Eleanors38
Eleanors38's JournalI propose PRG be run like an organizing committee.
Not as formal as time-certain, Robert's-Rules-of- Order meetings, but a group which delegates certain functions and activities that within a reasonable time can yield results. For instance, we need some things done soon:
1. Clean up & shorten our lists of beliefs and goals. I and others have been working on this.
2. Designate a liaison to contact activists in the other groups already mentioned in the pinned threads. What are they doing? Do they want to combine forces? What works for them? What doesn't?
3. Look to long range planning. Who is good at PR? Being an official spokesperson? Media outreach? Scheduling? Web site development? Heavens, even fund-raising?
There are many tasks which will emerge later, but an organizing committee can be a good start.
At Demwing's request, a compendium of stands and beliefs
DU members think should be advanced by PRG. This is not in stone, and only reflects threads posted by time of this writing; you may wish to add, modify or reject some.
Stands and Issues:
1) Right to Roof, Right to Eat, Right to Health
2) Living wage
3) Protect our water
4) Renew protection of individual rights
5) Aggressively reduce college debt
6) Strengthen right to unionize
7) Free higher education
8) Bridges, utils, roads repaired Now
9) Strengthen Social Security
10) End child hunger, end poverty
11) End War on Drugs, medically treat addicts
12) End prejudice & discrimination
13) End pay inequality, voter suppression
14) Support gay & immigrant rights
15) Modernize government, esp. IRS
16) Single-payer health care
17) Tax code simplification, close loop holes
18) Capital gains taxed at same rate
19) Lower IRS taxes for new, small start-ups
20) Candidates receive $ only from constituents
21) Sovereignty over your body
22) Nat'l voting rights act for fed elections.
23) Provide for national referenda
24) End Electoral College
25) Strengthen public schools, end privatization
26) Freedom from monopolies. Open I-net
27) Restore habeus corpus
28) Speak out on climate change
29) Support alternative energy
30) Fund public elections
International issues:
1) Speak out against "Costly Trade Agreements"
2) Smart & Just foreign policy
Suggested Strategies:
A) Open lines with DFA, WFP & others
B) Start organizing around local issues
C) Get DU "celebs" to speak out
D) Never use oppositions' frame, use our own
E) Democrats should use stories, not "positions"
Actions now:
a) Living wage on all state ballots
b) Sign all correspondence using PRG & locale
c) Promote pop. Dems for 2016 Sen. elections
Some names for PRG:
I Second Bill of Rights
II People's Democratic Party
III Roosevelt Democrats
WillyT and EEO also have summations in the works.
What's in a name? We better decide...
People are offering them up in other threads, and it is our responsibility to come up with a good one. I suggest:
1) Set a time line for entries;
2) A vote on what we like.
My pithy effort: New Reform Democrats
ON EDIT, the name for this group is not necessarily a substitute for the present Democratic Party, but a more formalized public expression for this movement beyond a group in DU
Some basic inaugural discussion about goals?
Projects we can start in no particular sequence:
1) Short concise statement of what we support for the betterment of this nation;
2) How do we do this? Exp.: Reform/takeover of the Democratic Party? New Party? Movement not based on a party?
3) The Big One: What is the best approach to massively legitimize ourselves to where the Movement is The thing to talk about & to be involved in.
Deer gun season opens tomorrow in Texas.
Day time temps will be 63°, some 15° less than yesterday, with night time down to 40s. That means I can hang the deer out all night. Clear, moderate breeze (after showers Thursday), and oats for cattle are drawing does into the field. It should be a wonderful time.
Dove hunter's second report: Another 15-bird limit.
Same field, same result. The biologists were right, 'tis a very good season! Almost all mourning dove in Central Texas; the white wings have not made an appearance as yet this year. Great time!
Dove hunter reporting in: Limited out at 15.
Got my limit at a friend's "ranchita" in Texas. This is not a commercial operation, but a small spread with a cattle lease and spring-fed crop field with a strip of sunflowers. Hot day (98°), but we were in the field by 7 a.m., and I had my limit by 9 a.m. Wonderful time!
Some clarification on "hides" & censorship of material in this group.
Recently, a host of the Gun Control Activist group posted without comment some essay about an ad campaign the NRA had started to drive up the "negatives" on Michael Bloomberg and his gun-control campaigns & ads.
No example of an ad was presented.
I thereupon requested an example be posted or linked to so that it might be analyzed. Another DU member obliged.
This member had his post "hidden" when alerted on.
This use of the jury system for censorship purposes is authoritarian and abusive. If this kind of "dynamic" is allowed to continue, intellectual inquiry and critical analysis will take a back seat to whoever can set the biggest trap. I will remind DUers, the OP broached the subject of an ad campaign without providing examples. When an example was provided by a DU member, that member was punished.
I respectfully request Krispos to weigh in on this, perhaps in consultation with the Ads, hopefully with an eye to at least firming up censorship standards to prevent members from being penalized. A list, perhaps? A consumer/viewer-type warning? Or maybe a free speech zone where material (the very subject of an OP) can be openly posted and criticized?
Well, the controllers have dragged guns into GD Ferguson, MO threads...
...and there is vast confusion. One thread says that 2A is the only constitutional right left in that town (disapproving, I guess), another asks wryly where the NRA is in all this (again, disapproving, I guess). I pointed out that the liberalization of gun laws would make the NRA's presence singularly unnecessary. Christ, these posters are all over the place.
Caught between the metaphors of a panther and a house cat.
Interesting rule changes in GD re: Guns. Can't link
but I shared my thoughts. You may wish to as well.
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Member since: Tue Sep 18, 2012, 04:36 PM
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