The Message Thing

[Sapphire Blue]

The Message Thing
By Jim Wallis

(an excerpt)

To be specific, I offer five areas in which the Democrats should change their message and then their messaging.

First, somebody must lead on the issue of poverty, and right now neither party is doing so. The Democrats assume the poverty issue belongs to them, but with the exception of John Edwards in his 2004 campaign, they haven't mustered the gumption to oppose a government that habitually favors the wealthy over everyone else. Democrats need new policies to offer the 36 million Americans, including 13 million children, who live below the poverty line, as well as the 9.8 million families one recent study identified as "working hard but falling short."

In fact, the Democrats should draw a line in the sand when it comes to wartime tax cuts for the wealthy, rising deficits, and the slashing of programs for low-income families and children. They need proposals that combine to create a "living family income" for wage-earners, as well as a platform of "fair trade," as opposed to just free trade, in the global economy. Such proposals would cause a break with many of the Democrats' powerful corporate sponsors, but they would open the way for a truly progressive economic agenda. Many Americans, including religious voters who see poverty as a compelling issue of conscience, desire such a platform.

Similarly, a growing number of American Christians speak of the environment as a religious concern - one of stewardship of God's creation. The National Association of Evangelicals recently called global warming a faith issue. But Republicans consistently choose oil and gas interests over a cleaner world. The Democrats need to call for the reversal of these priorities. They must insist that private interests should never obstruct our country's path to a cleaner and more efficient energy future, let alone hold our foreign policy hostage to the dictates of repressive regimes in the Middle East.

On the issues that Republicans have turned into election-winning "wedges," Democrats will win back "values voters" only with fresh ideas. Abortion is one such case. Democrats need to think past catchphrases, like "a woman's right to choose," or the alternative, "safe, legal and rare." More than 1 million abortions are performed every year in this country. The Democrats should set forth proposals that aim to reduce that number by at least half. Such a campaign could emphasize adoption reform, health care, and child care; combating teenage pregnancy and sexual abuse; improving poor and working women's incomes; and supporting reasonable restrictions on abortion, like parental notification for minors (with necessary legal protections against parental abuse). Such a program could help create some much-needed common ground.

The full article is available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/opinion/04wallis.html

[rwenos]

1. Guns and Butter

Unfortunately, we're back to a time when the Dem's have to shed their image as wimps. (Shades of 1974.) I found this editorial difficult to think through when I read it earlier this week. It raises a good issue -- what's the Democratic Message? Why should people in Middle America buy into it?

O, Big Bill, we miss ya.

[DemInDistress]

2. I would like my next democrat nominee

Bring up the values of legal HEMP...For 250 years HEMP has been a viable,commercial,renewable source of "paper,cloth,lamp oils,food,and as fruit for the mind.Hemp was smoked by George Washington,Ben Franklin,Thomas Jefferson and Abe Lincoln.In 1937 DuPont,Hearst,Mellon and J.P.Morgan saw Hemp as the threat to their business.Hemp creates equal products to oil,trees, medicines for cancer patients and can be harvested in 120 days.Many people don't remember in 1942 the army urged and promoted the "virtues" of hemp.They created a film called,"Hemp For Victory".Farmers were encouraged to grow hundreds of thousands of acres of Hemp.Allowing Hemp for commerce would create 1 million jobs and be a great competitor to "BIG OIL".The greatest attribute of Hemp is its "environmentally friendly".
Today's Hemp can be of low THC so smokers wouldn't bother and farmers could grow,harvest and develop useful products.I see jobs...also
1.on an annual basis 1 acre of hemp will produce 2/3 acres of cotton.Hemp fiber is stronger and softer than cotton
2.1 acre of Hemp will produce as much paper as 2/4 acres of trees.from tissue paper to cardboard,hemp paper is superior to trees
3.Hemp can be used as fiberboard that is stronger than wood,lighter than wood and most important Fire Retardant"
4.It takes years for trees to grow and harvest,Hemp can be harvested in 120 days
5.Many products made from petroleum based oil plastics can be made by Hemp based composites,Hemp products are durable and environmentally friendly
6.Hemp is also a food.It contains protein and is more nutritious and more economical to produce than soybean protein
Hundreds of more uses...I want my candidate to openly talk about Hemp as commerce...Jesse Ventura of Minn..had a 7% rating,he suggested Minnesotans br allowed to grow "Industrial Hemp" his numbers shot up to 38%..says a lot..... thank you all just my thoughts

[skids]

3. Well, I had a writeup of one such thing...

...but the DU archives are not working and I don't know if I'll ever be able to retrieve it. Anyone know what's going on with that?

Anyway it basically went like this. Take this with a grain of salt... it is purposefully worded in an "America is #1" mindset, contains many fibs in the U.S.'s favor, and completely ignores all this country's shortfallings. But you know, we're supposed to be shedding the "complain, complain, complain" and "America hater" image so it's necessary to embellish:

1) We need exports.
2) China and other rising economies are having an environmental crisis.
3) We have more experience with environmental problems.
4) We produce products that they will buy to solve environmental issues.
5) Other countries have horrible humanitarian workforce issues.
6) We have high productivity when we protect the workforce.
7) We export products and services used in improving workforce health and productivity.

My original post was much more slick than that, all glossed up in stump speech form but that was the core content.

[omega minimo]

4. A woman's right to choose is a woman's right to choose

not a "catchphrase."

:smoke: