In the old days of a blog called Dailykos...
{gets up from rocking chair and walks to porch window}
We used to write nonsense posts like the one below. Idealistic screeds...hopeful expressions of where we wanted to see our party and our nation go.
Hell, even a poster for Howard Dean meetup on a local wall was enough to get some of us excited...(the old days...woohoo!)
In that light, here's an old school kossack effort.
{goes and sits back down in rocking chair.}
We are the Change You're looking For:
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a Five Point strategy proposal for the Democratic Party in 2006.
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1. The absolute first organizing principle for everything we do, bar none, is to take back the House of Representatives within the next two election cycles.
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We may not be able to take back the House in 2006, but we should run with that goal as our clear intention. We should calibrate our campaigns, our message, our fundraising and our coordinated grass roots efforts with this as our first priority.
Now, of course, the Senate, the State Houses, and the Presidency are equally significant. I'm not saying they aren't. But the Democrats need to remember this essential nugget and its corollary: a majority party seeks to win a majority in the House of Representatives, and a party that does not seek to win the House is, de facto, the LOSER in American politics.
In 2002 and 2004 we looked like a party that was just, you know, trying to avoid being locked out altogether, and what happened? We got locked out.
The Democratic party may not succeed in taking back the House in 2006, but we damn well should look as if we are intent on trying. The candidates we run may not all win this time around; but they damn well be good candidates who might win next time.
Like I said, everything flows from this effort, including our efforts to win majorities in the Senate, Governorships and State Houses. Our 2008 Presidential campaign should flow out of our goal of taking back the House. Not the other way around.
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2. We already have our message, we just need to be fifty times more clear in delivering it.
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- We will fix Health Care.
- We will fix Education.
- We will fix the Budget Mess.
- We will Clean up Corruption and enact real campaign finance reform.
- We will make government work for you by making it work for everyone.
Enough of the distractions and bullshit and divisiveness. The only reason we want a majority is so that we can
do things. We aren't about being "not Republicans;" we are about enacting good legislation that makes America work better, period. We're Democrats, we're the party that
works..
The Democratic Party needs to do something big, and soon, to make clear to the country that this effort, more than anything else, is why we want their votes. Not negativity. POSITIVITY. There is so much to do. We need your votes to help us do it. We are Democrats, we make America work for everyone.
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3. We need to unilaterally end the broken cycle of divisiveness
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This has to be a major part of our reform. We have to BE the reform we intend to make. The only way to really convince people that the Democratic Party has turned over a new leaf and means business is to show them.
That means that we take some responsiblity for saying: the time for Swift Boating is over. We simply won't do it or talk about it. To speak in the vernacular, homey don't play that game. Our job is simple: to provide a clear alternative to the GOP in positive terms that everyone can understand.
So, enough of the BS. The Democratic Party will happily provide clear alternatives to the GOP, and when it's possible we will bend over backwards to work in a bipartisan fashion.
We need to make clear to the American public that if they give us a majority in Washington that the long national nightmare of partisan gridlock and posturing will be over. We will end it ourselves. Our job is to provide clear, simple, straighforward Democratic policies and solid Democratic candidates. If you like them and want to see the change we'll make, vote for us. It's that simple.
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4. We have an answer to the war and foreign policy: it's called working together.
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2006 is not going to be about playing politics with the war. We Democrats know that the only solution to the global challenges this country faces is to work together.
So when the GOP plays politics with terrorism and America's safety, we don't answer by pointing fingers. We say, simply and clearly, that we Democrats are eager to work to solve the global challenges this country faces, including the war in Iraq, and we will work with everyone in a bipartisan fashion to make that happen.
We shouldn't play politics with foreign policy. The American people don't want that.
Yes, the Democrats and especially our vibrant liberal base have a different vision about foreign policy than the GOP. Truth is, in America having a different point of view is a strength not a weakness. Yet even the hard core liberal base of the Democratic Party knows that we have to work together to make change. We will work with anyone and everyone to solve the situation in Iraq. That's part of our basic philosophy.
How can we be for strong alliances and mulitlateralism if we aren't willing to work side by side in our own country to solve the challenges this nation faces?
In 2006 the Democratic Party needs to say: the era of bashing and posturing on foreign policy is over. If you elect us, the very first thing we will do is sit down with the GOP and, in bipartisan fashion, get this country back on track again, at home and abroad.
There is no time to lose.
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5. To every Presidential contender in 2008 we need to send this message: prove your leadership by helping us win in 2006
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If you want to lead this party and this nation into the future in 2008, you need to get your ass out there and help us in the struggle to win Democratic majorities in Washington and in every state in 2006. And that effort should include a clear national message about election reform, about guaranteeing that every citizen should be able to know that their vote counts and that they will be able to have their vote counted on election day.
The 2008 primary should be a "no-brainer". Whoever steps up and helps us win in 2006 should be the nominee. Whoever's message and party leadership galvanizes our base in 2006....should step forward and help us take the next step in 2008.
Whether it's Hillary, or Obama, or Edwards, or Kerry or Warner or even one of those "guys who's not running": Vice Presdent Al Gore or Howard Dean: it's what you do in 2006 that should determine how your candidacy is measured in 2008. That, at the end of the day, will be the mark of whoever is worthy of leading our party forward.
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Conclusion:
Personally, I would love to see three years of Democratic unity. I would love to see three years in which we finally articulate how excited we are about all the positive ways we want to move this country forward.
We need to send a clear message to the nation. The BS and partisan bickering ends now. Our message is simple:
We are Democrats; we are the change you're looking for.