Brainstorming Thread: Open Invite to all DU - re: Restoring Dem Power

[rpgamerd00d]

This is based off of another post I read, about how the Repubs captured the "red" states and all of congress.

My idea: come up with ideas to recapture the American people.

I think its a good idea to do this as a brainstorming thread. What that means is, you don't need to post whole sentences or thought out ideas, you can post just blurbs, one-liners, partially thought out things, whatever.

I'll start, so you can an idea what I mean.

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* We are "pro-civil liberties", so why do we "attack" religious displays? A: Because the repukes paint it as an attack. How do we stop that? A: Change the paint. From now on, rather than file suits to remove a religious display from a govt site, we file suits to expand the display to be all-religion-inclusive. We don't want Christian symbols removed, after all, we just don't want them favored or made exclusive.

* We aren't "gun control". We are "weapon safety" and "crime prevention" (two separate issues).

* Ethics. Nuff said.

* We aren't "pro-choice". We are "privacy advocates". We don't want women to have unneccessary abortions anymore than anyone else. We want realistic and effective alternatives for women. Don't make abortion illegal, make giving birth possible and desired.

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Ok, toss in your ideas, and also feel free to expand on any idea or ideas, run with them, etc.

NO IDEA IS TOO CRAZY FOR THIS THREAD.

Go.

[napi21]

1. My suggestion on the abortion issue is similar to yours, but

along with "privacy advocates" we believe the Federal or State Gov't has NO STANDING on this issue! It should be between a person's God, Doctor, and personal beliefs.

[yurbud]

13. on abortion: Pro-choice is right at the beginning, pro-life right at end

of pregnancy.

Most people instinctively feel this.

The morning after pill and any kind of immediate intervention should be available with as few roadblocks as possible, however, after viability, when it's essentially a baby, we should at least be open to some restrictions.

Otherwise, the right can rightly beat us over the head with partial birth abortions, and not incidentally, it is probably the scientifically and ethically correct position.

[Joanne98]

2. I'll say what I always say..........

Dems need to use short sentences with bold words like, liar, fraud, thief, murderer and torturer. The "culture of corruption" is a good start.
Don't EVER talk about gun control again. The second amendment is the only one the cons stick up for. If we are going to defend the constitution we have to defend all of it.
Try to cut a deal with the fundies on abortion. Try to get free birth control for poor women. Roe is going down anyway, so we might as well try to get something out of it. I would go directly to the fundie leaders and bypass the pols. They've profited from wedge issues too much.
Divide and conquer the Christians. They are the ONLY thing real in the rw movement. Create the Christian left and them sic them on the right.
We also need more Paul Krugman's. The supply-side scam has been the biggest problem since the 80's. We need an "Economics for Dummies" website. With a good group of TRUTHFUL commentary.

Most of all clean up the language. Howard Dean speak, is a good example of what we need more of.

[HamdenRice]

3. The Awful Truth campaign: Stolen elections; 9/11 LIHOP/MIHOP; gulags etc

Here is a sure fire, unbeatable way to win a permanent majority for the next 30 years -- to tell the awful unvarnished truth about the Bush administration.

Generally, for the last 20 years or so, the Democrats have been listening to pollsters who tell them two things (among many others): first is that Americans hate "negative" political campaigns, even though ironically they respond to it; and second, only cater to what the relatively uninformed public already knows and believes, not what they would believe, if they knew more.

The first proposition means that if a politician says something really negative about another politician, the public reacts more negatively against the accuser than the accused. Rove understands this well, and therefore always uses "stalking horses" like the swiftboat liars, rather than the relevant candidate, to say bad things about an opponent.

The effect on Democrats is that they use preposterous weasel words, like, "the president misled us about Iraq" rather than that the president is a liar. Since we are not as devious as Rovians, and don't use stalking horses, this has the appalling effect that the more horrific the bush administration becomes, the less the Democrats are able to say about it. The genius of the bush administration is that it is so evil, so corrupt, so incompetent, so covered in the stench of death, that it becomes almost impossible, within poll tested methods, to say anything truthful at all about them and their policies.

Democrats need to bite the bullet and start telling the public what Michael Moore long ago called in his TV show, "the awful truth." True, at first there will be a backlash. But when the public understands that the Democrats are telling the truth, the republicans will never be able to recover.

Second, the Democrats have to abandon poll tested policies. There is a vicious cycle when politicians use poll tested appeals. The Democrats cannot educate the public on anything. For example, if the public believes that national health care is "socialized medicine," then Democrats cannot propose national health care. On the other hand, if the Democrats educate the public on how the health care system actually works in Canada and the UK, then, after the public has been educated, its preferences, even as measured by polls will change.

This requires leadership, rather than following the polls. This is the single biggest complaint I have about the Democratic leadership.

What is the awful truth? Let me put on my flame resistant suit.

First, if you do the research and avoid the truly crazy claims and separate them from the perfectly well documented claims, there is little doubt that the Bush administration was complicit in at least allowing 9/11 to happen, and probably, facilitated it. That means they murdered 3000 American citizens. This does not mean that OBL doesn't exist or that al Qaeda wasn't the organization that carried out 9/11. But it does mean that there is now little doubt, if you have an open mind and read the evidence, that the administration knew it was going to happen and let it happen, and probably facilitated it. I won't go into details here.

Second, the awful truth is that the republicans no longer believe in the most basic elements of democracy -- free elections. We know that Gore won in 2000 and we have an almost complete case of circumstantial evidence that Bush stole 2004 through voter suppression, black box voting and manipulation of the voter rolls.

Third that we are approaching becoming a dictatorship: secret prisons, torture, indefinite detention without trial. Our government now asserts the following powers: to detain any person, citizen or non-citizen, on US soil or outside, without trial, indefinitely, simply if the boy king points at that person and calls him an "enemy combatant." Once imprisoned, that person has no right of trial or habeas corpus, and can be tortured to provide his own incrimination or the incrimination of others. The detained person can be, and in many have already been, murdered.

That's the awful truth. If we tell it convincingly the republicans are toast for the next 20 years -- if in fact the entire republican machinery isn't put out of business as a Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization, just like the mafia.

Go negative -- that's where the truth is.

<edited>

[Joanne98]

5. Very well said.

[HamdenRice]

17. Thanks Joanne, though it often feels in responding ...

by writing a long post that one is throwing all that writing into a black hole. Thanks for reading and responding.

[Joanne98]

31. Thank you for being so perceptive......

[noiretextatique]

35. tell the damn truth

what a concept :wow:

[FlemingsGhost]

4. The Democratic Party should declare war on Iran. Nuke 'em!

They're such a huge threat, after all.

:eyes:

[More Than A Feeling]

6. We are the party that defends the American Revolution

We need to make the separation of powers a huge plank in our platform.

We win when we push to expand democracy IN THIS COUNTRY.

Continue with the 50 state strategy. No state must go unchallenged. Infrastructure takes time to build.

Go back to the old days, when every Federalist newspaper had a Democratic-Republican counterpart. Start explicitly pro-democratic party newspapers and television channels.

Leave no constituency behind. Do not be afraid of pandering, then losing our memories of it when challenged by the republicans.

Reach out to the Greens, and see what it would take for an official alliance.

Anybody like any of these?

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. Reach out to the Greens,

and see what it would take for an official alliance. The Greens and Progressive Democrats joining together is my dream! There's NOTHING I would like better. The Green Progressive Democrats? The Progressive Democratic Green Party? The Democratic Green Party? The Progressive Green Party? I would be there in a HEARTBEAT! I wonder what it would take?

[More Than A Feeling]

8. Uniting the left is definitely something that should be looked at.

Greens should be in the base of the Democratic Party.

[rpgamerd00d]

20. Lets dump the word Green, its kinda... unimaginative. We can be...

... The Constitutional Progress party.

[More Than A Feeling]

22. The American Patriot Party n/t

[rpgamerd00d]

24. Ooo thats a good one, also -nt

[PWRinNY]

9. Take ownership of the airwaves

The media whores keep spreading lies. "The mean old democrats made Mrs. Alito cry." "Abramoff gave money to democrats." Lie after lie after lie. WHERE ARE THE DEMOCRATS??? It was a great moment when Howard Dean spoke up, leaving Wolf speechless and hissing, but it didn't go far enough, you know why? Because Wolf got Mehlman on and just kept spreading the lie, and no more dems have gone on to refute. We need to speak up, speak loud, and relentlessly. We need to keep spreading the truth. The repukes get on faux news and cnn and all the rest of the airwaves and dominate. No wonder the dems look so weak and meek. We need our leaders and representatives to STAND UP AND TELL THE TRUTH and don't stop. If it takes saying it over and over until we're blue in the face, SO BE IT, but for gods sake, tell the truth!

[meganmonkey]

10. First they need to regain principle

then they can starting thinking about power.

[SOS]

11. Posted this in the Chomsky thread:

The Democratic Party might consider a unilateral ban on all corporate and PAC money. Not one cent. Let's become the party of the American people, with his/her best interests at heart.
Unchain our candidates! Only then will they be free to offer real solutions.
If the 60 million people who voted for Kerry gave just $5/cycle we could fund our own damn elections.
Why do we need to wait for more bogus "campaign finance reform"? Just say no to corporate payola now!
People will say we can't compete with the Republican corporate money machine, but the revolutionary aspect of dumping corporate and PAC money would be worth millions in free media time.
People are more concerned with crippling health care costs than "moral values", but if Pharma and Insurance are paying the bills we're gagged from offering anything meaningful to the voters.
And if we lose, at least we can hold our heads high.

[rpgamerd00d]

19. I like the idea of Election Tax

i.e. Donations to candidates is made illegal. All people (not corporations, just individuals) pay a VERY SMALL UNNOTICEABLE tax, say your example of $5 / year, maybe taken out of Tax Returns, which goes to pay for all Senate, Congressional and Presidential candidates. Each party is still responsible for funding any Primaries, but you add some strict restrictions on that too.

[justabob]

21. what is the difference between an election tax and a poll tax? nt

[rpgamerd00d]

23. People from red states better understand "election" than "poll".

OK, was I a bad person for saying that?

:D

[justabob]

25. Red states know exactly what a poll tax is and why

I want to know what the difference is between this election tax that was suggested and the discriminatory poll taxes of old.

[SOS]

27. An election tax

of say $5 a year to pay for clean elections could be added to individual and corporate tax returns.
But it would not affect anyone's ability to vote. The poll taxes were used to prevent the poor from voting.

[rpgamerd00d]

28. Dont know anything about poll taxes.

All I was thinking of was a flat federal income tax of insanely nominal proportions - like $5 - maybe taken from your tax return, or possibly somehow calculated and taken from your paycheck (it would be cents per check). I dunno the details, I'm just brainstorming. Why don't you add in your ideas?

[justabob]

29. My ideas are pretty simple and have been stated by others already

I agree with the people down thread who are calling for economic populism. That is the way to re-engage a lot of apathetic voters. My deal is not so much trying to sway people away from the GOP or the 'center', but to draw from the millions of folks who have walked away because neither party even pretends to represent them.

[rpgamerd00d]

38. Yes, even if all we do is get registered Dems to ALL vote, we'd always win

Get Out The Vote!

[yurbud]

12. careful on rewording gun control issue, sounds evasive like "pro-choice"

There are some issues where it's legitimate to reword it, but on this one, better to just be honest--most handguns are used in crimes far more often than not, but we have no quarrel with rifles and shotguns designed for hunting (and not hunting people).

[bpilgrim]

14. run a PROGRESSIVE POPULIST

it worked for clinton ;->

peace

[yurbud]

15. Hit economic populism HARD: most righties hate NAFTA/CAFTA, etc.

more than we do, but the Democrats are so beholden to big business that they can't move away from the GOP on this issue.

A lot of people are smart enough to put their pocket books before the symbolic issues, and if we made a clear, LOUD difference with the GOP on this, they would put those other things in their proper place.

[yurbud]

16. Give the peaceful alternative to spreading democracy and preventing terror

in simple form:

Stop supporting dictators militarily

Don't overthrow elected gov'ts just because some corporation gets their knickers in a knot

Discourage American companies from exploiting Third World countries

Buy all the plantations in Central America that belong to corporations like United Fruit

[yurbud]

18. pledge to NOT go through revolving door to lobby and corpations

And once in power to close the door for Senators, the president, and any general that works at the Pentagon.

the can work for non-profits building houses for the poor with Jimmy Carter, teach college, or start a small business of their own.

If someone does go from a position where they have control of contracts to working for the private sector, at the very least, their pensions should be cancelled.

[FogerRox]

26. Just one part of the issue -- Framing:

The Democrat tax policy is progressive
The Bush tax policy is regressive

The Democrat jobs policy is about jobs
The Bush jobs policy is about his friends jobs

The Democrat Foreign policy is about buying Armored vests for the Army
The Bush Foreign policy is about playing Army

[yurbud]

32. Democratic jobs policy is about your job, GOP's is about Brownie's job

[tn-guy]

30. My list

1. True ethics reform - steal a page from the contract for America and list specific ethical reforms each congressional candidate commits to vote for during the first 100 days

2. Drop the gun-control rhetoric. Support an expansive reading of ALL constitutional rights.

3. This one will go down hard. Get some new leadership faces. I know they are beloved figures to the party faithful but Teddy Kennedy, Joe Biden, et. al. are past it. The image they project to the vast majority of people who are not immersed in politics is dramatically different from their image to die-hard Democrats. The do indeed rev up the base but they repel the non-committed.

[yurbud]

33. Joe Biden is not loved by any outside the DLC. He gets air time because

he's a business-friendly Dem, not because he is a popular one.

Ted Kennedy is beloved because he stands up for our core values consistently which is why the right has made such a point of highlighting his personal failings.

[rpgamerd00d]

36. In due time, we'll get new Dems

[noiretextatique]

34. my simple idea: tell the truth

too many don't trust politicians of any stripe because they don't believe a word coming from their lips. tell the damn truth...starting with what really happened in 2000, 2002 and 2004. i don't think democrats will have any real credibility until they confront the election thefts (aka glitches and abnormalities).
"framing" and other marketing concepts won't work...straight, honest, plain talk MIGHT havea chance. truth has a way of cutting thru the BS, even the BS put forth by the media.
on edit: see hamden rice's post above re: "the awful truth"

[KittyWampus]

37. Elected Democrats Need To Start Calling Out The Complicit Corporate Media

look, Democrats already HAVE the platform to a large extent.

They can reframe the debate from now til doomsday, but if the Mediawhores ignore it, deride and continue to trumpet Rove talking points what good will it do?

Elected Dems and those representing Dems who go on tv must learn their #1 priority is calling the interviewers GOP bias to the public's attention.

Howard Dean only did HALF the job with Wolf Blitzer last week. It isn't enough to stand up to them and shove facts into their faces.

All Democrats must preface their comments with simple statements that draw viewers' attention to the fact Mediawhores are just asking/repeating/blindly accepting GOP talking points.

For instance, Dean could have started his correction about Abramoff by saying "Wolf, stop repeating Rove's talking points" or "Wolf, I know you have GOP talking points on this issue BUT", or "Wolf, as a supposed independant journalist you should alread KNOW THIS IS A GOP SCANDAL".