Down With the Donkey! Bring Back The Democratic Tiger & Civic Engagement

IndyOp

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Sun Dec-17-06 06:48 PM
Original message

Down With the Donkey! Bring Back The Democratic Tiger & Civic Engagement

Edited on Sun Dec-17-06 07:43 PM by IndyOp

YES! My parents were raised in the Oklahoma during the Great Depression when everyone was Democratic because the local Democratic Party was connected to the community through day-to-day work solving problems - helping people find jobs, exchange kids clothes, find housing...

I've been waiting for this... I BELIEVE it can transform this nation! The Blue Tiger Democrats are getting started in New York, Michigan, and Arizona. How fast can we spread this DU? :D :D :D

Do you agree with the principles of the Blue Tiger?

A Party isn't a Party if it's built top-down or supported primarily by large individual and corporate donors.

A Party isn't strong if it only debates the major issues or refines a concise message that can be communicated in a thirty-second commercial.

A Party is only as strong as its number of involved and dedicated members who believe in individual responsibility and demonstrate it by working in their communities.

A Party must not just debate the issues of the day, but demonstrate its values by individual actions.

A Party is strong if it is connected to its community through day-to-day work solving problems that exist in that community. People working outside the government, outside the bureaucracy, connect the Party to the voters.

For Politicians to be Respected, we must free them from the humiliating and enormously time-consuming task of fundraising.

Civic Engagement is a two-way street: it not only benefits individuals in the community, but it ensures that the Party is in touch with communities across America.

Can you believe that $1.6 BILLION was spent on political television ads in 2004? What lasting effect do we get from making the telecommunications industry and marketers wealthier and wealthier with each election cycle? None. None. None.

Origins of the Democratic Tiger:

In 1850 the Tiger became an official Democratic symbol.

The tiger was the favorite animal of legendary Indiana Cheif Tamanend: "The tiger affords a useful lesson for you. The exceeding agility of this creature, the extraordinary quickness of his sight and above all, his discriminating power in the dark, teach you... to look sharp to every engagement you enter into; and to let neither misty days, nor gloomy nights, make you lose sight of the worthy objects of your pursuit."

The Society of Tammany, named after him, was founded in the 1780s as a benevolent and charitable organization to provide extensive social services and support to its members.*

By the 1930's with FDR in the White House, the Tiger was the powerful symbol of the Party...

Did you know that the Democratic Donkey was the creation of Republican illustrator Thomas Nast and that it was intended as in insult? Nast shows Democratic Donkey kicking Lincoln's courageous, dead Secretary of War:

Before the elephant became fixed as its icon, the Republican Party was often depicted using another, less noble animal - the lamb. For instance, in this illustration from January, 1876, "They Both Lie Together In The Washington Arena" (Fig. 13) the Republicans are depicted as a cornered and overwhelmed lamb before an aggressive and strong "Democratic Tiger".

*As we all know, the power-brokers at Tammany became sick, corrupt with power and the Republican Party rose as a reform party to clean up Tammany. Can we go back to the future and take the good and leave the bad? The civic engagement was right - we need to resurrect it.

When the Tiger was our symbol, civic engagement was crucial to the mission of the Democratic Party. As the Party's commitment to civic virtue began to recede after World War II, the Tiger fell into disuse.

ITS TIME TO TAKE BACK OUR PARTY AND ITS IMAGE.

This Tiger is STRONG, IDEALISTIC, and INCORRUPTIBLE.

We will no longer be defined by our opponents.

Check out the Blue Tiger Democrats, committed to civic engagement and ENJOY THIS:

2008: A Blue Tiger President is a recasting of a classic Thomas Nast illustration. The image reveals the Blue Tiger message of civic engagement that will reconnect us to the voters and help us beat the "Alphabet Soup" of corruption and manipulation in '08.

I heard about this on tonight's "Ring of Fire" - one issue that was mentioned was that most of the $$$ available to the working poor goes unclaimed because people don't know it is there or what to do to access it. What if local Dems across the nation found out what was available and visited their neighbors to help them help themselves? I could do that. You could do that. We could do that. What else could we do?

:wow: