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December 31, 2004
A Look Back, Shrum for Nelson?
We've reached the end of 2004, and it has been an interesting ride. So let me offer a few thoughts.
1. I'd trade the Sox victory for a Kerry one. As a lifelong Sox fax, this is probably the most difficult conclusion I've ever reached - but nonetheless I've reached it.
2. The battle was lost, but the war is far from over. The Democratic Party is not dead, and half the country knows things are pretty lousy right now. We'll be back, and we should start acting like the antagonistic, obstructionist, minority party that we are. Anything short of that will allow the Repubs to continue to steamroll us.
3. President Clinton recently reminded us what a real leader is. And yes, the Bush Administration is stingy. We had an incredible opportunity to do good, and build international good-will - and we blew it. Can this idiot get ANYTHING right?
4. Bush owes me a Mars mission. Where's my damn Mars mission? If we're stuck with this idiot, the least we can do is let a couple of people escape the planet.
Kos and DD are discussing how Bob Shrum is already lined up for Nelson and Corzine. I will be the first to call for Shrum's head in the Presidentials, but the guy has a much better record on Senate campaigns. Let's win back the Senate...and keep this guy away from the Presidential candidates.
Posted by MikeSager at 8:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 20, 2004
Third Parties? Instant Run-Off Voting? It the Culture War, Stupid!
I'm very sick of people proclaiming "The Death of the Democratic Party" while failing to recognize:
A. The cyclical nature of politics.
B. The power of talking points to become truth.
Everytime someone on our side declares the party to be dead, it's one more blow to the party. In the bloodsport of politics, language becomes a weapon, and words become the new truth - whether or not they have anything to do with fact.
This all leads me into a brief discussion of Third Parties, and Instant Run-Off Voting. I've heard a lot coming out of "Progressive" camps about this, including from several friends of mine. What strikes me is that I don't hear anyone on the other side of the fence calling for a new party apparatus, even though there's a huge difference between the cultural conservatives and the economic conservatives. If additional parties were going to benefit our side, they'd also benefit their side - and yet, I hear nothing about this. The reason is - this is a VERY BAD IDEA. I'll repeat:
Splitting the Democrats into Multiple Parties is a VERY BAD IDEA.
If the Kuschinich-ites run-off and start playing ball by themselves or with the Naderites, then we're going to have two small parties crushed by a behemoth Republican party.
Now this is where Instant Run-Off Voting supposedly comes into play - with IRV, third parties can have their candidates in the race but not take votes away from a viable candidate. At the end of the day, how are we supposed to have message discipline if there's two party appartatuses supporting one candidate (which is what IRV would lead to.) If Third Parties all of a sudden have traction without actually having the ability to get more than 5% of the vote, then the discussion is going to become a lot noiseier than it already is, leading to a message disaster and the continued definition of the discussion by the right wing.
Giving Lyndon LaRouche and Ralph Nader a voice is not the answer, nor is entertaining the whim of every whack-o Kuschinichite who are exactly the same as Republicans except instead of protesting for Jesus they're protesting for Tofu.
My point is this - When the Republicans lose, they don't threaten to leave the Republican Party. They figure out what they did wrong - and fix it. We need to stop trying to figure out ways to spread ourselves thinner, or to find other outlets because we feel that our side isn't "blank-enough." The only way we're going to win is if we work internally.
Which leads me to my next point - the lines in this battle have been drawn, and we keep getting beat because we don't recognize what battle we're fighting. We're in a Culture War - period. We need to recognize that. And that means economic populism must fall away for now - we're not going to win anything by fighting against corporations - that's a distraction. We need to fight against the fundamentalist agenda, and make sure that we protect our rights. We need to be fighting for abortion, free speech, and keeping the government out of our bedroom. And we need to make it clear that this is the fight we're in - we can win this on cultural grounds, but we need to fight it there.
So to my Fellow Dems, here's my proposals:
1. Stop complaining about corporations. We're not going to win that fight. I'm not saying that we should start shopping at Walmart, but the Corporations are a symptom - not the problem. Cultural victories will lead to Economic ones.
2. Jesusfreaks are never going to like us, so we need to stop pretending we can reach out to them. They've drawn the lines in this battle, and picked their "saviour" while we all retch. No matter how many times we say Health Care and Living Wage to them, they're going to come back with Jesus. So let's focus on the fights we can win.
3. The Middle Class and Business Owners are NOT the Enemy. Everytime we discuss punishing the successful, we push away a large bloc of voters who are with us culturally. As a party, we can span economic boundaries to make sure that we worship as we please, and that we can sleep with whom we like. Let's stop talking like it's a crime to be rich, and start talking about how we have the right to say whatever we please in this country.
4. You can't affect policy if you don't win. I understand that it hurts people when they feel that they're not being listened to during a campaign, or that they're being ignored. But it doesn't matter whom you talk to during the campaign if you don't win - policy is not dictated on the trail, who gets to decide that policy is.
I'll have additional thoughts later.
Posted by MikeSager at 2:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 19, 2004
Sometimes Friends Must Tell Each Other the Truth, New Site Look, Blog Spam
One thing I fail to understand is how the Democratic Party ended up siding with the lawyers in their fighting with Doctors. You want to talk about an issue where you're on the wrong side? Who should we be fighting for - the ones who heal sick people, or the ones who sue them? Don't get me wrong - I love lawyers. I think anyone who makes it their career to look out for the little guy against the big corporations is someone worth knowing. But things have gotten out of control. As Democrats, it's our job to tell our friends that they're screwing up. Everytime a lawyer forces a good doctor out of practice, that's one more person who no longer has access to quality health insurance. It would be one thing if the lawyers were only going after the quacks or those who are dangerous. But it's quite different when they sue anyone, hoping for a settlement. If we're going to take our country back - the first thing we need to do is stand up to our friends and say "Enough - you're not helping."
The lovely Miss Rose has been of great assistance with the redo of my site. Together we stayed up tonight, figuring out my style sheets and making the thing look cool. That's her artwork. If you need a site design, we're available!
I may have to make comments Registered users only because I'm getting an insane amount of blog spam without actually getting comments. Unfortunately, Moveable Type doesn't have a built in spam filter (or an easy way to turn off comments on an old entry), and MT-Blacklist requires that I manually delete spam comments rather than just killing any comment with the words "Texas Hold-Em" in it. But before I require TypeKey registration, I've got one trick I'm trying first.
If you're spamming my blog - please stop. Nobody is going to use an online casino or buy prescription drugs because of a comment on Carpetblogger.
Posted by MikeSager at 1:53 AM | Comments (2)
December 11, 2004
Direction of the Party
Tommorrow morning Rose and I are heading over to the Wyndham at Disney to listen to several of the candidates for DNC Chair speak. Among them will be Howard Dean, which we are quite excited about. It will be interesting to hear the various candidates discuss their visions for the future, and for the party. Which leads me to my next thought...
There are several articles floating around right now about whether we should be fighting an economic war, or a cultural war. David Sirota writes in the American Prospect about how economically progressive candidates have won in very Red areas by having a good economic message. Ed Kilgore counters by pointing out that the candidates to which Sirota refers are much more culturally conservative. I think both of them make fair points, but my conclusion is different then what either of these two draw.
If the Democrats are going to regain control of anything, we need to regain the Middle Class and the Upper Middle Class. I'm talking Small Business Owners, Soccer Moms... suburbanites. And how do we do this? We promises of tax breaks, the end of corporate welfare...and a guarantee that we'll protect public schools. We're fighting a culture war, and yet many of those who align with us culturally are voting Republican for econonmic reasons. If they get people to vote against their economic interests on cultural grounds - so should we. The divide between red and blue America is quite real, and us pretending that reduction in health care costs is going to trump the "God Squad" is naive. Instead - we should get back the people who are terrified Democrats are going to drive up taxes 9000%. The people who vote Red, yet live in Blue areas. We need to campaign on maintaining the walls between church and state, keeping healthcare out of the hands of legislators, litigators, and corporations, and we need to campaign on issues that affect the middle.
We lost in 2004 by only 2% of the vote. We can get that 2% back and then some by fighting this war their way, on their turf - culturally, and mean.
Posted by MikeSager at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 8, 2004
SCE to Aux
My favorite space program story is on Apollo 12. 12 was hit by lighting, and it caused a power failure. Controller John Aaron knew of a little switch called "SCE" that if flipped to Aux would reset the electronics.
Had John Aaron not known about the SCE switch, Apollo 12 would've aborted - using a Return to Earth trajectory designed by my father.
So I have a little bit of a personal connection to the space program. Which leads me to the reason I'm discussing this on my blog. Alright - Bush won. What does this mean? He owes me one Mars trip, with a side trip to the Moon. If there's such thing as a silver lining, this is it. So Mr. President - you owe me one trip to Mars. Let's get started.
Remember - Nixon funded the Space Shuttle.
Posted by MikeSager at 3:39 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
December 2, 2004
Local DEC Elections
Last Night the local DEC overwhelming voted to maintain the direction they held during the campaign. Ana commented to me that she'd never before seen many of the people who were present as voting members. Robin had put together a more progressive slate that featured John Harris for Chair, herself for State Committee Woman, Jim Callahan for State Committee Man, Myra Uribe for Vice Chair, and Ruth Lopez and Lonnie Thompson for Board Members at Large.
Of all the people listed - Lonnie was the only one who won.
Tim Shea won DEC Chair - this was not unexpected and the vote was fairly overwhelming.
Nancy Jacobson defeated Robin for State Committee Woman.
The closest vote of the evening was for State Committee Man. Jim mounted a very close challenge to Doug Head - the vote total ended up being 58 to 42.
Vice Chair was also close with a woman named Amy (whom I'd never heard of, nor ever seen before) defeating Myra Uribe (of the Castor campaign and Sen. Nelson's office) for Vice Chair.
At this point, I'd left the room and was discussing the events with several other people. Ruth lost her race, and Lonnie won his - though I don't know how close they were.
What struck me was with the exception of Van Church from SEIU - everyone who has to deal with the party on a larger scale voted against the Doug Head slate. Debbie Booth from AFLCIO, David Dix from the City, and Juan Lyman all voted the Robin slate.
There was a large group of people whom I'd never seen before that were present last night. These people overwhelming voted for the Doug Head slate. It is quite unfortunate that those whom were never particularly involved in the first place voted to maintain a party apparatus that is self-destructive at best. That's why many of us are fleeing to Blue States.
Posted by MikeSager at 9:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 1, 2004
Israel Politics, A Response to Trippi, Orange DEC Tonight
There are interviews with both Abu Mazen and Ariel Sharon in last week's Newsweek. The interviews show a reason for optimism in the Middle East. I also find it interesting that terror attacks dropped off after Arafat's death. Perhaps the guy really was ordering them? Ultimately, I hope we can find a solution that both sides are happy with. If the solution is seen as anything but a victory for both sides - neither side will be happy. If the Palestinians give into every Israeli demand, there will be a backlash from their people and we'll be right back where we started. But if the Israelis give into every Palestinian demand - then the Israelis will elect new leadership who will react differently to the treaties. It's a tough situation - that's why you never want to get into a land war in Asia.
In the Wall Street Journal, Trippi discusses what's needed to save the Democratic Party. While there are many points I agree with Joe on - a clear definition of where we stand, work with the base, and strengthing labor - there are places that I very much disagree. Grassroots only goes so far - Bush would not have won election without convincing swing voters he was better at handling terrorism. This didn't come out of voter contact - this came out of television buys and their message machine. The lesson of Rove isn't all grassroots all the time - it's you must effectively combine all the mechanisms of campaigning.
Here are my proposals -
1. Coherent Policy Positions with Plain Talking Points - We need message discipline from the candidate all the way down to the Canvasser. Everyone needs to know what to say - and we all need to be saying the same thing.
2. Don't Abandon the Swing - There will always be a swing voting bloc in this country. We can't abandon it. I'm not saying that we need to move to the Center, but that we need to appeal to both areas. During the Kerry Campaign - we switched to all base. We stopped canvassing in swing precincts and I suspect that this may have been what cost us Florida. One on One Voter contact is incrediably effective with convincing swing voters - and swing voters can be relied upon to vote. This also ties into the Message.
3. Go on the Offense - The perception during 2004 was that we were on defense - at least it seemed that way to me. Bush ran as if he was running against an incumbent - and that's how he won. We should've been on the attack from day one - but also have been better about defining ourselves. We should've been 10 points ahead going into the debate.
I'll have more thoughts on that later.
The Orange Democrats are having a meeting tonight - Hopefully I'll have some insight on where things are going. Then again, I also am looking forward to getting out of Orlando.
Posted by MikeSager at 10:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack