I'm seeing a long haul for the Dem Party

I was thinking today that the Dem Party needs to obviously rebuild itself. I see signs that that the last election especially has helped to bring in an influx of committed people motivated to remove the Republican Party from power.

Next in my train of thought was Gov. Warner, and how he's sort of snubbing the Senate, where he could win handily, to head straight for the presidency. Can't say as I blame him, much as I'd like Allen to go bye bye. But this highlighted for me that we don't really have a ton of good candidates to field for Democratic office, esp. down South. I mean, how many races in Red areas go unchallenged, or nearly so with a token candidate no one thinks will win?

Enter our new crop of committed folk, many of whom have stuck around, realizing they can't wait for the next election to get busy. I was thinking that this influx of committed people could result in more choices for candidates. But not right away.

How soon? Probably not in time for 2006. Maybe in time for 2008.

But anyway, I'm thinking that as long as I'm seeing progress, esp in the areas that Dean has been working, that I'm not going to get too freaked out if we don't win everything back in 2006.

What do you people think? Have we sewn the seeds of a stronger party, and how long will it take those seeds to mature to the point where we will be a force in the country again? Sooner than I think? Or are we indeed looking at the long haul?

Discuss.

unless some of its rank-and-file members (I think they're members; who knows?) stop advocating bolting to a 3rd party and start making efforts to change the party from within. People don't like Republican-lite? Then work with the DNC to help it gain the upper hand over the DLC for the party's agenda-making.

The do-nothing, scorched-earth policy people are more harmful to the interests of the Democrats than are the DLC members they complain about.

(disclaimer: this post is not referring to you, Clarkie)

These arent the people that are caught up in Vince Foster conspiracy theories. These are people that are very concerned about policies and how they effect real lives.

And speaking of the DLC.

How do you propose we get these people and their candidates out? Should we just tolerate them and allow them to fester in the party?

What if their are no progressives Dem to challenge them come election time? I dony think people should be forced to sit out elections while tow tweedle dee and tweedle dum candidates argue wedge issue fluff.

I fully support the challenge third party progressives bring to the electorate. I think it's a wonderfull thing for Democracy.

There's a lot of talented Democrats all over the country who can run against the DINOS, and a lot of talented people in the DNC who can help them get elected. That's not necessarily the case for very conservative districts, where DINOS are all we can hope for (and whom, therefore, we shouldn't undermine), but it very much is the case in Blue districts.

"Tweedle-Dee/Tweedle-Dumb": sounds a lot like the 2000 Ralph Nader nonsense. The Democrats need more rank-and-file members who are willing and able and who have the winning attitude to envision how to improve things for the Democratic Party. You are certainly capable of fulfilling that role.

:hi:

It would be a logical move, because it's highly annoying (and ludicrous) for someone to continue posting on a Democratic website when he's announced to all of us here that he's "left the Democratic Party".

mike_c Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-29-05 03:41 PM
Response to Original message
30. spot on, and exactly why I LEFT the democratic party....

...when you-know-who was nominated for president, and have certainly not kept it a secret.

Voldemort? Boy this is sounding sinister...

the dems showed themselves clearly to be against runaway globalization like I've never seen them before. So they can put it in the laps of the republicans like they haven't been able to before.

Compare the cafta vote vs. the nafta vote:

Nafta:
Republican 132 43
Democratic 102 156
Independent 1
TOTALS 234 200

Cafta:
Republican 202 27 2
Democratic 15 187
Independent 1
TOTALS 217 215 2

i see several shades of rebuilding the Party ... some are very tangible (e.g. we should run so-and-so in such-and-such state) and some are less tangible ...

on the somewhat less tangible side, i think the Party has a ton of homework to do ... this doesn't target 2006, 2008 or any other year ... it is a change to how we do business ... it is a change to our internal processes ... it is part of an ongoing, long-term plan ... perhaps it will yield some positive results immediately but that is not its primary objective ...

these processes include a much more effective way to communicate, IN BOTH DIRECTIONS, between "little people" Democrats (i.e. us commoners) and the elite leadership Democrats ... they are badly out of touch with us and we have extremely limited access to them ... it's critically necessary to change that ... also, with more effective communication, we may be able to make real progress on some of the serious policy rifts we've seen highlighted over the last few days ... one thing that has been changing in a positive way but needs to go way beyond its current state is the collection of email addresses for every single Democrat ...

second, we cannot continue to have the Party's platform be a top-down process ... the platform needs to evolve from a more democratic process that strongly encourages very active participation from each and every Democrat ... and the platform needs to stop being viewed solely in terms of its political impact ... we have to start putting WHO WE REALLY ARE ahead of what we "speculate" voters in the center MAY want from us ... and we have to stop worrying about how the republicans will label our positions ... we need to tell 'em where we're coming from and fight like hell for our beliefs ...

on the more tangible side, as you've already stated, the Party needs to do a much more effective job recruiting current and future candidates ... just like baseball has the minor leagues, we need to have "recruits-in-training" in the pipeline for 2012, 2016 and beyond ... we also need to be far better at identifying talent in state governments around the country ... many very talented people have already demonstrated they can win as D.A.'s, Secretaries of State, Lieutenant Governors etc ... that's a rich talent pool that we need to identify and nurture ...

we also need to rethink our state primaries strategy ... how many times can we hear state after state saying they never really had a chance to participate in the process because everything was decided before their primary rolled around??? we will produce stronger candidates with better nation-wide exposure by solving this problem ...

and finally, and this repeats some of the themes about better communication and the platform "bubbling up", we have to find a way to breathe life into both state and local affiliates of the Democratic Party ... local Town Committees must be far more than a campaign team for those running for local office ... they should be the eyes and ears, and just as importantly the voices, of the Democratic Party ... every Democratic Party organization should have clear positions formed on not just local issues but state and national and international issues as well .... and these views should "bubble up" to the state and national organizations and they should "bubble out" to the local community ...

the local worker-bees should be our Party's foot soldiers in every single community in the country ... and voters should not hear from these neighbors only at election time ... the active involvement of local Party organizations should be a 24/7 job every day of the year ...

Dr. Dean, and the rest of us, have a ton of work to do to restructure the Party in significant ways if we are to reclaim our majority status ... i truly worry that many at the top will not be open to the shared power implicit in many of the changes i've recommended above ... perhaps a "great conflagration" or rebellion really may need to occur before the stranglehold of power will be loosened and the needed changes can proceed ... let's hope it doesn't come to that ...

It is going to be even harder with all the 08 folks striking out early on their own agendas. I have always felt comfortable that I could vote for Hillary, but she struck a big blow to the party this week. I feel differently now. We had good momentum going in the media, and we were feeling heartened. The announcement of her leadership in the DLC had a dampening effect on all of us who were enthused.

Many states have almost no Democratic infrastructure on the ground. I have been very alarmed to learn how many. So that building up alone will take a long time.

But winning right away will not be easy. The media is not on our side. This week they got their hands spanked by the White House, and they are being good little children.

Dean in that Denver video said something very important. He said we don't know how to be a minority party. We don't know how to fight. When you want to win you don't tear each other down all the time, and we are not out of that mindset yet. We have someone in as chair who is a fighter, and our party leaders have tied his hands by insisting on careful rhetoric.

We can't measure and weigh every word we say, and then jump down each other's throat if the truth is not spoken carefully enough. And we do it over and over and over. We LOST. We LOST by being careful. But they are doing the same thing over and over and over.

I don't think we will win for a while, not in any major way. We will have small victories and a few large ones, but they have too much power to give up lightly. And again, having the media whore for you is quite an advantage.