Do Democrats have a coordinated national strategy to stop the assault on voting rights

[orangecrush]

And democracy in general?


Asking for a friend.

[onecaliberal]

1. Does it include expecting a fascist party to agree with us?

[orangecrush]

5. Nope.

[StarfishSaver]

2. Do you mean Congressional Democrats, the party or lay Democrats?

[orangecrush]

4. The state and national leadership

Should all get on the same page, I would think?

Working on improving communication speed and response might help?

[StarfishSaver]

9. They are all on the same page, but they have different roles

A one-size-fits all, down strategy doesn't work.

At the national level, the focus is on legislation and DOJ oversight, which is in play, even if you can't see it right now. At the state and local level, Democratic state legislators, local politicians and activists are fighting with the tools they have - and the tools differ state to state. Among the tools are legislative advocacy, public information and pressure campaigns and grassroots engagement.

If you're really interested in finding out more and helping, you can start by contacting your Democratic state legislators and/or local branches of national civil rights organizations or local grassroots organizations. They need the help.

As for "improving communication speed," what exactly do you have in mind? The communication is there, but they can't just show up on people's doorsteps with messages or hope that doing interviews every day on MSNBC is going to get to everyone. They need people like us to tap into the messaging and disseminate it. That's how messages are spread in a meaningful way. You can be a huge help in doing that.

[orangecrush]

14. Everything you said is true

But new ideas are needed as well.

I can see creating a sort of national democratic task force dedicated to stopping the Q element of the GOP in it's tracks.

[StarfishSaver]

17. National Democratic Task force is not the way to go

The Q element is a local and state thing - that's where it came from and that's how it operates.

And we have the next best thing to a "task force." We have the House and the Senate and the White House and the DNC, etc. They are doing what they're supposed to do. We need to stop waiting for marching orders - marching orders that can't be sent out with any sanity and logic into 50 states and hundreds/thousands of local communities and work everywhere - and do our own work at the local level.

But sitting on DU and asking for a friend "what's the national coordinated effort?" is, in my view, a waste of time and is actually a stalling effort since what are you going to do if the answer is either yes or no? Then what?

[orangecrush]

18. My "friend"

Is Liberty.

Recommending that the party act with some kind of SENSE OF URGENCY is not "stalling".

If the answer is yes, I will listen and try to help, by contacting local, state, and national party as you suggested. (A good idea anyway.)

If no, I contribute to the ACLU as I have been, and start praying.

[StarfishSaver]

21. But you don't need to wait for an answer

Contribute and get involved anyway.

I don't know where you live, but pretty much anywhere you are, you can go online and find a local organization. There are also Democratic State Legislative Caucuses in every state who have action committees and other things you can plug into - you should definitely call them. Most states also have Black Legislative Caucuses of Black legislators that would be good to contact to get information and offer assistance.

And if you can give money to other organizations in addition to the ACLU, several of the civil rights organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the NAACP (two different organizations) are leading much of the key litigation and need support. For example, the NAACP brought the lawsuit against Trump representing Members of Congress suing under the Ku Klux Klan Act and is also suing the State of Georgia challenging the the new voter oppression bill. If you could send money to some of the civil rights groups involved in various cases, that would be a big help.

[PortTack]

24. Great advise Starfish...hope everyone will follow your suggestions

[sop]

3. H.R.1 - For the People Act of 2021, but it can't pass because of the filibuster rule.

[orangecrush]

6. If it ain't gonna work

Then work on new strategies at all levels, and in some kind of hurry, like not waiting until we have Q members in the polling places with guns?

[bluecollar2]

7. Not that I can see

It appears to be that the commentary is limited to the states directly affected.

I'd be looking for some Madison Avenue advertising types to generate some phrases and then I'd push to have those phrases pushed ad nauseam...

The phrase "Republicans want to/are trying to/ are taking away your right to vote" should be stated at every opportunity by every elected official...

[orangecrush]

8. I could see

Setting up some type of national "emergency network" combining state and national legislators, strategists, and legal advisors/advocates.

If January 6th wasn't a "wake up and get off your ass" call, then we are pretty well fucked.

[bluecollar2]

10. The problem I see is that there isn't a clear definition

Of leadership. Who makes the final call on strategy?

Republicans are so much better at influencing than we are are...

[orangecrush]

12. Agree with the first part

The repugs are a top down echo chamber.

I don't advocate that, but some sort of command structure of leadership/strategy is needed.
We are in a battle.

I disagree that repugs are better at messaging.

They had their pants beat off in the election, so now they want to dump democracy.

[StarfishSaver]

22. The Republicans are an echo chamber, but they're not top down

Everything they're doing now emanated from the ground up. They're following, not leading.

[orangecrush]

23. From my limited perspective

The crazies get their orders from nutjob right wing billionaires like the Mercers, and they don't even know it at the ground level.

[StarfishSaver]

15. They're better at working at a grassroots level and not waiting for national leaders to tell them

what to do. They never did look to McConnell or Boehner or McCarthy or Trump for leadership or to give the a "national strategy." They organized at a local and state grassroots level and pushed their agenda upwards.

Too many Democrats are sitting around asking, "Where's our national strategy?" and, in the meantime, doing nothing or very little to organize and communicate in their own communities. And then they blame any failures on the national leaders. It's lazy and it's short-sighted.

If we really want to emulate Republicans as some people here constantly tell us to do, the best and most effective way would be to emulate their local involvement and stop waiting for someone at the top of the chain to tell us what to do. They are doing everything they can to hold this ship together. It's time for us to start rowing.

[orangecrush]

26. I admire your spirit

And getting involved is something all of us should do.

The extreme elements of the GOP have some things going for them that democrats will never even consider, to their credit.

The crazies have russian backing in the form of a massive disinformation campaign, that recruits vulnerable, susceptible people at the grass roots level. All you have to do to see this is listen to the rationalizations of those indicted for January 6th, when asked where they got their information.

And as I mentioned, you have batshit crazy right wing billionaires pouring money into these groups, through the dark money funnels their puppets put in place by stacking the courts.

We are in a position now to stop this in it's tracks.

If we wait until after the next election, it may be game over.

[StarfishSaver]

27. You're right that we shouldn't wait until the next election

We also shouldn't wait for Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden to tell us what to do.

[StarfishSaver]

11. We have to stop expecting to have some magic communication pod that beams out messages into our

homes without our having to do anything but sit and absorb them.

Messaging is a proactive activity. We have to plug into the messages and help spread them.

It fascinates me that people seem so certain that they know what the messaging should be but don't think they have to do anything to spread it - that it will somehow spread itself.

There are networks of national, state and local legislatures, strategist and lawyers working their butts off. They are constantly putting out information and that information is not hard to find. It's all right on their websites. For some reason, some people thing that they are supposed to beam those messages into everyone's homes and if they don't, they're not doing their jobs.

If you know what those messages should be, you should plug into them and spread them to your networks. Talk to your neighbors. Post on Facebook or Twitter or DU or wherever else you communicate. Write and respond to letters to the editor. Organize your friends and neighbors.

These people are doing great work. WE have to get out the word.

[PortTack]

25. Workin' it here!! Hope others will as well

[USALiberal]

13. Why are you "asking for a friend" deal??

[orangecrush]

16. What

Are you talking about?

Referring to the Statue of Liberty.

Why the hostility?


:

[USALiberal]

19. Sorry, I did not get it. Thank for letting me know. Nt

[orangecrush]

20. No prob!