Being the minority party is a reality. Success is the only acceptable outcome. Appropriate strategies and implementation are necessary for success. This diary deals with strategies: what could have been and strategy to win BIG in November.
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(STRATEGIES! for goodness sake. Not sell out. As I prepare to publish this diary I read Schumer has made a deal to greenlight approval of a whole mess of Trump picks to the Federal Courts simply by voice vote and unanimous consent. This! Right before the election! After Kavanaugh. After how many years of McConnell refusing to allow President Obama to fill vacancies? On KOS most of us view Trump’s behavior as evidence he is a Russian assets. What does Schumer’s behavior indicate?)
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Republicans use the latest psychological information and political strategist. Democrats do not. This is why Democrats fail. Status as minority party is not the reason Democrats fail. Democrats became the minority party because they failed to take and fight for principled positions, failed to use psychological knowledge about human behavior, and failed to use competent political strategy expertise.
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I do not make the charges I make lightly. I make them because I want to win, and win big.
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The diary begins by entertaining what might have been. Begins with the strategies which I advocated in writing to Democratic Leadership and each Judiciary Committee member. You decide whether some strategy would have been better than the Democratic Party’s deer in the headlights response to the GOP Kavanaugh theater of the absurd. Then decide whether the strategies I advocated might have lead to a more positive result than what occurred.
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The latter part of this diary deals with now until the election.
This election is not the end. There are elections to come. Democrats have to be effective every election whether they are the minority or majority party. Turning on Carter began the Democratic Party’s demise. Lets turn things around this election.
DEMOCRATS CAN WIN NOT JUST SENATE & HOUSE, BUT STATE AND LOCAL CONTROL AS WELL
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WINNING REQUIRES STRATEGY AND COMPETENT IMPLEMENTATION:
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Days after the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court I am all but incoherent with RAGE at the INCOMPETENCE OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERSHIP. Incompetence so abysmally inadequate it appears deliberate. How is it even possible to have FAILED to keep Brett Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court, and at the same time allow the Republican Party to spin the political conversation as “bad liberal Democrats”?
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During WW2 Japanese commanders who failed to successfully carry out critical assignments were expected to commit ritual suicide. It is time for Senator Schumer to resign as minority leader, and for the invisible DNC leadership to resign, or at the very least turnover strategy to competent political strategists. Republicans hired the Swift Boat folks to deal with the Kavanaugh situation. WHO DID DEMOCRATS HIRE?!?
Watching the events of the past week was like watching a slow moving run away freight train rolling down a hill toward a school bus stuck on the tracks with the Democratic Party fumbling for keys unable to start the bus well enough get it in gear and off the damn tracks. Arrrrrggggghhhh
WHAT COMPETENT LEADERSHIP COULD HAVE DONE:
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1) NO SITUATIONAL ETHICS: Every Democratic Senator needed to be forced to vote “NO”.
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2) Democrats should have set the standards for the FBI investigation and been on news shows local and national every minute possible stating what had to be and why it had to be investigated.
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3) As soon as the GOP made the issue solely about accusations of sexual assault and limited inquiry into those accusations,Democrats should have been exclusively focused on perjury and conduct unbecoming of a Federal Court Judge. Let the GOPkeep the focus on sexual assault.
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4) Ridicule Trump and the GOP for setting the bar for Kavanaugh’s appointment at no proof of a felony crime, “it’s she said/he said there is no proof of sexual assault”.
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5) As soon as Trump ordered an investigation, Democrats should have been out in mass with a short specific list of exactly was had to be investigated. Every Democrat on the same page, same list.
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6) Backed by every other Democratic Senator, IT WAS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY THAT ONE SENATOR PHYSICALLY WALK THE secret FBI REPORT OUT OF THE SENATE INTO A WAITING REPORTER’S HANDS. IF ARRESTED WHILE TRYING TO, THE NEXT AND THE NEXT AND THE NEXT AND THE NEXT, etc., DEMOCRATIC SENATOR ATTEMPT TO PHOTO THE REPORT UNTIL ONE SENATOR SUCCEEDS OR ALL ARE ARRESTED. Live secret video might be more effective at releasing the report, but not make as good political theater.
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7) On the day of the full Senate confirmation hearing, Senator Schumer should have dressed in his formal best to escort all three women who accused Kavabaugh, the full length of the Capitol grounds, flanked by female Senators, and male Senators following behind in solidarity of support.
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8) These three women should have been seated next to Senator Schumer in the Senate, or he next to them in the gallery.
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9) Every Democratic Senator speaking about why Kavanaugh SHOULD NOT BE APPOINTED
give every reason except sexual assault, letting the women’s presence speak for itself.
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10) Given the fact of a wholly inadequate and farcical FBI non-investigation investigation, reference might have been made tothat and the assumption that Republicans knowing a real investigation would produce findings of wrong doing on the part of Brett Kavanaugh,but the focus of such comments should have been on GOP corruption,not on whether or not the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh.
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I am sure there is more that could have been done. Those are the things I though of on my own without brain storming with others. I am sure a group of strategic planners LIKE THE GOP USED could have done better than me on my own.
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Now the GOP controls the political conversation. Vilifies liberals, Democratic leadership, and most of all women. The GOP BASE FEELS VINDICATED AND MOTIVATED.
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Nice job old Democratic leadership. Your record is unblemished. For 38 years you have succeeded in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The odds were against you this year but you have managed yet again.
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(All is not yet lost. A CNN poll has come out indicating Democratic enthusiasm to vote is ten points higher than Republican enthusiasm,so all is not lost. LETS WIN EVERYTHING THIS YEAR.)
IT IS STILL POSSIBLE TO CARRY THE DAY IN NOVEMBER
winning majorities in Senate as well as House.
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Winning in November requires a 50 State every race strategy.
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DNC, DCCC, and DSCC must immediately cease spending on individual races in favor of a national campaign to have voters vote party line for the country they want for themselves, their children, and their grand children. Example: “California is a model Democratic economy. Kansas is a model Republican economy. Which example of prosperity, or lack there of, is best for the USA? Vote party line for your choice”
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Coordinate with other groups engaged in Get Out The Vote efforts, contribute funds to those efforts, fund efforts in locals not well covered.
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Advertising both local and national must be focused on the following:
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Defining the Corrupt Radical Right Republican Party and contrasting that definition with the Democratic Party, and then insisting voters,
“Vote Party Line for the kind of country you want for your family, for your children, for your grand children.”
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“Government doesn’t work when Republicans are in charge. Make government work for you again. VOTE PARTY LINE DEMOCRAT FOR GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS”
GOP CORRUPTION must be the focus:
horribly flawed Supreme Court nomination,
hamstringed FBI investigation so embarrassingly inadequate and corrupt it must be kept secret
disqualifying voter registrations at the last minute
closing polling sites
conspiring with Russia and then blocking all attempts to adequately investigate Russia’s interference
taking money and information from Russia to undermine US democracy
corrupting and diminishingevery function of government from the FBI to the EPA
wrecking decades long strategic defence alliances and cozing up totalitarian regimes
locking children in cages and claiming a cement wall will fix America’s woes
MAGA Republicans want to return America to the 1950s when women and Negroes knew their place. Democrats would be fine with bringing back Eisenhower Republican integrity, and the simplicity and fairness of the Eisenhower income tax code: few exemptions, lots of tax brackets,92% top marginal tax rate.
Government doesn’t work when Republicans are in charge.
VOTE PARTY LINE DEMOCRAT FOR GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS FOR YOU