I think we need some different words to describe our place in the Party.

[Cleita]

I think we need to describe ourselves by the type of Democrat we most resemble. Instead of Third Way/DLC, liberal, social Democrat, Blue Dog, radical and so on. How about an FDR Democrat (that would be me), or a Wellstone Democrat, or an LBJ Democrat or a Clinton Democrat (Third Way), a Kennedy Democrat and many others?

It would put a finer point on what we actually believe to associate ourselves with the name of a famous Democrat whom we most closely identify with. It takes away much of the vitriol that can be heaped by Fox News and RW media on our labels.

For instance, I label myself as a liberal and I get all the usual Ann Coulter type diatribe about liberals flung at me. When I try to say that we want clean water, air and food for our children and good paying jobs they already have the Heritage Foundation lies and half truths at the ready. But if I say I'm an FDR Democrat, he's the guy who ended The Great Depression, brought us Social Security and ushered in a period of economic boom that Truman would expand on after the war. They are pretty quiet then.

What are your thoughts?

[cascadiance]

1. We just have to be careful when we identify with another individual than hopefully a philosophy...

I do think that if we can identify with a person, then that gets heard more than just saying we're a "Progressive Democrat", where being "progressive" is nebulous, when even Third Way tries to call themselves "progressive" despite not really being so according to most of our definitions.

The problem with even FDR, much as I love him for most of what he did for us, I wouldn't want someone to try to falsely say that we support internment camps for asians, or that we support LBJ's "Gulf of Tonkin" decisions if we are a LBJ Democrat. We need to make sure to find someone that doesn't have those holes, or find a way to make it clear that we have those exceptions of where we might do things differently, and to emphasize heavily with talks on issues that we support people like FDR or LBJ for as well. That's the problem when we have a corporate media that tries to masquerade itself as the "liberal media" aligned against us these days.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. I'm a Democrat who votes for/against policies & prinicples. Not politians or brand.

"Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man." --Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, 1795.

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." John Quincy Adams

[cascadiance]

4. I think most of us feel that way too!

It's just hard to come up with simple monikers for us that will be heard that we can rally behind.

I think that's what Cleita's looking for here. It's an interesting dilemma that is more of a problem since the other side that works against us heavily owns the corporate media and the avenue to be heard so much.

[Cleita]

9. The words have become meaningless. James Carville says he's a liberal.

He's not. Many Republican Lites in our Party call themselves liberals. I'm thinking we need more narrow and precise so we really know who stands for what. It doesn't have to be identifying by personality. It could be another way. I'm hoping people will come up with suggestions.

[cascadiance]

15. So right! And those who believe Carville is a "liberal" should watch "Our Brand is Crisis" on DVD..

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/movies/26fore.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

It is a documentary on how Carville lead his "Democratic Party" gang down to Bolivia to try and shut down Evo Morales from being elected as leader in Bolivia. Many of us progressives of course look at someone like Morales as the kind of leader we'd like to see more of the world have that stands for progressive leadership of his people the way we should have it here too!

Don't confuse this older title with a newer Sandra Bullock movie by the same name, that perhaps is named that way to keep us from looking back at that older title that arguably "embarrasses" the corporate Dems a bit much.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/12/sandra-bullock-blonde_n_6144780.html

[Cleita]

6. FDR also led us into WWII and I'm very anti-war unless every

diplomatic option has been exhausted. As far as the internment camps, I had a Japanese American acquaintance who had been interned with his family when he was a child. This was not a proud moment for America. But I'm not identifying with the negatives or the actions resulting from them but the positives achieved by his underlying philosophy of true social democracy.

[cascadiance]

10. Oh certainly FDR's great deeds immensely dwarf these problem areas.

I just want to make sure we have a way of insuring that the corporate media doesn't try to use those issues to warp us, the way we are warped in to "corner" positions on so many other issues that Corporatist America wants to shut our voices down for.

I'm with you completely, but have just been a bit war weary of all of the fights even within our party on how to defend folks like Elizabeth Warren who gets "Native American" and "ex-Republican" attacked, even though the lion's share of what she's about is what America wants and needs right now! I'm interested in others' ways of dealing with these kinds of distractions that keep being pushed on to us.

[Cleita]

12. I love Elizabeth.

I pray all the time that she will be our first woman President and how appropriate for her being the first Native American too.

[JaneyVee]

2. I wear Liberalism as a badge of honor.

[msanthrope]

5. Me too. I have no problem with using th word 'liberal' to describe my political leanings. nt

[Cleita]

7. Apparently you identify with Bernie Sanders who self-identifies as a

social democrat, not a liberal. which is it?

[JaneyVee]

8. I'm socially liberal, fiscally progressive.

[LeftInTX]

11. I support the New Deal, Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Act

FDR got much of his support from the Southern Democrats - Dixicrats. These guys were really bad and much worse than Blue Dogs or Third Way.

As you know, LBJ did not court the Southern Democrats and they purged themselves in 1968.

In a nutshell, in order to win support for his programs, FDR had to embrace some nasty negative elements. LBJ pissed them off.

I don't identify with any specific politician.

[Cleita]

13. Then you would be an LBJ Democrat?

[LeftInTX]

20. I didn't support the Vietnam War

I also feel that LBJ overextended himself. He passed alot of programs, which he couldn't quite finance. Money for those programs got funneled into the Vietnam War. He was larger than life and very aggressive about passing legislation. I think Kennedy would have been better and more realistic. On the other hand I fully support the Civil Rights Act, The Voting Rights Act and Medicare.

I think we could have kept a better Democratic base if some of the Great Society programs had been passed at a slower pace. OTOH, they may have never been passed at all if LBJ hadn't passed them. History is what it is.

[Cleita]

22. I didn't support WWII or the Japanese internment but I still

find my ideology still lies with FDR's socialism.

[sadoldgirl]

14. I don't think that we can get away

anymore with avoiding the word socialism. Thus I always will call myself

a green socialist democrat, no matter what people might say.

[LanternWaste]

16. Me? I'm just a Democrat.

I'm in agreement with the Democratic party platform (which is why I'm a Democrat). Many call me a socialist. Some call me a communist, others call me an authoritarian, still others call me a fascist.

Me? I'm just a Democrat. Plan on staying that way, regardless of revisions made to the labels. I do branding for a living... not as a conviction.

[jwirr]

17. Deep down I have always thought of myself as an FDR Democrat but I also loved Wellstone. These

names do have a better reputation than some of the stuff we call ourselves.

[cascadiance]

18. And Wellstone also draws in the notion that there could be unknown forces aligned against us...

... given his suspicious passing in the plane crash, which was mirrored in other situations, like the death of subpoenaed Republican internet strategist Michael Connell in a small plane crash during the investigation of Ohio's election shenanigans, and the recent death of the Libertarian candidate in the Bruce Braley/Joni Ernst race in Iowa just a short time ago this election in a small plane crash too. There's probably a mythos being developed then around these small plane crashes that perhaps sends a message that strong unknown forces are aligned against us, which identifying with Wellstone could put forth.

[Cleita]

23. Subversive ones at least.

There seems to be two M/Os today for what might be suspicious political assassinations. The airplane crash is one and the suicide by jumping off of high buildings the other. Being poisoned or shot is so yesterday.

[hobbit709]

19. pee-ons

[Cleita]

24. Well traditionally, the Democratic Party was supposed to be the party

of the working class and labor unions. Where did all those muti-millionaires come from?

[Jamastiene]

21. You say tomato, I say tomato.

It doesn't change the fact that the party of today is NOTHING like the party was when it was worth a damn.

Plus, I doubt the Third Way bunch will want the Clinton label. I'm pretty sure they overwhelmingly would prefer to be called Obama Democrats, and all the other names they give themselves to try to make themselves appear to be "above" or "better than" the rest of us who are liberal.

[Cleita]

25. I hear you.

*sigh*

[notrightatall]

26. How about "The Trod upon"

[Basic LA]

27. FDR Dem here.

We may spin off in many directions, that's our nature, but FDR defined our party. It's the party of a strong social safety net for the nation of employees that we are: Employee Nation.