Next Step in fhe 50 State Strategy: Take the Progressive case to the Red States!

[Ken Burch]

We opened the door with the victories we got this year. Now we can get all the way through by using the next two years to talk about economic populism and a better deal for working people throughout the South and the West.

They voted to listen this time. Let's give them something to hear.

The party should send progressive activists to the Mountain West and the Border and Deep South to build an alliance of working-class whites and workers of color. We should set a goal of getting another three million African Americans, another three million working class Latino Americans and another million Native Americans registered to vote and organized to get out the vote. We should also support union organizing drives and GET LABOR LAW REFORM THROUGH CONGRESS to mobilize working-class white voters in the South and West.

It's a workable strategy and it gives us a future.

This is the path

[terryg11]

1. It is

but does anyone else feel that if we don't make moves on figuring something out on Iraq we could lose all the gains made?

I think taking the progressive message to the red states as you put it is a great idea especially the points you highlighted, should be much common ground there and maybe our best way to keep some of those states

[Ken Burch]

3. Of course getting out of Iraq is crucial.

But we need to avoid being seen as only concerned with foreign policy and not with day-to-day issues. People tune out the war too many times.

Tying the war to the problems at home could be part of it as well.

[PATRICK]

2. One big result

is to at least break down the barrier of lies and get everyone's feet on common populist ground of real values, economic justice, freedom and rights. I don't expect the Red Sates to raise the Red Flag of socialism just because they are being challenged, but the lies must be destroyed. What truth and human worth holds in common IS progressive by nature regardless of issue differences and political partisanship.

The whole notion of red and blue is itself a lie anyway. The cultural shifts will do more to affect real politics. It only that fakery has dominated everyone for so long that the masks and the blindfolds must come off. The best thing to convince tricked conservatives is real results of Democrats using power only for public service and making America work for all.

[USA_1]

4. Good Start

Let's re-cap. You gave a 4 point start as follows:


1) working class alliance

2) more registered voters

3) union power

4) labor law reforms



You say, activists need to be sent to the South and Midwest in order to begin to implement this strategy. Ok, a good start. But here are my queries:


Who precisely is to comprise this activist group - from where will you draw them? (I ask because college has become so painfully expensive that students are now holding 2 or 3 jobs in order to pay tuition - where will they find the time to engage in political acitivism?)

Who is to finance the mobilization of these youthful activists?

How are you going to deflect or refute criticism of their activities? (it is a good bet that right wing critics will call them "communists" or some other such bullsh*t and pretend for all the world that these progressive ideas are somehow Satan inspired or some other such garbage)

What safeguards will you employ to insure that some COINTELPRO type group will not infiltrate the activist groups in order to discredit them in any way?

Youthful civil rights and antiwar activists in the 1960s were subjected to physical attacks whether from racist or prowar thugs and in many other cases from police or FBI. How do you propose to protect the activists from these elements?


I'll probably have more questions later on. Thanks for considering these queries.

[Ken Burch]

5. Interesting points: I'll try to address them one by one

The activists could be drawn from a number of sources...

Many of them could be people who have worked in the GOTV efforts. Some could be students on summer break, or union interns. It could also involve simply giving financial support to people already on the ground in the South and West. People who have been trained at Highlander School in Tennessee, for example, or the Soujourners group in D.C.

Also, retired people could do some of the work. A lot or retirees are politically motivated, many 60's types are now retired, so they can have another chance to use their golden years to work for a better world.

This also makes a case for Democrats supporting increased availability of student loans and grants, and for increased higher education funding so tuition and housing costs can be cut.

The party could do fundraising specifically to support these groups, in a series of teach-in and voter registration events. It could work with wealthier donors like Soros to do some underwriting.

As to the criticism, well, you'll get that no matter what. These are people who thought CLINTON was a Communist. What is important is to keep working in spite of the criticism and attacks and to defend yourself in the media and the general public sphere. Clinton's
"rapid response team" approach can work for this.

I'd also underwrite camera crews to videotape as much of what we did in these situations as possible. This would help discourage vigilantism(you're going to be less likely to lynch if your face ends up on tv.)

Infiltration is a trickier problem, and may be insoluble. A good idea is to kick people out as soon as they start sounding wild or begin talking up violence or craziness. Don't let anybody take a flag with them, in order to prevent sudden burnings.

Violence may occur, and people will need to know it could happen. But, at the risk of sounding callous, it helped the civil rights movement make its national case when people saw its activists being hurt.
I hope that doesn't happen, but it may just be part of the deal.

[USA_1]

6. Religion

As someone who lives in the Midwest I can tell you that no political or sociological outlook can make any headway in this region or in the South unless it is grounded in some form of religious foundation. Unfortunately, many posters in DU fail to understand that. I say it because I have tried on various occasions to make DU posters understand that if the Democratic party is to reemerge as the primary political party of the USA it must return to its social gospel political roots. Whenever I or anyone else has stated that on this forum, certain liberals here have said that my idea (or that of others who agree with me) is pointless and without foundation.

I grew up in New York and know that many liberals there feel that religion has no proper role in politics. But these critics must understand that this is NOT the way people think here in the Midwest or in the South!

The great irony is that Democratic party ideology is grounded in the Bible's teaching! In fact some folks here have posted liberal Christian links which clearly show that Democratic party philosophy reflects biblical ideals of compassion, justice, equity, peace, and brethrenship. While the party's outlook reflects these biblical ideals, the lying Republican antichrists tell Midwestern and Southern voters that it is their party that reflects the Bible's teachings when, in fact, they do not.

If the Democrats wish to regain the Midwest and South it simply must assert that it is the party of biblical outlook and application! The Bible is the party's best weapon against the lies and deviousness of the Republicans. Only when you Dems use it will you win back America and put her back in her proper place as the leader of the free world.

[Ken Burch]

7. I agree with you. We can use religious language in these areas.

But we would use it for a pro-justice, pro-tolerance agenda.

A lot of Sermon on the Mount, not so much Book of Revelation.

A lot of the Prophets.

I'd be ok with that.

And we can also quote Jefferson and Thomas Paine to defend the secular people and their role in society. We can reclaim a lot of the great American texts and add to them the texts of the other Americas as well.

[USA_1]

8. Great. But We Need More Than A Two Way Conversation ...

Unless and until significant numbers of people engage in this productive campaign that you are suggesting (and excellent one, by the way) such progress cannot and will not be made. I would like to hear from many more people as to what steps they will take in order to actuate your constructive ideas. Moreover, it will be essential for the DLC to take the initiative for this to happen and I'm wondering when they will begin to do so.

[Ken Burch]

11. The only way to get people to engage in such a campaign is to try and start it:

And I don't know that it actually HAS to be the DLC that takes the initiative here. It would be there natural instinct to oppose this, since, if successful, what I'm proposing would make them superfluous.
Deferring to the DLC at all here would basically mean conceding the idea that the South and the West are theirs by liege right.
We have the chance to break from that idea of a feudal form of politics.

[IDemo]

9. Let me understand this

You seem to be proposing, essentially, a Crusade of sorts; presumably of political intent, but now with religious underpinnings as well? All I can tell you, speaking from here in the Mountain West, is that your adherents in this crusade likely do not face the threat of vigilantism (possibly including lynching?). Ridicule or indifference? Doubtlessly. But, despite the common misconception of many that Idaho and the mountain west in general is brimming with neo-nazi's and other bad actors, it isn't Mississippi Burning, Part ll here. Really.

Your campaign is reminiscent of the Freestate Project, a movement that proposes mass migration of like-minded Libertarians into one sparsely populated state with intents of sweeping political change through strength of numbers. Idaho was one of their original target states too, although it appears now New Hampshire has "won out".

One thing that will almost certainly doom a candidate or ballot initiative here is the perception, true or false, that they are backed by out-of-staters. A bitter fight over a right-to-work measure failed here in the 80's precisely because of that.

I cannot speak for the South, but I have lived here since 1970, and believe I have an excellent understanding of the people and politics here. I have seen Idahoans elect Democratic greats such as Frank Church and our former governor, Cecil Andrus. The state is not neon red from border to border. Progressives do live here, mostly in the college towns and the panhandle. We made a pretty close fight this time for the Democratic US congressional candidate, Larry Grant. And we are counting on a better showing next time.

[Ken Burch]

10. I'm glad that you did well in Idaho. And you may be misunderstanding my intent:

I'm not calling for the demonization of the Red State areas:

I'm calling for us, in a positive and even celebratory way, to go into those areas and try to improve the dynamic.

We could do this as a kind of modern day Chataqua: there could be cultural and entertainment components as well as political discourse. The idea I'm working with is to help these areas build their own progressive face.

It's not about bringing in large numbers of "out of staters" to permanently relocate: its about growing progressiveness(or regrowing it, in Idaho's case, since I remember not only Frank Church, whose presidential campaign I supported as a teenager in 1976, but William Borah as well).

And, for the record, it was another poster who brought in the spector of lynching and violence. I don't think, myself, that that's that likely even in the South these days. They have too much of a stake now in looking civilized and modern.

And I think we can use religious language for progressive ends(that's a large part of what the civil rights and, more than people remember, the anti-Vietnam War movement did in the 1960's, and it was there in the Central American solidarity, Rainbow Coalition and Nuclear Freeze movements in the 1980's as well)without demonizing secular progressives.

The idea is to build a larger progressive culture in these areas that goes on between elections and counteracts the myth(a myth accepted by Rahm, the DLC and too many others)that we have to settle for only the less-conservative candidate in those places. It disturbed me, for example, to hear one of the Idaho Democratic congressional candidates(quoted on "All Things Considered") suggesting that the role of new "Western Democrats" in a Democratic congress was to stop or slow down liberal instincts in the rest of the party. If that's how that guy felt, it's no great loss that he wasn't elected(Not to pick on Idaho, but that's an example that comes to mind) and it suggests that there is a larger project to try to open up the discussion in the Red Zone in general.

I'm hoping to break the fear of change cycle and the limitation of discussion cycle in those areas and in the mindsets of Democrats in others. That's all. I wasn't equating Boise in 2006 with Mississippi in 1963.

Have I cleared that up? Are you still deeply opposed to my ideas after reading this? Let's discuss this some more if you are because this is the time to have a dialogue on these things.

I appreciate your interest, and don't worry, I'm not advocating anything meant to undermine people like yourself or

[Blue_In_AK]

13. Ken, I think the fact that Diane Benson did so well here

indicates that your plan has merit. Who would have thought such a progressive candidate could pick up 40% of the vote in ALASKA against a 17-term incumbent with millions of dollars?

[Ken Burch]

14. Thanks for bringing that up, Blue.

There's a thread I've started on a similar theme in the Alaska forum today.

What this election shows is that grass-roots action has a great capacity to overcome limitations, if the leadership will move in response to it.

[IDemo]

16. I didn't realize Larry Grant felt that way

I just listened to that NPR segment. I hadn't heard that one, and yes, it's upsetting to hear our candidate say that Western Democrats are here to "put the brakes on the liberal side of the party". I consider myself to be at the left end of the Democratic spectrum, so supporting DINO's becomes a necessary evil for me. Funny that Bill Sali's attack ads repeatedly referred to "Liberal Larry Grant".

The piece did mention that Grant had not received "one dime from the DNC". If that's true, I wonder if Dean's Fifty-State project made it this far..

I realize you didn't mean to suggest a FreeState-styled relocation. I get this mental image, though, of bus loads of bright eyed college kids, clipboards held tightly to chest, coming here determined to enlighten the rubes. That is an overly caricaturized picture, I know, but the point is most red state republicans don't feel they need their political sensibilities expanded by outsiders. "Don't Californicate Idaho" was a popular bumper sticker here a while back, and it basically says it all. (The fact that Orange County Republicans are moving here en-masse won't change that).

This state has a real problem with the "29-percenters" mentality, only it's more like 59 percent here. The block of voters who feel Bush is doing a good job doesn't seem at all affected by news events or reality in general. Voting the straight Repub ticket is as normal a ritual as the fall elk hunt.

[OhioBlue]

12. I agree with your plan

I think however, the first priority should be to reinforce the progress that Dean has made in swing-states. Secondly go after the red states. I'm only speaking from my limited knowledge and experience in Ohio. I know the DNC provided funding for 4 field staff members in Ohio, I think the ODP kicked in for a few more. These staff members were great resources even to our small-red county. We were able to turn our County blue for Strickland (Bush won by 2:1). Yes, it had a lot to do with the mood of the electorate, but I have to say, the organization and activism was at a level our County has never seen for Democratic efforts.

I'm concerned about losing this field staff when we could build on such great momentum and shore up Democratic support for '08. Even though Ohio turned Blue this year, I can see the electorate as being fickle and a great need to continue a strong effort over the next 2 years.

[Zodiak]

15. Dean laid the infrastructure. Time to solidify and conquer!