It’s good to see that Democrats can be just as in denial as Republicans. Seriously, Democrats are more civil? They practically invented making politics personal. It’s dripping all over this thread. “Republicans are bad people, and therefore we should tell voters that they are bad people.” Okay, like that’s never been tried before.
The real issue is that the Democrats’ dysfunctional governing model has barred them from office everywhere except the big cities and states where the big cities are a dominant part of the political culture. The only reason they haven’t died out at the federal level is becuase the Republicans have an achilles heel: they haven’t yet figured out how to govern at the federal level. All they need is one good Presidency and the Democrats are finished for a generation. Unless of course Democrats figure out how to finance their ambitions with money actually available, rather than promising people today money which won’t be there tomorrow.
We need the DNC to realize that the other side isn’t playing for funsies, they’re playing for keepsies. There is no tactic that the Republicans will not stoop to in their quest for perpetual unchallenged power. That means play the full court press for the entire game. There should be a permanent registration drive. Send people out in the neighborhoods with lists of registered voters, ask each and every resident if they’re registered to vote. If they say yes, verify it with the list in hand. If they think they’re registered and they aren’t, sign them up. If they aren’t registered, sign them up. And follow up, get another list of voters and make damn sure they’re on it. In states with new requirements for photo ID or whatever, get proactive and help these people get their IDs. If they don’t have their birth certificates, help them get it. Get some funding to pay for them, tap people like Michael Moore and George Soros for some cash for the effort. Have the pastors tell their flocks NOW, not just before the election, to get off their asses and make sure they’re registered to vote and get the proper ID. Organize bus trips to get people to the right place to get their IDs, badger officials to get mobile offices to the inner cities to help. In states purging voters, get a copy of the list and check with each and every person on it to make damn sure they shouldn’t be voting. If they’re on the list by mistake, raise holy hell, get the media involved, file lawsuits.
Next thing is to start to put money into the state legislature races. Get the right people to run and put some money in the campaign, especially in years that end in zero. Get the presidential candidate to endorse the local candidates at every stop. And every damn time the districts are redrawn, fight like hell. Every single congressional district boundaries must be fought for tooth and nail. Demand in advance to see how the voting machines are distributed, and if it looks like Democratic precints are going to have insanely long lines, fight like hell BEFORE the election. If there is early voting, get shitloads of buses to transport people to the polls and vote early. Put out PSAs in every state to remind people that EVERYBODY votes on the Tuesday, to counter the Republican tactic of putting up flyers stating that Democrats are to vote on Wednesday.
Do all this stuff, and we can take back the House. Once we have the majority in the House, 60 Senate seats, and a Democratic president, then get shit done.
That’s the strategy you employed last time. It’s ‘getting shit done’ that has caused Democrats to lose unified control after only two years twice in a row. And they didn’t lose by a little bit, either. Historical repudiations.
A better strategy would be to figure out how to align Democratic policy ambitions with economic reality. They showed signs of doing that during the Clinton years, but have since abandoned fiscal responsibility, and they never practiced fiscal responsibility at the state and local level.
And there’s one tactic the GOP doesn’t stoop too: trying to get people dependent on their patronage. Democrats expect votes in exchange for the money they shower on their constituencies, and can barely conceal their hate when someone dares to take their money and not vote for them.
Exactly which party was it that took record budget surpluses and decided to go on a spending spree with two unnecessary wars and gave out a tax cut aimed at enriching the rich?
I just don’t think this is the case. For example, where I live happens to be generally Democratic party controlled, and has been for a long time. We have one of the wealthiest, most educated populations around, and there is a moratorium on fracking to boot. If the GOP were to take control, surely they’d fuck it up and make it as much like Mississippi as possible.
Not sure what facts you are basing your opinions on, adaher. I was just commenting on this phenomenon with my gf while listening to some political radio shows the other day- the conservatives call in and have very similar, almost scripted rants, but they never say why, specifically, the things they assert are true. Sometimes they’ll make a reference to some youtube video you should watch to explain it all, but overall their positions come across more like a religion than a clear look at issues and their solutions. I’m not sure how to get through to people like that.
I’d say play a long game, push for education and wait for people to grow up to be people who can put 2 and 2 together. I know, education funding is for socialists, and those elitist teachers wrestled control of the economy from Wall Street and drove it into a ditch and are now thumbing their noses at us all as they ride high on their massive salaries and outsized benefits packages :rolleyes:
Gotta stick to the issues, explain the numbers behind income inequality, falling wages and a rigged system as clearly as possible…
According to the GOP, taxation is destroying this country, along with teh gays.
Medical bills, I don’t have a number, just anecdotes.
It’s a serious problem and we need to do something about our antiquated health care system.
What, exactly, needs to be done is a whole other discussion- but the status quo isn’t working for anybody except insurance companies.
The Americans who vote for the tax cuts do not seem to grasp that any benefit they receive is chump change. They don’t understand that they are chumps. They can pay a little more in taxes, and pay a lot less in medical bills – and have the Freedom from bankruptcy caused by illness or accident. But most of them are not paying medical bills now. They won’t know their mistake until their insurance company’s Death Panel decides not to cover them. A tax cut is ‘immediate’.
Americans want instant gratification, and planning for the future is hard. Try to explain to a three-year-old why he can’t have that toy he wants. He’s not going to understand that you don’t have the money. He’s not going to understand that if you spend money on the toy, then you won’t have the money to pay for his dentist visit. All he knows is that you’re being mean to him and not giving him what he wants.
This is what the Democratic Party is up against; people who don’t understand how a community works, and don’t want to learn. And the Democratic Party missed an excellent opportunity to gain some good publicity when the President did approve tax cuts, but didn’t ensure people knew the Democrats were behind the extra money in their pay checks. (Oh, but they did howl when the tax cut expired!)
Hah, what a riot, you are even denying what I posted before, here is a hint:
The ones you are carrying water for even abused moderate Republicans and you want to deny even that evidence? When even you do not agree with the denial of science and stupidity they show that shoots them down in elections **you still **want to pass on their denying leaflets in election day? Do tell.
It’s more than that, apparently they don’t want to, not any more. Consciously or unconsciously, they appear to have internalized the “Drown it in a bathtub” meme.
Many hands make light work. The Obama campaigns were models of getting the word out and getting boots on the ground. I’m just saying this must be a continuous operation and not limited to election years. Get one Democratic-leaning star to put on a fundraising concert, use the proceeds to hire some full time organization types who know how to get volunteers going. Use PAC money for voter registration drives in the purple states. Put more money into local elections and less into the big name races.
Actually…that’s a pretty good idea. Some rural districts could be in play if a Dem candidate got some money/support beyond whatever he’s able to generate on his own. I see plenty of local elections that are not seriously contested. The incumbents are vulnerable to an unexpected, well organized campaign. That strategy worked for a friend of mine, who was the first Dem elected to a certain local office in 30 years. My friend faced a late smear campaign from the State-level GoP, but it was too little, too late.