Hey DNC and State Party Chairs: Look at our reality. We’ve got the Presidency for two more years; the Repugnant party has both houses and the Supreme Court. What’s more, they’ve got 68 out of 98 partisan state legislatures and 31 governorships. We, the party “of the people” came up just a bit short but your reaction seems just a bit muted given these dire circumstances.
And this is not a short term hiccup. Look at the gerrymandering they’ve already accomplished at the state and federal office levels. And their think tanks, cranking out really people-destructive policies for the care and feeding of Repugnant legislators. And their well oiled money machines, fueled by Citizens United and the Supremes. Theirs is a highly strategic plan to put all the power in the hands of the super wealthy, including corporate America.
Yea, I’m sounding a bit pessimistic but where is the call for dramatic change with how we run this party and setting a whole new course for a Democratic Party future? There is but a whimper from our Dem leadership and apparently total boredom at the grassroots. They seem to be talking about tweaks and minor adjustments, not radical reform and change. Is this what you call irrelevance? Sure looks like we are to the body politic.
Bipartisanship is merely a defensive tactic to forestall total annihilation, grab some crumbs and grovel for mercy. What we need to be is an opposition party with big ideas and a big message machine. Loud and proud.
The one vehicle the Repugnant party uses very effectively and we have yet to embrace and master is marketing. No, marketing is not advertising. Marketing is management of the exchange process. The currency we have to exchange with the body politic, or at least the roughly half who are wired liberal are big, bold ideas to benefit us all and the mechanism to sell those ideas….to get them exchanged to the populace. The ideas can be very specific and detailed, lists of components if you will. But framed in a way that hits emotional hot buttons and triggers the exchange.
What we need is a staff and consultant house cleaning to shake up the foundation. And a new DNC membership which sees change and big ideas as their mission and sees themselves as the Party sales force. Right now the DNC is comprised of those seeking and granted awards for being loyal troopers. The DNC should be comprised of firebrand doers and organizers. Aggressive, loud and yes, sometimes intemperate. The leadership should be of that mold as well. Screw calm. We’re already too calm.
Candidates and office holders, such as we’ve got them now, of the same mold I’ve described. Doers, not patronage seekers. This party has run on patronage. Yes, it must be representative of the base, but its got way to many leaders, even at the grassroots, who are furniture because they look good. Looking good and looking representative isn’t enough. It’s going to take activists and doers in every representative category. Scrap the furniture and replace it with functioning change agents who are in the main out there in movement politics, not party politics. A party that can and will lead a populist uprising.
We do not need two parties serving the interests of the rich. One, the Repugnants, are doing quite well at that thank you. We need a party that understands the systemic problems denying the American Dream. An economy not built to reward hard work and innovation, a taxation system which spreads the wealth while not harming the successful, a political system owned by a participating, grassroots electorate, not private interest lobbies and a reinvigorated sense of community that makes helping those needing help an imperative and duty.
The ideas to accomplish this already exist. They don’t need invention. They need mining, embracing and selling to the desperate people who have been deluded by the Repugnants into believing they serve those desperate people. One place I’d look for those ideas is California. Look at the turnaround out there. Look at a Democratic Party there that helped get it done and leadership it cultivated to implement the turnaround.
We need a populist uprising. No, not one that bashes corporations. One that recognizes that properly regulated, they can and will do good stuff. But one that demands that they, the people run political system, not the commercial sector.
Democratic Party, rise up.