Reply #22: I don't think it is purely a left or right issue

[grantcart]

The Party needs to first make its message more understandable.

I made the point yesterday:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/grantcart/326

In reality I don't think that ideological here is as signifant a divide at DU as the question of strategy and messaging. I don't think that Grayson's method (although I personally like him) is going to be effective. Getting angrier and more confrontational makes us feel good but it isn't going to persuade many independents. If they liked that approach they wouldn't be independents, they would be Democrats.

I think that we should, for example, push for single payer but we have to take it out of the policy level and make people understand it and how it affects them in their real life. The problem then becomes if you haven't done that and you get to the legislative level you have to make more compromises to get things passed, especially with a Senate that requires a super super majority.

You are correct in that I am not emotionally tied to an ideological response - I am only tied to the best practical response. In most cases the classical liberal reform, or some derivative of it, is the most practical answer and in many cases has already been proven in more liberal European countries. My own personal preference, for example is that every handgun and rifle in the US would be confiscated and that hunting rifles would be kept at hunting lodges and that police would no longer need to carry a gun in every situation. I concede however that is completely unrealistic and that we should not fight that battle, we aren't going to win and its going to endanger our entire agenda, so in that case I do believe that we need to move to the right rather than the left.

It just depends on the issue - on the second ammendment go to the right, on immigration and health care go to the left; in all cases get better messaging on how it affects normal people in everyday life.