Okay. I just put you in charge of the Democratic Party. What do you do? Where do you start?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
immediately:
Taxes aren’t killing the “middle class.” It’s health care and stagnant wages, and the latter is heavily impacted by health care costs. It’s stealing from public education to support the out of control prison industrial complex. It’s a high school diploma that’s worth nothing in the employment market. To cite just a few factors.
though. Essentially this is a policy toward a guaranteed income.
While conceptually a guaranteed income has merit, practically, it’s a political loser. Minimum wage indexed for inflation works better. Better still would be the federal minimum wage is the floor for lowest cost of living areas of the country but include charts detailing what it should be in other areas and recommending that local and state governments implement a minimum wage appropriate for the cost of living in their area. Corporations have been doing this for decades for all positions. For example job XYZ pays $20,000 in say MS, same job pays $25,000 in other places, and $34,000 in the highest cost areas.
is better. The goal is to tie a 40 hour work seek to some sort of $ per hour metric. Doing it through the tax credit avoids increasing the marginal cost of labor.
So: 8$ an hour minimum wage+
tax credit with some $ figure that gets the value of the 8 dollar an hour job to some level like 15.
Why complicate it? It’s like those that have complicated methods to try to reduce carbon emissions. Just raise the freaking gasoline tax and increase low-cost public transportation.
Half this country is afraid that some lazabout is going to get a free ride. More than half are fine with increased an increased minimum wage.
at some point the minimum wage does kill jobs. Not at 10 an hour, but at 15 probably.
So, the 1968 federal minimum wage of $1.60 (adjusted for inflation, equal to $11-12 today) is what killed jobs in AL, MS, etc? “They” always say it will, but have yet to prove it.
If we want to subsidize local, independent employers for a short period of time to adjust to minimum wage increases to get them to a break-even point that would be fine. And the government paperwork would be minimal. National employers — no way. We don’t need Wal-Mart multi-billonaires.
was a completely different world. Globalization is now much more of a consideration than it was.
You’ll kills some jobs in the short term, but get them back as other entrepeneurs fill the gap.
There are well known retailers that survive on a higher wage model. It’s more of a choice that opponents like anyone to think.
I agree. Also we can’t keep cutting taxes and expect to increase the social safety net indefinitely. Rather increase the min wage to say 15 and tax a little more.
It’s not that lower income people don’t pay taxes. They do, but they are in the form that leaves them with the correct feeling that they don’t have a say in how public dollars are spent. Strategically, it was a great move by the elites to shift away from income taxes on low wage earners and hit them with increased flat (regressive) taxes like Social Security, Medicare Part A, sales taxes and use taxes. Voting doesn’t get them more or better goods and services or reduce their tax burden. Most aren’t even all that aware of their tax burden.
Back in the late eighties when Prop 13 came along — the homeowners were pissed and weren’t going to take it anymore. The schools be damned. So, they got more money in their pockets. But there was no reduction in rents for renters. The lower property taxes went into the pockets of the landlord. The haves got richer and income/wealth inequality increased.
I’d start with the State of the Union and have the President place an economic plan in front of the country – I know, again – and then have every single democrat push for it.
(1) Universal pre-K
(2) Free community college/trade school – send education dollars not simply for high school but community college as well and make an AA degree the baseline for the country.
(3) $15 minimum wage
(4) Infrastructure plan/high speed internet
(5) National Id: It would combine national security issues/immigration enforcement with voting rights and I think it could sell as a way to make employment screening easier for business, protecting our borders, and providing access for voters.
Can’t go with #1. Some kids are just not ready to be set on the treadmill. Didn’t some California educators say some kids aren’t ready for K until age six?
Seize the commanding heights of the economy in the name of the workers.
Because, let’s face it, anything less just isn’t left enough.
Ми строим цоммунисм,товар&
#1096;!
Damn cyrillic translater:
мы строим Коммунисм, Товариш
Each day before class the teacher would ask:
Как Дела
What are we doing
The class would respond in unison:
мы строим Коммунисм, Товариш
We are building Communism, Comrade!
конечно!
Step aside in favor of Howard Dean.
I would throw a dinner for Liz Warren, Howard Dean, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Tom Steyer (the hedge fund manager/ environmentalist/ philanthropist who donated $11M to liberal PACs this year). I don’t know a damn thing about running a political party. I would start by talking to experts.
Looks like Steyer spent $65M total this year. I hate that, and yet, until we can get money out of politics, we need more money of our own and we need our money to be as effectively used as the Koch’s is. We need to make better use of men like this, and his funding. http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dan-morain/article3652605.html
Haha, I like how you assume that you know less than the people who have been running the party.
My eleven-year-old knows more than the people who have been running the party. Please note that none of them were invited to the dinner.
I assume you mean the apparatus itself, not government. Or do you mean during the lame duck?
As far as the apparatus itself, talk to people who’ve organized shit before, tell the consultants to go get fucked, and register every person of color to vote. I’m not an organizer, so I won’t pretend to know what is the best course beyond this. But you can bet I’d get people who do know. The consultants don’t. They failed this time and they’ll fail next time.
Public dollars for public goods and services.
Steeply progressive income taxes. Import tax on outsourced services.
Economic sectors that are way too big and/or consume far too many dollars : financial services, health care, military/police equipment, prisons, elections and lobbying, national security state. Advertising/marketing/sales is like 24/7 — NYTimes yesterday, presented an ad for ballistic missiles — as if that’s what ordinary people are in the market for.
Economic sectors that are too small: pre-K education/day care, public health care, public transportation, public housing (Germany didn’t have or didn’t have much of a housing bubble because it has a variety of stable housing options other than individual home ownership.), and regulatory oversight of finance/banking, for safety in food, drugs, workplace, water.
I like it.
With the prospect of a Democratic Senate in 2016 I’d replace the leadership with people who know their way around but haven’t been there for too long. I know this goes against the concept of seniority, but you asked what I’d do if I were in charge. A new leadership would consist of people like (in alphabetical order): Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, Martin Heinrich, Mazie Hirono, Amy Klobuchar, Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren.
Considering that the top leadership in the House consists of 75year olds and that the likelihood of a Democratic Majority here would not happen before redistricting after the 2020 election, I’d be even more radical here and put a group of people in charge who didn’t come to DC before 2010, who aren’t part of political dynasties and haven’t already become part of the Village (by going too often on Sunday talk shows for example). Representatives who come to mind include (again in alphabetical order): Joaquin Castro, Katherine Clark, Tammy Duckworth, Patrick Murphy, Terri Sewell, Kyrsten Sinema.
I’d encourage more intra-party democracy. Have the DNC chair elected by a larger number of Democrats, even in years when there is a Democratic president. (Clearly, a Howard Dean was better for the party than a DWS). I would also make sure that there are more not less primaries. Any candidate who could show a certain amount of grassroots support would get a fixed amount of financial aid from the DNC. Other than that national Dems would not get involved in primaries.
I would make sure that popular/populist Democratic issues (like the minimum wage hike) not only make it on the ballot but that Democratic candidates would also run on these issues, own them and attack Republican candidates who disagree. I can’t for the life of me understand how all these initiatives won this year and Democratic candidates still lost. Clearly some sort of message problem.
That’s just for a start. With new leadership in charge in Congress, I’d let these leaders put core Democratic issues front and center.
Thoughts?
If I have a magic wand? I’d make every single Democrat register as a Republican, shutting down the party completely. Then let the sorting begin anew.
We are now the party of the oppressed minorities. Hey, guess what, fellow supporters of oppressed minorities? Elections are won by majorities.
So, we had better figure out several questions:
We have marginalized ourselves. Why didn’t students vote Democratic, and why are we losing the student electorate? Simple, my friends. We don’t promote issues for students. Instead, we promote legalization for illegals. We don’t say “Every American should have a job”.
More promotion of groups = losses for Democrats.
I hear continual whining about gerrymandering. Gerrymandering IS NOT A PROBLEM. The problem is that we do not have ANY ability to appeal to white working class and rural voters. We have NOTHING that pulls these folks in. Until democrats figger that out, we are going to lose and lose again.
And for you pollyanna folks who think that DEMOGRAPHY is DESTINY, and that 2016 is a Democratic cakewalk, note that we lost the IL Gov, the CO senate race, and the MI gov AGAIN. As the identity politics of the Democratic party drive more and more white voters away, you may want to think about that.
I hate to do the math for you, but the “oppressed minorities” of which you speak are the majority for under 20’s, and if you include women (not a minority, but certainly in the GOP’s oppression bullseye) we are the overwhelming majority.
Xenophobia only makes us weak. If we go down that road, we’ll be like the GOP, only clinging to power by gerrymandering and voter suppression.
Finding ways to connect with rural voters, the white working class voters, and so forth is fine (and very necessary, I might add), but if it is going to involve appealing to lowest common denominator bigotry, I can imagine it being a turnoff for what are legitimate constituencies not only for the Dems but also for those left of the Democratic Party.
You didn’t read my post, or omitted the part where I talked about “gerrymandering”. Gerrymandering today is due to a failure to find ANYTHING to appeal to the rural voter. Until we do, we are toast.
IL is mostly rural.
WI is mostly rural.
CO, PA, MI, IA, NY.
And about that “we own the presidency” bullshit, that is total crap. IL gov was won by a fat-cat Repuke. IL is NOT a blue state. MI gov crushed unions and got re-elected. WI gov crushed unions and got re-elected.
We will not win 2020 (redistricting year) until we figure out SOME WAY to appeal to rural voters. And the kind of moronic shit I hear from some hear about how they don’t want these voters? Well, that kind of arrogant stupidity is why we are here today.
Why don’t we appeal to rural voters? Because we are the party of taxes, the party of minorities, the party of illegals. We have NOTHING to appeal to rural voters, and until we recognize that and address it, we are not going to win 2016.
Gerrymandering in the house has very little to do with “appealing to rural voters”. Some of the worst current districts happened in the last ten years, driven by the power of white conservative suburbanites.
The gerrymandering of the senate by state lines, which seems to be what you are referring to, has become a true GOP gerrymander largely due to the massive influence big industries have in states with tiny populations. the oil takeover of North Dakota was never going to benefit the dems, for example, unless the dems became pro-big-oil.
That particular gerrymander, that big interests control the small states and their copious senators, is exactly why those states were created the way they were. That’s been the plot since day one. Nobody ever needed two Dakotas.
Add a dash of racism, in which people who grow up in homogenous, isolated communities get the idea everyone who is not like them has cooties, and this progression has been inevitable.
By the way, the term “illegals” just makes you sound like a rube. Might want to stop playing that particular card.
agree re: rural, but by that I mean specifically ag issues. You should use the term “undocumented” rather than “illegal” – it’s more precise and matches the chart you cite below.
The 2013 US median wage was $16.87. Since raising the minimum will also increase wages of those making more than the minimum, a minimum wage of $15 would increase wages of most workers in the country. It is the simplest and most direct way to raise middle-class incomes.
What nonsense. You can find a variety of polling information on immigration reform here, and none of it supports your claims. Voters support legalization by wide margins–three to one in the case of the DREAM act kids. It’s one thing to say that the Democrats have to do more to appeal to students and the working class, but not at the expense of Latinos.
At any rate, it’s clear that the majority of voters are not burning with resentment against “illegals,” so that can’t really account for the tilt to the Republicans.
You’re unable to read the polls you quote. Let me quote one directly:
“Do you think undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States should or should not be given the right to live and work here legally?”
Should Should not Unsure
% % %
9/4-7/14
46 50 4
1/20-23/14
49 49 3
“If a candidate for U.S. Congress supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, would that make you more likely to vote for that candidate, less likely or wouldn’t it make much difference in your vote?”
More likely Less likely Not much
difference Unsure
% % % %
9/4-7/14
27 36 34 3
2/27 – 3/2/14
30 38 29 3
At best, support for illegals is neutral, but the second result says that it cuts against Democrats. Rather than simply repeating stuff, why not read it first?
Don’t be an idiot. I’m glad you were able to find some results that you like, but you kind of have to look at all the polls. Like this one, which you somehow missed even though it’s at the top of the page:
Which comes closer to your view about how to handle undocumented immigrants who are now living in the U.S.? They should not be allowed to stay in this country legally. OR, There should be a way for them to stay in the country legally, if certain requirements are met.
Stay: 71%
NOT stay: 25%
Hey, how about that CO Sen race, where Udall is pro-illegal, opponent anti-illegal, and opponent won?
How about Cotton in AR, where he won heavily trading on the anti-illegal position?
Anti-illegal won. Pro-illegal lost. Democrats are now the party of FAILURE to uphold the rule of law. And that is gonna alienate a lot of people. In point of fact, it did, and drove voters from the Democratic position.
Pro-illegal policies are costing us elections.
True, and Democrats keep confusing “illegal” with “immigrant”.
Blue Collar voter: “I’m against illegal immigrants.”
Democrat: “Why are you against immigrants? Weren’t your grandparents immigrants?”
Blue Collar voter: “I’m not against immigrants. I’m against illegal immigrants.”
Democrat: ” That’s just code words! You’re a dirty racist! You just hate brown people!”
Blue Collar voter: “FU, I’m voting for the Republicans.”
Illegal immigrants should be deported. But sheer numbers demand some sort of accommodation. The law needs to be changed because it’s like King Canute ordering back the sea. Let’s not pretend it’s immoral or racist to control a border. If there were 12 million illegal white Canadians in the USA, there would be the same pressure in a recession to deport them. If the government instead demanded that they have driver’s licenses and all government agencies had to start communicating in French, you would see the same blowback.
You want some racism? Try this:
Which is not to say that everyone who is concerned about illegal immigration is a racist, mind you, but there’s no point pretending the discussion isn’t tainted by bigotry.
Of recent polls (after September), 1/2 go my way, 1/2 yours.
Anything before that was before the tidal wave of minor illegals, which totally changed the situation. I ignore any poll before August.
And the next 2 years? You are going to hear a lot of discussion of border security, and that is going to push things my way as well.
If Obama goes commando and does crap by executive order, there is gonna be hell to pay.
That’s a pretty slanted question. A choice between absolutely “No” and “something else”. Except for hard liners the answer is going to be “something else”.
Most people that I know sympathize with the Dreamers. What they don’t want to see is millions of people jumping the border to get on welfare.
The Spanish language is a deal killer too. The ethnic whites know their families had to give up native languages and learn English, yet their government keeps shoving a foreign language in their face. Maybe we need to fund those night classes that the Italian and Polish immigrants attended. Oh, I forgot. Ethnic whites are underpeople and good Democrats just want them to die.
We can’t be a party that writes off white people or rural people. On the other hand we shouldn’t be a party that completely ignores minority issues.
I think a place to start is highlighting where progress has been made for all voters, including whites. For some reasons Democrats were allergic to saying:
Then say while all of this is a good start it is only a start as wages are still stagnate and too many people still don’t have jobs. Here is our plan:
Very good points, Camussie.
“we shouldn’t be a party that completely ignores minority issues.” Of course not. All dataguy and I are saying is to not keep shoving your hatred for white men in their face. African-Americans didn’t like riding in the back of the bus. Neither do European-Americans. Granted, those Anglo-Americans seem to think they own the bus, but they don’t.
” Democrats were allergic to saying: Unemployment has been cut in half”
Because the public knows it’s BS, numbers from creative accounting. It doesn’t help to get the vote of the unemployed to tell them “Well, you don’t really want a job, so we are not going to count you.”
The public at large has no idea that there is more than one unemployment measurement. The public at large will have more economic confidence if they hear numbers like unemployment is below 6% and the stock market is up to 17,000. Remember this is the same public that bought Reagan’s “its morning in America” when unemployment was 7% hook, line, and sinker.
Running away from a U3 number that has improved by over 40% is political malpractice. It also isn’t telling those who are still unemployed they don’t count. It is saying progress has been made but we have more work to do.
I go to Dave Leip’s Atlas of the election results.
Union County SD – 1268 votes for Rick Weiland
Harding County SD – 46 votes for Rick Weiland
Hughes County SD – 1578 votes for Rick Weiland
Haakon County SD – 96 votes for Rick Weiland
Hanson County SD – 365 votes for Rick Weiland
Are you saying that these aren’t rural voters?
Who exactly did that? Did Rick Weiland do that in his stump speeches? Did the fact that he did retail politics not sway anyone at all? Who made such a stupid statement? Or is that the Republican media spin about the election? If a Democrat actually did that, they are guilty of political malpractice.
Because the minimum wage is used by HR departments to set the wage and salary bands for everyone else. Kick the minimum wage up to $20 an hour (that’s $40K annualized) and all of the more senior people making between the current minimum wage and $20.00 an hour have to be given raises somewhat above that minimum wage in order to avoid morale problems. Moreover, all of that will come back to businesses in increased sales revenue and eventually in profit. People don’t want full-time salaried positions unless they want to work 80 hours a week. They want good paying jobs with reasonable hours. Most people have been so screwed by the notion that a salaried position is some great shakes that the joy of having a “salary” is gone. They know that employers think they own the entire life of salaried employees.
You really are hot on the issue of legalization for illegals. That is a complicated issue in which the employers who brought the illegals into the country never are punished. And families are broken up and deported piecemeal, sometimes back to countries that they were fleeing because of the violence. There are in fact international standards for handling refugees, which the US never itself seems willing to participate in, but is willing to create ever more refugees.
One of the issues with rural voters is that conservative talk radio has had their ear for so long that they lack the understanding of the world outside that their parents had. I speak from my experience with some of my relatives and friends.
Demography is not destiny. Neither is PVI. Some of those local Democrats who voted for Weiland need to start talking sense to their neighbors and relatives. Surely 82,408 people who voted Democratic in one of the worst years are a place to start.
First thing I do is clear out the deadwood. Steve Israel finds himself out of a job at DCCC, for example. I start hiring people who either have new ideas, or who have a track record of success: Howard Dean was mentioned, and I agree.
The remaining Blue Dogs and new Democrats are put on notice: straighten up and fly right or they get only nominal support. Above all, hammer home the message that the DLC “I’m a Democrat but here’s how I’m like a Republican” strategy is over. Kaput. Dead. The only way Democrats win is by being proud Democrats: the statement needs to be “I”m a Democrat and here is how I am TOTALLY DIFFERENT (and BETTER) than the Republican.”
And then it’s nothing but offense, offense, offense. the Lizard brains love offense, so give it to them. Mitch McConnell has no problem lying and saying bullshit, why should we return that with civility?
And, seriously, some salty language when necessary.
For example, Alison Grimes’ gun shit was silly “See I’m a gun nut like you” shit. What she should have said was “Guns? The economy in the toilet and Mitch wants to talk about fucking GUNS? I’M NOT GONNA TAKE YOUR GUNS PEOPLE, I COULD GIVE A SHIT. Now, as I said abotu Kynect…”
Additionally, she could have said that of course she voted for Obama, since she’s a Democrat, he’s a Democrat, and if the Republican party was better for America, she’d be a Republican.
That shit still enrages me. What a fucking dunce.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, we need to grow the size of the government. That means more public spending for things like infrastructure (permanent organization), education and health care. And it means progressive taxes sufficient to support those activities. That might even help the issue of inequality. The minimum wage will also need to be increased. I think the public will support it but it will require effort.
We either do this or accept the privatization and shrinking of government and continually increasing inequality and sub par public services. Government is just too small to support what we need.
So find a name for it that sticks like New Deal.
How about “the Honest Deal”?
I’d start by generating buzz for the next generation of Democratic pols. After Hillary, anyone else’s name wins a shrug at best.
Thin bench. A consequence of liberals languishing at the local and state level for decades. That allows those in office to hold on to their positions because it’s either that or retire and give a GOP the chance to take it. CA Democrats are doing better than they were a decade or so ago, but the bench is still thin and our re-elected governor is a septuagenarian.
Exactly the problem, Marie. That’s why I’d stop relying on the Clintons, the Obamas, Howard Dean, and Jerry Brown to speak for the party. Time to get the next gen in front of the public.
Heard that the old Ed Rendell, Harold Ford,Jr, and Bob Shrum gang are back on the airwaves telling Democrats what they need to do. Expect a few more like Lieberman and Bayh to crawl back in from wherever they’ve been hiding of late. There must be more DINO dinosaurs that have been itching for a last act they can enlist even if the first act wasn’t good and the others were dreadful.
But Howard Dean is the answer.
Says so right here on this thread.
Unfortunately, it is the media’s invitations that determines who gets to speak for the party.
I understand, but look at how the GOP promoted Paul Ryan. His game is weak, but every last republican went out and painted Ryan up as Bold! A Man with Ideas!
And next thing you know, HE’S on the teevee and the covers of magazines.
agree with you here; first step, take a look at all the fine candidates that just ran, apologize for not supporting them sufficiently and listen to their ideas about how to move forward (e.g. Rick Weiland, Amanda Curtis) (and apologize to Barbara Buono while we’re at it).
Agreed – we need to build the bench at mid-level, big time. For one thing, even if Hillary seems inevitable, what if she has a health issue and doesn’t run?
We need someone to provide a good challenge in the primary for that reason alone. If they win, then perhaps Hillary wasn’t the right candidate. But if they lose, they’ve still built something for the future.
Oh, and I prefer that challenger to be under 50 – let’s set up for the long term.
Primaries are for vetting benches. Democrats have shunned primaries for two decades. Republicans have been purged three times by primaries since Nixon took office.
Registering voters isn’t enough. We have to help people who don’t believe their vote counts to stop being cynical and start voting. I’d spend many millions of dollars learning why they don’t vote and what would motivated them to vote in every election.
I agree: fire the consultants, every last one of them.
We have to do better at defining Republican candidates before they define ours. That’s how Obama won his second term. Right out of the gate they zeroed in on Romney and defined him to the voters all Spring, Summer and Fall.
Stop depending on this false sense that demographics favor the Democratic Party. They don’t. Coalition building is the only thing that works to elect liberal/progressive candidates. The Dems have been lazy about assuming minorities are going to vote for our candidates.
Start learning how to play dirty and stop trying to be above it all. We’re being victims of asymmetrical warfare at this point.
They don’t vote because the “libruuul media” and it’s BothSidesTM schtick works well.
Propaganda works.
State Leg, baby, State Leg.
Idiot carpet-bagging rubber stamper who never had any job other than clerk for a republican state senator just beat a local teacher with 30 years experience who has been heavily involved in local govt in many different ways for decades.
These same voters went for Al Franken.
The difference? Al Franken had money to tell people who he is. The voters think these state leg candidates agree with them on the issues because the GOP leg candidates are very, very careful not to reveal what they actually think about the issues. Blank canvas onto which voters project. Dems have to focus resources on state leg, particularly in educating votors on exactly where candidates stand.
Give a progressive voice and frame Issues in real time.
Example: Ferguson Protests
St Louis MO Democratic powers-that-be are a big problem. We don’t need those Democrats.
Give greater visibility to Congressional Black Caucus.
“If democracy is such a good thing, let’s have more of it. Dick Gregory
Instead, what have we heard about Eric Holder’s investigation? ” ” I think that’s it.
Bring back the fifty state strategy. Paging Dr. Dean.
Put together a team led by Elizabeth Warren to draft a comprehensive progressive populist message for the party and for the nation.
Engage BooMan and others like him who understand the internet/blogosphere/social media, local political organization and electoral politics, to talk over the heads of the corporate media, directly to the people in every state.
Remind us all of those words in the Preamble to the Constitution: promote the general Welfare:
Infrastructure. Infrastructure. Infrastructure.
Education. Education. Education.
Health care. Health care. Health care. For everyone, not just the rich and the healthy.
Stop running from the term class warfare and embrace it. We’ve been in a class war since at least Reagan, and arguably long before that. And the oligarchs have been winning by default. When the term is used against us as an accusation, throw it right back in their faces.
Call out the Koch brothers and others like them. Every penny of tax breaks and subsidies that go to fossil fuels should to be diverted to renewables. We should be spending more on education and less on prisons and militarized police.
Challenge Citizens United every chance we get.
Bingo! In other words make it clear that it’s a workers’ party, rather than a party that can’t make up its mind whether to be Wall Street or Main Street.
It’s been class warfare since the first fence was put up with laws creates and enforced to make sure those fences were binding.
2020 redistricting should be the touchstone for all organizing, nationwide. This is a great opportunity to rebuild a broad-based majority from the ground up. We need to survey the needs of the people and organize in a way that takes advantage of the coming demographic shifts.
WHAT coming demographic shifts? This kind of loosey-goosey, “demography is destiny” bullshit has been tossed around for the last 20 years, as we lost the House, lost the senate, and lost the rural areas.
It’s a huge scam, and it’s not true. There is no Demographic destiny.
Yes, I know brown people scare you, so avoid Texas, which is going to be majority hispanic soon.
You are a moron, with that racist crap.
And did you know that Steve Pearce, a white guy who doesn’t speak spanish, won his majority hispanic district? Steve Pearce’s basically means that you don’t know shit about voters.
Since you don’t know shit about shinola, I will tell you that Steve Pearce’s district is in TX, the state that will soon be majority hispanic.
And since you are ignorant about hispanics, you probably don’t know that a whole bunch are really conservative.
This bullshit about “demography is destiny” is a stupid thing. Rather than learning WHY we don’t appeal to rural voters, we continue to say that “they are all racists” or similar moronic shit. If TX becomes majority hispanic, we still won’t win the gov, because a whole lotta hispanics vote republican.
Yeah, I took a cheap shot, sorry. However, your anti-immigrant rhetoric is vile.
And your facts are all over the place. Steve Pearce is in New Mexico’s 2nd district which is heavily white. Yes, many of them are, like me, white hispanic, but the district is not majority hispanic.
And you continue to be a total moron. I am not anti-immigrant. I am anti-illegal. I am anti-criminal. You pro-criminal morons are destroying the Democratic Party.
I support legal immigration just like Barbara Jordan did. In the 1995 Jordan Commission on Immigration, she stated clearly that illegals must be deported.
Your inability to distinguish between opposition to criminal behavior and opposition to immigration does not speak well for your reasoning ability.
Dataguy, you must be white. Don’t you know we have Original Sin? We should just shut up and ride in the back of the bus.
Does someone need their diapie changed?
You want at least 11 million people, overwhelmingly peaceful, hard working, contributing members of society deported, BUT DON’T CALL ME ANTI-IMMIGRANT YOU MORON.
More facts for you, Free! Immigration violations are civil, not criminal offenses.
Your pro-criminal approach is undermining the entire party.
And the solution is what Romney suggested – self-deporation. Implement eVerify for all jobs. No job, no food, return to home country. That could be Mexico, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Nigeria. There are a LOT of illegal Canadians here. They look like us, and sound like us too.
And they are not peaceful, hard working. A whole bunch are thugs. They are additionally stealing American jobs.
How do ‘we’ look, exactly?
Witness Rubio and Cruz. And Tim Scott’s election as a Republican in South Carolina should send shivers down Democratic spines.
I do have a question. In 2020 and the new census with all the state houses in Republican control, just how are we supposed to get a better deal?
Take redistricting out of the hands of legislators and the state executive branches. That’s worked in a few states. Initiatives are probably the only way to get that because the ALEC-in-a-box State legislators are not about to give up that power.
We need our version of ALEC to organize and write these kinds of things. I did see that idea is already happening. If the only avenue is ballot initiative then Florida will be up hill because it takes 60% to win. Medical Pot lost for this reason with 57% of the vote. And how many chances do we get before 2020 to get this done?
57% for marijuana in FL in a midterm that re-elected the odious Scott is a positive sign. At a deep level (Lakoff’s “framing”) USians do hold fairness as a value. Gerrymandering is in contradiction with that value. If only a nominal amount of dollars were allowed in initiatives and then strictly as voter information and not propaganda, stripping legislatures from drawing districts would win.
Back in the real world — Koch, etal. would throw so much money at such initiatives that few would have a chance of passing. But little guys with no money do occasionally win.
It took a lot of money to build ALEC and turn it into a real force for evil. Not sure there is half a billion dollars available among the “liberal” wealthy to upend ALEC. At least not until we’re all forced to live in an ALEC world.
Fairness is exactly the right message. Nothing Republican White Power about that. I think the more money they spend the greater our chances of winning. Think Richmond CA against Chevron.
Is it? Do you know what Thom Hartmann says about Libertarians?
“Libertarians are Republicans that like to smoke dope and get laid.” Supporting Mary Jane doesn’t make a voter Liberal.
That ain’t gonna happen. Next suggestion?
Sorry, but it already is. I was both sad and glad to see my idea was already in play with funding no less. We have to wait or better yet, work to make it happen.
No, unbiased districts are not going to enacted in any more states than they are. IA, CA are the only ones I know of.
No one is talking about unbiased districts. The idea is ballot initiatives to simply achieve fairness, not an advantage for Democrats but to stop the Republicans from being unfair. The popular vote should roughly reflect the number of seats won or lost. These would be statewide and have the same advantage as statewide races because they would include the urban areas as well as the rural areas. States are very different so the need for the progressive version of ALEC is needed to sort these things out. The progressive message would be fairness. This might work better than you think.
Uh, yeah, that’s the point. We need to organize to vote the Republicans out of the State Legislatures so we can redistrict and un-gerrymander.
Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Or, who bells the cat?
Organizing always comes first.
Why did you do that to me?
I was just sitting here minding my own business!
So Josh Marshall makes the point I raised earlier. Excerpted it.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/forget-the-chatter-this-is-the-democrats-real-problem
Fundamentally, most people don’t care particularly how astronomically wealthy people are living their lives. It is a distant reality on many levels. They care a great deal about their own economic circumstances. And if you are not doing any better than you were 5 years ago or a decade ago or – at least in the sense of the hypothetical median wage earner – 40 years ago, that’s going to really have your attention and shape a great deal of your worldview and political outlook.
But what are the policies that would change this corrosive trend? And how do you run on them as a party if you don’t know what they are? Minimum wage increases help those at the very bottom of the income scale and they have a lifting effect up the wage scale as the floor gets pushed up. But it is at best a small part of the puzzle. Clamping down on tax dodges by the extremely wealthy claws back some resources for the treasury and sends an important message, as might some restrictions on ridiculously high CEO pay. But again, these are important changes at the margins that do not fundamentally change the equation. Economic populism or another comparable politics with a different tonality won’t get you very far if you can get beyond beating up on the winners to providing concrete improvements to those losing out in today’s economy.
First, I don’t know many knowledgable people who have a lot of confidence that public policy in the US can arrest or reverse changes that appear to be structural and global in nature. The right approach may be germinating in a think tank somewhere. But which one?
Second, policies don’t exist in a vacuum. They need a politics to sustain them. Tax cuts as an elixir for every problem in the American body politic may be running out of steam. But it wasn’t so potent because of its policy merits, which haven’t made much sense for decades. It was potent because a generation of activists and politically minded people were reared on the idea and a vast political coalition was built around them. So find the policies, if there are any, build a political coalition around them. And then, don’t forget: the spiraling rates of wealth concentration have created a political economy in which organized wealth is extremely well positioned to beat back any challenges to its gains.
Tax cuts may be losing their power, but here’s an important point: The Republicans are the party opposing taxes. Democrats are the party supporting taxes.
We democrats want your money. The Republicans want you to have your money.
Note that I omit rational considerations, because this is fundamentally irrational.
We should be the party of tax fairness, but this has even been removed as the “politics of envy”.
This is a problem.
Taking David Harvey’s critique about the Democratic Party’s dual loyalties to the CEO class and its base, I’d clarify the party’s loyalties: from this point forward, it’s a party devoted to workers (broadly defined) and their needs. It is a party that will begin to walk its talk in a way unseen in a very long time.
I’d also insist on running candidates who can articulate that vision passionately. The party is great at running individuals who come across as competent technocrats, but who otherwise have little to say (exceptions duly noted). That changes. Bonus points for candidates who actually belong to the constituencies (in terms of socioeconomic status, etc.) they intend to serve.
There’s a start. Don’t try to recreate the past. Figure a way forward. Good luck.
May I add, I would buy ads in the middle of ever football game and before every movie, explaining how power is divided in DC, and who is responsible for the mess we’re in right now. People are hurting, and a huge number of them don’t know who to blame. Let’s tell them.
All positivity all the time, what are we going to do and how we’re going to do it.
Negative campaign depresses turnout. We focus on what we’re going to do not why everything sucks.
First priority is local elections, all local elections.
Other than Mike Honda, the DEM positive ads candidates lost.
Just because voters say they don’t like negative ads (a category that’s far too broad because it includes legitimate and factually correct comparisons) doesn’t mean that they aren’t effective.
it’s not about the voters that come out
that type of campaign depresses turnout and our candidates need to be all about increasing turnout
The responses that I heard to all those ads was,”They’re all pieces of crap.” Which is understandable because the mud always sticks. Four billion dollars of mud completely covers everyone.
right IL-10 and the IL Gov race are perfect examples everyone’s negatives go up and turnout goes down and that means we lose every time
“Other than Mike Honda, the DEM positive ads candidates lost.”
Not true! Tammy Duckworth and Bill Foster in Illinois.
In SD, we had an election. We ran candidates in about 15 of 38 districts (the rural ones cannot go D, which is the main problem). Of those, Ds won about 1/2. Friends who are committed, intelligent, and far superior candidates lost to morons. The woman who won my district’s state senate seat is a total idiot, and she won 65:35.
So, all this happy talk about “building the bench” and “starting local” also requires WINNING at that level. The D party in SD, and most rural-majority states (including PA, BTW) is at a historic low in support.
Until we figure out how to appeal to rural voters, we are going to be hammered.
Okay, how? What do they get by voting for Republicans? What do they want that they’re not getting? What is it that they fear from Democrats? Are they happy that their rural communities are dying?
Seriously, how could Rounds and Pressler, both of whom look like city slickers, Pressler doesn’t even live in SD, and Rounds is known to be at least a bit corrupt as well, be more attractive to rural SD voters than Rick Weiland?
Rounds is a Republican.
Simple as that.
He’s an attractive guy, BTW. Nice, friendly, positive message. Weiland did good against him. In SD, that it. The whole EB-5 thing, which was the main issue against Rounds, was considered inside baseball. No one understood that Mike Rounds gave away $140,000,000 in fees for no good reason.
Then all your blather that Democrats need to appeal to rural white voters is basically a straw man. They’ll vote for the Republican city slicker unless he/she is too odious for them to stomach and the line for “too odious” gets moved further to the right with each election cycle. Palin should have bided her time as governor of AK instead of blowing it as the lesser half of the lesser 2008 POTUS candidate. Had she done so, she would now be on the 2016 POTUS shortlist.
No, you are confused, but that’s common in your posts. SD is rural, and Democrats can put up all kinds of highly capable candidates, and get nowhere. That is because the D party has NOTHING which appeals to rural voters. And the Rs have gerrymandered here as well. They know that no candidate puts out a message which appeals to R or I voters. And furthermore since most voters ignore issues, the entire D slate had no traction.
We are gonna be destroyed in 2016, where Rs will keep the house, win POTUS, and probably lose the Senate. However, if things continue as they are, we could lose all 3.
So, dataguy, let’s hear your positive message about how Democrats can appeal to rural (mostly Protestant Germanic) voters? Preferably in a diary.
I really want to know. I’ve been a big city ethnic or suburban ethnic all my life. I don’t have a clue, but I’d like to learn.
I put a comment at the end.
How many comments from you in this thread that Democrats are dead if they don’t appeal to rural white voters? And you have yet to answer what the hell it is that appeals to rural white voters other than Rounds is a pleasant speaking/looking Republican. If rural white voters want a Republican then there’s NOTHING a Democrat or the party can do to get their vote. If they want something other than brand Republican, what is it? What do they get from Republicans? Is the answer to both NOTHING?
I’m not at all confused — nor or my comments. Nor am I opposed to rural white people. But if they don’t know or won’t say what they want/need from our national collective, have to conclude that whatever Republicans are giving them is what they want.
I put a comment at the end.
Yeah, just saw it. IOW — you don’t know. But so much is historical/cultural and passed down from generations that today many of those white rural GOP voters don’t know either.
Could you please link to it? I’m looking at all your comments and not finding it.
I don’t know how to link to it. The title is “What I believe rural voters want”
it’s also because of low turnout, negative campaigning only lowers participation
I suppose that means “with unlimited powers,” which is rarely the way it works out. But here goes.
12, Reverse course on provoking conflict with Putin; fire Victoria Nuland.
Isn’t it time that we Democrats get to have our hissy fit?
#18: Haw!
#6 might not be so easy to do. It takes two sides to make an agreement.
As for #8, No matter how good the rest is, that is a deal killer. Is the idea to improve the economy by selling insecticide and ovens to the Arab States?
The idea should be obvious–get Netanyahu’s attention. Surely, you’ve seen what Bibi has been doing with al Aqsa and the civil rights of Palestinians citizens of territorial Israel, haven’t you.
Netanyahu is a thug. That still shouldn’t condemn all Jewish Israelis to death.
The Israeli Defense Force has weapons and ammunition without US subsidies. And they do have the option of ending apartheid and the occupation of the territories seized in 1967, not to mention granting right of return for refugees.
Call it a $3 billion dollar two-by-four for whacking a thug to wake him up and get his attention.
Give it a rest — on two issues Voice is stuck somewhere in the ’50s/60s. USSR/Russia is the evil empire and Israel.
You have it right, Marie.
At first conference of Israeli-American Council, casino mogul and Netanyahu backer hints democracy in Israel not a bad thing to lose.
Israel is a fascist state.
Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban are teaming up for 2016 to make sure no politician deviates from 100% support for Israel and that Israel can do no wrong. These are traitors and should be treated as such.
You want that blood on your hands? I don’t.
Not getting your response. Adelson’s money will keep the Republicans in check wrt Israel first and Saban’s money will do the same with Democrats. The blood is already on the hands of all those green lighting Israel’s continuing sixty odd year slaughtering of indigenous peoples in the region.
Have you been saving up this list? Holy cow! The first three might even trigger the others. Wait, Nuland and the Nazis got to go too.
Maybe I missed it but you need to say something about the trade deals they are working on, like stop.
#13.
I agree with what you all are saying, however, we must just get the ppl out to vote ALL the time not just in pres. yrs. My question is “why don’t the go and vote”? Howard Dean’s 50 state strag. is sooooo correct!
Request that the Democrats in the House and the Senate push forth a new Voting Rights Act that applies to everywhere in the country.
Request that the Democrats in the House and the Senate put forth a new bill authorizing Automatic Voter Registration on the 18th Birthday…you can do it for selective service, you can do it for voting.
Request that the Democrats stop letting Obamacare be called anything other than Obamacare. Hey, you, whatever state you are, you have healthcare because of Obamacare.
Request that the Democrats put forth a bill for a National ID that should be acceptable for any of these Voter ID laws, and that it be free.
Every Democrat needs to hook up with a Moral Monday group in their district.
Put forth that basic banking should be done at the USPS for those that are ‘ un-banked’ in this country.
Hook up with the Moral Monday people in their district, get a list of all the bad infrastructure in their district, and how many jobs it would produce if fixed. Do it every damn week, make a website, accumulate how many jobs are not being filled by Americans to fix America.
Stand up for public education, muthaphuckas.
Start vicious infighting just like here!
OH.
You’re gonna “put me in charge of the Democratic Party,” eh?
Great.
Well.
Lemme see…
Oh.
I’ve got it!!!
First of all, I gotta know…who exactly is “in charge of the Democratic Party?”
Hmmm…
Da preznit?
Could be. The Dems have about the same popularity level as he does.
But…in my extensive experience in the world, the ones who are really “in charge” are always the ones who control the money. In the case of political parties as they stand in the U.S. today, that would of course be the major corporate interests that fund every major…and many not-so-major…politician in the country.
Oh.
Ok.
I’ll take the gig.
Now I’m the Chairman of the Controller Board. (Not that there is one, exactly….but not that there isn’t, either. It’s more like the central governing body of the Mob. Somebody is always holding the most chits, and he thus becomes The Boss of All Bosses for however long he can survive in the position.)
Now it’s me, eh?
Great.
First thing?
Get rid of all the incompetent underbosses…errr, ahhh, DNC functionaries. If they have lost their state or area, they are sleeping with the fishes.
Second thing?
Find out what it’s gonna take to get the old neighborhoods back under our control. The rival organization has outhustled/outpromised us, and we gotta start winning back the hearts and minds of the previous faithful.
Who are they, exactly?
Labor, minorities of all kinds, the upwardly mobile middle class, poor people of almost every stripe, so-called “educated” classes, the young…
How to do this?
Make promises..the same promises that are now being made by the other mob (See Rand Paul for more on this.) …only convince the people that we mean to…and can…keep them.
No more economic imperialist wars.
No more corporate whitewashes when criminal acts are committed.
More than just mouth work and high-level appointments regarding the equality of all races and creeds. Do it.
And most importantly…show that we are capable of real change. Rather than running just another retread dynastic representative, put somebody up there who at least appears to mean business.
Now…how to run this game at its highest possible level? At the level that say FDR ran it, simultaneously gaining the people’s trust while running the necessary under-the-table games that kept the other mobs…including the military…happy?
Sorry.
That’s beyond my pay grade or talents.
i respectfully resign.
Your truly…
Chairman AG
I’ll keep it simple: economic security. Run on that.
Well, I’m not 100% sure. I ran for office, and did no better than other Ds did in SD – basically got party-line votes.
What do rural folks want?
To find out, we should first ask them. Have the Dems run any market research studies? Probably not. They should do that.
But what troubles me is that the Democratic brand is fatally damaged at this time. We are going to need to
do several things:
voters I think you are as myopically focused on rural whites as many a Democrat is focused on minorities. Neither party can win just with the rural white vote. There simply isn’t enough of them. There Rs have won because they are so strong among suburban whites and that is where touting progress such as
would have been helpful to people running in this election.
As for your stance on immigration I agree with a lot of it but I think you really short change your argument by the continued use of “illegals.” Like it or not it has morphed into a pejorative term. As for what I agree on
That said there should be a path to citizenship for Dreamers. We also need a sane guest worker program. Alabama signed in a draconian anti-immigration law and farmers (those rural voters you keep bringing up) found their crops rotting in the fields.
As for your other proposals
I talk about it because it is a key vulnerability. The reason gerrymandering works is due to the total failure of Ds to win anything outside of the suburbs. That creates abuses like OH, which voted for Obama, but has 75% of congresspersons being R. Until we fix the gerrymandering caused by the rural issue, we will not be able to fix redistricting. 2020 is coming, and the problem will get worse. Plus every state has huge tracts of rural turf.
In addition, the very dangerous idea of EVs for each congregational district is coming up again, in OH and PA. If that gets passed, we have real problems with rural issues.
Simple.
Hire (you need money to win elections, no) people to go out door-to-door across the country to register people to vote. Right now.
Hand them a registration form, and a lil folder that is nice and easy to read. Something that someone with a 4th grade education can understand and explain to others. Perhaps have a list of online news sources that aren’t running the BothSidesTM big lie, which is key.
Explain to people in every particular district what the voting rules are, and what is and isn’t required. Get an email address and add them to a list, and then:
And 6 months before the election, go to every one of those households and do it all over again.
Here’s the thing about the voter fraud BS the Fascist Party of America is constantly harping about. It’s less about there being real voter fraud, as much as it is continually brought up to CHILL voter participation.
How many people are registered to vote at a previous address, and have never updated their address with the county Board of Elections? I bet a fucking lot. And these are the people who know that they’re registered…somewhere…and that their ID likely doesn’t match where they are registered. So…is it voter fraud to vote in a district where you’re registered but don’t actually live? Who fucking knows, so stay home and avoid that FELONY charge.
This shit ain’t all that difficult.
There isn’t some magical thing the Democratic party can do to get rural people to switch parties. I’m sorry, but the Rural v. Urban divide has existed since, uh, civilization popped up. See, Republic, Roman; See also: Empire, Roman.
So, no, you’re not going to convince rural voters who identify as Republicans and consider themselves a part of that tribe to switch.
Luckily, though, there are a whole lot of rural and urban voters who aren’t registered and who choose not to vote because the hassle (finding right location, time taken out of day to vote, possible FELONY charge for “voter fraud”) overcomes any possible benefits.
Oh, and in terms of policy: Democrats either need to be the liberal party, or they might as well just argue that they’re only slightly better than Republicans and then forfeit their spots on ballots in time to continue allowing Real Republicans to kick their Republican-lite asses.
Farmers used to be Democrats. Then Democrats started taking graft from ADM, Monsanto and the like.
On Jimmy Carter’s watch, Paul Volcker sent farm mortgage rates into the stratosphere right after the administration persuaded farmers to go in hock to buy more land. And Jimmy was a farmer! That might have something to do with rural distrust of Washington, a republican trait.
Many of the big problems facing the country continue to be economic. So, how about some new economic policy proposals:
On the non-economic side,
Those are things I would work on if I were king of the party. I would want to build up a group of people who wanted to make things like that happen, and have them work on it every week – not just a few weeks before an election.
Cheers,
Scott.
Very good suggestions. Regarding #5, the later part is the better idea rather than further complicating the tax code. Besides, the mortgage credit was to encourage people to become homeowners rather than renters, subsidizing both makes little sense.
The $100 tax in #10 is a bad idea. I don’t want people who don’t care making random or twitter driven votes. I want people to care about voting. Nothing burns me up more than taking the time to research say the judicial retention ballot than to hear someone say, “Oh, I vote for all the judges” or “oh, I vote for the judges if I like their name.” FORCE people to vote and they will mark their ballots willy-nilly to get out fast. Or, maybe, Libertarians and Teabaggers will promise to end the forced vote and get swept into power based on that.
I’d also add CPI-E and ending taxation of Social security which was added by Reagan and increased by Clinton.
ECONOMIC JUSTICE ACT
Take every banker that accepted TARP funds and shoot them, then nationalize the banks.
HEALTH CARE ACT
Eliminate the age requirement for Medicare.
LIVING WAGE ACT
Raise the minimum wage to at least $15/hour and tie annual increases to increases in the CPI.
CHEECH AND CHONG ACT
Decriminalize weed and tax it like tobacco.
WAR PREVENTION ACT
Every veteran gets free tuition to any school that they are accepted into.
All medical expenses for veterans are paid.
Veterans are guaranteed housing loans (up to $250K) with a maximum APR of Prime +1.
CIVICS RESTORATION ACT
Election Day is a federal holiday
Can’t just shoot them, Oscar, appealing as that is. But claw back the bonuses and fine them for the frauds they committed. Believe me, being poor for the first time in their lives will be punishment enough.
I suppose asking for drone strikes on our domestic terrorists/gop/baggers/kochs is a bridge too far…