The Democratic Governor's Association has launched a new website, FighttheRight.com, and with it this "Never Surrender" video:
DGA executive director Nathan Daschle said this in an email to supporters about the new website:
We must never surrender to the fringe. We must stand and fight the right in 2010.
This is part of a "fight the Republicans" and rally the base movement we're seeing from Democratic organizations across the board. Last month the DNC launched the Accountability Project to fight Republican attempts to mislead the American people. OFA is sending out emails titled "Fight back," MoveOn.org is asking people to sign a "Fight Washington Corruption" pledge and a recent Democracy Corp polling memo advised Democrats to take the fight to Republicans race by race. We're suddenly becoming a rather pugilistic party, it seems. The ad above, for instance, seems designed to appeal more to men than women. Do men vote more heavily in midterm elections? I think they do.
The Anzalone-Liszt National Polling Summary that hit my inbox this morning says:
In both substance and rhetoric, the Democrats are beginning to wage a coordinated campaign to change the narrative about the November elections. They are reframing the midterms less as a referendum on President Obama and more as a choice between two parties with two fundamentally different economic philosophies. This is a smart move.
Democrats have to take it to the Republicans race by race, on issues people care about (jobs and the economy) and force a choice on that ground, not on President Obama's popularity. Like I've said before, we have the better arguments, but we have to expend the effort of making them.
Hubbert says that will leave him free to work with legislators from both political parties to promote the interests of public education.
This is not unexpected. AEA is Paul Hubbert's job. His relationship with the Democratic Party has been part of the way he does that job on behalf of AEA members.
I've said again and again, as Democratic influence in the Legislature wanes (and Republicans are oh so confident their party will pick up even more influence in November) Hubbert would be ready and willing to assist and make friends with Republicans. Heck, he just had a big hand in picking gubernatorial nominees for both parties, so he's obviously perfectly willing to work with Republicans.
All I can say to my counterparts in the GOP is, you guys need to throw away all your "evil union boss" screeds and get used to the idea that winning draws the powerful like honey draws flies. You thought it was your party, but the Big Mules own it now, lock, stock and fake elephant.
I'm not the least bit surprised Gov. Dean is supporting Perkins in this runoff. When Giles was talking to me last week (video below) about small donors, bringing people back to the Democratic party and reducing special interest influence, I couldn't help but think of Howard Dean and his famous exhortation (above) for progressive Democrats to get involved and take our country back for the people who built it!
We needed to take our party back first, truth be told. And we've made real progress on that at the federal level, but Alabama is behind the curve. We have in this runoff a clear choice between a progressive candidate (Giles Perkins) and a business as usual candidate (James Anderson). Vote accordingly, and remember that you can vote with your pocketbook as often as you like.
"I think the way he way we build trust in the Democratic party, and more importantly the way we build trust in government, is by getting more people involved with the process, and involved also means giving $10, $25, $50.
And the party ought to be about building that donor base and giving them a reason to support our candidates and giving them candidates they can trust and identify with. But right now for years, we've relied on a handful of big donors and that's not the future. The future is getting people invested in our progressive Democratic politics in Alabama and getting them to help us win.
... We need to inform the voters, who are also going to become these small donors, that there are candidates out there that they can care about. There are candidates that are going to speak the truth and fight for the things that are important. And if that happens I think the model will build itself. And you won't feel this detachment for candidates because the're funded by the big interests and they never take them on and we'll see a sea change. I think that's coming in Alabama in the next couple of years.
... You've got to put ethics first, and if we start solving that - if we're saying we don't lie, we don't cheat and we don't steal - then they're going to trust us, they're going to invest in us, and we're going to be able to take on some other fights."
We're serious about building a (or some, whatever it takes) forward-looking institution to advance progressive ideas, nurture progressive leaders and support progressive candidates in Alabama. Too often the Democratic establishment sees us as a horde to be beaten back from the gates instead of the fresh troops we could and would like to be -- see this incident out of Georgia for an example.
Of course, the devil is in the details. How do we best approach this problem?
From within the Democratic party, or an outside, nonpartisan organization? Two examples I can think of are the Florida Progressive Coalition and one in Texas (the name will come to me eventually) that endorses and contributes to progressive candidates. Both do a lot of organizing online.
Is it more important to score candidates on progressive issues and issue endorsements or to raise money? Or is mobilizing supporters the real key?
We already know of many progressive, issue oriented groups in the state. Do we need another one, or do we really need a coalition of those existing progressive groups that could more effectively exercise political power?
We need your thoughts on these questions, and others we aren't even smart enough to ask yet.
"The Democratic Party began to decline here in 1986," said Natalie Davis, a professor of political science at Birmingham-Southern College. "By and large they're a party that has not found a voice. Their decline is a withering process. There is a sense that the Democratic Party is not where voters want to be here."
It has left the Democratic machinery hustling to make itself relevant.
"Alabama, on its face, is still very conservative," says Joe Turnham, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "We're in the heart of the Bible Belt. Sixty-eight percent of Alabama voters attend church at least once a week. Over 60 percent identify themselves as born-again Christians. A lot of Democratic parties, with those numbers, would have folded and gone away. We haven't."
Turnham seems to be saying that church attendance and Christian faith are incompatible with Democratic values or, as Steve Raby said a few weeks ago, "Well I am a Democrat and a Christian so I guess I'm a conservative Democrat."
Why? Why can't you be a liberal or moderate Democrat and also be a Christian -- or a regular churchgoer of any faith? Why do our Democratic leaders see faith as incompatible with our political values?
Read your Bible. Jesus was absolutely, without doubt a bleeding heart liberal. I just don't get why the Democratic party doesn't defend the sort of red letter liberalism found in the New Testament.
(This needs to go back to the top and (hopefully) discussed more. Ron Sparks will make his announcement tomorrow, whether or not LiA Front Page posts are at the top or not. - promoted by BenGoshi)
This may seem like Political Science 101, but the topic has come up several times in recent comment threads, so maybe it deserves some space.
Democrats cannot win statewide in Alabama with just the base. Neither can Republicans. Surveys I've found don't break the state down any further than that, but it's a safe bet we also can't win any congressional district other than the 7th with just base voters. Here are some recent survey results:
Democrat 37% Republican 33% Independent 27% Other 3%
It's hard to find any survey showing Democrats over 40% party id in Alabama. Sorry, but that just isn't enough to win. You will find numbers like those in virtually every survey that includes a question on party ID and election results back it up. Virtually any Democrat (no matter how poorly funded) running against Shelby or Sessions or for a major statewide office will get 35-40% of the vote. That's the floor for a Democrat. The real trick is getting from the floor to the 50% + 1 required to win.
There is no winning here without appealing to a large chunk of independent voters or even moderate Republicans. There's also no winning without the base, which means capitulation doesn't work -- see the example of Parker Griffith if you don't believe that. He lost the Democratic base and has been forced to go whole hog and try for GOP base voters instead. Very risky course.
Democrats have to persuade voters in the middle that we can govern better than Republicans. Progressives need to be making the case for progressive policy and candidates. All too often we have dismissed the arguments of the other side as stupid, worthless , etc. or at best we say something like, "no one would believe that" and walk away leaving people to believe what they hear on talk radio or Fox news. We have to engage, we have to persuade, we have to listen to the crazy arguments and politely but firmly refute them. That's how you reach the voters in the middle. It's how you change the wind and it's what we have to do.
Nobody else is going to do it for you. From Organizing for America ...
“We are at one of those rare moments in history where we’ve been given the opportunity to change our country for the better. But it’s never easy, and it never starts in Washington.It Starts with You."– President Barack Obama
You're looking for a savior. And like that Savior of biblical fame, s/he isn't coming, as long as there are people like me out there. I personally won't work for a company or organization that goes against my personal convictions. But 99% of us certainly will.
If you want to win, you will ORGANIZE. You will organize in the same way the Right has done for the last 40 years, and you will spend money on persuasion, where it really matters. You will, in short, make the politicians as afraid of you as they are of them. The Right has built vast networks of think tanks, newspapers, periodicals, cable news channels, and political advocacy organizations to spread their finely tuned, well-honed messages. Their politicians may fail them, and their actual policies may be deeply unpopular, but their message machine nearly always works its magic to get them what they want, even when Democrats are in power.
That's partly because the American political Right never quits and never gives up. They know that organization is the key to their success, and they don't trust politicians to do their work for them. Democrats, on the other hand, get disappointed and quit when our politicians don't pan out the way we wanted. That's why we lose.
Now, OFA may or may not be the best vehicle for organizing, I really don't know. The point is, we have to get the job done one way or the other. Get yourselves ready folks, because this is going to be a long war -- unless you plan to just roll over now.
Three cheers for Women's Suffrage, the Civil Rights Act, Marshall Plan, NASA, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act!!
All these - and MORE - were brought to you by the Democratic Party.
Want to remind yourself, family members, and the person in line behind you at the grocery store just what Democratic policies have meant and still mean to our country? The Democratic Party is offering this t-shirt just in time for holiday shopping. It's $20 with free shipping.
The front says in smal letters: The Democratic Party. The back lists these:
Women's Suffrage Act - Securities and Exchange Act - Social Security Act - Unemployment Compensation - Rural Electrification Act - Federal Home Loan Program - 40-Hour Work Week - Minimum Wage - Overtime - GI Bill - School Lunch - Marshall Plan - NATO - Peace Corps - First Manned Moon Mission - Civil Rights Act - Medicare - Medicaid - Voting Rights Act - HeadStart - Guaranteed Student Loan Program - Family & Medical Leave Act - Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
When there's still so much work to be done, it's easy to get discouraged. But think about how far we've come. Life is a journey - as is the neverending fight for equality justice for all. I'm proud to be part of a party that's leading the way - even if it veers dangerously close to the ditch and almost gets turned around entirely sometimes.
Buy it for yourself, friends, and those sweet, cuddly Republicans in your life! Note, LIA doesn't make $$ off the purchase! ;-)
But a bigger indicator of peril comes from a new survey question added the DK tracking poll for the first time this week. The poll now includes a rather simple indicator of baseline voter enthusiasm for the year 2010. The question offered to respondents is a simple question about their intentions for 2010:
QUESTION: In the 2010 Congressional elections will you definitely vote, probably vote, not likely vote, or definitely will not vote?
The results were, to put it mildly, shocking:
Voter Intensity: Definitely + Probably Voting/Not Likely + Not Voting
Two in five Democratic voters either consider themselves unlikely to vote at this point in time, or have already made the firm decision to remove themselves from the 2010 electorate pool. Indeed, Democrats were three times more likely to say that they will "definitely not vote" in 2010 than are Republicans.
These guys are just killing their base, while the opposition is revving up theirs. When will Democrats figure out how that it's ok to please the people who put you in office?
For example, I was resigned to a congressman (Parker Griffith, AL-05) who would not be much better than his Blue Dog predecessor, except I knew he understood the need to fix health care and he would likely drop Bud Cramer's obsession with eliminating the estate tax. That isn't much, but it was plenty to get me psyched enough to put out some signs and defend him to my friends. What do I get in return? He's against health care reform, still pushing to eliminate the estate tax and bashing Nancy Pelosi to boot.
Griffith isn't slightly better than Cramer, he's worse, and if the election were tomorrow he'd lose because his base is completely demoralized. This will be very ugly for Congressional Dems next November unless they start listening/talking to the people who put them in office.
I've ranted about different factions and the infighting under the so called democratic big tent.
Frankly, I don't see how one can be both Conservative and a Democrat. Democrats are pro choice. Conservatives are pro life as long as it's in the womb. Democrats are pro equal rights and civil rights. Democrats are pro labor and pro union, Conservatives are pro-prayer in school and pro "traditional family". Conservatives favorite Congressmen are Jim Marshall and Jim Taylor, Democrats favorite Congressmen are John Lewis, Robert Wexler and Dennis Kuchinich.
I am very happy to be a BIG D democrat. However, we may be at our most vulnerable time and we must be very wise in how we position ourselves and how we move forward.
One thing I will say about Davis's candidacy, it is pitting democrat vs democrat, white vs black, conservative vs liberal, white progressives vs black progressives, pro choice vs anti choice, north AL vs south AL, rural voters vs urban voters. And some call me "divisive"? Go figure.
Alabama Democrats likely need more Populism and Progressivism from their Chairman than prayer and publishing.
The democratic party is not pure or perfect because it's been infiltrated by those who don't share democratic party principles or values. Candidates and elected officials feel free to take our money and our votes for granted and pander to those who might vote for them (or not) at the expense of those who have to vote for them because they have no where to go.
Bash and smear me all you want. You aren't hurting me. You're hurting our party and our country.
Links below the fold just in case the ones in the diary don't work.
Why would conservatives be a member of a party where they disagree with the party platform? Think about it.
I'm with healthy, lets stop calling them Blue Dogs and start calling them Blue Rats!
Blue RATS are REPUBLICANS! Why did they ran on the democratic platform? Because the Democratic Party allowed them to promote rightwing ideals and of course, to get OUR MONEY! It was a very smart strategy to lull Democrats into believing they have a majority, when in fact, THEY don’t. (Although of course as someone pointed out, it allows us to have Pelosi and not Boehner as the speaker of the house, but a simple majority with true Democrats would do that too)
The reign of the anti-school tax activists on area school boards was a short one
Fairfield School Board incumbent Arnie Engel, who tried four times to get elected to Fairfield Schools governing board before finally winning in fall 2005, this time finished a distant fourth in the race for three open seats.
In Warren County's Mason School Board race, self-proclaimed "Christian conservative" incumbent Jennifer Miller ended up fifth out of eight candidates vying for three seats.
In the Monroe school board race, fiscal conservative Mike Irwin lost his re-election bid, finishing dead last among five candidates.
I wouldn't always be outraged if there weren't so much to be outraged about. Outrage is a good thing. It's better than the alternative.
Redeye stomping away from the computer in outrage.
Right here in Alabama! Four Republican judges from Jefferson County and one from Montgomery county were accepted by the State Democratic Executive Committee today and will be able to run as Democrats next year.
The Jefferson County party switchers are Circuit Judges Dan King and Virginia Vinson and District Judges Eric Fancher and Sheldon Watkins. The party switcher from Montgomery County is Circuit Judge William Shashy.
The executive board also voted to accept former Republican state Rep. Johnny Ford of Tuskegee into the party. That will allow Ford to run for a state Senate seat next year as a Democrat.
Hat tip to quaoar who has an excellent diary on this party switching at dKos.
Obama actually carried Jefferson County 52% to 47%, which was something of a surprise because even though Birmingham is black-majority it is outnumbered by the white suburbs.
So these judges switching is not as big of an earth-shaking event as if judges from Shelby or Baldwin County had switched, but it is a telling sign.
It's been over a week since the Ala GOP announced Lester Phillips' appointment as Director of Minority Outreach in an effort to woo minorities. According to the Ala GOP and Phillips, the republican party realized the error or their ways and wanted to woo minorities from the democratic party to the republican party. After admitting I was receptive to some wooing and even offering my assistance and advice ( see What the GOP needs to do to "woo" minorities) I haven't heard not one, single, solitary woo.
I guess it depends on what the definition of "Woo minorities" IS.
Congressman Artur Davis gave an excellent speech to the Downtown Democratic Club in Birmingham last Friday. He touched on the gubernatorial race of course (more on that later) but I thought his remarks on the Democratic party -- that Democrats can and do win in Alabama when we make our case -- were the highlight of the day.
One of my pet peeves is that too often Democrats act like people will just naturally realize our ideas, values and candidates are better than the other guys'. Sorry, folks. The other guys have a lot of money and advertising talent behind their ideas. Unfortunately, when money talks, merit sometimes walks. We need to be making our case as often and as eloquently as possible.
Video below the fold.
Hat tip to countrycat for the photo at right -- what about that nice purple tie, huh?
Wow. This ad is so good, I though it must have been produced by the Daily Show, but no... it's from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). A nice little 40 second spot that actually holds people accountable for their actions and statements instead of pretending that the past didn't happen.
Note the cameo by our own Richard ("where's Obama's birth certificate?") Shelby:
If your circle of friends isn't expanding, then it must be shrinking. That's especially true for political parties so this news from Rasmussen is particularly good for Democrats:
The number of Americans who consider themselves to be Democrats inched up again in December to 41.6%. That’s up two-tenths of a point since November and the third straight monthly increase in the number of Democrats.
...
At the same time, the number of Republicans declined a full percentage point from 33.8% in November to 32.8% in December. That’s the lowest number of Republicans since August. The number claiming allegiance to the GOP peaked in September at 34.4% as the party enjoyed a convention bounce and Sarah Palin was picked as the party’s Vice Presidential nominee.
...
Currently, the Democrats enjoy an 8.8 percentage point advantage over Republicans. Two years ago, in the December after Democrats regained control of Congress, they enjoyed a 6.9 percentage point advantage over the GOP in terms of partisan identification. That was their biggest advantage ever prior to 2008.
Barack Obama, with his remarkably inclusive "yes we can" campaign, has done a great deal to expand the number of Americans who identify with the Democratic party or at least feel friendly toward it. The great challenge will be to keep growing that circle of friends and make sure party officials don't feel so threatened by the new activism they try to replace "Yes we can!" with "No you can't!" Look at the current disarray in the Republican party to see where that will lead.
I really like General Wes Clark. This is from last night at Netroots Nation 2008.
Clark started out talking about the misinterpretation of his own remarks on Face the Nation but segued into a bigger problem for the Democratic Party -- credibility on national security. He's quoting James Carville here:
"You'll never get the American people to believe that Democrats will defend them until Democrats stand up and defend each other."
When attacked, we can't just give up. We need to fight back and that mindset has to start within out party -- if the rightwing attacks one of our own we shouldn't just sit on the sidelines like spectators at a bullfight. We need to stand up for our own as we did for Clark a couple of weeks ago.
I couldn't help wondering if Clark might also be thinking about Don Siegelman. When the Bush DOJ started attacking him back in 2002, there was conspicuous silence from the folks on his own side. Would the outcome have changed if the Democratic Party and prominent Democrats had defended Siegelman when he was being investigated and prosecuted? We'll never know, but I'm darned sure that's what the Republicans would have done. Look how hard they fought to protect Tom Delay.
The Democratic Party is catching up with Republicans in terms of technology to find and contact persuadable voters. In other words, we're shaking off that "not an organized political party" mantle and getting the nuts and bolts of voter contact done, and done right. Under the leadership of Governor Howard Dean, the DNC has made significant investments in its voter file, infrastructure, and microtargeting efforts and now has a national voter file with comprehensive data on voters around the country that will be an invaluable asset come November.
The DNC has now reorganized its data banks into one centralized file that goes a long way toward neutralizing the GOP’s advantage in drilling down and identifying crucial constituencies of voters.
...
Recently, the DNC began a “neighbor to neighbor” program that “geo-codes” volunteers — a process that assigns geographic identifiers to them — to increase the likelihood that neighbors will canvass neighbors.
In short, a volunteer signs up. The 25 nearest neighbors who pique the DNC’s interest are then mapped out for the volunteer. The DNC also offers a script to use during canvassing as volunteers go door to door, asking their neighbors the degree of their Democratic support or their support for John McCain. The volunteer asks their neighbor’s top issue interests. The aim is to return and later target each person with a specific script based on their previously identified concerns.
Volunteers are ranked locally for their effectiveness and rewarded with invitations to intraparty conference calls or meetings. They are also encouraged to forward invitations by e-mail to friends or family, mimicking the viral success of social networking websites.
I've seen the new voter file interface and, let me tell you, it's going to be a lot more fun being a Democrat in 2008 than it was in 2004, or even in 2006. You can sign up as a Democratic volunteer now -- "precinct organizers" are particularly needed. This is not difficult work. Like I said, the new tools will make it even more fun than in the past.
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Supporting our Democratic nominees because they are Democrats and we all share common values and overarching goals ... 
Countrycat and I have both intended to write something enlightening about Rhodes Cook's recent WSJ article, 
All these - and MORE - were brought to you by the Democratic Party.
Congressman Artur Davis gave an excellent speech to the Downtown Democratic Club in Birmingham last Friday. He touched on the gubernatorial race of course (more on that later) but I thought his remarks on the Democratic party -- that Democrats can and do win in Alabama when we make our case -- were the highlight of the day. 
