Dear Debbie... A note to the DNC Chair

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/19/1352918/-Dear-Debbie-A-note-to-the-DNC-Chair


No, my filling out the survey won’t help you. Because you are asking the wrong questions. You want to know my thoughts? Great, though I suspect no one is really listening...

Democrats already align with the voters on policy, so asking about policy priorities doesn’t help you at all. We lost the 2014 elections because our voters did not feel that showing up would make any difference. It has become routine for Democrats run to the middle, trying to not take a stand, trying not to incite GOP criticism. Look at Mary Landrieu. You can paraphrase her campaign as “I agree with my opponent so vote for me.” Did this cause anyone to think they can make a difference by voting for her? Clearly not.

Or look at the fact that every ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage passed. But no Democrats ran on that? Raising the minimum wage needs to be OUR issue and we simply abandoned it. And look at what the voters did - they voted for the minimum wage because it would make a difference, and they didn’t vote for the Democrat because they felt it wouldn’t make a difference.

Want more votes? Show them how voting for Democrats will make a difference in their lives and in their society. Run on populist economic policy. Run on breaking up the wall street banks. Run on taking power back from the oligarchs. No, can’t do that? Because we need the oligarchs’ money to run campaigns? Then plan on people not showing up. If you want Democrats to show up, show them how doing so makes a difference. Show them that there are parts of the Democratic Party that still represent the people.

One last philosophical thought for you to consider. Money and power are always connected. People with power use it to get more money, and people with money use it to get more power. Almost like they are interchangeable commodities. The purpose of democracy - the ONLY purpose of democracy - is to drive a wedge between the two. Democracy exists for the sole purpose of separating money from power, ensuring that those without money still have power. STAND FOR THAT, and people will vote for you.

[Warpy]

1. And PS

Don't inflict lobbyists on your candidates every two years as campaign experts. Those old boys (and girls) are not your friends and their strategy is not geared to win votes, it's geared to keep the cash flow positive.

[rhett o rick]

2. Debbie is not our friend. She is on the wrong side of this class war. nm

[sabrina 1]

11. I couldn't agree more. She has no idea what being a Democrat means.

Maybe that's how they want it though. Otherwise you have to believe they are not too bright, and I doubt that.

She will never get and support Populist Candidates, her support will always go to Wall St supported candidates. For a while it worked, we were so desperate to get rid of Bush. But obviously those days are over and the people have delivered the message 'we won't vote for Republican lite anymore'.

[rhett o rick]

17. "Maybe that's how they want it though." I think that's exactly how they want it.

The Conservative Dems believe it's important for themselves to keep and gain wealth and power. They are Democrats because they don't want to be associated with the Clown Car Crazies in the R-Party. They definitely don't stand for the 99%.

[sabrina 1]

18. I agree and I think it's better to realize that rather than thinking they just haven't

seen the light yet and wasting any time trying to figure it out.

Best to start changing OUR tactics, because they are not going to change theirs.

[Cosmic Kitten]

20. The Clown-Car-Crazies won't have HER or any other 3rd-Wayer

Clown-Car-Crazies and right-wingers want the same thing...
just not for each other. They are natural rivals.

The Populist/Progressive issue is that the 3rd-Way has
stolen the Democratic Party with MONEY.
It's really what triangulation is about.
Right-wing and 3rd-Way marginalize the Public,
exploiting wedge issues to drive the Public apart.
Divide & Conquer.

Fire Debbie Watssernameshutz.

[Enthusiast]

14. She didn't support medical marijuana in Florida. Telling.

She is Third Way. We can count on her to support efforts to dismantle the New Deal.

I am clear done with Debbie. She is responsible for the mid-term losses.

[Scuba]

16. Eggzaklee!

[jtuck004]

3. If you haven't watched the PBS special on Martin Luther, it's pretty good. His dad was a

coppersmith, (both parents practiced what we would call child abuse today) wanted young Martin to be a professional. So Martin went to law school, and one class short of graduating he had an experience which made him seek salvation. Martin was the kind of fella who threw himself 300% into anything he did, so he was a great student, and a devoted and faithful student of the church.

Salvation at that time was the Catholic Church, who took the position that you needed their services, and had to pay for them, else you were going to hell (kind of like a political party which insists you vote for them else your life will be so much worse). He joined an order in which they practiced self-flagellation because they thought it impeded the path. They sent him on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he realized that the Party, I mean the Church, was mostly a large accounting scheme run by businessmen who cared about money, not salvation for the masses.

Being a man of the people, and realizing that the Party, I mean the Church (darn keyboard) was getting in the way of saving the people, so he nailed a thesis with 95 bullet points to the door of the church and began to organize with others who cared about the people and their salvation instead of making the Church richer.

Is a pretty good show.

[jaysunb]

10. Excellent ! n/t

[sabrina 1]

12. Lol, keyboards can have a mind of their own! Great post. I guess he couldn't have

taken over the Church? No alternative but to start his own? I suppose it was too powerful for anyone to take over.

Too bad, but there is a lesson in what he did.

[og1]

4. It takes a buck to win an election

How do you and all other progressives propose to finance a populist party? Have a bake sale? All progressives can start by supporting public citizen and over turn citizen united!

[sabrina 1]

13. That is why we are here. To try to figure out how to do it. Nothing is impossible

but the solution isn't always obvious, so it takes time and effort to find it.

What would you suggest?

[Enthusiast]

15. How is corporate rule working out for us?

[rhett o rick]

19. So you are telling progressive what THEY should do? So if you are not a progressive, what are you?

[Cosmic Kitten]

21. How about some accountability rather than a new party?

....to finance a populist party?

That is NOT the goal or agenda.

How about simply asserting a NEW set of values
the reflect the interests and values of the American Public?
Something forward thinking?

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Everybody but the professionals gets this stuff.

It's the same thing I hear from everybody I talk to to. Everybody in my circle of liberal acquaintances knows what the problem is, and what needs to be done about it.

The pros don't understand it for a reason once succinctly phrased by Upton Sinclair:

"It's very hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

And, win or lose, their money comes from the fatcats.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. A celebrity Dem like Debbie can't picture why a suburbian type wants the minimum wage increased...

After all, it could raise the cost of a Big Mac by a nickel.

Here's how the election sounds to that type:

Rep: He wants to raise your taxes to increase WELFARE!!!

Dem: No I don't.

Rep: LIAR!!!

Dem: I really don't.

Rep: Vote for me to stop America from becoming a WELFARE STATE!!!

Dem: Vote for me because,....uh,.....what were we talking about again?

[Maineman]

7. Outstanding message !!!!!

[world wide wally]

8. I wonder how many of those Dem losers now wish they had just supported the Prez and pointed out his

successes instead of kowtowing to their Republican opponents.
What do you think, Debbie?

[billhicks76]

9. Spot On

It's the Truth in a nutshell.

[dflprincess]

22. This was written by Steve Bucher who hosts an afternoon show on AM 950

the progressive station in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

I heard him read it on air the day he sent it in. The next day he was just amazed and deservedly proud that dailykos had picked it up.