Pete Buttigieg paved the way for Democrats to get out if their media bubble and go on Fox, Charlamagne tha God, union conventions, dozens of other national and local media. But he seemed to be the only Dem doing it. Just put him in charge of messaging - he’ll be available soon.
We need many, many options besides Pete. We need to be everywhere, with a variety of voices (depending on the audience). And it needs to be 24/7, 365 days a year. With less wonk and more entertainment (along with the facts).
Yes, we need you tout our accomplishments, which I didn't hear Harris push. The chips act started manufacturing computer chips in the USA. Capping insulin and other drugs at $35. Did you know some people spend thousands on insulin, late fees on credit cards at $8 instead of $35, infrastructure, inflation reduction act ( I'm not sure all that's in that act), and look at those jobs reports when we needed to get America back to work. Joining the Paris Climate Treaty and strengthening NATO. Explain that Ukraine exports grain and we don't want that under Putin's control. We benefit if ukraine wins.
But, yes so much good has happened under the Biden Harris team.
Democrats also lose the messaging war because they don't act like a team about it.
Every single one of them should go out there and no matter what is asked immediately pivot to the top priorities and actions of the Democratic party as a whole.
The Republicans have shown us how to do it.
Stop talking about the major media wish list and immediately pivot to compare and contrast and attack on all of our vital issues and points.
Every single one of them. Every single time they speak publicly, are interviewed for print, go on a podcast, Are interviewed by legacy media
I think you see the pattern.
They failed to do this every single time. And the Republicans have shown them how to do it for decades now.
It's time to uptake that strategy and deploy it mercilessly.
Pete is the best. Not only is Pete a fantastic communicator, what I especially love about him, is that he does not trash fellow Dems like some of the Dems. The Dems that trash fellow Dems on TV literally are doing the republicans work for them. I am not saying do not speak out against the Bob Mendendez types and get rid of them but Al Franken does comes to mind. He was one of the best in the Senate and the republicans wanted to oust him and the Dems screwed Al Franken over and we all lost from this. JMO
Not working together and having a fractured media base has put the Democrats/progressives behind the 8-ball.. The sad fact is that the right wing used the Brookings Institute as the model for their think tank propaganda machine. Why has Ben not been a guest on Stephanie Miller for example.
If there was a solid foundation put together, why not purchase MSNBC???
There are more than enough progressive voices to make it work
The right is relentless with their messaging.. Progressives are shooting themselves in the foot by not remembering the saying.."Divide and Conquer".......which is what has been tragically happening.
Yes, I don't want to play the blame game too much, but 13% of Bernie's people voted for Trump in 2016. They were angry Hilary got the nomination instead of Bernie.
They voted with trump to teach the more moderate Dems a lesson...we need them. We were divided. There was an opened SCOTUS seat. Had Hilary won we could have had a 5 to 4 liberal leaning supreme Court.
Many of them voted for Trump in 2024 finding fault with Harris. Black lives matter didn't endorse Harris. We need to stick together on major issues, like the presidency and supreme Court. We can iron out our disagreements later.
All the points you make are so right on. Kamala did an amazing job in the short period of time she had. She should have had at least a year to do what she did in the 100plus days. That would have given the electorate a chance to really get to know how amazing she is.
Sadly......people have not listened to the harbinger writers giving the warnings.
Now, for better or worse we all are going to find out the hard way.........
The choice now is simple.......bend over for Maga or rise up,.join up together and form the resistance
I’m afraid this all too true. I still question how anyone could listen to the crazy on these podcasts or platforms and still vote for them. I can’t help believe there is still a whole lot of ignorance.
Decades ago I was a low information voter. I recall it would take 60 seconds total, spread over months, for me to pick a candidate. A few seconds here, a few seconds there, and I knew how I would vote. Whoever gets in those spaces gets the most votes.
Absolutely correct. You only get in the game if you have skin in the game, and right now, we don’t. 2028 will be here before we know it. Dems need to start making some moves now.
The phrase "skin in the game" long predates _Hamilton_. No need to source it. <g> (Although, true, in the context of _Hamilton,_ it takes on a whole deeper meaning.)
2026 will be here in 2 years. We need to get ready for that starting right now. Dems need to build up and amplify a unified message across social media, forget 60 Minutes and CNN.
Yes, you're right 2026. If there are special elections in 2025, we have to support Dem candidates in every way. In 2026, we have to donate time (canvassing, phone banking, letter writing, holding signs, wearing t shirts, handing out literature). And donate money.
In fact, we need to get busy for 2026 and break super majorities at state levels, vote for Dem governors, and flip the House and Senate. That will release some hold of the oligarchy. Who would have thought we'd have the making of an oligarchy in America?
This… All of it, all true. But does lying and fear-mongering have anything to do with this as well? It seems as if a very small percentage of people actually believe or want to hear truth, but everybody gets sucked into the lies. Egg prices are still not a problem. Nor is gas. Stocks haven’t crashed….
People get sucked into the lies because most of them want to have an excuse for voting the way they vote. The people who voted for Trump and republicans voted for them because they wanted to vote for them. They just want excuses to justify voting for people they know are horrible people.
Yeah, and then howl wolf when voters remorse hits. And it’s coming. Much of Trump and Mistress Elect Leon’s agenda will hurt the poorest/less fortunate which is a large part of the folks who voted for him. It’s beyond wild to me that EVERYONE can’t/didn’t see through the proposed crazy that looks to come down the pipe.
It was legacy media's or msm's job NOT to lie but present the facts. They refused to do their job. Therefore the situation is the way Ron Filipkowski correctly described it.
As to why/how many poor people voted tRumputinist, it's because of very low quality education and very hardly accessible better quality of education in USA - the situation of which is a ground conducive to prejudices, bigotry, hatred, racism, chauvinism, nationalism, sexism etc...... And those who flock toward these antihumanist sentiments are an extremely evilly capricious but cohesive bunch, having succumbed to the corporatist "divide and conquer" yet not being even aware that they've foolishly succumbed to it!!!
Pete Buttigieg as a gay person understands what it is like being every moment of every single day of the entire one and only life a target of attacks and discriminations.
I like this idea, but I’m not entirely convinced. I think Fox News is still the juggernaut that is setting the framing that off-foots the Democrats. Maybe they are getting it from even more partisan sites. And you’ve also missed that the far left alternative ecosystem does function but undercut Harris over Gaza, which I suspect was amplified by those who wish to divide the Left, for whatever reasons of their own.
Fox polluted the thought process of millions of voters in the baby boomer and older generation. It was “inexcusable” that Biden failed to have (even if that meant a fight) Fox removed as the de facto broadcast on military bases etc. Anywhere Biden had the Executive Order authority to ban Fox, President Biden should have done so - years ago. That’s Marketing 101. They were lying on air - terminate the contract.
Going forward - I agree that the marketing strategy has to change in a major way.
So many voters were born after 9/11. They grew up with constant war, school active shooter drills and the lying that has become standard fair since Trump first took the stage.
Give the younger people much more of a say in guiding the Democratic Party in its marketing strategy. They are the future voters who will swing elections.
I noticed that Fox was on everywhere as soon as I arrived in the US as an immigrant many years ago. In the airports, in large stores, in car dealer's waiting rooms etc etc....always Fox !!! At first I just thought it was 'TV' and did not pay much attention, then it gradually became obvious which side it was promoting ! Trouble is a lot of people do not study political concepts very carefully & if they watch this stuff it is getting thru to them because it is very subtle in how it puts out the messaging !
It was a brilliant strategy on the part of Murdock and friends. Why it was allowed to go on totally baffled me. The FOX message became more and more right wing propaganda without any pushback despite having Democratic Administrations.
And when during the tea-party terrorism uprisings against President Barack Obama, there was a counteroffensive "Turn OFF the Faux Noise" (or, titled similarly) meant to fight the tea party terrorists in the early 2010s, I remember in Pittsburgh, PA, I was the lonely only one that I know of actively participating in that counteroffensive campaign.
Therefore, the chronic problem of Democrats is their lack of solidarity with its voting and/or supporting and sympathizing base.
I've been digitally i.e. over the internet Democratic activist since I got my first PC back in 2000, yep, the very first year of the new millennium, onward. My emails' inboxes are literally clogged by all sorts of Democratic activism. But one me can do only so much when others in Pittsburgh, PA and western Pennsylvania especially didn't give a f..k (forgive my French).
Absolutely. Dems avoid bold moves. Yes, ban fix on military bases. They were caught lying about the election and lost a suit to dominion. We have to be bold.
And I encourage young people to run for office. There's an organization called Run for Something and they support ordinary people running for office. I suggest these young people do some type of community projects to get there name in the public. Then run for office. Don't overlook city council, county commissioner, Mayor, superintendent...
Following my thought further… the reason Trump and the other R leaders were well received in the right wing ecosystem was their message of outrage, which is the kind of message that spreads like wildfire. Centrist neoliberal Dems aren’t going to get anywhere on the left wing ecosystem either their milquetoast proposals. Gaza played on the left but hurt our centrist candidates. We need similar outrage to fire up the base. We need bold Progressive ideas like Medicare for All and No More Oil. We need the Democrats to be bold populists and civil rights and gun control and climate activists and not cede the outrage to the far right. We have plenty of real problems to solve!
However, Dems need to have conventions like GOP. They have cpac, Texas GOP have their own convention, Turning Point, etc. They get on one sheet of music.
We need to meet and discuss ideas. I would love a convention where Bernie discussed medicare for all and Pete discussed the public option. We could ask questions and then choose one.
(I prefer the public option and if successful, would evolve into Medicare for all).
Imagine conventions for how to manage gun control. There are probably one million things we could do that I don't know about because Dems don't meet and build on ideas.
Imagine a conversation on education where we meet candidates running for school superintendents or librarians, discussing book bans, the department of education and what we can do to keep it solvent.
Each convention discuss what we can do, who's running for office, and help develop a platform.
They also need to go on the road to these areas where the low information voters are. We laugh at all the Trump rallies in podunk towns, but those rallies down hundreds of Podcaster and bloggers to gather where it makes these hot takes easier. Plus, it is much easier to show a rural food and health desert community that Dem policies are better for them when you're saying it from Norfolk, NE than from Norfolk, VA. Remember--we don't need to win those communities. We just need to create enough doubt that the other side is the right one that some people stay home.
Cat hello: When you say that the left "undercut" Harris over Gaza what does that mean? The Biden/Harris administration undercut itself by colluding with and financially backing a government that was and is flagrantly committing war crimes against humanity in Gaza. Some of us do see what's going on. Perhaps you should check out the Combatants for Peace (CfP) website and some other Palestinian/Israeli organizations that are working for Peace in the Middle East. So no - the "left" did not undercut Harris - she competently did it to herself.
Harris was being fair to both Palestinians and Israelis to make them both understand that they both must want the peace so to have the peace. It's up to the Palestinians and Israelis to change their murderous regimes in their own "courtyards" first and foremost so that the peace has a chance. Harris never sided with netanyahu so to deserve your attack on her!!! I support and have always supported every single democratic, liberal, human rights and civil rights Palestinian-Israeli cooperation group, organization, idea!!! It takes two for a tango!!! Both sides of that conflict must value the basics of liberal pro-western democracies if they want American help in anything!!!
Vel Santic: She did not advocate for a change in stance from the Biden administration's collaboration with and funding of the Netanyahu government that is committing war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza. She does not get a pass.
I guess we'll have to agree that we disagree on that. While absolutely condemning the kahanist netanyahu's regime&its criminalities, there's NO way I can keep my mouth shut about who and how started the Israel-hamas war on 7th Oct. of 2023 and whose regime was ruling Ghaza all the time. You might not care about the full chronology of the events, but I do.
Excuse me. How do you arrive at the unfounded conclusion that I defend what happened on Oct 7. This tragic event - for which there is no excuse - did not happen in a vacuum. The creation of Israel also did not happen in a vacuum. It is convenient to push the delete button on what the expulsion from the newly-formed state of Israel meant to the people who had been living on that piece of real estate for centuries. I support the group Combatants for Peace (CfP) - a coalition of Palestinians and Israelis - searching desperately for a way to work together toward peace.
She may not have advocated passionately, but we still needed to support her/ give her a pass because the alternative was trump. Trump's ambassador to Israel said there's no such thing as a Palestinian. All of Gaza and other land belongs to Israel and Samaria. Trump's going to take "everything" from the Palestinians.
Might not love Harris' ideas about the Middle East, but she wouldn't let the fox into the henhouse. She would have advocated for more change than trump.
Sherry - the fox is already in the henhouse. Since I admit I am not a mindreader, your comment that she "would have" advocated for "more change" than Trump leaves me a bit bewildered. Maybe you're correct or you "would have been" correct if she had won. Guess we'll never know. 🙄
I've headlined more major public conferences in 2023, and reposted more activists, than any member of the Democratic party (maybe not AOC or Marcus).
(This is obviously neither my real name or picture. I speak publicly all the time. More people know about what I do in real life than know about what Democratic politicians or polices do.)
I managed to convert votes to Harris at a conference by simply talking about the implications of a change Trump would do! people have no idea, and relying on the failing legacy media is like picking your nose and hoping to find gold.
I've been screaming about this for a while. We never hear from demoratic leaders except maybe cspan. Does anyone actually watch that? My god we need young leaders.
I reached out to the Democratic leaders today - DNCC, Hakeem Jefferies, the DCCC and my own congressional leaders. I'll keep reaching out and saying the same things until they listen or block me, whichever comes first - and that is that our messaging must be included in their messaging; that they need to make themselves available for interviews on independent media and then promote it to their constituencies.... Everyone here should do the same. Flood them with the same request over and over and over until they try it and see the benefits.
Well, that’s a lovely story. But unless you get the Democrats to open their goddamn minds, this is not going to change. We’re gonna continue to lose our country and they’re gonna continue to lose seats in DC. They might win in the states and maybe the local but they’re not gonna go to DC anymore until they get their heads out of their asses.
DC as the most Democratic-voting territory should actually be republican-free and-proof the most! tRumputin must NOT be allowed to even enter Washington DC considering what he&his committed on Jan 6th 2021 alone and considering they, since, got only even worse! tRumputin can only stay in mar-a-lago, even that mansion he never deserved to have!
There is another reason why the maga party has won the information war that no one is willing to say out loud for the simple reason that Americans are entitled weak whiney snowflakes; the American people are stupid, uneducated don’t read or vet information. Americans get their news from social media and so called news networks are now nothing more than propaganda for trump. It’s all about money for them. For Americans it’s all me me me. We are not a team or a society. We are a bunch of whiney toddlers and we have the perfect president to lead that bunch. We now have the government that we deserve. Good luck. I stay to fight but I fight for democracy; not for the entitled whiney maga right and the entitled whiney left. Grrrrrrr.
Not all Americans are "entitled weak whiney snowflakes." And even if we all were, the only way to fix that is educate. Knowledge is power - so we have to reach everyone, not just people who will listen. It may take years, it may never happen that everyone figures it out, but moving in that direction is better than letting the "Americans are entitled weak whiney snowflakes" be themselves and watch America burn down.
The rise wasn't as organic as you'd think. A surprisingly large percentage of the politicians, media personalities, etc. on the right attended Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute. It's a common core, connected to the RNC, major religious-right groups, and other conservative-movement organizations, creating a vast, interconnected web of people highly trained in the kinds of political behaviors and messaging we are all too familiar with, today.
I had no idea - thanks for this info! I’ve heard of some training programs for progressives but none recently. That’s another important strategy Dems could ramp up. As much as they throw the rest of us under the bus, right wingers provide a lot of support to each other. Until they double-cross each other, but that’s another story
Pete Buttigieg paved the way for Democrats to get out if their media bubble and go on Fox, Charlamagne tha God, union conventions, dozens of other national and local media. But he seemed to be the only Dem doing it. Just put him in charge of messaging - he’ll be available soon.
I agree, Pete Buttigieg is the master of communication... I'd pick him!
Jasmine Crockett has been on the circuit too. It's not enough.
And AOC, of course
Our new national DNC Leader?
We need many, many options besides Pete. We need to be everywhere, with a variety of voices (depending on the audience). And it needs to be 24/7, 365 days a year. With less wonk and more entertainment (along with the facts).
Plus the Dems are so darn humble. They should be shouting the successes from the mountain tops.
Plus we act like we lost the race so badly. Kamala put together an amazing campaign in 3 months. Stop putting it down.
Yes, we need you tout our accomplishments, which I didn't hear Harris push. The chips act started manufacturing computer chips in the USA. Capping insulin and other drugs at $35. Did you know some people spend thousands on insulin, late fees on credit cards at $8 instead of $35, infrastructure, inflation reduction act ( I'm not sure all that's in that act), and look at those jobs reports when we needed to get America back to work. Joining the Paris Climate Treaty and strengthening NATO. Explain that Ukraine exports grain and we don't want that under Putin's control. We benefit if ukraine wins.
But, yes so much good has happened under the Biden Harris team.
They also didn't talk about how so much of what Biden tried to do was stopped by red state attorney geberals.
You're absolutely correct. All of that red tape slowed out economic recovery.
SO True! They did an amazing job on such short notice...
Exactly!!! All this you said! And all the others who replied here said!
They also need to talk tough on illegal immigration. Rs are running the table on that issue.
Democrats also lose the messaging war because they don't act like a team about it.
Every single one of them should go out there and no matter what is asked immediately pivot to the top priorities and actions of the Democratic party as a whole.
The Republicans have shown us how to do it.
Stop talking about the major media wish list and immediately pivot to compare and contrast and attack on all of our vital issues and points.
Every single one of them. Every single time they speak publicly, are interviewed for print, go on a podcast, Are interviewed by legacy media
I think you see the pattern.
They failed to do this every single time. And the Republicans have shown them how to do it for decades now.
It's time to uptake that strategy and deploy it mercilessly.
Pete is the only one I see regularly. Sometime AOC and Jamie.
Pete is the best. Not only is Pete a fantastic communicator, what I especially love about him, is that he does not trash fellow Dems like some of the Dems. The Dems that trash fellow Dems on TV literally are doing the republicans work for them. I am not saying do not speak out against the Bob Mendendez types and get rid of them but Al Franken does comes to mind. He was one of the best in the Senate and the republicans wanted to oust him and the Dems screwed Al Franken over and we all lost from this. JMO
I too think of Al Franken every time a republican does something creepy or downright illegal and the GOP looks the other way! 🤬
Exactly. He was so good in the hearings.
Not working together and having a fractured media base has put the Democrats/progressives behind the 8-ball.. The sad fact is that the right wing used the Brookings Institute as the model for their think tank propaganda machine. Why has Ben not been a guest on Stephanie Miller for example.
If there was a solid foundation put together, why not purchase MSNBC???
There are more than enough progressive voices to make it work
The right is relentless with their messaging.. Progressives are shooting themselves in the foot by not remembering the saying.."Divide and Conquer".......which is what has been tragically happening.
Yes, I don't want to play the blame game too much, but 13% of Bernie's people voted for Trump in 2016. They were angry Hilary got the nomination instead of Bernie.
They voted with trump to teach the more moderate Dems a lesson...we need them. We were divided. There was an opened SCOTUS seat. Had Hilary won we could have had a 5 to 4 liberal leaning supreme Court.
Many of them voted for Trump in 2024 finding fault with Harris. Black lives matter didn't endorse Harris. We need to stick together on major issues, like the presidency and supreme Court. We can iron out our disagreements later.
All the points you make are so right on. Kamala did an amazing job in the short period of time she had. She should have had at least a year to do what she did in the 100plus days. That would have given the electorate a chance to really get to know how amazing she is.
Sadly......people have not listened to the harbinger writers giving the warnings.
Now, for better or worse we all are going to find out the hard way.........
The choice now is simple.......bend over for Maga or rise up,.join up together and form the resistance
Very, very true
I’m afraid this all too true. I still question how anyone could listen to the crazy on these podcasts or platforms and still vote for them. I can’t help believe there is still a whole lot of ignorance.
Decades ago I was a low information voter. I recall it would take 60 seconds total, spread over months, for me to pick a candidate. A few seconds here, a few seconds there, and I knew how I would vote. Whoever gets in those spaces gets the most votes.
It was before trumpism.
The election results proved it.
Absolutely correct. You only get in the game if you have skin in the game, and right now, we don’t. 2028 will be here before we know it. Dems need to start making some moves now.
The skin in the game is paraphrased from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. I realized I forgot to cite it. I’m not that clever.
The phrase "skin in the game" long predates _Hamilton_. No need to source it. <g> (Although, true, in the context of _Hamilton,_ it takes on a whole deeper meaning.)
Well, no, you are clever. Don't mean a thing just because you forgot something. Repeat after me 'til you get it: you are clever. Feel better now?
You’re very kind. Thanks. Merry whatever it is you celebrate.
Linda, I try to celebrate life and expansive ideas for all. Did I forget to mention, especially women? Take care.
2026 will be here in 2 years. We need to get ready for that starting right now. Dems need to build up and amplify a unified message across social media, forget 60 Minutes and CNN.
There are very important special elections in 2025. We should have started yesterday. Why is the DNC election in February and not this moth?
Yes, you're right 2026. If there are special elections in 2025, we have to support Dem candidates in every way. In 2026, we have to donate time (canvassing, phone banking, letter writing, holding signs, wearing t shirts, handing out literature). And donate money.
We don't have a choice.
In fact, we need to get busy for 2026 and break super majorities at state levels, vote for Dem governors, and flip the House and Senate. That will release some hold of the oligarchy. Who would have thought we'd have the making of an oligarchy in America?
It's time to get to work.
This… All of it, all true. But does lying and fear-mongering have anything to do with this as well? It seems as if a very small percentage of people actually believe or want to hear truth, but everybody gets sucked into the lies. Egg prices are still not a problem. Nor is gas. Stocks haven’t crashed….
People get sucked into the lies because most of them want to have an excuse for voting the way they vote. The people who voted for Trump and republicans voted for them because they wanted to vote for them. They just want excuses to justify voting for people they know are horrible people.
Yeah, and then howl wolf when voters remorse hits. And it’s coming. Much of Trump and Mistress Elect Leon’s agenda will hurt the poorest/less fortunate which is a large part of the folks who voted for him. It’s beyond wild to me that EVERYONE can’t/didn’t see through the proposed crazy that looks to come down the pipe.
Agreed. Sensationalism sells.
It was legacy media's or msm's job NOT to lie but present the facts. They refused to do their job. Therefore the situation is the way Ron Filipkowski correctly described it.
As to why/how many poor people voted tRumputinist, it's because of very low quality education and very hardly accessible better quality of education in USA - the situation of which is a ground conducive to prejudices, bigotry, hatred, racism, chauvinism, nationalism, sexism etc...... And those who flock toward these antihumanist sentiments are an extremely evilly capricious but cohesive bunch, having succumbed to the corporatist "divide and conquer" yet not being even aware that they've foolishly succumbed to it!!!
Pete Buttigieg as a gay person understands what it is like being every moment of every single day of the entire one and only life a target of attacks and discriminations.
I like this idea, but I’m not entirely convinced. I think Fox News is still the juggernaut that is setting the framing that off-foots the Democrats. Maybe they are getting it from even more partisan sites. And you’ve also missed that the far left alternative ecosystem does function but undercut Harris over Gaza, which I suspect was amplified by those who wish to divide the Left, for whatever reasons of their own.
Fox polluted the thought process of millions of voters in the baby boomer and older generation. It was “inexcusable” that Biden failed to have (even if that meant a fight) Fox removed as the de facto broadcast on military bases etc. Anywhere Biden had the Executive Order authority to ban Fox, President Biden should have done so - years ago. That’s Marketing 101. They were lying on air - terminate the contract.
Going forward - I agree that the marketing strategy has to change in a major way.
So many voters were born after 9/11. They grew up with constant war, school active shooter drills and the lying that has become standard fair since Trump first took the stage.
Give the younger people much more of a say in guiding the Democratic Party in its marketing strategy. They are the future voters who will swing elections.
I noticed that Fox was on everywhere as soon as I arrived in the US as an immigrant many years ago. In the airports, in large stores, in car dealer's waiting rooms etc etc....always Fox !!! At first I just thought it was 'TV' and did not pay much attention, then it gradually became obvious which side it was promoting ! Trouble is a lot of people do not study political concepts very carefully & if they watch this stuff it is getting thru to them because it is very subtle in how it puts out the messaging !
It was a brilliant strategy on the part of Murdock and friends. Why it was allowed to go on totally baffled me. The FOX message became more and more right wing propaganda without any pushback despite having Democratic Administrations.
Yep.
And when during the tea-party terrorism uprisings against President Barack Obama, there was a counteroffensive "Turn OFF the Faux Noise" (or, titled similarly) meant to fight the tea party terrorists in the early 2010s, I remember in Pittsburgh, PA, I was the lonely only one that I know of actively participating in that counteroffensive campaign.
Therefore, the chronic problem of Democrats is their lack of solidarity with its voting and/or supporting and sympathizing base.
I didn't know Dems had a counter offense to the team party. Never knew.
Dems need conventions several times a year (GOP has cpac, turning point, Texas had a convention...). That keeps them informed and on the same page.
Dems need that.
I've been digitally i.e. over the internet Democratic activist since I got my first PC back in 2000, yep, the very first year of the new millennium, onward. My emails' inboxes are literally clogged by all sorts of Democratic activism. But one me can do only so much when others in Pittsburgh, PA and western Pennsylvania especially didn't give a f..k (forgive my French).
Absolutely. Dems avoid bold moves. Yes, ban fix on military bases. They were caught lying about the election and lost a suit to dominion. We have to be bold.
And I encourage young people to run for office. There's an organization called Run for Something and they support ordinary people running for office. I suggest these young people do some type of community projects to get there name in the public. Then run for office. Don't overlook city council, county commissioner, Mayor, superintendent...
Name recognition and then run for something.
Following my thought further… the reason Trump and the other R leaders were well received in the right wing ecosystem was their message of outrage, which is the kind of message that spreads like wildfire. Centrist neoliberal Dems aren’t going to get anywhere on the left wing ecosystem either their milquetoast proposals. Gaza played on the left but hurt our centrist candidates. We need similar outrage to fire up the base. We need bold Progressive ideas like Medicare for All and No More Oil. We need the Democrats to be bold populists and civil rights and gun control and climate activists and not cede the outrage to the far right. We have plenty of real problems to solve!
However, Dems need to have conventions like GOP. They have cpac, Texas GOP have their own convention, Turning Point, etc. They get on one sheet of music.
We need to meet and discuss ideas. I would love a convention where Bernie discussed medicare for all and Pete discussed the public option. We could ask questions and then choose one.
(I prefer the public option and if successful, would evolve into Medicare for all).
Imagine conventions for how to manage gun control. There are probably one million things we could do that I don't know about because Dems don't meet and build on ideas.
Imagine a conversation on education where we meet candidates running for school superintendents or librarians, discussing book bans, the department of education and what we can do to keep it solvent.
Each convention discuss what we can do, who's running for office, and help develop a platform.
They also need to go on the road to these areas where the low information voters are. We laugh at all the Trump rallies in podunk towns, but those rallies down hundreds of Podcaster and bloggers to gather where it makes these hot takes easier. Plus, it is much easier to show a rural food and health desert community that Dem policies are better for them when you're saying it from Norfolk, NE than from Norfolk, VA. Remember--we don't need to win those communities. We just need to create enough doubt that the other side is the right one that some people stay home.
Exactly so, Sherry Daniels and Cat Russell!
Cat hello: When you say that the left "undercut" Harris over Gaza what does that mean? The Biden/Harris administration undercut itself by colluding with and financially backing a government that was and is flagrantly committing war crimes against humanity in Gaza. Some of us do see what's going on. Perhaps you should check out the Combatants for Peace (CfP) website and some other Palestinian/Israeli organizations that are working for Peace in the Middle East. So no - the "left" did not undercut Harris - she competently did it to herself.
Harris was being fair to both Palestinians and Israelis to make them both understand that they both must want the peace so to have the peace. It's up to the Palestinians and Israelis to change their murderous regimes in their own "courtyards" first and foremost so that the peace has a chance. Harris never sided with netanyahu so to deserve your attack on her!!! I support and have always supported every single democratic, liberal, human rights and civil rights Palestinian-Israeli cooperation group, organization, idea!!! It takes two for a tango!!! Both sides of that conflict must value the basics of liberal pro-western democracies if they want American help in anything!!!
Vel Santic: She did not advocate for a change in stance from the Biden administration's collaboration with and funding of the Netanyahu government that is committing war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza. She does not get a pass.
I guess we'll have to agree that we disagree on that. While absolutely condemning the kahanist netanyahu's regime&its criminalities, there's NO way I can keep my mouth shut about who and how started the Israel-hamas war on 7th Oct. of 2023 and whose regime was ruling Ghaza all the time. You might not care about the full chronology of the events, but I do.
Excuse me. How do you arrive at the unfounded conclusion that I defend what happened on Oct 7. This tragic event - for which there is no excuse - did not happen in a vacuum. The creation of Israel also did not happen in a vacuum. It is convenient to push the delete button on what the expulsion from the newly-formed state of Israel meant to the people who had been living on that piece of real estate for centuries. I support the group Combatants for Peace (CfP) - a coalition of Palestinians and Israelis - searching desperately for a way to work together toward peace.
She may not have advocated passionately, but we still needed to support her/ give her a pass because the alternative was trump. Trump's ambassador to Israel said there's no such thing as a Palestinian. All of Gaza and other land belongs to Israel and Samaria. Trump's going to take "everything" from the Palestinians.
Might not love Harris' ideas about the Middle East, but she wouldn't let the fox into the henhouse. She would have advocated for more change than trump.
Sherry - the fox is already in the henhouse. Since I admit I am not a mindreader, your comment that she "would have" advocated for "more change" than Trump leaves me a bit bewildered. Maybe you're correct or you "would have been" correct if she had won. Guess we'll never know. 🙄
Mighty Meidas is the media now!
I love them.
Ben Wikler understands all of this. It is why he must become the next DNC chair, not some old school pol like Martin O’Malley.
Agree completely. We stand for a better way forward, but voters don’t know that because we are buried in disinformation.
I've headlined more major public conferences in 2023, and reposted more activists, than any member of the Democratic party (maybe not AOC or Marcus).
(This is obviously neither my real name or picture. I speak publicly all the time. More people know about what I do in real life than know about what Democratic politicians or polices do.)
I managed to convert votes to Harris at a conference by simply talking about the implications of a change Trump would do! people have no idea, and relying on the failing legacy media is like picking your nose and hoping to find gold.
I've been screaming about this for a while. We never hear from demoratic leaders except maybe cspan. Does anyone actually watch that? My god we need young leaders.
I reached out to the Democratic leaders today - DNCC, Hakeem Jefferies, the DCCC and my own congressional leaders. I'll keep reaching out and saying the same things until they listen or block me, whichever comes first - and that is that our messaging must be included in their messaging; that they need to make themselves available for interviews on independent media and then promote it to their constituencies.... Everyone here should do the same. Flood them with the same request over and over and over until they try it and see the benefits.
Well, that’s a lovely story. But unless you get the Democrats to open their goddamn minds, this is not going to change. We’re gonna continue to lose our country and they’re gonna continue to lose seats in DC. They might win in the states and maybe the local but they’re not gonna go to DC anymore until they get their heads out of their asses.
DC as the most Democratic-voting territory should actually be republican-free and-proof the most! tRumputin must NOT be allowed to even enter Washington DC considering what he&his committed on Jan 6th 2021 alone and considering they, since, got only even worse! tRumputin can only stay in mar-a-lago, even that mansion he never deserved to have!
Dems have never had a strategy or coherent message. “We’re not crazy Nazis” doesn’t move the needle.
There is another reason why the maga party has won the information war that no one is willing to say out loud for the simple reason that Americans are entitled weak whiney snowflakes; the American people are stupid, uneducated don’t read or vet information. Americans get their news from social media and so called news networks are now nothing more than propaganda for trump. It’s all about money for them. For Americans it’s all me me me. We are not a team or a society. We are a bunch of whiney toddlers and we have the perfect president to lead that bunch. We now have the government that we deserve. Good luck. I stay to fight but I fight for democracy; not for the entitled whiney maga right and the entitled whiney left. Grrrrrrr.
Not all Americans are "entitled weak whiney snowflakes." And even if we all were, the only way to fix that is educate. Knowledge is power - so we have to reach everyone, not just people who will listen. It may take years, it may never happen that everyone figures it out, but moving in that direction is better than letting the "Americans are entitled weak whiney snowflakes" be themselves and watch America burn down.
The rise wasn't as organic as you'd think. A surprisingly large percentage of the politicians, media personalities, etc. on the right attended Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute. It's a common core, connected to the RNC, major religious-right groups, and other conservative-movement organizations, creating a vast, interconnected web of people highly trained in the kinds of political behaviors and messaging we are all too familiar with, today.
I had no idea - thanks for this info! I’ve heard of some training programs for progressives but none recently. That’s another important strategy Dems could ramp up. As much as they throw the rest of us under the bus, right wingers provide a lot of support to each other. Until they double-cross each other, but that’s another story
Thanks for the info. Just looked it up. https://leadershipinstitute.org/