What should the Dems concentrate on now?

[senseandsensibility]

Assuming that Kerry doesn't end up kicking *'s a** back to Crawford, what should our priority be now? We keep hearing the chimp has a man date, (gag!, but we're still gonna fight, aren't we? Well... aren't we???

[davidwparker]

1. removing black box voting.

since the dem leadership isn't interested -- they have proven that -- I don't see it happening until someone outside of the system is elected. Dean!

[Maat]

2. I'm ready to take it all on!

n/t

[zulchzulu]

3. Other

We need to continue the tradition to point fingers and blame others for the recent defeat. We need to continue the tradition of making a circular firing squad and attack each other and forget about our efforts that culminated a mere 16 days ago.

We need to continue to be a party of disjointed, dysfunctional whiners that can't seem to remember the lessons from the last elections.

We need to appoint people that will be lousy representatives on TV talk shows.

We need to get people to think that their candidate can do no wrong and does not deserve criticism.

We need to remain divided and confused and easily frustrated and then further disjointed and finally...unorganized.

We'll all fall in place too late for the next election cycle and then go back to the same cycle of inept management and incompetance.

[IndianaGreen]

4. End the war, bring the troops home!

It's the war, stupid!

[Crunchy Frog]

5. Trying to figure out what they stand for.

Coming up with a coherent message that the country will be receptive to, and developing a long term strategy for taking back the country.

During the current period when they have almost no power, they should concentrate on filibustering the most extremist judges, blocking the most extreme legislation, and speaking out as much as possible.

Added, fighting to bring back and maintain the integrity of our electoral system.

[whistle]

6. Crimes by the Bushies, investigate, indict and prosecute

[leftofthedial]

7. Voting integrity

without that, nothing else makes a bit of difference.

[choicevoice]

8. a complete restructuring and revamping our voting system

complete with so many checks and balances and paper trails and watched and controlled by both parties. We also have to spread the voting out...not everyone can vote in one day, our population is too big. OH,, and making sure there are enough voting machines in each polling place. etc etc

This was not well thought out but its been bugging me. I think its important for someone to work on.

[Telly Savalas]

9. All of the above

We got 44 people in the Senate and 200 in the House. Surely we can fight on more than one front.

[Telly Savalas]

10. Health Care Too.

45 million Americans without health coverage is UNACCEPTABLE!!!
:mad:

[Sparkly]

11. Voting and truth/fairness in the media n/t

[Outrider]

12. Ensuring acces to the courts

Democrats must stand up and say that the atempts by the republicans to constrict our access to the courts must end. Tort reform and Class Action reform are just the beginning. The republicans won't rest until they completely cut of the peoples access to the courts.

[senseandsensibility]

13. kick

:)

[snippy]

14. There are three things the democratic party must do.

First, stop allowing the republican party to define the democratic party. Second develop and implement a plan for defining the republican party. Third, nationalize the 2006 elections.

For over 20 years the democrats have allowed the GOP to define the democratic party. That has to stop. When republicans lie about democrats they have to be called liars. Democrats need a prepared and consistent response to each of the most common republican lies about the democratic party.

An excellent example of this is the lies about democratic obstructionism on Bush's judicial nominees. Bush has had the highest percentage of his judicial nominees confirmed of any president in modern history. Every democrat needs to mention this every time they speak with the media or constituents.

But the democrats also need to show Americans the true face of the republican party. That face is the Reich Wing fundamentalists. Every incident of GOP extremism needs to be painted as showing the true heart and soul of the republican party.

An example of what the democrats must do is provided by the incidents of schoolteachers telling seven year old kids in their classrooms that Kerry is a "baby killer." Democrats need to show that this is the GOP in action, not one or two isolated incidents of disturbed individual teachers. Every democrat who appears on any television show for the next several months should mention these incidents as an example of what the GOP stands for. Not just that the GOP is anti-abortion, but that the GOP believes that teachers must talk about "baby killers" to seven year old children.

Another example is the republican push to pass state laws allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control pills to women. These incidents are becoming more and more common. A huge majority of Americans disagree with these laws when they learn of them. But most people have no idea they exist or that the republican party supports them. Democrats need to change that.

The next thing the democrats need to do is nationalize the 2006 election, so that it is a referendum on one party control and the extremism of the GOP. The best way to do that I think is to campaign for reform of the government. This will cause people to focus on one party control by the GOP.

I think election reform is the first reform issue democrats should focus on. This is fresh in everyones' minds and the GOP is vulnerable on this issue since there are so many stories of long lines, unreliable machines, inconsistent rules, and republicans attempting to suppress minority voters this year. Republicans hate having the truth be told about the rampant bigotry and racism in the GOP and would have a hard time defending trying to continue to disenfranchise minorities. They will look bad if they oppose election reform. There is no reason that an election reform bill can not be the very first thing passed by the next Congress. But the democrats have to make it an important issue because the republican party loves the current election laws.

Democrats also should raise the issue of reforming Congress and the rest of the federal government. They should focus on nepotism and the revolving door of government employees leaving and becoming lobbyists. The democrats should freely admit that this will hurt some democrats as well as republicans, but they should argue that it needs to be done. Put the onus on the GOP to defend nepotism and revolving doors to corrupt wealth. (I do not necessarily believe that reforming the federal government is the most important issue facing the country but I do believe that it is one which would resonate with some people who voted republican who might switch their vote.)

One other thing the democrats should talk about is the deficits and the debt. But they need to show the historical record on this. Of the 14 times since 1960 that the annual deficit has exceeded 3% of GDP, every single time was under a republican president. In that time republicans have added around $3.8 trillion to the publicly held national debt. Bush is projecting that the total national debt will exceed $10 trillion at the end of his second term. Democrats can not continue to let this go largely unnoticed. This also is part of defining the republican party.

The national campaign democrats need to run in 2006 has to be based on a coordinated and consistent message. I think that message should be that the GOP is too extreme and that the federal government needs to be improved and since republicans control the government any failure to reform government is a willful failure of the republicans to do something about the corrupt staus quo. There are other possible messages, but the most important point is that whatever message is chosen, it must be coordinated and consistent.

Although I think democrats should focus on extremism and reform, they can not ignore the other failures of Bush and the GOP. Those need to be addressed, but in the context of a well defined strategy emphasizing extremism, reform, and one party control whenever possible.

[Zynx]

15. Our central theme should be individual freedom.

That's a powerful and unifying message that would take a lot of the wind out of the Republican's sails.

[JudyM]

16. Transparency and accountability standards for all 3 branches of govt