Maybe this is old news for people around here (though there aren't any diaries about it), but I just discovered the
November 3rd Theses. Some people at
Common Assets have brainstormed what I believe should be
the new mission statement for the Democratic Party.
Just this morning, a group of 20 people met up at DNC headquarters in Washington, D.C. and posted the following on the front door:
(enticing graphic below the fold)
(Click on the image to view it full size.)
You should read the whole thing, but some of the highlights include:
VI. Renovating Democratic politics is not a question of moving to the right or talking more about God. It is about creating a framework that once again communicates to the core needs of the American people.
IX. Only the breath of a serious and new moral-intellectual vision will be sufficient to resuscitate the Democratic Party.
X. Democratic candidates will continue to lose as long as they treat Americans as rational actors who vote their "self-interest" after weighing competing offers for health care, jobs, and security.
XIII. If resources continue to flow to the same leaders who have failed to construct a new vision and have thus left the Democratic Party in ruins then we can expect more of the same. And worse.
XV. Candidates who intend to win should no longer hire consultants who repeatedly lose. Those who counsel caution when dealing with the indifferent, the disaffected, and the undecided do not understand American history. Consultants who advise their clients against offering a clear and compelling vision in fear that it will be attacked should find themselves without a home in the Democratic Party. The sooner they retire, the better.
XVII. The progressive vision must be a direct challenge to fundamentalism in all of its forms: political, religious and economic. It must match fundamentalism's power without replicating its authoritarianism. It must appeal to the values of liberty, equality, community, justice, unconditional love, shared prosperity, and ecological restoration, among many others.
The group of people who posted and read this mission statement at the DNC HQ this morning apparently drew some media attention. They were on Unfiltered on Air America Radio this morning, and they expect to get a shout-out on NPR sometime today or tomorrow.
They are asking people to get together and do the same thing they did at state DNC headquarters across the country. You can e-mail them at info@commonassets.org to offer your assistance wherever you live.
(By the way, I don't want to give the impression that I have anything to do with this mission statement. It's entirely someone else's work, not mine. I just think it's a kick-ass idea. I just wanted to give them some publicity on Kos, and I figure that there might be people here who would like to get involved.)