How to turn your red state blue

[atommom]

An interesting article on campaigning and winning people over...

In all the ink spilled post-November about “What We Need To Do Now,” precious few answers to this question have been put forth. Commentators seem to think either (a) we don’t need to convert people because they already have fundamentally progressive values, or (b) converting voters is impossible, so the Democratic Party should just become more conservative. Both views are misleading and counterproductive; they divert attention from the crucial work of expanding the reach of progressivism.

Joe Conason, in his book Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth (published before the election), offers a succinct articulation of the first theory: “Whether they now describe themselves as liberal or not, most Americans remain strongly progressive in their views about taxation, health care, education spending, Social Security, environmental protection and corporate regulation.”

There are heaps of polls supporting this claim, but before concluding that the Democratic Party’s recent misfortunes are the result of mass confusion or false consciousness, these polls must be considered alongside other evidence that suggests something deeper is at work.

Over the past several decades, the Democratic Party’s traditional advantage in party identification has evaporated. Equal numbers of voters now consider themselves Democrats and Republicans. In 1977, upward of 45 percent of the population identified themselves as Democrats. Even more dramatic are the percentages of “liberals” and “conservatives” in the electorate. In exit polls from 2004, 34 percent of voters identified as conservative while only 21 percent identified as liberal.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2034/

[iconoclastNYC]

1. KICK

Excellent read. Rec'd for the greatest.

[ClassWarrior]

2. Excellent. Also read "Don't Think of an Elephant" by George Lakoff...

...and "The Emerging Democratic Majority" by Ruy Texiera.

NGU.

[ananda]

3. don't do a damm thing

Believe it or not, the Reeptiles will crater themselves.. simply because none of their policies or laws are human or workable.

Wait n see...

Sue

[atommom]

4. I'd like to think we could just wait for everyone to wake up and

smell the coffee, but I'm afraid it might never happen. One thing the article points out is that the conservative movement has extended its tentacles into every aspect of American life, making sure its own messages are the dominant ones. That's why they're so vigilant about children's cartoons, so determined to meddle with (and eventually dismantle) public education, and so angry about "liberal" colleges where many students are exposed to progressive ideas for the first time. Fighting back against all this is going to be a daunting task.

[Wilms]

5. .

[formernaderite]

6. The first premise that must be acknowledged...(long)

is that the repubs are no longer just the party of the rich. This drives democrats bonkers...but if you look at the economic demographics of most of the red states...you will see this as true. Granted there are obviously many rich people in the republican party, but there are equally as many rich democrats with morals. It's actually a crazy truth.
I spend time in my blue state with mostly blue collar people, because I've been a contractor for about 15 years now. Most of the subcontractors I work with, and their employees are not rich. Some are still democrats, but don't necessarily vote straight line anymore. Many of them are repubs who don't vote, because the state is still very blue.

We need a true populist candidate. Not someone who like Bush just talks the part..but actually has walked the part. I'm not discriminating against the rich in DC with blue politics...but....they simply don't understand how to communicate the issues. As much as I love Dean, he too is just playing the part.
In the end, the repubs can ignore the issues because of their perceived populist stance, and concentrate on recruiting extremists on the religious/moral front.
The only religious groups we still have on our side, happen to be minorities. From what I'm hearing the repubs are beginning their religious appeal to them as well.

[demwing]

7. Don't It Make My Red State Blue?

(sung to the tune of "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?)

Don't know when I've been so blue
Or what's up with W
He gave us the royal screw
And don't it make my red state blue

We were fine with work galore
Till he sent our jobs to Bangalore
Why not outsource the fucking war?
And don't it make my red state blue

Iraq had no weapons, he told us some lies
Bush can’t find Bin Laden, he gave us alibis
THey stole an election, but that’s no surprise
Say anything, but first say your goodbyes

We didn't want to vote for you
You're just a con, you fooled us too
Its time for someone new

And don't it make my red state,
Don't it make my red state,
Don't it make my red state blue

Don't it make my red state,
Don't it make my red state,
Don't it make my red state blue

[atommom]

8. OK, we've got our theme song.

:loveya:

Now we need some fiery populist leaders to help us fight this battle. It isn't going to be easy.