In what ways should the Democratic Party change?

[kentuck]

Are we too stuck in old thoughts and ideas? Do we need to modernize our philosophy? Are our stances on unions, Social Security, Medicare, healthcare, military, etc obsolete? Where do we need to change? Just curious...

[coloradodem2005]

1. Getting a back bone would be THE thing to change.

[NVMojo]

2. they need to sit down and do some major "power-mapping" on all

the issues in each state, then national issues, who the players are, who the followers are, what their messages are and then figure out how to dismantle the liars. One step at a time. If they start now, they could turn things around over a few short years.

[stray cat]

5. Good idea - Hope they are doing it.

[mb7588a]

3. Stop pandering to the internet left?

:argh:

heh heh.

[BuyingThyme]

4. We should never again insist that...

...there is some work which just has to be done by illegal aliens.

We should stop denigrating would-be American workers and demand that market rates be paid to the Americans who would be perfectly willing to do the work at market rates.

Taking a stand for American workers will draw the a huge segment of the anti-illegal alien contingent to our side. The only thing we lose is the pro-illegal alien business interests.

[BlueInRed]

6. I think it's practical stuff more than stances, with a few exceptions

In general, I don't think our stances are killing us. I think it is practical stuff on how to campaign, how to frame issues, personal qualities of a candidate, what to emphasize and what to steer clear of, etc. Here's my list:

• Understand how framing issues can make or break an election.
  
• Realize people don't always vote on issues, they vote in large part on gut reaction to a person.
  
• Realize that if we don't fix the voting machine issue, we are throwing our advertising dollars away. What good is getting a vote if it's not counted.
  
• Listen to people locally on how to run a localized campaign in their state. Every state knows its own hot button issues and what to emphasize and it's time the national campaigns paid attention to what the locals say.
  
• Give local parties financial assistance and teach them how to fundraise locally.
  
• Realize that different lifestyles (rural and urban) lead to different priorities (and I'm not talking about religion, gays or abortion).
  

On issues, we need to understand that gun control is not worth losing the presidency to someone like Bush. On trade, we need to be able to look at issues from both the side of factory workers and farmers and find a fair solution. And we need to look at rural voters realistically, rather than with simplistic stereotypes.

[s-cubed]

7. Rights, not programs

Jesse Jackson, Jr., at the Progressive Democratic Summit in DC just after the inauguration, gave a speech that had a number orf excellent ideas. It was filmed, but I don't know if it is available. One key idea that he talked about was that Democrats like to think in terms of programs: health care, voting reform, etc., but they must instead focus on rights: you have a right to vote and to have it counted, you have a right to health care, etc. I thought it a very powerful way to reframe the issues.