November 23, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving, DU. Thank you for the learning, laughing and loving. Peace.

1.
Let us pause in life's pleasures to count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus:
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh! Hard times come again no more.

2.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms waiting by the door;
Though their voices are silent, their haunting looks will say
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus

3.
There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus

4.
'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh! Hard times come again no more.

Stephen Foster, 1855

November 8, 2017

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS CLEAR ON WHAT IT STANDS FOR

GOP racketeers and their criminal president have taken all of the oxygen out of the country. Many of us are battle weary, even with a few recent wins. Our forward looking focus is that there is plenty about this party to get fired up about.

First, we know that no party or presidential corruption or media doubts have in any way changed the Democratic Party vision.

Democratic Party donors, mainstream and social media need to get this straight: There is no "disarray" or "disorganization" in the Democratic Party.

There is no new place for the Democratic Party to “return to.”

The Democratic Party never left!

To all donors and media who ask, let’s review the Democratic Party vision:

--non-appeasing diplomacy over military action, and no. torture.
--universal health care and single payer healthcare system
--immigration reform and a clear path to citizenship
--electoral, campaign finance reform, & universal voting rights,
--ending political corruption = separation of corporate & state

--stricter gun control, as in a “well regulated militia"
--pro-labor union collective bargaining rights, a living wage,
--global business/trade treaties,
--regulated financial sector and American corporations,
--environmental protection laws

--affordable education,
--scientific investment and stem cell research
--women's complete and total equality
--environmentalism
--the Internet as a neutral public utility, not fake "net neutrality"

--marriage equality,
--universal access to reproductive healthcare,
--abortion rights.
--social safety nets for vets, children, elderly, disabled,
--legalized same-sex marriage


The Democratic Party does not mistake party unity for uniformity. Its Big Tent is democracy.

Second,

Plenty of donors can benefit by support of the Democratic Party's vision.

Plenty of Americans can benefit by voting for its vision in 2018 and 2020.

The vision -- Doing the greatest good for the greatest number.

November 2, 2017

The Democratic Party is a strong governing presence in America, not a tool of corporate media.

I wouldn't put too much stock in MSNBC's hand wringing stance about Democrats.

Too many of us just put ourselves in a reactive position. We are not what we're called. We answer to the country, not the other party.

We all have to be proactive -- we have to promote a vision for the Democratic Party that will get out America's freakin' vote.

First, a few considerations...

Consider that 70% of the country didn't vote for Trump. Consider that half of the 70% just didn't vote. Those are the people the party should poll and develop a vision with.

Consider that the party ignores its progressives. Those are the people the party should develop a vision with. If they had earlier, Bernie wouldn't have taken that wing.

Consider that the Kochs have been subsidizing and organizing a capitalist libertarian, racist, sexist, white vision of this country since Koch meshed his money with James Buchanan's vision in the mid-70's. They are moneyed, pushing a Mount Pelerin Society pro-white privilege austerity economics for decades.

But to frame the Democratic Party as in disarray by comparison unfairly contributes to more democratic discouragement from public voter registration and engagement.

Since the Republican Party is the party of maleness and whiteness, it stands to reason that everyone knows how the Democratic Party is the party of everybody else.


Right now, the Democratic Party's foundation is that unity is not uniformity. We must not allow anyone to call that "disarray" or "disorganization." The diverse mess of democratic opinion is exactly what democracy and the Democratic Party must continue to embrace -- it must embrace its progressives.


Second, here is the vision of its political self and America that I think the Democratic Party should promote -- early, often and loud to itself.


The Party is already pro-business. The party has to get billionaire investment to

1. win statehouses -- win voter districting, win the fight on gerrymandering, win the fight on Crosscheck voter oppression -- as the Koch says: Lose the courts; lose the cause.
2. win reform on immigration paths to citizenship,
3. fundraise like hell for state level people to go national,
4. revive the ERA to win equality for half the population,
5. win the future through human development -- promote upward mobility through thorough, lower to higher education attainment
6. win the Single Payer war
7. win the pro-green energy war so that Americans' landbase water and health are preserved, and Earth's people survive the fossil fuel era.

Overall, the Democratic Party can present a 10-point plan to lay out its vision (Mine above is just a start.) One that prioritizes law and democracy,
reformed prosecution,
regulated capitalism,
lock boxes up social supports from food to CHIP,
funds education and social services,
develops intelligence and
American abundance.

The Democratic Party needs to encourage the legal profession, nationwide, to believe that good law, good government does the greatest good for the greatest number, not the richest.

How to spread awareness of the Democratic Party's vision? Be consistent and timely.

1. NYT, WSJ and major newspaper full page adds.
2. Long infomercial videos across red states, stemming from revival of the 50-state strategy.
3. radio ads on the plan,
4. social media ads and memes

ANY CLEAR PLAN from Democrats is a much better vision for America than the current Republican hard scrabble bootstrapping, white supremacy, fascist vision.


Overall, the Democratic Party should publicly, informally, call itself what it already IS -- the Party of The Rest of America.