Rally Tuesday, Nov. 30th to "Paste Nov. 3rd Theses to the DFL Door"

Read on and pass it on!!!

I'm sending you this email in hopes of rallying people together next Tuesday, Nov. 30th. Due to the results of the presidential election, it has become apparent that the Democratic Party is mismanaging our political future. At some point, we have to join together and communicate these profound misgivings.

We worked hard, we got out the vote, and we still lost by four million votes. Yes, it was close. Yes, we didn't have the best candidate. Yes, the campaign made serious tactical errors. Yes, the Republicans cheated. But the bottom line is this: the Democratic Party is today in the hands of people who have failed to articulate a moral-intellectual vision for America and the world, and you can't win the confidence of the electorate without a vision.

It's time for a healthy debate.

Please join me on Tuesday, November 30 at 4:30 p.m. at the DFL Headquarters in St. Paul (255 E. Plato Blvd.) to paste the November 3 theses on the front door (see below and please forgive the formatting!). I'm hoping to find people to join me and stand together and have our voices heard. I hope you can be there and that you will pass this on to your friends. The more people the better!

All the best,
Lea Anne
Cell 612-388-1707




November 3rd Theses

----

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

-- Benjamin Franklin


I.

The 2004 presidential election was lost not by John Kerry over the last several months but by the Democratic Party over the last several decades. Democrats have lost control of all three branches of government for the foreseeable future. We are now a minority party.

II.

When the Senate Democratic leader is defeated while spending $16 million attempting to get the majority of 500,000 votes, the problem is not a lack of funding or effort.

III.

The failure of the Democratic Party to connect with America's desire for fulfillment is political death.

IV.

Democrats are now history's spectators, Republicans its actors.

V.

The obsession with denouncing the radical conservative project as a "lie" has become a useful substitute for vision.

VI.

Renovating Democratic politics is not a question of moving to the right or talking more about religion. It is about creating a framework that once again communicates to the core needs of the American people.

VII.

America is not now, and never was, simply "the economy, stupid." What the American people want is a deeper sense of personal meaning, a national mission, and passion in times of fear.

VIII.

Returning the Democratic Party to majority status will require a political realignment no less sweeping than that which was accomplished by conservatives over the last 40 years.

IX.

Only the breath of a serious and new moral-intellectual vision will be sufficient to resuscitate the Democratic Party.

X.

Democratic candidates will continue to lose as long as they treat Americans as rational actors who vote their "self-interest" after weighing competing offers for health care, jobs, and security.

XI.

Conservatives have spent the last 40 years getting clear about the values they represent. They have even developed a "family values" brand to represent a framework that coheres traditional prejudices around prayer in school, gun rights, restricting abortion, and restricting gay rights.

XII.

By contrast, liberal or "progressive" groups and Democrats have spent the same period of time defining themselves against conservative values, even "morality" in general.

XIII.

If resources continue to flow to the same leaders who have failed to construct a new vision and have thus left the Democratic Party in ruins then we can expect more of the same. And worse.

XIV.

Those who resist the process to create a new vision will be left behind.

XV.

Candidates who intend to win should no longer hire consultants who repeatedly lose. Those who counsel caution when dealing with the indifferent, the disaffected, and the undecided do not understand American history. Consultants who advise their clients against offering a clear and compelling vision in fear that it will be attacked should find themselves without a home in the Democratic Party. The sooner they retire, the better.

XVI.

Unconnected at a values level, the Democratic Party's laundry list of policy proposals is a confusing and alienating hodgepodge of special interests bound together by a vague sense that "we're all on the same side." Such a conflation demands no critical self-examination of the interest groups whose turf, and very identities, are treated as inviolable by Party chieftains.

XVII.

The progressive vision must be a direct challenge to fundamentalism in all of its forms: political, religious and economic. It must match fundamentalism's power without replicating its authoritarianism. It must appeal to the values of liberty, equality, community, justice, unconditional love, shared prosperity, and ecological restoration, among many others.

XVIII.

Democrats serious about returning to majority status must:

o Retire any leader who believes that we are currently on a winning path that simply needs more money and effort.

o Define and articulate a coherent set of values of our base, and be willing to lose those allies who do not share these values.

o Fight battles, win or lose, that define and advance our values and expand our political base.


XIX.

In despair and defeat lie the seeds of triumph and victory. In that loss lies the opportunity to define a new progressive politics for the new century.

I'm glad I live in one of the most liberal parts of the USA, and I'm proud of my rep (Betty Mc) and Mark Dayton, (fuck abuncha Normies),
BUT I am very disappointed in the Democratic Campaign 2004, and the mushy, incoherent Platform for the Democratic Party.

I am also disturbed by the many Democrats who are saying that we (as a Party) need to become more Conservative. I absolutely disagree, and will join with those who wish to collectively express those views to the DNC/DLC.




Can I get an AMEN!!!

:toast:

I agree that we need a new approach and the best way is to start locally.

We lost because we let the Republicans set the rules for the game and followed along. We failed to show how progressives offer a needed alternative to neocon isolationism at home and imperialism abroad.

We should accept and take heart in the fact that we are not the masters of deception. Most of those who voted for Bush and other right wingers still believe Iraq was behind 9-11.

Will any of our reps be invited?

I believe we need to convene a meeting with them.

I would like to discuss with them their lack of interest and/or leadership in helping to investigate the election. Their mute response to this is absolutely unforgiveable.

One GLARING omission from your theses is the need to establish fair and free elections. If not, Democrats will continue to lose to Republicans by means of their continuing THEFT of our votes.

Democrats did not LOSE this election; it was STOLEN.

Democrats STILL have the MAJORITY of votes in this country. In Minnesota, we had election laws that helped to force one of the fairest elections in the country. We WON in large numbers. Do you consider this a FLUKE?

Even so, the election was still stolen here. Look at the results and you will see suspicious tallies in the 6th district, for example. The "more votes than voters" phenomenon that has been witnessed elsewhere in this country is present in several precincts that used optically scanned ballots that were centrally tabulated, whereas it is missing where paper ballots were used that were hand-counted.

As we know from our studies of the mechanisms of fraud in this election, and from Bev Harris's information as well as what Chuck Herrin has told us, it was quite easy to hack the central tabulators and shift the margin of victory to George Bush, or in the 6th district to Mark Kennedy instead of Patty Wetterling.

This should be our FIRST focus. The rest can follow.

And I can't help but notice that, like so many other issues, the Republicans are muddying the waters surrounding election fraud by taking an interest in the Ukraine election, and calling for election "integrity" -- in Ukraine. As if it isn't a problem here.

Sweep it under the rug and maybe no one will notice.

Perhaps giving her a call is a good next step?

...but I don't know for sure. I'm probably going to this-- it's only 1/4 mile from work for me. Plus, there's a meeting of the MN Progressive Caucus at 7:00 PM right across the river in Lowertown, where they'll be discussing the DNC Listening Tour coming to MN!

</plug>

the 4:30 door thing and the 7 p.m. meeting, which would you recommend?

Seriously! I can't do both.:)

Thankfully, I don't have much of a life, so I'm going to both. In case you can make the MN PC meeting, visit www.progressivecaucus.net for full details (they're on the front page).

If you like crowds and demonstrations, go to the 4:30 rally. If you want to help organize for a progressive future in MN and the DFL, then go to the 7:00 meeting.

:hi:

Nice work on that webpage!

DPB

I've got some other improvements I'm working on, too, so keep watching...

I'm sorry I missed the meeting last night-- I'm having some difficulty with my meds, and my whole afternoon was toasted. But things are a bit better today, so we'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Thanks again for the compliment! :hi:

I really like XIV (heheheh) I'll certainly be with you in spirit.

#XIV. Those who resist the process to create a new vision will be left behind.

Unfortunately, I'm behind on a job, so no running over to St. Paul for me. :-(

I'm really bummed that I missed it but my daughter brought home about a dozen math and science worksheets.

It's the school's fault, as usual. :-)

Didn'tya get th' memo?

:-)