The problem with the message from the Democratic Party: there is no messsage. In all the debate about the bankruptcy bill, the environment, economy, medical care, foreign policy, the military, and the war, it’s always the “Democratic response is….”.
WTF is up with that? I thought we had answers.
Last night I watched the democratic leadership gathered around a microphone in D.C. trying to explain the takeover of Congress by the Republican majority. Complex and confusing. And take a look at Pelosi’s press release on the issue titled: Republicans’ Abuse of Power Undermines Ethics and Shuts Out Democracy. Can I get more words please? How about just: Republicans’ Abuse of Power? Short and to the point. Like the Republican response: Aw hell, it’s just those pesky whining Democrats. They don’t have a plan for anything.
And that’s how it finished, with Brian Williams restating the they said/they said. Great. Way to get the message across.
Message to Pelosi in her own language:
Dear Nancy: The title and your gazillion word press release have not sated my desire for yet more in-depth discussion of the relative merits of the differing viewpoints of the two prevailing parties in the lower House in our system of constitutional dictates which define how our elected representatives carry on their duties as elected representatives generating laws on behalf of the long-suffering American people.
In my language: Give me the summary. If I need more information I’ll ask for it.
Must be something I ate. Or too much coffee man. What happened to the clear and direct statements we had during the election? Did every solution presented simply vanish? Brain-fade on a national scale? Screw it, Kerry lost, hit delete.
Reorganizing is like remodeling, you tear out the bad parts, and rebuild the structure to be better than it was. But you don’t tear the whole thing down. So where are those good parts? Do we have to jettison every solution forty-nine million people voted for? Sure looks like it from here.
Hunter Thompson was right: when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. I’m feeling the need for the Democratic Party to get a little weird this morning. </rant>
I with you on succint press releases.
But the greater problem is that none of our solutions will be considered.
We can draft the amendments, and the bills, but they generally won’t pass, or even be brought to a vote.
It’s defense all the way, and collaborators will be punished.
The GOP did this when they gave us Rice, Goss, Chertoff, Bolton, Gonzoles, and Negroponte.
Everyone of those people should be in jail, not being confirmed to higher office.
Agreed, but I think we must get pro-active. One thing about these guys is their regimented, tow-the-line approach. They don’t like surprises. Surprise them.
The incredible collection of people in the online community alone, have the “combined assets” to assist in coordinating and getting any message out. Members of congress are starting to realize that, but it’s a baby step when they need to run full steam.
[Democrats have the resources, they just have shitty allocation, and depend entirely too much on high-paid staff. If the party was a product, and their salaries based on “message penetration”, they’d be damn near broke. I wonder how many talented, dedicated people would jump at $30k/yr?]
on this one with you RBA. Having watched the Rove presentation on Frontline the other night, I think that we ‘dems’ should adopt some of his methods, leaving out of course his dirty tricks.
But (gulp) he has done a tremendous job of interconnecting all the elements of the Rep. party and sad to say we have not done the same on this side. He has been working on this inter connection since high school and has built it up continuously since then.
Yes we do need to take more significant action, an idea I have frequently advanced, but I suppose what we are waiting for is a leader who can unite all the Dem.web based sites. Finding the leader will be the hard part, I fear.