What`s the first step you`d take if you managed our party?

[democrank]

It would be interesting to sit in on a session with our party`s brainstormers. I wonder if ideas flow freely or if participants feel restrained by focus group results or perceived norms? Are there honest exchanges or are opinions and suggestions tempered, based on some conception of moderation?

One of the first things I`d do is take several giant steps "outside the box" and gather an informed, creative, courageous group of spokespeople whose sole function would be to counteract Rove`s smear machine and mainstream media`s constant echoing of White House talking points. They`d monitor blogs, print media, cable news and political talk shows. Responses would be guided by one rule: PLAIN TRUTH IN PLAIN ENGLISH. No worn out rhetoric, no useless lip service, no standard party mouthpieces. A brand new crew of inspiring voices who aren`t afraid to tell it like it is....no matter what.

What would you do?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. That is a good idea

I would be exploring ways to get the word out that doesn't rely on the MSM. This would rely on grassroots efforts; I do believe an informed local Democratic group in every county is very important to counteract rw propaganda.

[populistdriven]

2. Organize an 8 hour march through the 9th ward with all the party leaders

Louisiana Republicans would be invited.

Next weekend would be same but from gulfport to biloxi

We have to show the people that we arn't like the Repukes.

We will go on the ground and meet people as a Party for the People

[DemInDistress]

3. Me, I would want a new "COMPLETE" investigation of the

SEPT.11 2OO1 attacks. Let the chips fall where they may both dems and repubs who had knowledge as well as all
who deliberately turned a blind eye need a lifetime in prison. I like to add more but I am on probation..

[FSogol]

4. Someone recently recommend having an off season

National Democratic Convention. I thought that was a great idea.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Funding of congressional candidates would be tied

to their voting record on key issues. Vote the wrong way and no damn money. Issues would be identified in advance. I've given up waiting for our congress critters to grow a spine: they obviously need a spinal transplant.

[Freddie Stubbs]

17. Who would decide which votes are wrong?

The party chairman? That sounds like a dictatorship.

[sybylla]

19. Nope, the grass roots activists who make up the party membership would

We already know what they think. It's called the party platform and resolutions. Candidates could be scored on conformance to the party platform, like other organizations score candidates on issues, and receive funding in accordance. Voting/Agreeing 100% with the party platform gets you a bigger share of money than if you only vote 80% and that would get you a larger share than if you voted 55% with the platform.

It's our party and it would be nice to see our money handed out accordingly.

The only caveat I would add is that scoring/grading candidates can work both ways. The GOPpies would probably make good hay off a candidate based on our perceptions of him. We don't need to give them any help.

[Warren Stupidity]

23. Exactly.

As it is our congress critters take the Democratic base for granted and vote according to their own desires, which mostly seem to have a lot to do with who funds their campaigns. The point is not to establish a dictatorship of the chairman (although I'd give Dean more power rather than less) but to make our congressional delegation more disciplined and responsive to what we Democrats want.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Organize a HUGE

initiative for low-tech balloting, including protests, boycotts, proposed legislation, everything I could think of.

[Warpy]

7. First, assemble a group of progressives, working stiffs, moderates

and even DLC types to hammer out a party platform. The one we have now doesn't do anything for anybody not in the upper middle class.

The second thing I'd do, once we knew what we were going to stand for, is work hard on getting that message out, and that means getting it out using people who aren't east coast, business suited yuppies who speak in "nuances."

The third thing I'd do is find a way to muzzle the DINOs who try to cut the party off at the knees at every opportunity. Here I'd take a page from the GOP playbook and threaten to cut off party support for their reelection campaigns. It's harsh, I know, but something has to be done about them.

You can't present a platform that ignores your traditional party base and hope to win anything, even if you manage to get the message out in plain English. You can't tell people what your party stands for if the spokesmen favored by conservative broadcasting companies deny it at every opportunity, making people think the party doesn't stand for anything.

Of course, if the party wants to continue to be shut out of power, it can just continue on with what it's been doing for the past few decades.

[Armstead]

22. Great idea -- Everyone shouold bhe heard and taken seriously

I would love to see a gathering all put together in one room, including some of the jaded old "moderate" Democrats like Dodd and Biden, and populist progressives like Kucinich and Cong. Defazio, centrist "new Dems' like Bayh and Clinton, traditional liberal firebrands like Teddy Kennedy. Then bring in a cross section section of the population, including middle class suburbanites, ethnic minorities, the poor and disadvantaged, white blue collar and union guys, latte liberals, entrepreneurs and business execs, etc.

Question Number One would be: Why aren't you a Republican? What do you believe in that makes you a Democrat?

Then have everyone wrangle to identify their common principles, and put together an agenda, message and specific goals to push the core principles and values they all have in common, and to deal with whatever differences they have.

No holds barred. Maybe lock the door until they can come out with a ciherent mission statement and agenda. :evilgrin:

[benburch]

8. Twist arms until "Limousine Liberals" would fund progressive media. nt

[hlthe2b]

9. Hire one of those "cult deprogrammers" for Carville,

followed by a priest to exorcise the Matalin demon and, when back to sanity, turn him loose on Rove.

Ditch most or all of the DLC'ers as well.

[hlthe2b]

15. Bring Soros, Gates, Turner, and all the progressive money bags...

big and small together to turn around the media as a multi-owner consortium. Bring the "old school journalists" back to oversee. Purchase Knight Ridder newspapers, CNN, and initiate major donor pressure on PBS and NPR for changes. Begin a major PR push to educate the public on the importance of a return to the "FAIRNESS DOCTRINE" as Federal media FCC policy...Push for legislation to limit single owner monopolies of mass media.

That would be a good beginning..

[Warren Stupidity]

21. Gates went Rethuglican bigtime last cycle.

[MadMaddie]

31. This is one of the most important tasks that need to be done...

We have no media presence at all...We need real news organizations to report the news accurately and dispel the propaganda....

This is where we are losing the battle!!

Great Thoughts!!!:hi:

[exlrrp]

10. Agree on an agenda!!

Thats why the Republicans beat us--they have their agenda tightly in place and go for it. Even when they disagree, they keep it internal, their votes always going the same way. On some isssues they allow their memebers to disagree and vote different when it doesn't matter for window dressing but they always have enough votes to win from their side
We need that unity bigtime and its not going to happen with people like Lieberman, Pelosi and Reid as our leaders. We need someone who can get others to adhere to an agenda--the Rove/Delay role. We need somee coordniation. The stick and carrot aapproach, the Cheney job. Central leadership would help a lot but its our tendency not to want this

[MadMaddie]

32. Simplify the Agenda issues

The repugs have taken issues like gay rights, civil rights, womens rights and we have let them define the message as special rights.

We should approach the issues and agenda not as a special rights....agenda but as an "Every tax paying American must have equal rights and fairness to manage their (bodies, their privacy, their personal lives in the bedroom etc)".

Every American school child should be able to go to school and not worry that they are going to be put in the hospital because they are different.

No one should have to worry about losing their job because of what they do in their private lives.(Not talking about criminal activities.)

Every American should be guaranteed marriage/civil union access to benefits and tax deductions.

Dems, "Country over Party"!! All Americans must have the opportunity to succeed in life, liberty and freedom of persecution!!

[Sammy Pepys]

11. Fire everyone n/t

...

[KurtNYC]

12. Do a segmentation study

to find out what it takes to put together a majority party (again). In other words, we need to find the key issues that get us >60% of the voting public. Many voters have one or two issues that have attached them to the party they registered as: abortion, national security, tax cuts, etc. We stake out the positions that 60% of voters agree with and then hammer the opposition on the issues where we can peel away the most people.

Domestic spying and the UAE ports takeover have huge potential to turn GOP-voters off to the actions of their own party. Bill Frist knows it.

[INdemo]

13. I have been a Democrat all my life and

unless the Democrat's speak up and are not afraid to tell it like it is and stand by their statements,then I for one would certainly back a third party that would. Coming from a lifelong "Die Hard" Democrat like me ...this is serious.

[Peace Patriot]

14. I would focus all resources, all time, all attention, all volunteers, all

public officials, all public relations, and every weapon in my arsenal on...

...THROWING DIEBOLD AND ES&S ELECTION THEFT MACHINES INTO 'BOSTON HARBOR'!

NOTHING is more important to our democracy--or to our party--than getting rid of these Bush-friendly voting machines.

[Peace Patriot]

16. Some election reform resources:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.UScountvotes.org (monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (Four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

[lslaux]

18. This is the ONLY ISSUE of importance!

Inform the public of what's been going on in the 2000, 2002 and 2004 elections. Make speeches about it in the House and Senate. The public has got to be awakened.
Make paper ballots the Democratic Party platform. After the electronic machines are disposed of, This party will win all elections that were stolen in the past. We will take over the presidency, and the Congress.

[calimary]

25. I'd do it more stealthily. I'd organize the big money people in our party

and arrange a shell company or other third-party "independent" entity that goes through Wall Street and buys Diebold and ES&S in either a friendly takeover or a hostile one. I would make it a top priority to make sure those companies were in safe and sympathetic hands (read: NO republi-CONS!).

THEN: I'd declare the DLC PERMANENTLY Out Of Business. Along with their Vichy appeaser thinking. I'd send all the let's-make-nice people into retirement with a nice fruit basket and change the locks after they're gone, posting a large "No Neville Chamberlains Allowed" and "Collaborators Not Welcome" sign on the front door.


I'd hire George Lakoff to run a new communications arm of the DNC, and then strategize a whole new round-the-clock, year-round public relations offensive to keep the heat on the bad guys - while calling them exactly what they are: BAD GUYS. I'd launch an aggressive campaign, a la newt gingrich, with a book of phrases and code words that were negative to describe all things republi-CON and conservative, and positive to describe all things liberal and progressive and Democratic. I would require that this list be memorized, and updated frequently. I'd initiate a rapid-response team to answer back ANYTHING and ANYONE in the media who makes adverse statements. I'd deploy strike force teams to EVERY major media outlet, including moles I'd assign to get hired in and then keep us posted about guest/panel lineups - so we could respond and FORCE our way onto these things - to get our message out there. NO MORE of these damned talking head shows where you have four people at teh table, two of them conservative writers/think-tankers, one a republi-CON elected official, and then maybe the flaccid Donna "Yawn" Brazile holding up the lone liberal slot! I would further educate EVERYBODY in my organization who might make a media appearance on how to interrupt and outshout whichever opponent they're placed against - AND instructions on flat-out CALLING THEM ON THEIR RUDENESS. Because that's what it IS - RUDENESS.

I'd empower people like John Conyers to have a parallel investigation, and parallel hearings, into articles of IMPEACHMENT, FULL investigations of the Valerie Plame fiasco, the 9/11 cover-up, the voting fraud, the NSA domestic spying scandal, and every other shitstorm these assholes have stirred up.

AND, I'd be on the money people constantly to buy up some big television network. Buy it up. Take it over. Any of 'em. Don't care which. I'd rather appropriate one that's already viable than try to build another one from scratch - which would take too long and be too expensive in the long run. One of those major media outlets MUST BELONG FIRMLY TO US, every bit as much as Pox "news" belongs to the GOP. In fact, if I had enough money, I'd start working directly on the Rupert Murdoch empire - to take it apart, piece by piece. I've always had this dream - albeit an impossible one - to do well enough myself (yeah, I WISH) so that I could buy controlling interest in News Corp. Once I became the majority stockholder, I'd force ol' Rupert into retirement, and little by little, viewers and readers would start noticing changes in Pox "news" and the "New York Post" and other such entities... suddenly they just wouldn't be so stridently conservative anymore, and you just wouldn't be seeing people like ann coulter and bill kristol and bill bennett and all those "nice" folks on the air all the time anymore. And I'd buy out the contracts of people like the-guy-whose-name-rhymes-with-VANITY, o'reilly, neil cavuto, that HIDEOUS e.d. hill in the morning, and others who are preaching an anti-liberal/Democratic message and then let them sit on the beach for a few years. See, perhaps we could negotiate a new, binding, non-compete contract for each of these lovely people, and pay them nicely, and then lay them off straight away so they're stuck. The no-compete clause means they couldn't work anywhere else for quite some time, so their ability to infect the national psyche would be stunted at least for awhile. They'd still be paid. VERY nicely. They'd have plenty to live on while they're all on "hiatus," but their voices would be cut off for awhile - long enough for us to gain back more ground. In other words, YES. I'D FIGHT DIRTY. AND RUTHLESSLY. One of the first things you do in wartime is go after your enemy's lines of communication. The sooner you render them blind, or deaf, or mute, (or a combination of these) the closer you are to eliminating them as a problem. Another tasty prospective target - ClearChannel Communications. Maybe an ADDITIONAL tasty prospective target, I should say, 'cause I'd like to see this takeover occur on radio as well as on television/cable.

I'd also empower and fundraise for a multitude of liberal think-tanks to generate experts, white papers, research and polling entities to form a strong infrastructure on which to built liberal supremacy for the next several decades. No more of this bottom-of-the-barrel pickings from the Brookings Institution, and people like the pathetic Michael O'Hanlon who believes it's more important to just agree with one's opponents all the time rather than making an independent stand or calling those opponents on their bullshit, because heaven forbid we portray ourselves as combative and unwilling to play along... :grr: NONE OF THAT. NO MORE. It's "FIGHTIN' DEMS" FROM HERE ON OUT. How will our potential converts ever have confidence in knowing where we stand, if we don't stand for anything??? I'd make sure our mantra was along the lines of "we're an OPPOSITION PARTY, and we're DAMNED PROUD OF IT. We believe in different things and we do things differently. And YOU have a CLEAR CHOICE here. There IS ANOTHER OPTION. There IS A DIFFERENT (okay, BETTER) WAY.

This is WAR, folks. If I were running the party, I'd treat it that way.

[fknobbit]

20. Your right ...

"spokespeople whose sole function would be to counteract Rove`s smear machine and mainstream media`s constant echoing of White House talking points. They`d monitor blogs, print media, cable news and political talk shows".

Not only monitor but inundate All the above. I suppose it's financial but the republicans are eons ahead of the Dems as far as hired shills in all. From time to time (during buisness hours), on the INTERNET, you run across a freeper who is coherent and you have to suspect him/her of being a plant, this is apparent in the military boards I visit. The dems have pretty well ignored the internet.......A huge mistake.

[tibbiit]

24. My first Edict would be

NEVER APOLOGIZE... NEVER!
tib

[SOS]

26. Unilateral ban on corporate and PAC contributions

Let the Republicans represent Pfizer and Exxon.
At least for the 2008 Presidential election.
60 million Kerry voters at $10 each = $600 million.
Enough to run a national campaign without our message being hamstrung.

[grasswire]

27. go after the 90 million non-voters

I'd make them the priority instead of trying to "tack to the center" to pick up cultural conservatives.

Nearly 90 million non-voters, untapped.

What would make them vote? The old-time Democratic values. I'd turn the party back to populism -- not just with lip service, but with a public education campaign educating Americans about the battles Democrats have won for them that improved their daily lives.

The Democratic Party has the moral high ground. It has the issues people truly do favor.

[Totally Committed]

28. This is just me....

and, I make no apologies about it: I'd outlaw the DLC. I'd tell them to dissolve and disband, and there are some I'd outright banish. It would be a purge of sorts, but it's only whay I WOULD DO.

Al From would be gone.
Joe Leiberman would be gone.
Zell Miller would be gone.
... and so would a host of others.

I would also get the entire Party on ONE UNIFIED MESSAGE and banish the messangers who had screwed up the message so badly as of late. A number of people would not be allowed to speak FOR the Party on talk-shows.

You'd never see Biden opining away on his own on the Sunday-morning talkers unless he spouted the Party line, and nothing BUT the Party line.

Same for Donna Brazile.
Same for James Carville.
Same for Paul Begala.
Same for Jane Harmon.
Same for Susan Estrich.
Same for DiFi.
... and same for a host of others.

Every elected Democrat who remained would be taught "framing" by George Lakoff, personally. They and their speechwriters would be required to attend these "framing workshops". They would also have to agree to tout a UNIFIED Democratic Party message.

And, finally, I would have a "come to Jesus moment" with Hillary Clinton, and tell her there ain't no way in hell the Democratic Party would even consider running her for POTUS in 2008. And, she would be asked to sit it out for the good of the Party because she cannot possibly win.

TC

[SaveElmer]

30. I know it's just you...but that sound s more like the Communist Party...

Than the Democratic Party...

Enforced idealogy and purges?

[Donna Zen]

33. Check...check...check

I agree with you TC. Although let me temper the DLC message. They have a right to form their own party, my problem is that they've done it within the Democratic party. If the DLC wants to be a third party that's their business, but at least leave the people of this country one party that we can hope to represent our interests over the international corporations.

That seems fair. If you want a DLC, that's your business, just quit hiding inside our cloak room. Actually, I think that solves many of the other problems as well. Maybe then we can write a platform that can really offer Americans an alternative since we would no longer be covering their voting records.

[LiberalEsto]

29. I'd challenge the 2000 and 2004 elections

I'd assemble the best legal and research teams possible and file suit against the state of Florida, the state of Ohio, the Rethug party, and B*sh to overturn one or both of these elections.

And sue for damages to the Democratic Party and the American people.