Dems get message: Connect with the people

[graywarrior]

By JOE FOLLICK
TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
[e-mail]

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- United in their hunger to win next year, Democrats sought the right blend of symbolism and style at their annual convention this weekend.

The message: Democratic activists need to knock on doors and reconnect with voters they may have ignored in the past, seizing on those dismayed by post-Katrina failures, the war in Iraq and a steady drip of ethical problems among Republicans.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told more than 1,000 hard-core party members Friday night that they needed to interact more with their communities to show disaffected Republicans and independents that Democratic positions are mainstream.



http://www.newscoast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051211/NEWS/512110516

[AX10]

1. KICK

Just be yourself.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

17. Actually, in lots of places we've forgotten to be ourselves

I'm convinced that Democrats have been losing, not because of the liberal vs. moderate hate-fest you see adorning the D.U. like crap on a Christmas tree, but that we're smeared by the overwhelmingly dominant anti-Democratic media filters. As a party, we used to do a great job bypassing the Republican media bias with a strong ground-game. But in the 1980s we forgot how to do that effectively.

It's different in the Northwest. In this section of the country, Democratic voters are outnumbered by Republicans and libertarian-minded independents, but we still manage to persuade them to vote for us overwhelmingly. How? Our moderates go out and court successful Democrats not for media buys on Fox, but to fund local headquarters for people to meet. And our liberals eschew flying across the country to participate in a protest-march that gets 5 seconds of smear time on CNN (that voters watching TV ignore anyway), to go canvass those voters directly.

Our moderates and liberals are also considerably more tolerant of one another. But that may just be a result, not the cause. As it is in sports, when you're winning, you tend to cut teammates you don't entirely agree with some slack.

This is why I keep supporting Howard Dean, despite the fact that the man has some serious telling-swing-voters-truths-they'll-be-mad-at-you-for-telling-them disease. At the Oregon Summit, the DNC '50 State' Strategy sounded like it came from the Twilight Zone - it was everything we've been doing already. And the DNC Deputy Political Director who presented it was a local boy who'd gone big time. In short, Dean listens. And we're doing better as a party because of it.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[FreedomAngel82]

19. I think so too

And Dean doesn't do any BS nice fluff stuff. He does tell you the truth and I know I for one like having someone who I can believe in. Someone who doesn't lie to me. I like how Dean brings everything back to the people and the party. Not corporate donars and they do issues that people really care about. Not fake non-issues.

[leftstreet]

2. Dean is right

Republicans don't connect with people, they just launder dirty campaign money for bigger billboards, and make up bullshit Christmas War talking points.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. Take it to the people. Absolutely right

And of course it isn't a "radical" message, it is just plain common sense. Democrats always were the party of people rather than money. This is the stuff that Dean is involved with daily, and it is the focus of his job.

[Pithy Cherub]

4. Dean is outlining a strategy for success for Democrats!

The volunteers and grassroots activists have an opportunity to state their case and make connection with voters. This is an imperative that will yield significant results! Rather than using television and passive means of connecting with voters, Dean is enrgizing the base and the legions of people who are especially equipped to make the case. Most excellent!

[welshTerrier2]

5. sorry ... this is good but not good enough

grassroots organizing is great ... getting party activists to go door to door is critically important ... but neither Dean nor the Democratic Party has a clue to what is really needed ...

there are two major problems ... the first, which has been discussed to death on DU, is that the Party needs to reach out to its grassroots activists with a more "end the war" oriented position on Iraq ... at this point, the Party has pretty much squandered the huge opportunity bush's failures in Iraq could have provided ...

but, speaking directly to Dean's main point about "connecting with the people", both Dean and the Party remain clueless ... elected Democrats, especially in the Senate, need way more contact with their own constituents ... both of my Democratic Senators are virtually invisible in their home state ... well invisible unless you attend one of their fundraisers ... "connect with the people" is what democracy is all about; exempting elected Democrats from this strategy is a recipe for failure ...

[Pithy Cherub]

9. Tis a start. You have some definitive points.

Alas, Dean has been in the job under 9 months and has caused more grief to elitist Dems than one scarcely could imagine. That has in part slowed his drive to make the Party more accessible. Just two months into his term when the DLC Dems tried to stage an orchestrated coup, Dean survived because of the very real and passionate grassroots support. That is what is keeping him firmly in the chair to the gall of the DLC. The soul of the party is at stake and Dean is shifting, time resources and money AWAY from corporatist venues, lobbyists and the last decade of insular politics practiced by their proponents. Each step in this connect with people direction should be celebrated as a small win.

It would be a revelation for an elected person to realize that they need to reach out. That Dean would have to mandate politics 101 should tell us which Democrats are living off the cream of corporations and which are being nurtured by the milk of human kindness and connectedness.

A vast opportunity regarding the war was squandered because the elected Democrats have no point of unity on this immoral war debacle. Dean is walled off from espousing policy (according to them) and when he does speak, well you know what happens. The Iraq War is a bridge too far for the Democrats that supported it with shameful votes and continued funding with a total disregard for oversight. The Imoral Iraq War needs to end as quickly and as expeditiously as possible. The humanistic approach of trying to ensure the safety of Iraqi's upon the US occupation forces leaving is really a sticking point. If you have time for some VERY informative fiction, please read Richard Clarke's, "The Scorpion's Gate" which lays out a "fictionalized" real scenario for the US exit and the harbingers of events to come.

[graywarrior]

6. Kick

[ProSense]

7. Good article. n/t

[blm]

8. People connect most with what they see on TV and hear on radio.

I want the DNC to put together a powerful group of spokespeople who KNOW HISTORY, the ACTUAL RECORDS of both Dem and GOP lawmakers, and can discuss them in the context of today's issues and circumstance.

I am tired of the old Dem spokespeople tapped by the mediawhores and schooled only in the defense of Clinton. They have been useless for any other Democrat and any current issue since 1999.

[madfloridian]

11. I am not sure how much control the DNC has over the shows' choices.

When you think about it, why would McAuliffe, Carville, and Begala be trotted out so much if they had much choice? Methinks old influences are still in play.

[blm]

12. I think that's what needs to be tackled.

Sorry, but those guys are still in 1992-1998. They have never acknowledged the RW takeover of the entire news media.

If Dems don't deal with that reality, we will never get one unified message out.

I am all for grassroots messaging, and am adamant about exposing the RW control of the media. Katrina and Fitzgerald gave us an open door we haven't had since 1994 - we need to keep that door from slamming against us once again.

[madfloridian]

10. Another article said about 2000 were there.

I will be curious to see which was right. It was a good crowd, very enthusiastic according to attendees. Lots of applause.

Good statements.

[graywarrior]

13. Kick for the late crowd

[Stevepol]

14. FIRST: They need to be very very vocal about the voting machines.

This is job one, and until Dems realize this, they're in for some continuing disappointment. The elections in 02 should have been and in reality were wins for the Dems. Kerry won the 04 election. The initiatives in OH passed in reality.

The problem we don't have a reality based democracy anymore: we have a cyber-democracy that is programmed and rigged by the party presently in power. In other words, we don't have a democracy.

[blm]

15. Absolutely....cyber-democracy with benefits only for the fascists

who control it.

[bvar22]

16. Talk is CHEAP!

Yes, the Democratic Party NEEDS to reconnect with the Grassroots, but the BEST way to do that is with a unified DEMOCRATIC voice in Congress that is proposing and voting FOR legislation that protects and empowers the Working Class in America.
THEN, when they come to talk to me, they can say, "This is what I'm doing for you!"

I'm tired of the two faced politicians pretending they care, and then voting FOR Corporate Interests (WAR is GOOD for the Global Corps)!



The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

In EVERY case, "Barriers to Trade" and "Restrictions on Corporations" were created to protect something valuable!

[MrBenchley]

18. et tu, Howard? A centrist message of the sort that's derided here

all the time?

Actually that makes a lot of sense and will, I think, be a winning strategy.