What do you think should be the number one priority of the Democratic Party?

[kentuck]

Jobs, healthcare, tax reform, cutting defense spending?

Or restoring America's prestige abroad?

Or restoring democracy at home?

All of the above?

Or winning the next election?

What do you think the Democratic Party should focus on?

[Laelth]

1. Economic justice, as always.

That is our strength. That is what the party has to offer. It is our bedrock.

-Laelth

[mattclearing]

44. Agreed. n/t

[Marr]

50. Agreed-- most of our problems are rooted in that one. /nt

[femmocrat]

2. Taking back the House.

Then the other things will follow.

[LonePirate]

8. Exactly! This would enact the most change for the most people.

We can push for specific policies and programs after that. We can also work on voter registration drives and state legislatures and governorships after retaking the House.

[JoePhilly]

60. That, plus winning back the individual state houses.

The GOP is almost done at the national level. And while they have a near even split in the US senate, that won't last, population dynamics won't allow it.

All they really have left are the extremist districts scattered throughout the states. That, and a crazy base that sees political power as their God given right.

With those, they are able to (a) obstruct the federal government and (b) screw up individual states by implementing their own version of Shria law.

Need to turn those blue, or at least purple, and shift the scales.

[deurbano]

81. They're able to do so much crap at the state level that they can't pull off nationally

We have to get out the Democratic votes in the midterms.

[emulatorloo]

76. +1

[graham4anything]

3. Concentrating on electing Hillary as the 45th President to continue the wonderful Obama agenda 4ever

nothing else is anywhere near as important because SCOTUS change over most likely will be in 2017 and 2018

and winning back the governorships/senate/house so in 2020 gerrymander them back

and getting 100% of any individuals guns/bullets out of the streets by reinterpreting the 2nd
with a gun, 82 people a day have ZERO rights as they are dead.

[Agschmid]

43. How about just un-gerrymander...

Oh honest politicians are such a pipe dream huh?

[L0oniX]

64. Oh come on now ...we all know you love Rand and the bomb.

If you need a sarc tag I will gladly add it.

[RZM]

69. He won't be replying . . . n/t

[Apophis]

71. The OP said the Democratic Party, not Republican-lite party.

[avaistheone1]

73. This country can not survive more of the corporatist agenda

be it under Bush, Obama or Hillary.

We need a new vision, a new agenda, with no more false promises of change.

[Bannakaffalatta]

4. 1. Survival

2. Sanity

3. Social justice.

4. Self-sufficiency


- not just for itself, but for the nation and the world.

[Le Taz Hot]

5. 1. Go back and study Roosevelt.

Carefully.
2. Remember that you are the party that represents the people who have no voice. ACT LIKE IT and make policy around it.
3. We have 50 states. Go to all of them. Set up headquarters and have volunteers working 24/7 at them. ALL CONGRESSIONAL SEATS SHOULD BE IN PLAY EVERY TWO YEARS.
4. Throw out the motherfuckin' corporations. You can't represent both THEM and US.
5. Allow the primary process to play itself out WITHOUT PARTY INTERVENTION.

I'm sure there's more but those are off the top of my head.

[OneGrassRoot]

24. Most excellent. Especially #4. n/t

[winter is coming]

74. Wish I could rec this post. n/t

[DinahMoeHum]

6. The complete and utter destruction of the GOP.

Some elephants should be extinct, and these particular ones are bones in the throat of progress.

[Coyotl]

16. They don't seem to need any outside help

[DinahMoeHum]

18. They do need that little extra push, though.

[Coyotl]

19. Don't you mean to say, a Huge Contraction

great pun intended, I assume

[DinahMoeHum]

38. OMFG!! It was NOT intended, trust me.

[LWolf]

7. I won't rank critical priorities.

I can try to express them in an overarching theme:

Serve the 99%.

Get the corporatists, theocracists, neoliberals, and neoconservatives out of power.

[edhopper]

9. Yes this!

It all starts with taking the power away from the wealthy and corporations.

[RC]

10. Kicking out the 3rd way, DLC, Blue Dog, Right of Center, Corporatists...

We need to redefine 'Democrat' as something other than Republican Lite. And then do something about it.

[forestpath]

13. +1 that would help stop all the other travesties right there.

[dixiegrrrrl]

68. taaaaa daaaaaaaa.....exactly.

[cali]

11. addressing the economic disparities

35 years ago, my father constantly railed on about how the biggest threat to this country was the growing disparity between rich and poor. damn, it got old.

Addressing those disparities would include everything from raising taxes on the wealthy, to strengthening the social safety net, to cutting defense, to addressing voting rights and the upcoming "treaties", TPP and TTIP, etc.

[leeroysphitz]

12. Reaching out to the business community.

lol

[BeyondGeography]

14. Stagnant/decreasing incomes combined with rising housing/HC/education costs

nasty combination for most everyone. Tax and regulatory policies need to be coordinated around these issues and we should be focused on them in campaigning and governance about 75 percent (or by far most) of the time.

[hobbit709]

15. a return to the goals and policies of the party under FDR.

When Democrats stood for something instead of R-lite.

[pampango]

39. Well said, hobbit709. Progressive taxes, legal protection for unions, a stronger safety net,

corporate regulation and many other policies from FDR.

[Cleita]

17. Breaking away from the DLC, third party business friendly politics and bringing it's platform back

to what it used to stand for, the interests of the working class, unions, minorities, women and standing up for the Constitution of the United States of America.

[EC]

20. getting rid of republicans

winning the next ELECTIONS. Passing a law to increase minimum wage and declare that 30 hours has to pay a LIVING wage, would work.

[alc]

21. first priority: setting priorities. second priory: think different

Like it or not, the country is pretty split. Even taking back the house won't likely result in any "big" advances without giving something big in return. One of the parties is going to have to decide that cooperation is the only way to advance the country and be willing to let the other party have "big" things will they get "big" things. Right now whatever issue is in the news on a particular day is "big" and any time one party stops something the other party wants it's a "win". Sometimes a few million dollar change in PBS funding seems as important as a hundred billion dollar change in SS benefits to many people.


I also think we need to start thinking in new ways. For instance tax reform may be a way to "give" and "get" at the same time. Rs say lower taxes create jobs. Let them prove it. Instead of ridiculously high or low taxes can we have a sliding tax scale based on number of "good" US jobs created or lost. 5% tax rate if you create jobs. 50% if you loose jobs. and anywhere in between. And, if we can get things built in the US we don't have to worry about overseas profits not being taxed so that 5% (or 15 or 25) will be on more profit.

On health care, how about a public option for catastrophic insurance but something the republicans like for pre-catastrophic coverage.

As someone who's owned businesses with employees and been a hiring manager at fortune 100 companies over 20 years I think regulations do hurt US jobs significantly. How can we streamline regulations while helping both the employees and employers? Both parties usually look at jobs issues as benefiting one side or the other and small businesses are the ones who get screwed in almost all cases (big companies are better able to deal with regulations and changes in regulations). There are ways to have wins for everyone (as long as profit is acceptable)

Cutting defense spending will result in a big fight and probably not much results. And will also affect jobs. How can we "change defense spending" so we don't have a huge increase in ex-defense-workers and ex-soldiers in need of jobs while defense contractors keep their profits? I'd love to cut it in half today and keep reducing for years but it's not realistic and probably not smart. But, can we start doing things differently? Sharing more technology that's developed for defense? Stop building things the military doesn't want or need. Build things with multiple uses (build and practice our defense capabilities while improving our country - i.e. ways to quickly build infrastructure in say Iran if we go to war AND at home until then)

My top priority is education. I don't see any ideas from any side that make me think "that's the solution". Let's get some new ideas instead of rehashing a lot of old arguments.

[AsahinaKimi]

22. If we don't win the next election ..

We may see worse, that what George W. Bush did to this country. If the Right Wing Tea baggers get more power, we can kiss our democracy good bye.

[mahina]

23. Overturning Citizen's United

and getting money out of elections asap.
Until we do, the people have no power.

[RussBLib]

25. going back to paper ballots

Or otherwise "fix" the voting machines so they are indisputably accurate.

Without accurate voting, all will be lost.

[ananda]

26. A strong 50-state strategy.

Bring Howard Dean back as chair!

[ebbie15644]

27. getting big money out of politics!

I think the other important things can be accomplished if we could get rid of the "bought and paid for" politicians!

[think]

29. +1 End the revolving door or nothing changes...

[OneGrassRoot]

28. Get money out of politics. QUESTION:

Given the tools at our disposal with the Internet and social media, can someone please explain why it isn't possible, by stepping WAY outside the box, to have campaigns that do not require raising exorbitant sums of money?

I would vote for people who shun the old ways that require ungawdly sums of money. I think that should be a platform in and of itself.

(I don't really understand where it all goes except corporate media coffers, other than some basic salaries and administrative overhead, of course).

[ebbie15644]

34. I agree and we

need to hold our elected officials accountable to being committed to election reform!

[corkhead]

58. too many bumble-fuck low-information-voters still get all their nooze from the teevee

[OneGrassRoot]

63. I think most people get information (usually MISinformation) from commentators...

Last edited Wed Jul 10, 2013, 02:17 PM - Edit history (1)

rather than the ads themselves.

Can you imagine the coverage candidates could potentially get simply by bucking the system altogether and going with word-of-mouth, low-tech approaches combined with social media messaging?

The novelty of it could generate traditional media coverage.

I think there's potential there.

[1-Old-Man]

30. All of the above is the clear winner - but ousting the Right Wing Extremists would be a good start

I have always thought that there is a place in Government for both Progressive and Conservative thought but in our Government today there are very few Progressives and nearly no Conservatives. What we have instead is a Corporative segment and a Right-Wing-Extremist segment, one feeding the wealth of the nation to itself and the other pursuing an outrage of a social agenda.

[rrneck]

31. Getting out money back from the 1%. nt

[NoOneMan]

32. Climate Change

If we cannot both mitigate it and adapt with resilience to it, nothing else matters. This is an existential threat

[randome]

83. In comparison, nothing else matters. Agreed.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font]
[hr]

[TDale313]

33. Campaign Finance Reform/Voter's right's issues

Cause honestly, everything else flows from that. I know this isn't something that's probably on most Washington politician's to do list, but until we get the money out of politics, and if people can't vote or feel/know their votes got counted, nothing else gets fixed.

[markiv]

35. turn their back again, and face the middle and working classes

for the first time, in 20 years, since pushing the free trade kool aid

[Capt. Obvious]

36. Whatever the number one priority ends up being is fine by me

And I will viciously attack and ridicule anyone who does not agree with whatever this priority might be.

[olddots]

37. Getting money out of politics and politics out of money

n.t.

[HardTimes99]

40. Taxing the Rich! - nt

[KittyWampus]

41. Voter suppression.

[Doc_Technical]

42. Return to the tax rate of the early 1950's

both personal and corporate, adjusted for inflation.

[galileoreloaded]

45. GET SNOWDEN! Nt

[HappyMe]

46. The poor, jobs, health care.

edit to add -

Voter suppression

[Egalitarian Thug]

47. Fix the real, or Main Street economy. If they do that, they get elected. If they fail,

we get another republican "shellacking" in 2014 and nobody's going to care what they say in 2016.

[FarCenter]

59. That plus a trade policy beneficial to the US worker and a coherent energy policy.

[Egalitarian Thug]

66. I don't see how the real economy can be fixed without them. Fair trade and ending the stupidity

of allowing profit to be the deciding factor in how energy is allocated, combined with punishing taxation of non-productive wealth, would transform this nation.

[Demo_Chris]

48. Representing the people. nt

[AnotherMcIntosh]

49. Restore the rule of law.

Some example:

-- Prosecute all war criminals

-- Prosecute all cops who violate the Civil Rights Laws, particularly those who seek to suppress freedom of speech and assembly with unnecessary and excessive violence

-- Prosecute criminal tax evaders who have removed their money to the Cayman Islands and other geographical areas

-- Prosecute all lobbyists who bribe politicians, particularly lobbyists from any foreign country

[Johonny]

51. ending the oncoming return to the 19th century Gilded Age

everything springs out of ending the current insane US economic policies.

[AlinPA]

52. Registering voters, increasing/building Democratic majorities in the states' legislatures.

[polichick]

53. The Democratic Party doesn't care what we want...

It answers to its corporate masters - just like the other party.

Different parties, different masters, screw the people either way.

[bowens43]

54. A hard move to left toward socialism and away from predatory capitalism.

[korak]

55. Oh, gosh. I dunno. I guess this.....

"establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity...."

[Pretzel_Warrior]

56. Setting up modern day jubilee year

Debt forgiveness, taxation of wealthy at current rates BUT taking away the loop holes, and provide g Fu ding for those in poverty to GET educated. This means providing quality day care for children so mothers can get a degree or certificate in a trade.

[corkhead]

57. Election reform.

fix that and everything else mentioned in this thread would follow on it's own

[Amonester]

61. I agree: #1 dream is push for a Public Funding Campaign Act.

And #1 real world is an Abolish International Tax Havens Act

[L0oniX]

62. JOBS GOOD JOBS JOBS AND MORE JOBS ...I SAID GOOD JOBS!

[kentuck]

65. All of the above comments

Show just how deep is the shit we've gotten ourselves into. We need some leaders with the Ametican people behind them to fix this mess. It is not one single problem - it is a ton of them.

[darkangel218]

70. Healthcare, by far.

[Apophis]

72. Get rid of the corporate, DLC, third-way Democrats.

[1-Old-Man]

75. I take it you will not be a strong Hillary supporter for 2016

I agree with you completely.

[Democrats_win]

80. Sadly, the Dems are out of touch with our needs too.

For example, they suppory unilateral free market economics for America and legalization of high interest rates.

The unilateral free market has savaged America. They sit while China manipulates the currency and Wal-mart lives off of local tax subsidies. High interest rates were once illegal but our Dems drank the kool-aid, thinking that it was a good idea. Now we're paying. High interest rates (usry) is another factor killing our country.

It's really bad, yet the GOP is more evil than satan.

[Apophis]

82. I will not support her.

[truebluegreen]

77. Support the 99%, not the 1%

[liberal_at_heart]

78. campaign finance reform and repealing Citizens United.

The issue that hits closest to home for me is education but we will never solve any of our problems until we get corporate money out of politics.

[demosincebirth]

79. Want to expand the middle class? pass the EFCA

[Myrina]

84. Restoring infrastructure (bridges, roads, schools) in an environmentally friendly way ...

... which will create jobs, which will fill tax coffers, which will create more money for state/local projects, which will create more jobs, which will lead to more economic stability/disposable income for average working folk ... etc etc etc ...

And as a sidebar: smash Citizens United, enforce Early Voting and the Civil Rights Act and appoint at least 2 new, young, EXTREMELY LIBERAL SCOTUS members.

Then go after Wall Street & the MIC.

Shit, I'm going to have a busy first year as Emperor when I get the title!!!