Arianna Huffington: the importance of the next DNC chair

[G_j]

THE NEXT DNC CHAIR: WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

Arianna Huffington, AlterNet

Anyone raising the idea that the party needs to "move to the
middle" should immediately be escorted out of the building.

http://www.alternet.org/election04/20699/

This Saturday in Orlando, at a meeting of state party chairs, a parade of potential candidates are going to be making the case for why they should be the next chair of the Democratic National Committee.

I don't have a candidate. But I do have a litmus test: Anyone raising the idea that the party needs to "move to the middle" should immediately be escorted out of the building. Better yet, a trap door should open beneath them, sending them plummeting down an endless chute into electoral purgatory – which is exactly where the party will be permanently headquartered if it continues to adopt such a strategy.

Among those eyeing the position are Howard Dean, former White House aide Harold Ickes, Texas Rep. Marty Frost, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, New Democrat Network founder Simon Rosenberg, political strategist Donnie Fowler, and telecom exec Leo Hindrey.

Although less than 450 people will ultimately decide who becomes the next party chair, when the DNC votes on Feb. 12, the outcome will have a profound effect on shaping the party's future. Will Democrats continue to toe the strategy line of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council that has brought them to the brink of permanent minority-party status? Or will they finally return to the party's roots and recapture its lost political soul – and the White House and Congress with it?

..more..

[Guaranteed]

1. THIS PARAGRAPH EXPLAINS IT ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY:

"As cognitive psychologist George Lakoff told me: "Democrats moving to the middle is a double disaster that alienates the party's progressive base while simultaneously sending a message to swing voters that the other side is where the good ideas are." It unconsciously locks in the notion that the other side's positions are worth moving toward, while your side's positions are the ones to move away from. Plus every time you move to the center, the right just moves further to the right."

THAT is the point, DLC idiots!!!

YOU ARE DESTROYING OUR PARTY.

That one freaking paragraph deserves its own forum on DU.

Sorry, G_j, I have to make another thread just for that paragraph.

[G_j]

2. I agree

nothing like some very basic common sense and logic to set some light bulbs off. (hopefully)

:think: :think: :think: :think:

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. hey, we might as well just make George Lakoff the DNC Chair

he gets it more than any Democrat I've seen.

[Guaranteed]

4. Dean understands it, he just hasn't said it in the same way.

Dean supporters get it, too, it seems like.

But, yeah, I'd put Lakoff in there in a heartbeat.

[blondeatlast]

5. YES.

At least hire him for pity's sake.

Even at an inflated salary, if we must.

He's worth 3 McCauliffes, easily.

[NewJeffCT]

7. agreed

Lakoff should have weekly meetings with top Democrats like Grover Norquist does with Republicans.

[lancdem]

10. Personally, I don't think the party has to move right or left

I think it's a matter of making our principles better known to the public and not ceding cultural, religious and other issues to the GOP.

[HootieMcBoob]

41. Yup

She's got it exactly right. Too bad she's not the Governor of California now instead of the Gropeinator.

[Catfight]

44. I concur, this is the viable truth regarding politics....do what is right

not what is popular and we will win again.

[carnie_sf]

6. Jim Hightower for DNC chair

Anyone with the balls to say "George Bush was born on third and thinks he hit a triple" gets it IMHO.

[CAcyclist]

51. It was JH whose first book was entitled:

There's Nothing In The Middle Of The Road Except Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos


My personal theory is that the people that are in the middle are the people with no clear idea of what they believe in and they are easily influenced by the appearance of a strong leader , regardless of policy. If we motivate the base, the base will bring their friends in the middle over to the left.

[Q]

8. The odds of Democrats getting rid of the DLC is about the same as...

...Republicans ousting the Neocons and religious fanatics. The problem facing both parties is that those who have usurped power hold all the cards. They have the backing of powerful corporations and public relations firms that won't allow power to slip out of their hands and into that of the people.

We may just have to refuse to support or vote for any Democrat that fails to meet certain standards. Belonging to the DLC or having their support should be an immediate disqualification.

[greenohio]

13. So drop your support for Fienstien, Dodd, Cantwell, Rendel, Landrieu...

Heres the list of some of them:
Jim Doyle Governor WI
Michael Easley Governor NC
Jennifer Granholm Governor MI
Bob Holden Governor MO
Gary Locke Governor WA
Ruth Ann Minner Governor DE
Ronnie Musgrove Governor MS
Janet Napolitano Governor AZ
Ed Rendell Governor PA
Bill Richardson Governor NM
Kathleen Gilligan Sebelius Governor KS
Tom Vilsack Governor IA
Mark Warner Governor VA
Max Baucus U.S. Senator MT
Evan Bayh U.S. Senator IN
John Breaux U.S. Senator LA
Maria Cantwell U.S. Senator WA
Tom Carper U.S. Senator DE
Hillary Clinton U.S. Senator NY
Kent Conrad U.S. Senator ND
Christopher Dodd U.S. Senator CT
Dianne Feinstein U.S. Senator CA
Bob Graham U.S. Senator FL
Tim Johnson U.S. Senator SD
John Kerry U.S. Senator MA
Herb Kohl U.S. Senator WI
Mary Landrieu U.S. Senator LA
Joe Lieberman U.S. Senator CT
Blanche Lincoln U.S. Senator AR
Bill Nelson U.S. Senator FL
Ben Nelson U.S. Senator NE
Mark Pryor U.S. Senator AR
Debbie Stabenow U.S. Senator MI

Once these guys are gone, we can start WINNING again!

[Guaranteed]

15. Well, some of those are worse than others, but, uh...yeah, basically,

a whole lot of those people need to go. Begone from our party.

[greenohio]

18. Of course then we need to go after Stabenow ,Pryor,Clinton (Hillary)...

Warner...etc. We cannot stop until we are pure! Victory can only come at great cost. So lets start inflicting great costs!

[Guaranteed]

20. Well, not so fast. Maybe we can just stop letting the whores

amongst us make our policy decisions.

There's no need to be hasty- we just need real leadership, is all. And the losers need to shut the fuck up and get out of the way.

[greenohio]

22. Don't go soft on me now. Are you a DLC supporter? You can't hate the DLC

and love the members. Be consistent. Either those who subscribe to the DLC doctrine need to go, or they don't.

Purity! We need Purity! Screw this relationship stuff.

[Guaranteed]

24. OH, no...I hate them alright.

And if I could replace them with people who have integrity and principles, I certainly would. But you know that's not very practical.

I'll tell you, though, that if they won't shut up- I'd sooner see the party nearly destroyed, but with that rock-hard diamond of integrity remaining in the 15 Senators and 100 some-odd House members left with us.

But that's just what's gonna happen anyway, unless changes are made....so...psssh!! :shrug:

[greenohio]

25. So you hate them, but want to keep them because its practical.

But if they don't shut up, you would like to see the party "nearly destroyed".

Fascinating.

[Guaranteed]

26. Sure. What's your alternative?

Let the party be destroyed anyway?

BRILLIANT!

BTW I'm going to write and dedicate a song to you called "Sympathy for the Zell"...

[greenohio]

27. I dunno. Hard to top yours. Give me a few months for some research.

and I'll get back to ya.

[Guaranteed]

28. Well, how bout I give you Al From's, just to get you started-

Out tough-guy the Republicans on the war on terror (which I actually agree with- other than *IRAQ*, which is what he really means), and talk about God a lot.

Whatcha think of that?

[greenohio]

29. Didn't I say he and all the DLCers need the boot. You support Al From?

How confusing.

[Guaranteed]

30. Oh, where'd you say that?

And what the hell you gonna research, then? You know what you need to do. Get off your ass, make an argument, raise some hell.

[greenohio]

31. Uhh, post 13 lists all the Govs and Senators. I can include the others

if that would help the purging process.

[Guaranteed]

32. Well, I see you making helpful suggestions to others, but

no real heartfelt resolutions of your own. Sorry.

It's never too late, though.

[greenohio]

33. Repetition is good for the mind.

Either hate the members of the DLC or lay off the DLC. The members subscribe to the principles of the organization and could have their names removed at any time (as has happened.) If you hate DLC principles, this whole theory that if the org was renamed, or dissolved that the members would then "change" is fantasy.

[Guaranteed]

35. I hate the cowardly political philosophy they practice.

The fact that the people in control of our party are appeasing a bunch of fascists bothers me, as it does many people here.

Anytime they want to change their M.O., I'll be glad to welcome them back to the world of the respectable.

[greenohio]

38. So Fienstien, Dodd, Cantwell, Rendell are not respectible.

Good. Lets work to boot them.

[Guaranteed]

39. They no longer represent Democratic principles.

If you're having a personal breakthrough, good.

[sendero]

58. Perhaps as soon as..

... some of these clowns figure out just how un-enamored of the DLC the Dem base is, they will scramble to get off that list.

Ever think about that?

[AirAmFan]

34. Great list: 'Corporate Bag-O-Bribes Committee' would be a more accurate

name for them than 'Democratic Leadership Committee'. Their job is to make sure that anyone who will avoid "class warfare" issues the Corporations might not like gets paid from their bag-o-cash, along with primary opponents of incumbents who try to put 'kitchen table issues' back on the table.

Did you ever read Lyndon Johnson's biography? At least he avoided the pretenses of the DLC. He would literally filll a big black bag with cash from various oil interests, and hand it out on the Senate floor to those who'd been 'good'.

[itzamirakul]

37. Thanks for the list...

I had seen it or something like it somewhere else and then couldn't find it again. I have copied yours to save for further use and also to share wherever possible.

[Straight Shooter]

9. I want Dean as chair, but Frost is likely to get it

Capitulation to Texas and all that.

Totally agree on hiring Lakoff. :thumbsup:

edit: DLC = Dinosaur League Central

[LongTomH]

11. Red State Progressives

I like what she's saying about the progressive candidates who are winning in the Red States. We need to get back to framing the argument about the "little guy" versus the big rich in moral terms. That's how FDR and Truman won.

[PlanetBev]

12. Get the DNC and DLC where they llive

Starve them and give your money to grassroots candidates and issues you care about. Those maggots in the leadership positions don't give a rat's ass about the rank and file.

[AirAmFan]

16. He who pays the piper calls the tune--we need Dean's financial genius

to put the People back in charge of the Party, and throw out the Corporations.

Why is it that John Conyers consistently goes out on political limbs to do the right thing (like hold a Congressional forum on vote suppression), while most Democratic pols are in hiding on the real issues? Statistical studies of campaign finance consistently show that Conyers is at the bottom of the distribution of contribution per contributor, though he always raises lots of money. In other words, THE PEOPLE of Detroit own and control Conyers, not any small group of insurance lobbyists (Lieberman). defense contractors, or others who want billions in Federal contracts or big help in maintaining their monopolies against small business competition.



Howard Dean is the only candidate for Party Chair who's shown he could take Conyers's fund-raising strategy national. Under Dean, the Democratic Party would develop sophisticated databases and collect millions of $200, $100, and $50 contributions from ordinary Americans. Those contributors would stay in continual contact with the party and develop very close identification with the party and its core platform.

Martin Frost? That's the road to political oblivion.

We need to start playing to our base instead of running away from our base at the bidding of corporate "suppporters". Corporate donors are stifling and strangling us while while simultaneously nurturing and strengthening the far right.

The Republicans have won by serving as an umbrella organization for numerous single-issue organizations that coalesce around various right-wingers selected by big business. Each organization makes a lot of noise about its issue: anti-taxing-the-wealthy, anti-choice, pro-imperialism, anti-brown-skinned-immigrant, anti-gun-control, anti-gay, anti-Black, anti-feminist, anti-evolution, yada yada yada.

But the same corporate forces that have paid to amplify right-wing "social issues" have paid Dem pols to SILENCE voices at the other end of the spectrum, on basic democracy, justice, civil rights, education, job training, anti-poverty, and other "class warfare" issues.

Dems like Chris Dodd (CT), Steny Hoyer (MD), and Jimmy Carter (of the Carter-Ford Commission) don't even speak up when the 'Help America Vote Act' is used to erect structural barriers to the ELECTION of Democrats, through lack of national standards for fair voting, selection of unauditable voting devices in Republican-run states, insufficent funding for voting machines, no bilingual voter education. A party with a strategy like our current direction will not survive very long.

[FogerRox]

19. Dean is the man for job--I'd work for him

[itzamirakul]

43. If you haven't already read it..

the go to www.alternet.org/story/20702/ and read "The Democrats' Da Vinci Code" by David Sirota of the American Prospect.

<snip> ...the Democrats' very own Da Vinci Code - a road map to political divinity. It is the path Karl Rove fears. He knows his GOP is vulnerable to Democrats who finally follow leaders who have ranslated a populist economic agenda into powerful cultural and values messages. It also threatens groups like the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) which has pushed the Democratic Party to give up on its working-class roots and embrace big business' agenda. These New Democrats, backed by huge corporate contributions, say that the party must reduce corporate regulation and embrace a free-trade policy that is wiping out local economies throughout the heartland. They have the nerve to call this agenda "centrist" even though poll after poll shows it is far out of the mainstream. Yet these centrists get slaughtered at the ballot box, and their counerparts - the progressive economic populists - are racking up wins and relegating the DLC argument to the scrap heap. <snip>

This is one of the best articles I have ever read as to how the party can get back to its base. Huffington even mentions this story in her own article.

[NYCGirl]

45. Wow! It's a great article. Franken mentioned it today when

Davis Sirota was on, too.

[itzamirakul]

46. I have it on :)

I think I will post the article as a separate thread. I hope a lot of people read it. I printed it out to save for future use.

[Raksha]

47. I just read the Sirota article...

...and printed it out. You really have to wonder why the DNC hasn't figured all this out on their own. Why are they still trying to palm "Republican lite" off onto their base? It's the small donors who fund the campaigns now, and we are just NOT going to keep throwing good money after bad!

--Linda

[AirAmFan]

50. Thanks for the Sirota URL--Great article. I hadn't seen it, though

my rant in reply #16 echoes several of its key points, about corporate lobbyists stifling the party's appeal to its base. Somewhere today I read that Kerry raised $71 million in increments of $200 or less--WE HAVE NO NEED FOR THE DLC's BAGMEN anymore!

Are you going to post Sirota as a separate thread? There's a lot to discuss there. Most importantly, I think he goes a bit overboard with antiglobalization. I prefer Bill Bradley's old approach, of demanding FAIR trade, not 'FREE' trade.

[itzamirakul]

52. Yess, I will post it now...

I agree that there is an awful lot to discuss and analyze in the article but it at least gives us a block of ideas to work with.

I am also going to try to figure out how to put it into the new Demopedia. I think it will make good reference material.

[greenohio]

14. Ahhh, the reformed Republican comes to help us.

I think we should consider Arianna as Dean's assistant at the DNC. We'll be unstoppable.

[Guaranteed]

17. Now THERE'S that enthusiasm that we've been

waiting for from you. :)

[greenohio]

21. Thanks. I've always considered myself a team player.

We need more former republicans in the party. It will help move is left.

[lojasmo]

36. At least the republicans...

Know who they are.

[greenohio]

40. A bunch of fascists with brutal and effective strategies.

[lojasmo]

55. consistently on one side of the issues.

Saying they're all fascists is inaccurate and stupid, though.

[bemildred]

23. Personally, I think I prefer Dean on the outside where he has a free hand.

Somebody needs to take a cudgel to the DNC, and it were better done
from the outside, I think. All this "Obey and work from within" shit
had been tried and failed many times. The only time we ever wrung
the DNCs tail was in the '68-'72 period when we got the right to pick
our own candidates (in theory) in the primaries, and I can guarantee
you that did not happen because the DNC recognized the errors in it's
ways. Mr. Dean has the makings of an effective leader, but he needs to
be independent of the DNC, at least until we take it over, in order
to carry out the necessary reforms.

[Blue Wally]

48. The DLC was formed.......

To help recover from the disasters of 1972 and 1984.

[bemildred]

54. What's your point?

[madfloridian]

60. The DLC was formed so they could abandon the base.

Want the research?

[mistertrickster]

42. Let it be Dean. Fer gosh sakes, let it be the guy who put some

fire back into this party when "everybody" said Bush couldn't be beaten.

[NovaNardis]

49. Finally someone puts it into Words

The majority of Democrats understand that moving to the center is not going to solve our problem. It is understandable that Republicans win office - There are two parties in this country, why do the Democrats panic when we are in the 'minority'.
People don't vote Republican because Republican 'values' (wow I can't believe those words can fit in the same sentence!) are better. Far from it. They see Democrats as spineless. That's how Bush was able to get away with saying he is better on Homeland Security and being a War-Time president.
~~~
On a side note, I want someone to finally say that if you start the war, calling yourself a wartime president doesn't count. And if you use the war on terrorism, Clinton was a wartime president as well b/c of the war on drugs.
~~~
If the Democrats move to the center, it is just as Ms. Huffington says. The Republicans will move farther right, because they don't want to associate with us cause they are hate-filled bigots. (Generally, speaking; but I 'know' some nice Republicans, just as I'm sure Bush 'knows' minorities and gay people.)
If we retreat from what our party stands for, it affirms the message that Democrats are spineless and really don't believe in anything and just pander to votes.
If Bush can get away with being hardcore right, we need someone who can be hardcore left, like Dean!, not a semi-centrist like Kerry.

[newyawker99]

59. Hi NovaNardis!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Zorra]

53. Why Dean? Because he will immediately begin an attack on electronic

voting.

As DNC Chair, he could send a letter to every registered Democrat, alerting and alarming "mainstream" Dems by explaining the electronic voting problem, and begin the process of regaining democracy.

We are not going to win major elections if electronic voting machines continue to be used.

[G_j]

56. kick

[Malva Zebrina]

57. My fear is that Dean will get buried

and tromped upon again, thus losing his much needed voice, if he does become chair. There will be many who will not like what he says and who will seek to destroy his powerful image simply because they are comfortable where they are--in the DLC. I think he will be getting into a battle with these folks and I don't think his talent should be wasted there.