The Next Campaign: Ideas

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• Reader Comments (15)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  Progressives need first to leave the democratic party in droves, Head for the exits and form their own. We will never be a force inside the democratic party, a party that tolerates the likes of Zell Miller, votes overwhelmingly for pre-emptive war, the patriot act, and torture memo writing attourney generals, stands by while state governors tear up collective bargaining agreements with their state employees, and after every election loss tries to figure out how to be more like the winners. If any party illustrates the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, it is the democrats. Time for some fresh thinking, I’m not holding my breath, this will take time, like the civil rights movement, but it will have to be done.

  Posted by Kenneth D. Brown on Jan 12, 2005 at 11:07 PM

  The governor of Wasington State, Gov. Christine Gregoire, is a Democrat.  She won by 129 votes.  Many progressive an Democratic Party groups contributed to this victory. 

  One of those groups is the Washington Bus Project.  College students take a bus ride to rural areas, canvass the neighborhoods, and get out the Democratic vote.  It’s a fun trip, a fun day, and a way to make friends.

  This idea has been working succesfully for several years in Oregon.  Contact www.busproject.org for info on how to start a Bus Project in your own state (you WILL need a bus!).

  Posted by Roger Hoppe on Jan 13, 2005 at 10:27 AM

  Wow! Great article. Exactly what I have been trying to tell the party activists on democraticunderground. But they don’t wanna listen.  But I really think that a more mass media-oriented approach may be more helpful.  Look at who we have to convince in order to elect a real progressive as President: it’s not the BLue State Democrats, the ones who live in the cities of the Blue states. They are already ready for a progressive president.  THe town hall approach may be too arduous an undertaking, I fear.
  Better to raise money to target rural/small town, ex-urban white voters in the swing states. These are the people we need to persuade in order to nominate, then elect a progressive president.

  And you are completely correct: this is a campaign of ideas that should have no connection with any politician or electoral campaign. And it needs to begin now.

  Here is a plan: raise money to buy ad time in small town and rural newspapers in states like Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, PA, WI, MI, MN, etc. The readers of the small town newspapers of these states are the strategic voters whose political consciousness we need to raise. Once we buy ad time in these papers, we run articles and cartoons/comics in those purchased newspapers spots. These articles and comics would be designed to illustrate the ideas we want to get across.

  We start now by constructing some prototype articles and comics/cartoons that would get across the ideas we want to get across. Then we find out what small town, swing state newspapers in which we want to run these articles/comics. We find out how much it would cost to run them. How much could it cost to buy ad space in the local newspaper for Podunk, Iowa, anyway?

  Then we place these articles/comics on progressive websites asking for money to run them in the newspapers. Give all the pertinent details. We lockbox the money in nonprofit firms until ready to use. Then we start running the articles/comics.

  Hey, it’s a plan.

  Posted by randy on Jan 13, 2005 at 10:30 AM

  I am also posting these ideas on my blog at http://www.leftwingmediamachine.blogspot.com

  Posted by randy on Jan 13, 2005 at 10:32 AM

  If you really want to elect a good president then find somebody who will stop America from becoming a police state that is is rapidly sliding into. Both the left and the right are; for their own reasons and ideology pushing more laws, more seizures of property, more restrictions and less overall freedom. Find somebody- please who will restore freedom for everybody and stop this madness from ruining this country and turning it into a police state. While I am all for having a safe and orderly society as usual the government takes things to extremes for it’s own gain. Stop usuing laws and fines as a means to exhtort money and increase the coffers of the state. the laws are no longer about what is right and wrong but a means to further tax people and steal money ( and freedom) to make more money for an already overbloated beaurocracy.

  Posted by redstate on Jan 13, 2005 at 5:36 PM

  ‘ Progressives made great strides in 2004. The array of “527” groups backing Kerry, such as Move On and America Coming Together, exhibited the potential for serious outreach and mobilization. ‘

  More than $1,000,000,000 was wasted on lies and smears, certainly not on information, in the past campaign.

  To call this “great strides” is to place yourself in the center of the problem, not the solution.

  The problem is not one of “image”. The problem lies in the sphere of reality.

  Americans will respond to real candidates who will free themselves of the shackles of the monied interests and thus be able to talk truth about the sale of US foreign policy to the Likud, about the sale of US financial policy to the truly greedy, about the sale of US environmental policy to industry, about the sale of our representation to the monied interests in general.

  More “527” groups will enrich the Demoplican cronies who take home the money win or lose and whose efforts enlighten and uplift no one.

  Cutting the ties that bind to the monied interests and talking sense and truth will rebuild the bonds between the American people and their representatives.

  Posted by John Francis Lee on Jan 13, 2005 at 10:01 PM

  I want to heartily second the great points made
  by redstate. As a sort of left-libertarian I’m
  very concerned over the increasing loss of our
  individual liberties by an ever-more encroaching
  government. Many of our police departments here
  in California have become dnagerously dependent
  on asset forfeitures to finance their operations,
  even Hyde in Congress is trying to tackle this
  issue. Even if you’re not convicted you still
  can have a hard time getting back your seized
  assets. Various attempts to outlaw free speech
  under so-called hate crimes laws. In several
  countries including Canada a person can go to
  prison for having a skeptical view towards the
  conventional explanation of the holocaust.
  We are now legislating thought crimes.
  Readers here know of the dangers from the
  religious Right and the neocons but there are
  a goodly number of left fascists too operating
  in a more secular guise. The progressives
  would be better off focussing on the New Deal
  bread and butter economic issues, still defend
  abortion rights but I think we need to jettison
  gun control and affirmative action as not only
  losing political propositions but as bad public
  policy too. We can focus on having a more benign
  government here at home, get out of the world
  policeman model and curtail the nanny state.

  Posted by Michael Hardesty on Jan 14, 2005 at 12:13 PM

  on the gun control issue, i dont think we should jettison those principles, we just have to do a better job communicating our goals

  The idea of gun control actually resonates with the american people, case in point - we supposedly went into iraq because saddam had weapons

  in fact, you could say that the war was sold on the idea of gun control writ large

  so next time someone accuses you of wanting to take away their guns when you suggest a background check on gun purchases, ask them how they would feel about you building a huge cannon and aiming it at their house, my guess is they will want to stop you from that

  i guess all i am saying is use some hyperbole to attack hypocrisy, maybe it will help get the point across a bit better

  Posted by matt on Jan 14, 2005 at 5:52 PM

  Michael & Matt you are both right. We need backround checks for guns- and I am a staunch defender of the second ammendment but some people should just not have access to firearms!
  A strong infusion of common sense , honesty and help for the needy ( the truly needy) is in order if we are going to take back politics from the politicians. things on the left and the right are spiraling out of control. This country (I cannot speak for Canada) is turning into a police state at the persuance of the liberals and conservatives. This is not the country I grew up in. Greed is also another factor. How many folks work at waldo-mart (the new gulag??) and watch the rantings of rich politicians and stupid materialistic tv shows and scratch their impoverished heads with wonder at it all? More unions to take back the power from the capitalist hoarders. Less money in politics. I really believe that all this is designed to divide and conquer us at the altar of the god of money. If we fight over Gay rights and medical cannabis and direct our attention away from how we are all getting screwed they win. Like the wizard of oz said- pay no attention to the man behind the screen.

  Posted by redstate on Jan 15, 2005 at 7:17 AM

  Yes, I agree that we have to “shift the public consciousness toward basic progressive values and ideas” and “build a new, more progressive and critically informed base, a platform of support on which candidates can run progressive campaigns”. And one good, cost-effective approach is to target the small, local press. It’s much easier to get a letter published in a small newspaper. But, don’t forget about community radio and TV channels. There is a growing movement to take back the media at the local level. The FCC is a tool of big business, but it lacks the resources to police the public radio spectrum effectively.  Unlicensed, but well behaved, community centered radio stations can stay on the air for years before the FCC can shut them down. FCC rules on low power FM (LPFM) stations violate our first ammendment rights and justify a program of civil disobedience, a network of unlicensed radio stations to get pregressive ideas out to the people.

  Posted by Ted Sowinski on Jan 16, 2005 at 4:00 AM

  I liked some of Christopher Cook’s article, namely the part about fair taxation and taking away some of the power of corporations. As a member of the working class, that means something to me. Corporations, with their codified greed (fiduciary responsibility) and the power to do whatever they want, just don’t care about society. Society is where you offload your costs, while you privatize the profits. Capitalist profiteers are stealing the entire public sector (paid for by the public), with the assistance of their partners in politics. George W Bush told folks ‘hands off’ in regard to offshore tax havens, where Ken Silverstein (writing in Mother Jones magazine) estimated there is something like 5 trillion dollars, 500 billion of which is American, if I’m right about that. That, while ‘leaders’ in the U.S. and Canada whine that they can’t afford social spending.

  By the way, Canada is not that different than the U.S.. It’s not supposed to be. I’m not a ‘sentimental’ Canadian. I prefer to be honest and realistic, and I prefer language from others, including elected officials, that reflects reality. There’s not much of that. Powerful rightwing organizations in Canada are pushing our capitalist/continentalist leaders to embrace dollarization (using the American dollar), which is another way for them to push for the completion of Canada’s political absorption into the United States. Unfortunately, This is not really a problem for our leaders, who are, mostlyk, continentalists. Paul Martin, our Liberal prime minister, may not look like a continentalist, but then it’s simply not time for people in his position to come right out and tell Canadians, who are sentimental, that the Canada they think exists doesn’t exist. After all, Leaders like Paul Martin, who recently appointed Blue Liberal Frank McKenna as ambassador to the U.S., are there for the purpose of managing us, the people, for the bosses.

  Frank McKenna may be referred to as a Blue Liberal, but the adjective is misleading. It implies that Liberals generally are ‘not’ Blue, or Conservative. In fact there is no real difference between our Liberal Party and our Conservative Party, just as there’s no difference between your Democratic Party and Republican Party. Didn’t Dennis Kucinich refer to the two-faction party as the Demipublicans? I prefer Republicrats.

  Frank McKenna, incidentally, is a friend of power and privilege and an enemy of the working class. He’s connected to the Carlyle Group, that notorious investment organization that is in fact a giant weapons dealer. As a recent writer in the Toronto-based NOW magazine noted, with regard to this appointment by Martin: Score one for American Manifest Destiny.

  Manifest Destiny refers to a belief in and pursuit of an American-dominated North American continent, also known as The United States Of North America.

  A recent Toronto Star article looked at Jack Layton’s leadership of the federal NDP since becoming it’s chief a couple of years ago. What struck me about that article was the way so much of what the writer reported Jack and his Party intend to focus on looks no different than what the Liberals, when they are looking for votes, would focus on. Even with George Bush’s missile shield scam, While Martin is for it, his colleagues, reportedly, are not solidly behind the scheme. And Martin was unclear about his position when he was on the hustings. So what you do is, You look at his record and all that he’s doing, including appointing scumbags like Frank McKenna as ambassadors to the neighbor country who you like to tell voters you’re different from.

  What the Star writer didn’t report - hopefully not because it’s not there to report on - was how Jack Layton was going to fight for the besieged working class. Christopher Cook’s mention, repeatedly, of things like fair taxation and the need to take power away from corporations are things that mean something to the working class. If you do not address the concerns of the working class, then you can not be for the working class. Which isn’t to say that you can’t talk like you are. It’s up to us working class folks to be utterly alert to the class collaborationists among us, including both those who get into leadership positions in the unions and those who write articles that progressives read.

  Posted by Arby on Jan 16, 2005 at 5:40 AM

  You guys are insane.  A mass murderer somehow gets another term in office, and you guys attack the democrats.  Are you nuts?

  Posted by Give me a break on Jan 18, 2005 at 3:13 AM

  I’m not a believer in background checks because
  it puts the person’s right to defend themselves
  at the mercy of some public official. A serious
  criminal can get a gun illegally. The problem
  with registration is that the state has a list
  of all the gunowners when it comes time to confiscate them. And confiscation is the goal,
  it has been done in DC, now being proposed in
  San Francisco and in Alameda County (Oakland)
  the Sheriff will just arbitrarily not issue any
  gun permits because he thinks only cops should
  have guns. So the big Demo Party chief, Don Perata, now under criminal Grand Jury inveestigation, gets to carry a 9 milimeter
  gun, and everyone else is defenseless. The
  crime rate is quite high, many crimes are not
  even reported because the Oakland Police are
  incompetent time-servers and are hamstrung by
  some local attorneys who are quick to play the
  race card, plus a few leftwing Judges from Berkeley, who give the whole Left a bad name.
  I understand people of goodwill can have honestly
  different opinions here but on this issue I am
  against the standard liberal response.
  I’m not a gunowner either, just think the position
  that only government officials can carry arms is
  absurd.

  Posted by Michael Hardesty on Jan 18, 2005 at 1:30 PM

  You guys are insane.  A mass murderer somehow gets another term in office, and you guys attack the democrats.  Are you nuts?

  Yeah, because we all know the other guy had much more experience at actual murder.  Y’know, instead of murder-by-death-penalty proxy.  [snort] Surely his carnage-fest in the Mid East would have been much more tasteful and polite. Pity pity.

  There are some sound ideas in this article and thread.  I’d like to put in a plea for breaking open the closed two-party shop by advocating for proportional representation and an end to the electoral college.  That would do for a start.

  I don’t know if I really want to see Greens getting all cozy with Democrats.  Frankly Cobb’s “safe states” schtick left a terrible taste in my mouth, which is the main reason that I went with Nader.  I don’t want to walk back across a rotten bridge over a stinking river to reunite with a party led by top-down Republican wannabees who are corrupt beyond redemption.  I want some of those rank-and-file Democrats of conscience who complain that my 3rd Party interests are too “fringy” to bail out of that stink and come over here !!  A few hundred thousand more warm bodies and maybe we could start appearing LESS “fringy.” Gack.

  Posted by alsis38 on Jan 20, 2005 at 9:49 PM

  I would like to donate this material as an empowerment/educational/advocacy tool to you or your organization.  In the hope that it may be used, to perpetuate your most important and significant goals.  I feel this covers the gaps within the applied methodology for successful intervention, within many organizations dealing with human beings.  If there are any areas in need of clarification for application, please do not hesitate to contact me.

  Lawrence H. Robertson
  www.thecontinuumproject.net

  Posted by Lawrence H. Robertson on May 4, 2005 at 11:27 PM

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