You are now a party-advisor. What should the Democratic Party do?

[branders seine]

Move to the right? Go get those disaffected republicans who aren't quite insane enough to be a teabagger.

Stay the course? Continue the current triangulating, faux-real politik approach.

Become more progressive? Embrace traditional Democratic support for unions and workers and the poor. Work to build a robust social safety net. Fight against corporate power. Implement meaningful regulation of the reaganish laissez faire capitalists. Raise taxes on the wealthy.

[Xenotime]

1. Squeeze harder on the GOP.. They still have too much influence

[tekisui]

2. Turn Left.

Drop the blue mutts and make the distinction between them and the corporatist repukes clear.

[MNDemNY]

3. And charge...fast and hard!

[TheDebbieDee]

7. I'm with you. Somebody needs to start leaning

on these DINOs. They should be scared $hitless at the prospect of being in the same room with other Dems that are supporting President Obama.

[branders seine]

19. I think a truly progressive agenda

(and that would include single-payer health care, militarily exiting Afghanistan and Iraq, huge infrastructure-stimulus investment, hard re-regulation of the financial sector, restoration of Truman-era tax rates on corporationsa and the wealthy, an end to corporate personhood, and radical campaign finance reform)

would guarantee Democratic majority government for three generations.

Unfortunately, that is not what the owners of the country want their servants in Washington DC to enact.

[dana_b]

21. yes!

ignore the Repubs until they act like adults (Ha! I make myself laugh!) and kick the Dinos into shape. Oh - and disown Lieberman.

[aSpeckofDust]

I'd bring them so far left the liberals would seem like repubs! Fwa ha ha! n/t

[mdmc]

26. +1

welcome to DU my friend..

[branders seine]

32. +2

[FreeJG]

4. Clean house! Get rid of the closest republicans in the party who continue to help elect republicans!

[TNDemo]

5. Find some testicle starter

and fertilize it.

[asdjrocky]

6. What we put them there to do.

For fuck sakes this is not rocket surgery, they know what they are supposed to be doing and the reason they aren't doing it is becauset they are bought and paid for. We're just the people that vote for them.

[old mark]

8. OP, we must try to do both - engage the centerists who are leaving the GOP

by the carload, and make them understand that the "socialist" policies we are supposedly inflicting on America is to the good of the people and the nation. We must not tell them how wrong they were, but how much we need their support in making the country work again and get them on the right side...instead of the RW side.

Jesus - I'm starting to sound bipartizan!!!! I have been Obamacized!!!!!111!!

:rofl:

mark

[polichick]

9. Forget about right and left - just make a clear case for sanity...

Put the people ahead of corporations, exposing those who stand in the way.

That would include everything in your last paragraph.

[Arctic Dave]

10. Go left. The teabaggers and such will fall into obscurity

splitting the old GOP.
Get back to core Democratic principals championing US families and worker industry.

[Burma Jones]

11. Attack Wall Street......Purge the Administration of Wall Street Hacks

Ninja Assassins are not completely out of the question.


Be the fucking party of the fucking people for fuck's sake.

[underseasurveyor]

12. Find your balls.

Find your ovaries.

Re-affix your spines and make a sharp left turn.

Now Move!

[tigereye]

13. dig in their heels and do the right thing - they have the votes

they should stand up for what they said they were going to do, and stop backing down.

[ThomWV]

14. My vote goes to Progress and that is never accomplished by standing still or going backwards.

[Posteritatis]

15. It should pool its resources in an attempt to get a notochord. (nt)

[notesdev]

16. Introduce Rahm Emmanuel to Tonya Harding

and let nature take its course

[branders seine]

33. LOL

[OHdem10]

17. We have had 8 years of Center Right/Far Right Governance

I swear if we moved to the Center they would think we turned
Left.

The people rejected that 8 year ordeal of Center/Far Right
governance.

It would be so awe-inspiring if we could be a real Democratic
Party who put interests of Middle (Working)Class ahead of Corporate
Interests just a few times.

[Sinti]

18. Personally I would tell them to be really, really honest

and run the numbers on every proposal - run the numbers on the war machine, what it's getting you in terms of real security, and all manner of other things.

Then take these facts, illustrated with graphs and such, to the American public - and hire people to write for them that understood how to communicate clearly to the public. If you cannot get through, I think you would have to buy time, or force the TV stations to give you time to explain things.

A once-a-week TV address would probably be good, with a dissenting argument of course. It wouldn't have to be long, 15 minutes maybe, just long enough to get the information out sans spin, just numbers and outcomes.

I realize the corporate mafia media would stand in the way for the most part, but I think they need a woodshed moment, also. The American public, awash in communications tools, does not communicate with their elected leaders, to speak of - they (most of them) neither seem to listen nor talk to their constituencies in any real and open way.

I would recommend a results-oriented approach. Just like in businesses, you can always find best practices to deal with any problem. You can do a ready, fire aim approach and guide from there if the matter is urgent, or you are charting unexplored waters - but, they're usually not. Experimental programs could be done in different places if they don't have sufficient data to know what will work. ATM, they spend more time on complete BS than anything else.

What kind of country do we want to be? How do we get there? Force the opposing parties to answer these questions without any "we're the greatest, blah, blah, blah," after you answer them yourself, of course. I would tell them if they want to win elections, do something worth spending time on while they're in office.

This will never happen, of course, because they still have you hiding under your desk from the boogie man - whether he be a terrorist, or a virus, or your ability to work and therefore to eat. Seems to work for them, but I couldn't stomach it. It seems to me the whole thing is just a show to entertain the politically curious.

[Beaverhausen]

20. Bring back Howard Dean

[G_j]

22. make campaign finance reform a priority

then progressive leaders and values will naturally rise to the top.

[ddeclue]

23. Clone Alan Grayson, Al Franken, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich, Anthony Weiner.

throw the DLC'ers out.

[mdmc]

24. fake right, GO LEFT, and support Obama.. There's.work.to.do..yo!

whoop.there/it.is

[optimator]

25. end wars

.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. Take a BIG risk and actually stand for something other than getting elected.

Of course that would mean that politicians would actually have to become ethical..stop lying..stop making excuses..show courage...awww...forget it.

[Individualist]

28. Eliminate the DLC

[slackmaster]

29. Party on

:toast:

[Capn Sunshine]

30. EMBRACE FDR

and all the progressivism that goes with it.
Every time we distinguish ourselves from the others and let them know what the core values of the party are, we win.

We figured out how to win an election, now we need to figure out how to win our party.

[Stinky The Clown]

31. Lefter than we are.

[tabbycat31]

34. listen to your base

if you ignore your base, they won't show up at the polls. See NJ and VA

[branders seine]

36. will that still hold true in a major election like 2010?

I hope so.

[Cleita]

35. Remember why they are Democrats, the party of the underclasses and

the working class. Otherwise they are useless to their base and deserve to be replaced by a new party that recognizes whom they represent.

[Forkboy]

37. Fire me as party advisor.

[TheKentuckian]

38. It looks like we have a bae election coming up

So, we need to at least attempt to fire our up. The Confederates are already foaming at the mouth so ignore their reactions.

Come down on the robberbarons like a ton of bricks. Break up/nationalize Goldman/Chase/CITI/etc

Construction projects

Repeal DADT and start on DOMA

Make GM and Chrysler bring back electric cars (at least)

Forget cap and trade and directly get going on renewable energy programs nationwide

[closeupready]

39. Pass campaign finance reform.

That should be near the top of the list, since it is the genesis of so many of our problems with regard to non-representative representative democracy.