you want a Democratic landslide??? then read this ...

[welshTerrier2]

yes, it looks like the Dems are doing pretty well ... we might win here; we might win there ... overall, the republicans have been so awful for the country that many good things are being dumped right in our laps ...

but Democrats are not like the heavyweight fighters they should be ... we are not "taking it to them" ... we are not showing the American people that we can take these guys out with one punch ... we're so busy not appearing too partisan that we're not standing up for ourselves and we're not making the devastating case against republican failures that should be made ...

so, you ready for some tough talk, issue by issue? well, here you go ... my advice, skip the excerpt below, click the link and read what the man has to say ... his approach to the issues and to the politics is a flavor we have not seen in our Democratic "warriors" for far too long ...

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brent-budowsky/lets-landslide-memo-to-d_b_27891.html

Let's Landslide: Memo to Democratic Senate and House Candidates and Staff

This note will lay out specific initiatives involving ideas, message, taking control of the debate, and winning. A subsequent note will propose ways that Air America, the Party, individual candidates and the blogosphere can fight and win in unison on matters such as mobilizing the vote and instant reaction to Republican vote manipulations and their inevitable October Surprise. Though I emphasize again we must have OUR October surprise.

I come from the JFK school of winning. When I was a very young Senate aide, my bosses were JFK guys and would take me periodically to the old Mayflower Hotel where the great Kenny O'Donnell would hold court and talk about JFK and Bobby. They knew how to win, they played to win, and they won because they always took the initiative, they always took the offensive, they believed in striking first, and striking hard, and taking the fight to the other guy. Qualities modern Democrats have largely lost and must regain. <skip>

Lets make 2006 a Tsunami. Lets make 2006 a landslide. And understand the math: we can win seats but remain in the minority; and we can win a slight majority of popular votes but emerge with a landslide gain of seats. Do not believe what the compensated consultants or pundits say on television. They have almost nothing to do with the real America. On the Sunday before the 1994 Republican landslide the Hotline and Sunday Washington Post polled 21 alleged experts. 17 of them, many of the same people in the punditry class today, said the Democrats would retain control of the House. 48 hours before a Republican landslide they had it totally backwards. When you see them on television today, ignore them.

Here are some ways to take the right issues to the voters to win:

(note: DU's excerpt rules don't allow me to post the author's point-by-point, issue-by-issue case against the republicans ... instead, i'll just list the issues he raised and ask you to read the linked article for the details ...

1. Iraq - stop rubberstamping bush
2. weakened military infrastructure and the draft
3. pro-American energy policy instead of a Big Oil policy
4. fight for homeless veterans
5. homelessness and hunger tied to religious groups
6. vision of a unified America as an American family
7. diffuse partisan allegations by saying a couple of nice words about one or two republicans
8. challenge repubicans on homeland security: "where have you been?"


The American people love underdogs and fighters; let's take the fight to them.

The American people are tired of anger politics, fear politics,and partisan vindictivenesss; let's stand for an American family with pro-American policies, pro-American unity, and the American spirit of courage and bravery. The American people do not want to substitute our anger and vindictiveness for theirs; they want to end this era of Bushism and Republicanism and all it represents, and bring back the good old USA with a can-do spirit, a country that comes together, and a democracy that is respected throughout the world.

With overwhelming disapproval of the status quo, the President, the Congress and the media the American people are giving us their message loud and clear. If we listen carefully to what they are saying, we will win an epic victory and send a message that will rocket through America and rocket around the world.

[AX10]

1. K and R!

[specimenfred1984]

2. #7, a few nice words about a repug...OK

They should be imprisoned for life instead of executed for treason.

[Czolgosz]

7. If we say something almost nice about Lieberman, does that count?

[auburngrad82]

12. I have respect for Teddy Roosevelt

He was a good progressive Republican.



Liberal bumper stickers

[Pacifist Patriot]

16. Nah, he too was a militaristic bully.

I just read some disturbing things about him the other day. If I can remember where I ran across it I'll let you know. It's one of those brain tickle things right now.

ETA: Oh wait. It was a letter he wrote to the General in the Phillipines congratulating him on what was essentially a massacre. Ah! I remember. Howard Zinn's "The People Speak" at Carnegie Hall. Turned my stomach.

[jayctravis]

21. They usually manage not to kill puppies on a regular basis.

[sam sarrha]

3. Democrats in easy elections should fund raise for those who are not

able to raise money in their campaigns.. this is not happening and it MUST.. if we dont unify and really rally the troops against voter fraud we wont do as well or good at all ..

i plan on placing any repugnut precinct watcher who messes with me under citizens arrest for interfering with a voter withing the declared feet of a precinct..

if my signature is challenged i will ask to see his certification as a hand writing expert and proceed from there to turn it into a federal case.

i still have the details to work out, but i plan to be ready

[Virginian]

26. I agree. I hear Hillary has already done that.

The other part about the challenge. Does it happen very often in your precinct?

I suggest you think about working at the polls for your electoral board. I don't know which state you are in or what the rules are, but our Election Officers are regular voters who take a day of vacation from their regular jobs to work for the county for a day. They like to have officers from both partys. In an ideal world, it would be split 50-50 but I find we have more and more officers with a "D" after their names.

My first election as an election officer was the 2000 presidential. Our county had grown so much that the electoral board was practically begging for workers. At the last minute someone went to the senior community and enlisted a few more bodies. They were trained in a rush at the last minute. I am no spring chicken, but I may have been the youngest there. It was chaos. At the end of the day, we had more votes on the machines than people checked off in the pollbooks If I hadn't been there to experience it for myself, I would have been suspicious, but based on my observations, I am fairly confident that it was because there were not enough people working and too many of those who were, did not have adequate training or experience to double check the most common problems.

In the five years I have been doing this, I have never seen anyone challenged. In order to make a challenge, the challenger must be registered to vote in our county. This is to prevent a party from sending out Challengers to disrupt an election. The person must have a good reason to challenge. The only reason I have heard so far was a person said he was John Smith and lived at 123 Main Street. The election officer at the poll book challenged the voter because HE was John Smith and that was his address.

Check in to doing the election officer thing. If you find someone disrupting by challenging, you can have them removed from the polling place.

[sui generis]

4. how about this

There have been terrorists since the beginning of time.

Yet it was on the republican watch under a republican controlled house and senate with a memo that said Bin Laden was going to knock down skyscrapers using airplanes that the worst terrorist assault on our country happened. On their watch.

Then we lied about Iraq to go to war and now thousands of Americans are dead and as many as a hundred thousand Iraqi civilians and non-combatants are dead.

Gas prices have never been so high. You can't declare bankruptcy on your credit cards, and there is no upward limit on credit card rates. You can't sue your HMO. You can't even figure out how YOU got put on the no-fly list, or how to get your name off. The government can listen to your most private phone conversations and read your email not to catch terrorists in Afghanistan, but because they think YOU are a terrorist.

This administration has given your jobs to China. This administration has made life nearly unbearable for our seniors on medicine, when they could already only just barely afford to stay alive. This administration won't even let our veterans come home and stay home because they planned so poorly for this war.

And this administration has lied to you; if they were experts in terror, the WTC would never have happened. If the TSA were experts in terror, we would not have been flying with hairgel and insoles for the last four years. If the war cabinet knew what the hell they were doing, we would have been out of Iraq in six months, we would not be firing three out of five arabic translators just because they're gay, and we would not be telling you you can't retire and collect social security until you're 73!

At nearly every opportunity to strive for balance and rationality this administration has taken the hard line, partisan down the middle approach, and then called anyone who didn't agree with them treasonous, a traitor, or un-American.

This administration has seen a thousandfold increase in Opium sales coming out of Afghanistan, and a ten thousandfold increase in al qaeda membership since they took office. This administration is responsible for letting the world trade center fall. This administration is responsible for sending our dutiful trusting kids off to be killed in a war planned and executed by amateurs, and hollowly honored as "heroes" when they come back in aluminum boxes, while they cut funding for soldier medical expenses and survivor benefits.

This administration is a bunch of amateurs playing at being grown up, worse, the republican administration has been short sighted and STUPID, and their supporters even more blind, and STUPID.

This is what happens when you let self-centered greedy amateurs take care of things. This is what happens when you, America, stops paying attention when the fox is running the henhouse.
*****
oh yeah; I would NOT be noble. I would tell it like it is. The dead soldiers and destroyed lives of Iraq demand it.

[chat_noir]

5. EVERY Republican is a BUSH REPUBLICAN

Don't let them distance themselves from Bush.

[Burried News]

6. Thoroughly agree and for a theme song Sister Sledge's

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/thefullmonty/wearefamily.htm

Artist: Sister Sledge Lyrics
Song: We Are Family Lyrics
(CHORUS:)
We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up ev'rybody and sing

Ev'ryone can see we're together
As we walk on by
(FLY!) and we fly just like birds of a feather
I won't tell no lie
(ALL!) all of the people around us they say
Can they be that close
Just let me state for the record
We're giving love in a family dose

[nmliberal]

8. also, "Everyday People" by Sly & Family Stone

[Stinky The Clown]

9. This is some of the best advice I've seen in a long time

K&R

[pnwmom]

10. Thank you. A great article. The only thing I take exception

to is saying nice things about John McCain, since he could very well be the opposing candidate in 2008 -- and I don't think he's any better than the rest of them. There are other decent Republicans that we could talk about instead. . . . though I'm having trouble thinking of one at the moment. :)

[DirtyJersey]

27. screw McCain

I could say nice things about Lincoln Chafee. That's probably about it though.

[pnwmom]

32. Welcome to DU, Dirty Jersey!

Maybe Christine Todd Whitman.

[DirtyJersey]

35. you're right

I forgot about Christine Todd Whitman. New Jersey Republicans are generally much better than national Republicans. Tom Kean, Sr. is a good guy too. Verdict is still out on Jr. In a election year less critical than this, I wouldn't be too upset about Kean Jr. winning the Senate race here if he was like his father, but this is not the time to give any GOPer a free pass. Kind of a shame, too. I consider myself a moderate, but the national GOP has gone so whacko that a Dem Congress is necessary. I'm more open to voting for a Republican for Governor than Senate or Congress, because they're not beholden to the national party.

[pnwmom]

39. New Jersey is a state

where people often split their votes among parties.

At least, they used to.

I read somewhere recently that in Princeton (which used to often go Republican locally, but Democratic nationally), they have been having trouble getting ANY Republicans to run for mayor.

[MannyGoldstein]

11. Uh... This Democratic Party?

I think that you're referring to some other Democratic Party.

Most of the current Dems couldn't stand up in a light breeze, let alone a real fight. They're counting on their opponent dropping dead of a heart attack in the ring.

[lisainmilo]

13. EXCELLENT ARTICLE

This is a well grounded and workable article! Thanks for the post!



:dem:

[Tigermoose]

14. The American Family!

We need to use this..over and over and over again. America is a family, and we need to start taking care of each other rather than bombing the shit out of people half way across the globe.

This will bring to mind Katrina and Iraq, and how those two major events could have been better handled by Democrats. We need this metaphor of nurturing family to combat the Republican metaphor of the protective father figures who are out to defeat the evil terrorists. George Lakoff does a good job explaining this in his "Moral Politics."


We are all part of the American Family.

As a good family does, we need to start taking care of one another.

Our family believes in loving our neighbors.

Family members should love and support one another.

Our family should work with other family's towards peace and prosperity for all.

etc...

[GOPFighter]

15. Great advice!

I would only add:

"And when we take over the House and the Senate, follow through on EVERY damn promise we make starting on day 1."

If the Dems do take back both houses I expect to see some results or else we'll start looking for someone else who will. Winning elections is only the first step, not the final step. I'm so damn sick of six years of this do-nothing Republican Congress! We have an economy to rescue, workers to employ and insure, levees to rebuild, troops to bring home, veterans to heal, an infrastructure to rebuild, and a President to impeach. (I threw the last one in because it makes me smile!)

[LUHiWY]

20. Do nothing?

"I'm so damn sick of six years of this do-nothing Republican Congress!"

They are pretty much trashing the country....

[AtomicKitten]

17. Harold Ford has come out swinging.

Even Tweety has given him a high-five.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

18. Short version on Iraq

What you can say:

"Every expert on the Middle East (including Bush's father) advised against invading Iraq. They were right. Democrats will bring these same people back to the table to determine the earliest possible departure for U.S. troops."

[DirtyJersey]

28. George H. W. Bush

When GWB first ran for President, people were afraid he'd be his father's puppet. If that were true, we'd be better off than we are now. His father also went to war in Iraq...and we were out in less than two months with virtually no casualties. I suppose having actually been in the military might have helped him be a more adept Commander in Chief. Instead, he's a puppet of necons like Cheney and Rumsfeld.

[ChiciB1]

19. Sounds Fantastic... But Shouldn't This Be Sent To "Our Supposed Leaders"

too?? I know I've been busting my butt, but every time I turn around lately I'm hearing the "same old crap" from MSM!!!

We can do heavy lifting, but we need LEADERS!!!! I'm hearing FEAR, FEAR, FEAR all over again and even though I would have thought it wouldn't work again... IT IS!!!

[opihimoimoi]

22. The 37th KICK

:kick:

[Clarkie1]

23. This is an excellent stategy....here are the three strongest reasons.

1. Iraq

The author identifies the correct political strategy Democrats should be following, instead of letting the Republicans characterize us as divided on the issue...we need to turn that around by focusing on what a Democratic congress will actually DO:

"state that if Democrats win Congress the obvious truth is that we will have a Democratic Congress and a Republican President and obviously they will sit down. Our simple message is this. If Democrats win some of the most credible and respected national security figures in the Nation will be working with us, to get out of the mess Bush created. Vote for us, that is what voters get. Vote for Republicans, Bush has promised two more years of the same and the only people making these decisions are named Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove."

2. Tying progessive values to patriotism and faith

fighting for veterans, freeing ourselves from dependency on Middle East oil through alternative enegry and conservation, "one America" as "one American family," religious values such as making sure no child is hungry, working with churches on these issues, etc.

3.

Take the fight to them: challenge them on Katrina, 9/11, and national/homeland security

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[welshTerrier2]

25. that's one time too many buddy ...

see ya ...

[dmosh42]

29. Let's not forget about enforcing border laws!

This is one of those sleeper issues that the Repubs understand is strong in many southern and western states. We should be saying how they are not enforcing the immigration laws on border security. For some reason, the Dems have been keeping it low key on the illegals, and the Repubs have made it their issue. We should be out there demanding law enforcement, as it means thousands of jobs for American citizens.

[pnwmom]

33. Welcome to DU, dmosh42!

[Senator]

30. Yada, yada, yada...

Without impeachment, Dems can promise nothing.

What are voters supposed to imagine getting done -- even with a brand, spanking new non-veto-proof majority?

We live under rule by signing statement. Why is it that the Dem members of the DC/Euphemedia Analstocracy can't get that into their heads.

Without demanding impeachment they are just talking into their hats. Just more flaccid blather.

Impeachment IS our positive agenda!

--

[grasswire]

31. to brent budowsky

Have you seen the strategy paper over on American Prospect, written by John Halpin and Ruy Teixeira? I believe it to be the most comprehensive, intelligent piece of political foresight to come from a Democrat in a very long time. No more going for the center; no more trying to win simply through GOTV. It's a real, solid platform based on the idea of the Common Good in America. It dovetails with what you are saying here.

Here are the links to the four parts. The first part tells why Democrats haven't "landslided." If you want the nuggets of the plan, don't start with part I -- although it is extremely important, too. I hope you'll read it all. I'm going to post the links over at huffington as soon as I remember my password over there.

Part One: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11435

Part Two: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11443

Part Three: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11449

Part Four: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11455

[Joanne98]

34. Number 5: 5. homelessness and hunger tied to religious groups AND

PRISONS! Tie the prisons to them too.

[Poiuyt]

36. I just sent this link to the Democrats who are running for Congress

in my district. I recommend everyone else do the same

[WFF]

37. I sent it all the Democrats in my district

We have a good chance of switching from Republican to Democrat this time here in NE Wisconsin

[ldf]

38. well, that's nice.

yet, since 1996, in spite of issue after issue being handed to us, somehow the democrats ALWAYS manage to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.

:shrug:

one could almost begin to think that the dem leaders don't WANT the people to have a voice.