POLL: Best advice for Democratic party regarding 2006 and 2008 elections

[blm]

Democrats will win if only they choose to heed the advice of Democratic

[rfranklin]

1. How about a positive agenda to reverse Repub demolition...

of the Federal government?

[blm]

16. How does that secure those voting for that agenda get their votes counted?

Or even get that positive agenda HEARD by the average citizen?

[liberaldemocrat7]

17. Tell this to every voter you can and security moms will wake up.

The REPUBLIKLAN Party appears the only party that has actually DEMONSTRATED their weakness on national defense on the day that 4 terrorists crashed their planes into 2 towers, the pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania on Sept 11, 2001.

2750 dead people attest to the weakness of the REPUBLIKLAN Party on NATIONAL DEFENSE!

So Karl Rove can infer, speculate, shout, howl as much he wants about the Democrats on national defense but only his party has DEMONSTRATED their weakness already and that appears a serious reason not to vote Republiklan this November.

Now tell what I said here to the Republiklans, and the press and swing and independent voters.

[Roland99]

18. Bingo! anti-Bush/anti-GOP won't win a damn thing. Didn't work in '04.

and it won't work now.


What won it for JFK?

What won it for Reagan?

What won it for Clinton?


A more positive, upbeat attitude and campaign.

[blm]

19. You cite races run with a neutral media and NO electronic vote machines

Big difference. Democrats HAVE been balanced with their attacks on the GOP/Bush, and with their own positive plans and solutions.

[Roland99]

20. What positive plans and solutions?

What did Kerry offer other than "a plan" (never gave much in the way of details).

Gore wasn't a very positive campaign in 2000.

[blm]

22. That's a crock - he had detailed plans for REAL homeland security, and

spoke SPECIFICALLY about PORT SECURITY, an issue no one was talking about .

George Will even said 2wks ago that Kerry was RIGHT about HOW to deal with terrorism.

He detailed how a commitment to REAL alternative energy research was a matter of national security and detailed how to make it happen.

And his healthcare plan got the highest rating and was considered the most DOABLE from the nonpartisan group that assessed all the healthcare plans.

And his economic proposals were detailed in a BOOK, fer chrissakes.

But you keep allowing the corpmedia to spin the PERCEPTION that Kerry never had any detailed plans, because Dems are GREAT at NOT LISTENING TO or STICKING UP FOR their people - and instead rely upon SPIN from the corpmedia to inform their opinions.

Anyone who claims Kerry offered no details or plans or solutions is either mistaken or LYING. Fer chrissakes, if even George Will can admit that Kerry was RIGHT about his plan to deal with terrorism,. you'd think at least a DU Democrat would have been able to see it.

[Roland99]

23. In a book, eh? And voters are going to read books prior to voting?

:eyes:

[blm]

24. ALL economic positions are detailed in books - Clinton and Gore both did

it that way, and you seem to have appreciated Clinton's effort in its details.

The rest of his detailed plans on the issues were given in speeches with accompanying text.

Why that is a problem for you or why you never understood the details is a question - either you were waiting for corpmedia to discuss the details for you, or you didn't want to be bothered in the first place. But that doesn't mean you're allowed to spread DISINFORMATION around the internet now, in hopes that many others will forget the facts, too, in an eagerness to FALSELY attack Kerry.

[Roland99]

31. Lots of ASSumptions in that post there, blm

*I* knew the details of Kerry's plan very well.

HOWEVER, the majority of Americans don't spend a great deal of time surfing the web to find details on a politician's plan.

They look to hear it on the news or in debates (wherein Kerry referred people to his website).

Also, you are continuing to overlook the overall premise of campaigns such as Kennedy's and Clinton's (and even Reagan's). There were overtones of optimism and not so much "I'm not the other guy".

Freshness, hope, optimism. That's what wins political campaigns. Not books.

[blm]

32. HAHAH - and most of DU complains Kerry wasn't negative enough and

that the whole convention was too optimistic without enough red meat attacks on Bush.

I suggest rereading the debate threads and the convention threads from DU at the time - because they were NOTHING like you describe.

[rosesaylavee]

2. As in Post #1 but more specifically

how about if we reinstate the American Constitution and our Bill of Rights?

[blm]

3. This is more about strategy and process to win the votecount in November.

Your post is the agenda we all need to work towards to secure.

[Selatius]

4. Adopt economic populism:

Here are some broad outlines.

• Shifting the burden of taxation off the middle class and poor and back to where it belongs
  
• Busting white collar criminals
  
• Increase aid for public education, health care, job training, and poverty relief
  
• Enforcing anti-trust laws against goliath corporations
  
• Attacking and removing corporate tax shelters
  
• Fighting corporate influence in the halls of Congress
  
• Making sure all voting machines are publicly owned using open-source software that is easy to audit with a verifiable paper trail
  
• Replace free trade with fair trade; abolish NAFTA and replace it with bilateral trade agreements
  
• Balance the budget by ending corporate welfare
  
• Bring home the troops
  
• Revive the Fairness Doctrine
  

Of course, nobody listens to the leftist fringe of the Party. Why, looking at this list, one would think it came from none other than that brutal, bloody, evil communist dictator Hugo Chavez,.

:sarcasm:

[blm]

7. Without exposing the GOP control of media, how do you think left ISSUES

can get the necessary airtime?

Like it or not, the ISSUES are the cart and the GOP owns the horse needed to deliver that cart. It's up to us to focus on getting a horse that isn't set up to only carry the cart filled with GOP issues and spin.

[Selatius]

8. That's why I added the Fairness Doctrine

If you want to go full-bore, you might want to pass laws encouraging news co-ops, or organizations that are both owned and funded by the viewers for the benefit of viewers. God forbid we have news outlets that are community owned instead of owned by corporations. Enforcing anti-trust regulations could naturally lead to breaking up of several media oligopolies.

Until the airwaves can be cleaned out of this vile, filthy corporate garbage, the only avenue we have is the grassroots.

BTW, it's not GOP-owned. It's corporate-owned. The GOP is simply another division of the corporation like Kellog, Brown & Root is a division of Halliburton.

[blm]

9. GOP and corporate agenda are partners.

If the corporations control the media, then that means the GOP controls the media.

[Peace Patriot]

5. The "centrist position" LIKES Bushie corporate control of voting machines?

Seems to be, yeah. But it's startling to see it as a CHOICE. Clever poll. (Or is it a knock upside the head to our less than vigilant "centrist" politicians, who seem to like Diebold, ES&S and unjust war?)

[blm]

6. It's an answer to the Dem STRATEGISTS who are making big DOLLARS off of

their advice to Dem party to move right, because there is no money to be made by them if they and we focus instead on getting a fair media and secure voting process.

[MADem]

10. Either / Or construct, and only two choices?

I think we need to do a LOT of different things, and we need to tailor our messages for local races as well.

[blm]

11. Sure - but how does the "message" or "issue" get out when the mics and

cameras can make the choice to not even be there or their product faces heavy editting in production rooms controlled by their opposition?

[MADem]

12. For 2006, the cameras aren't that big a deal

All politics is local. Aside from a few media buys, most reps do the grassroots things, precinct walking, town halls, and so on.

We take the House, and the Senate, and we control the agenda. Watch the media shift if that happens. If Madam Speaker has something to say, they are gonna cover it. If the Majority Leader wants to make a point, those cameras will be there. It will be Democrats on Meet the Potatohead and all the other Sunday shows. The agenda will be set by Democrats. Then, with luck, hard work and decent voting machines, we can take the White House in 08.

The cameras follow the people with clout. They aren't stupid--the media understands that the bottom line is asses in the seats watching THEIR station--politics is really unimportant; profit is King.

If the Democrats take power, people will want to see them. The media, wanting their share of the ad dough, will oblige. It's just how it works.

[blm]

13. They do have less control of 2006, but come 2008 they become crucial.

I just believe that the corporate media would be less LIKELY to play their games if the Democrats worked to expose their bias by their corporate owners BEFORE the campaign gets to the general election stage.

[MADem]

14. Oh, sure! I think the assault should take place on a number of fronts.

And that's one.

But you have to be careful how you do it--it's better for surrogates (party types, activists, that sort of thing) to attack the media, not the politicians who are running themselves. They need to keep smiling and pushing their message to the people.

The media will get shirty if they get insulted by the politician, and give him or her payback by failing to cover them at all.

[blm]

15. I know - when Kerry submitted his senate resolution against FCC changes

that loosened media ownership laws in June 2003, the media immediately cut off most of the coverage of his primary campaign.

[Jack Rabbit]

21. I thought we had a DLC contingent here

Where are they?

C'mon, guys, dissent is good.

[blm]

25. Looks like a few showed up.

.

[Jack Rabbit]

26. When I wrote that I had just posted the 50th vote

There were No votes for the second response.

[blm]

27. I know - but since you posted it appears that a few folks who

reside even further right than the DLC have popped in to DU.

[warrens]

28. Neither

Go after them hammer and tongs for lieing us into war, then totally fucking it up; for a farce of a prescription plan that was just a giveaway to Big Pharma; for destroying the middle class by transferring billions in wealth to the upper class at the expense of the middle class; for alienating the entire world; and for sheer incompetence, greed and fascist behavior.

[blm]

30. heh - those same strategists are saying the public doesn't want to hear

about how bad Bush is.

[peabody71]

29. kick

.