2006, it will be a battle to end all battles - if we work together

[Ignacio Upton]

I strongly believe that the upcoming election season will dwarf 2002 and 2004 in terms of our participation as the netroots. I predict that 2006 will be one of the highest turnout midterm elections in decades.

However, we need a comprehensive strategy in order to take back Congress. We can't just duplicate Newt Gingrich's Contract With America strategy. We need to have a campaign that is attuned to the political landscape of 2006, which will include National Security and the internet as factors. Blogger's conventions, such as "Yearly Kos" in Las Vegas next year will be good ways of networking and working to harness the power of the netroots. Also, creating your own local blogs and affiliating with sites like DU, Kos, and Atrios, could help a lot. An idea of mine that I have been thinking of is to get at least two bloggers for each Congressionl District in the country that report directly to Kos or DU - Congressional Correspondants. Reviving the "Campaign Underground" feature on this website is important to. I'm not sure how useful it was last year since I didn't post here, but if it is used properly it could contribute to making this site an activist launching pad.

Also, one thing we need to do is overcome the Republican Noise Machine. We are generally more pumped and have been mroe motivated in the last five years than they have, yet we always find ourselves turning into shit in the last two or three months of the election cycle in the face of Bush-supporting surrogates with talking points that we clumsily answer with feeble responses. We are a lot like deer caught in headlights, whether it was our lack of an early response to Bush push for Iraq in 2002 and our inability to expose him, or our incohearant responses to the Swift Boat Veterans and our lack of organized talking points in 2004. Unless we can overcome this "deer caught in headlights" problem and fight back more aggressively in the fall, we are going to be beated again. Some of you may say that history is on our side for 2006, in that sixth year elections usually lead to loss seats for the party in power, but this is bullshit. We gained seats in 1998 in the midst of Monica, and Bush gained seats in 2002 despite the fact that no party in power had done so since the Dmeocrats under FDR. 2004, I heard people tell me that "undecideds always break for the challenger" bullshit when Bush ultimately won the popular vote 51%-48%. Do not underestimate Rove and their ability to win. This is our one fault, and just because we kicked their asses on tuesday (we did the same thing to them in 2001 despite September 11) doesn't mean that they will never respond with their noise machine and their incredible lies.

Our plan in 2006 is to make this election Rove's Waterloo. I am assuming for the time being that he does not get indicted. Rove is like Napoleon, in the sense that he has larger ambitions for the Republican Party, in the same way that Napoleon had ambitions for France. It could be argued that the year 2005 was the equivalent of the Battle of Trafalger (where Britain defeated a French naval campaign to invade), in that we stopped Rove from steamrolling over us. We can defeat Rove if we have master strategists and flawless yet flexible planning from people who know what he is capable to doing to us when we campaign.

[Mend]

1. Please no third party splintering....

please not us, not this time, just this once let us all hang together as Democrats.

[Ignacio Upton]

2. We need to fight that too

For example, Bob Casey will be challenging Rick Santorum, We are going to hear a lot of bullshit from people because he's pro-life. I'm suprised that there wasn't widespread anger over Kaine be pro-life in his opinions.

[Mend]

13. great example of Bob Casey....

I am rabidly pro-choice and I don't live in PA but I will give money to Bob Casey, sign petitions, and do anything else to see him elected. This isn't about the issues dear to our personal hearts whether gay rights, reproductive rights, worker's rights....this is about electing Democrats: the rest will follow, because it is in our platform. We are fighting fascism and the end of the world and that can't be over-emphasized.

[AlinPA]

3. Thanks, good post. This is in the vein that we should set strategy.

Maybe we need a "strategy" category.

[kevinbgoode]

4. For one thing, I advocate

putting EVERY video/photo clip of EVERY Republican senator/rep who has ever appeared on the 700 Club in our commercials. Just being SEEN schmoozing with Pat Robertson will reduce their electability chances with the American people. Ditto for the photo-ops with the likes of Dobson, Perkins, and the loonies at AFA, Concerned "Women" For America and the "Traditional" Values Coalition.

Next, we show video of Fristie, DeLay and the Repukes calling Congress to order late at night for special rights legislation for the Schiavo woman. . .some nice sound bites of Fristo/DeLay trashing her sanctimonious marriage and spousal rights will definitely remind voters of what Repukes are all about. . .along with a statement that the Republican's plan for effective medical care involves diagnosis by U.S. Senators via video tape.

From there we move to Katrina, and perhaps this time we use actors to reproduce Bush's fly-by visit TWO days after the hurricane hit. .. for effect, I recommend we have an actress playing Laura Bush holding a bottle of water and waving to people stranded on the rooftops in flooded New Orleans...just before the camera picks up the actress writing in her best lipstick on the Air Force One windows: "Hi ya'll. . .we've got CAKE!"

Then how about commercials featuring every Republican, with Bush's lead of course, saying "It's hard work" and then sandwiching those statements with visuals of every disastrous decision this government has made, from contradictory Iraq statements to the prostitution of Supreme Court nominees to the Sacreligious Reich for pre-approval before the Senate even gets a chance to hold hearings.

[Ignacio Upton]

7. We need to make the election about five things:

Iraq, Social Security, Katrina, Schiavo/overstepping power of federal government and Dobson, Republican smear machine in general, and corruption.

[DanCa]

5. Nominated -

[AX10]

6. I'm with you.

A good and hard fight to win!

[cliss]

8. Did you write this, Ignacio?

If so, very nice. I agree with you that we need to let this be the Mother of all battles.

By the way, I just read that Rove reads Machiavelli's 'The Prince' every year. Rove has it sitting on his desk.

And we know what that book's about.

[Ignacio Upton]

10. Yes I did write this

Thanks for the complement :). One of the Rove's tactics is that he will run a "permanent campaign." The buildup that never was, in regard to destroying Social Security, had all the hallmarks of a campaign. So did Terri Schiavo. So did their flip flops on creating the Deparment of Homeland Security, Prescription Drug Coverage for Medicare, Campaign Finance Reform, the 9/11 Commission, etc. Their monetary policies also deliberately hurt blue states.

[Us vs Them]

9. Oh, we are going to kick soooooo much ass in 2006

But in order to do so, we need to start letting the rest of the country know NOW.

If they want change, they can start supporting Democrats up for election in 2006.

World Can't Wait? Protesting is nice, but wouldn't it be better to have massive voter registration rallies, instead?

Moveon.org. We can't move on without winning this important election. Help us out, yeah?

Every College Democratic group in the nation needs to start thinking about 2006 NOW. It is never too late to get kids involved. This vote WILL be the turning point of our lifetimes.

[opihimoimoi]

11. I got the spears too. count me in...

[IndianaGreen]

12. We must work like people possessed to wrest control of Congress

from the GOP. This is our prime directive for 2006: defeat the GOP!

[Ignacio Upton]

14. Here is a big kick!!!!!!!!

Also, the 2006 season should focus more on the corruption and problems of the Republicans in general, not just Bush. We made a mistake in 2004 by personalizing the election exclusively on him, while the right went after other figures of liberalism at the same time as Kerry (such as Michael Moore or MoveOn. We should be targeting Ann Coulter and James Dobson and Grover Norquist!)

[catmother]

15. you've got some great ideas. let's put them into action. n/t