All experts agree, even the experts on this blog agree, the major problem Democrats face is trying to appeal to too many constituencies. Picking a platform that appeals to all risks being considered as pandering. Picking one that is too narrow risks leaving out groups that can swing an election one way or another.
How about this challenge? We don’t care who you vote for, just vote. At a 60% participation rate among possible voters the US stands at one of the lowest rates in democratic societies. If the Dems simply do everything possible to get out the vote, they probably would win and they could frame ingthe effort as one of patriotism. It would scare the hell out of all politiciansm, but would especially hurt the ‘publicans. It is something that everyone, no matter their political persuasion, would agree improves our political system.
I think it’s a brilliant idea. What do you think?
It sounds right. And it would be an amazing coup if the Dems could steal back the word “patriotism”.
Supposedly, the agrument against democrats is that they can’t come to a consensus over what do with Iraq. I think it would be enough for them to unite around a detailed, well planned, time frame to pull troops while leaving behind air power. Give it a cool name like “operation: at least we got a plan mother fucker!”
And for God’s sake, they need to hammer into to the country that it was republicans who got us into this total shit show and lied at every turn.
The republicans want more than anything to say, “look, we’re here and mistakes made are in the past.” Do not let them get away with that nonsense. They drugged us, brought us to the middle of the woods and now they need us to get them back home.
I know, the dems are being defeated b/c they are acting defeated. Fuck that shit. Standing up for humanity and equality no matter the sacrifice is never shameful. I am proud to be a leftie who finds no need to kill what I don’t understand, who wants to leave the environment better than I found and feels economic balance is a sensible, obtainable that hurts no one and helps everyone.
Fuck this shame! It is not mine.
The divide is clear and the Repubs do great PR on the topic but this divide we speak so often about is perpetuated not only by the left themselves but also the media. The divide works in favor of the Right as they can exploit and manipulate on many levels making voters feel helpless. A clear plan for pull out is needed by the left, a clear stance on a woman’s right to choose is needed, more investigation of voting fraud is needed, and a mass campaign focusing on the misdeeds of those in power is also needed by a united front. The Right may have mobilized the Evangelicals but I believe they do not out number moderates. The Dems need to pull it together and fight back with unity.
Speaking of evangelicals…
Anyhow, I’m actually a non-voter… at least when it comes to candidates. I’ll vote on specific issues, but I’m not a big fan of voting for a president, since I think that our current form of representative democracy is kind of a joke anyway. Give me campaign reform, and you’ll get me to vote. Without it, corporations will still rule America, and I’m just not interested in playing along.
Besides… I don’t want a democrat in office. I want to live in an automous collective.
To mama-feminista: let’s stop perpetuating the divide. Sure, there are many who cannot see getting along with anyone whow is not lefty, but not all lefty ideas and attitudes are radical ones; they are ones with a little thought can be adapted to work for everyone. Failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and antiquated energy policies affect all of us. I understand the need to unite behind our causes, but our eys must also grasp the larger picture. Let’s start by empowering voters instead of making them feel helpless.
Just because someone picks a fight with you, doesn’t mean you need to accept their challenge.
I wonder how many of us identify with the “left” because the right has done such a damn good job of proclaiming itself the new “center”
I wonder how much the left has lost because it disdains the center.
from my seat just left of center??
a lot.
a whole lot.
and the right has picked up on those losses by, as mentioned in a previous post, re-framing the issues
for example:
the party that unquestioningly supports the death penalty and jumps into war like a pick-up game of basketball, gets to bill itself as “pro-life” because they speak to the average person’s squeamishness at the thought of teminating a pregnancy for reasons other than medical necessity –
and have found a way to short-circuit the natural compassion that most of us would have for an individual woman who finds herself facing such a decision
And the answer for the left, is not to claim that it doesn’t matter whether or not a zygote, or an embryo, or a fetus is a person.
To most people in the middle, it matters a lot.
The left(particularly the pro-choice left) needs to speak to that concern.
we need to speak to the concerns of those who advocate parental notification because they want to protect their daughters in the event they are seeking a risky medical procedure (or facing a risky pregnancy)
we need to explain that stem cell research could SAVE lives.
we need to explain to the middle how access to abortion for a starving pregnant woman in an impoverished country could mean the difference between life and death for her and her existing children.
just a few thoughts….
we also need to show, prove, illustrate how by selling us into an ill-concieved, poorly thought-out, extremely costly war in Iraq has made our country LESS secure, not more.
and how our addiction to fossil fuels, fast food, and cheap, practically disposable consumer goods is harming our economy