An excellent post that I can't take credit for:

[brentspeak]

This was posted on alternet tonight. It speaks eloquently to the quintessential problem facing the Democratic party:


LJSullivan
Posted by: ..... on Jun 10, 2005 7:14 PM
I agree with McArthur. I was very happy when Dean got chosen to head the DNC, and then held my breath to see if my hopes would be realized.

Alas, no. The problem with the Democratic Party is the complete and total disconnect between the 'leaders' and the grassroots. We can scream ourselves blue in the face about the war, the economy, the environment, the electoral fraud going on, and what happens is that we get on every candidate's mailing list.

Next comes the daily appeals for our money -- oh, yes, and incidentally, our responses on their surveys, carefully designed to keep it virtually impossible to add anything of our own; like Hillary's recently. Some ten or 12 'issues' for me to prioritize, so they know where I stand and what matters to me.

No mention of the war. No mention of global tyranny. No mention of the impending crash of the economy. No mention of the corrupted election system. Just dancing lightly among secondary issues. This party -- to which I still belong, but probably not for long -- will get not one cent from me until I see that the leadership is capable of RESPONDING TO THE GRASSROOTS -- which it is not doing.

It is, of course, sucking up to its fan club, and smiling at those who adore the leadership, guilty or not...

But it is all too obvious to me that this is exactly the course it has been following that is costing it victory. Have fun on election night, consoling one another -- again.

[Carolab]

1. DUPE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1846737&mesg_id=1846737

[Erika]

2. Yes, Dupe

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Right on.

Got an e-mail from Kerry the other day, wanting me to contribute money to run an ad about health insurance for children. While I certainly agree that it's really bad that so many people, not just children, lack access to medical care, and that something needs to be done about it, WHAT ABOUT THE FREAKIN' WAR? The Downing Street minutes? Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib? Election fraud? The Patriot Act? We are losing basic civil liberties, people are being killed, and we will never be able to fund health care or other domestic programs until we stop dumping billions of dollars down the rathole that is Iraq. Why aren't more of the big-shot Democrats like Kerry hollering their lungs out about how Iraq is turning into Viet Nam and our country is turning into a fascist state?

[brentspeak]

4. And Dean, too

Dean's been focusing on secondary issues as well; he seems to have forgotten about Iraq.

[halobeam]

5. I'm afraid this won't change until people take it to the streets

I'm very scared about the fact it will take that, but it WILL take that. These reps are NOT representing us. I feel like they are appeasing us.

Duck and Cover, but BE THERE. That's what will make things change.

[Broken_Hero]

6. Its been tried, thats why the secondary issues....

Are getting attention. Remember the weak debates last year? All the debates Kerry hammered Bush on all the mistakes that have been made in Iraq and on the war on terror, in those three debates Kerry hammered him hard, and look what happened? A lost election. What i think Dean and others are trying to do is find an issue/topic that will get people interested in listening...They tried the War in Iraq, and it didn't work out, i don't know why it didn't but it failed... Not that i don't agree with you though, i think the War in Iraq and the loss of our troops lives should be a topic at every function that Dean and others conduct...cause believe it our not, we are at War, and that should have our attention...but instead, most of all the attention is on American Idol or some other mindless reality show...

Grass Roots is hard to do, i'm stuck in Missouri and i have tried talking about issues, and they usually all end in yelling, and spitting in my face, its hard to do, grass roots is rough...but its a necessary tool. In my mind repition is key, keep pounding the War in Iraq, the mistakes, the no wmd, and issues like that, but in most cases its a lost cause, most republicans i, get yelled at by, usually respond by saying "I'm so tired of hearing about No WMD". and i'm like shit man, its the main reason why we entered into War, and it doesn't concern you? Again, the Republican base.....

[gmsage]

7. Kerry tried to hit the ball without any follow through....

....that's why he lost the election. Bush mimicked him and he just let el smirko control the debate. The coup de grace though was Kerry's answer to the question about Bin Laden, "I will hunt him down and kill him...". "Bringin' home a baby bumblebee....."

Dean and many others are trying to look out for their political "careers". Period. They do not care about you or anybody else in the working class, no matter what Randi Rhodes says. The majority of Democrats don't care about medical marijuana patients being denied an alternative medicine by Bush's Drug War, because Clinton's Drug War was JUST AS BAD (see my other posts in this forum for more info on this).

"Grass Roots is hard to do, i'm stuck in Missouri and i have tried talking about issues, and they usually all end in yelling, and spitting in my face, its hard to do, grass roots is rough..."

Didn't we hear El Hefe whining about what "hard work" building a democracy was???? Spitting in your face? What are you the friggin' Mahatma? They spit in my face, somebody's getting bruised.

C'MON PEOPLE, the streets are WHERE Progressives BELONG, not at the Democratic Convention. Is there anybody here old enough to remember Humphry/Muskie, the SDS, The Weather Underground (which BTW is where this forum stole it's name from? Seems like DU might want to consider changing it's name to Democratic Underfoot!) If so, you'll remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon I referred to in the first paragraph.

"i think the War in Iraq and the loss of our troops lives should be a topic at every function that Dean and others conduct...cause believe it our not, we are at War"

So should the War on "Drugs". In Iraq, Bush and "our troops" have murdered over 20,000 innocent people including women and children, and you're worried about the lives of the TROOPS? Bet your heart must have really broken when you found out how Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy were treated in prison, huh?

Some progressives you are!