to pass state laws allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control pills to women. These incidents are becoming more and more common. A huge majority of Americans disagree with these laws when they learn of them. But most people have no idea they exist. Democrats need to change that.

The next thing the democrats need to do is nationalize the 2006 election, so that it is a referendum on one party control and the extremism of the GOP. The best way to do that I think is to campaign for reform of the government. This will cause people to focus on one party control by the GOP.

I think election reform is the first reform issue democrats should focus on. This is fresh in everyones' minds and the GOP is vulnerable on this issue since there are so many stories of long lines, unreliable machines, inconsistent rules, and republicans attempting to suppress minority voters this year. Republicans hate having the truth be told about the rampant bigotry and racism in the GOP and would have a hard time defending trying to continue to disenfranchise minorities. They will look bad if they oppose election reform. There is no reason that an election reform bill can not be the very first thing passed by the next Congress. But the democrats have to make it an important issue because the republican party loves the current election laws.

Democrats also should raise the issue of reforming Congress and the rest of the federal government. They should focus on nepotism and the revolving door of government employees leaving and becoming lobbyists. The democrats should freely admit that this will hurt some democrats as well as republicans, but they should argue that it needs to be done. Put the onus on the GOP to defend nepotism and revolving doors to corrupt wealth. (I do not necessarily believe that reforming the federal government is the most important issue facing the country but I do believe that it is one which would resonate with some people who voted republican who might switch their vote.)

One other thing the democrats should talk about is the deficits and the debt. But they need to show the historical record on this. Of the 14 times since 1960 that the annual deficit has exceeded 3% of GDP, every single time was under a republican president. In that time republicans have added around $3.8 trillion to the publicly held national debt. Bush is projecting that the total national debt will exceed $10 trillion at the end of his second term. Democrats can not continue to let this go largely unnoticed. This also is part of defining the republican party.

The national campaign democrats need to run in 2006 has to be based on a coordinated and consistent message. I think that message should be that the GOP is too extreme and that the federal government needs to be improved and since republicans control the government any failure to reform government is a willful failure of the republicans to do something about the corrupt staus quo.

Although democrats should focus on extremism and reform, they can not ignore the other failures of Bush and the GOP. Those need to be addressed, but in the context of a well defined strategy emphasizing extremism, reform, and one party control whenever possible.

framing debates. I think that we should ditch the liberal label and

adopt the term Progressive Populists. Unfortunately we are 40 years

behind the regressive conservatives in all areas.

We should also have a platform of progressive reform in place for the

2006 elections. A contract for America based on progressive ideas.

We need to make our voter registration drive an ongoing project. It

is not enough to work on this for a few months before national

elections.


On a personal note my 6 year old daughter came home from school and

said that the other kids said that Kerry would kill pregnant mothers.

The true face of the theocratic party. Fear and smear and lies.

When the dollar collapses & inflation goes through the roof, they will be blaming Democrats, Bill Clinton, George Soros, decadent leftists from the EU and China.

That said, we have a great chance to pick up some governorships - heck, it's disappointing that the "liberal" northeast has so many R governors:
New York - Spitzer vs Pataki
Connecticut - Jodi Rell is beatable after the Rowland scandal
Mass - can anybody beat Romney?

well fold up their tent and go home. We are never going to get any more motivated or any better turnout; I think that the vote fraud problem has got to be solved or we are never going to win again.

if you want to 'fold up your tent and go home' go ahead!!!

This is a time we need to dig our heals in, and keep our eyes on this f**d up government and make every effort we can to change things--on every level that needs it

There is too much at stake here, in this country and the world