What is to be done?

Members here focus on issues, candidates ... problems run deeper.
The party didn't recruit well, nor support their candidates in message, coordination,
training (from a WAPO article today).

Any party is filled with party faithful. New ideas are stifled, suppressed, shelved
in favor of the establishment with tried and true if old ways of doing things.

You gotta say this for the Tea Party: they brought in fresh, younger blood and energy.

The Democratic Party needs an infusion. Every nook and cranny should be scavenged for
energy and drive and ideas. Each county, ward, precinct. The old ward leaders know talent,
ideas should be shared, gathered, catalogued, sent up the chain of command.

We're beaten on money, GOTV, and this time on candidates, message, electability. GOP managed
their flock from DC, less on this, more on that, nothing radical, mainstream. They blamed Obama
to a fault, ditto ditto. Repetition generates buzz and energy. It was a whisper campaign, it always
is with them.

What did our consultants do? Message tweak? Or manage email fundraisers? I've been drowned by
candidates' emails for 9 months. Did it do any good? Did they win an extra race? Okay, VA & NH were
salvaged. Thank God for that.

Where is the permanent spinmeister class at the DNC? Does it change with every election, do the people
at the top of the ticket flush the operatives in favor of their own?

This election from a D standpoint was as ineffective as John McCain. Remember McCain and Mitt controlled
their own organization, made their own calls. They flopped. They selected poor running mates. Obama had
Axelrod and Plouffe. And technology.

The Republican victory was managed from Washington, RNC and all. Why can't we be competitive?


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Corporate Triumphs, Progressive Victories and the Roadmap for a Democratic Revival

But come January, the big question for Obama will be whether he is willing to use his veto pen to thwart the GOP’s reactionary legislation, or whether he will try to find compromises to provide some semblance of bipartisanship. Liberals and progressives might want to send tens of thousands of veto pens to the White House to remind Obama that he’s still the president, even if a weakened one.

Meanwhile, there is much for liberals and progressives to do at the local level, where their allies have in the past year won a growing number of victories by candidates for mayor and City Council in New York City, Minneapolis, Seattle, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and elsewhere. More and more cities will push to adopt minimum wages, paid family leave and other progressive measures.


November 5, 2014

by Peter Dreier

http://billmoyers.com/2014/11/05/corporate-triumphs-progressive-victories-roadmap-democratic-revival/