As a member of the DNC, I’ve had the opportunity to hear Dean talk several times as well as sit through numerous analyses of the 2004 election.
Dean has repeatedly said that part of why we lost the election is that people are scared to death by the culture while trying to raise their children. The type of TV represented by the pie ad is exactly what is scaring them.
I’m a liberal Democrat and have a knee-jerk opposition to censorship, but as a parent, I’m appalled at what our culture teaches young people. I have two boys, 11 and 15. How am I supposed to teach them to respect women when they’re constantly bombarded by images of women reduced to their sexuality? (And no, it’s not as simple as “turn off the tv.”) My friends with daughters struggle with teaching young women to respect themselves.
This is what is in the minds of many of the women who didn’t vote Democratic in the last election. While they don’t necessarily agree with the Republicans anti-choice positions, they are disturbed by the oversexualization of popular culture and perceive Republicans as protecting their children.
Personally, the pie ad made me queasy, and the new version of it is worse. It simply says to me, “this is not a place where you are wanted.” That’s fine. I don’t need to go everywhere. This seems like a much nicer place anyway.
I see a DC insider (DLC) disregard for real issues. I am having a very hard time believing that my party stands for anything anymore. I keep getting these surveys from the party full of red meat appeals to my concerns and asking for money. Then the very person who’s name was on the appeal goes and votes against the things I said I was concerned about.
There’s something rather interesting happening in the Democratic Party right now. The power struggle is between the inside-the-beltway types and the party’s activist base. Howard Dean is trying to remake the party from the ground up and disperse power to the state and local organizations.
Dean is raising money and distributing it directly to state party organizations with the requirement that they use it to build strong local (county and precinct) organizations. This is money that is no longer available to what has been called the “aristocracy of consultants.” These consultants have been used to siphoning off huge amounts of money, but their gravy train has left the station. They’re not particularly happy, and because they have access to media, they make it sound quite different than what’s happening with the party out in the rest of the country.
I was at a small-group forum recently when someone asked Dean about the DLC. His response: “Ignore them. They don’t actually control any votes.”
I just encourage everyone who is unhappy with the direction of the Party to do what I did–get involved. It’s not hard, and I was able to move from being a precinct person to a member of the DNC in less than three years. This is happening all over the country. It will take years for progressives to take over (just like it took years for the religious conservatives to take over the Republicans), but we can do it.
Here’s another thing… We can’t afford to ignore the issues, whatever they are, in favour of political expediency. What Dr. Dean’s Strategy does let us do is take (and fund) a state-by-state approach to them. All this means is that some states might need more work than others… But if we can’t win on a progressive platform, then we can’t win without becoming the enemy.
though we are a small group. I am very torn right now because I find that I am in agreement with my sisters on the left more than ever. What has DFA, an organization I am dedicated to said about the fact that Pa is shoving Casey down my throat? Most of the people joining my meet-up want to get to work for him. LOL
I’m drowning here.
I feel for you on that one. I would have a real hard time working for an anti-choice candidate. On the other hand, getting rid of Santorum would be sweet.
Does Casey have an actual voting record on the issue? Has he explicitly said he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade?
Are there really no pro-choice Democratic Pennsylvanians who would be viable candidates?
What’s wrong w/Pennacchio vs. Casey in the primary, Theresa?
Casey is anti-choice DLC.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.
http://www.chuck2006.com/blog.asp
Pennacchio looks interesting; at least his web site has all the right words on it.
Have you met him, Theresa? Does he have a chance?
I have a couple of ideas I’d like to get up to party leadership.
for example:
I’ve been wondering about developing a political handbook on Verbal Self-Defense for candidates and campaign managers. Perhaps taught in conjunction with Camp Wellstone?
Or a way to pull messages from the base. (We do need to get Dr. Dean to sign on.)
I believe it would be very helpful to have context-based explanations available–why it is better to frame an issue in one way rather than another. We might even find that an issue should be framed (or at least emphasized) differently to different audiences. (If this idea ever gets off the ground, I’ll gladly do the explanations.)
As a relatively new DNC member, I’m trying to figure out the “how does an idea bubble up” myself. I’m at least starting to get names of staffers at the DNC, which helps.
Dean is trying to work on the message thing. What he’s asked state parties to do is to get together with elected officials in their states and ask them, “what issues can you run on?”
Theoretically, all the state parties will get their documents in to the DNC prior to the September meeting in Phoenix. At that point, what he wants to do is find the 3, 4 at most, values expressed by those issues. That then becomes the overall message. Individual candidates and states can modify/amplify as needed, but we’ll all have a core set of things to run on.
Your idea is interesting. It sounds like a technical issue, i.e., you want it run from the netroots, so I suggest trying to get it to Joe Rospars, who is the new head of the tech team at the DNC. You could try rosparsj — at– dnc.org. That’s the format most of them use for email.