I for one would like to congratulate Gov. Dean on winning the chair. In a way this is exactly what this party needs at this point and time. While there are many are angry that we lost and just as many demoralized by a loss that could and should've been avoided with the right candidate, Dean is the perfect person to draw upon those negatives and create positives out of them. My only concern is that he will much too quickly pursue a 50 state strategy from the beginning. I think this is what we should build toward but I think it is a grave error to do this from the outset.
More below the fold.
I think we must not be fooled into thinking we need to craft a message or new ideology before getting to the hard work of rebuilding our party from the bottom up because there is simply no time to spare. Our ability to be a majority party hangs in the balance and we must fight the war on many fronts at once in order to not only have a coherent message that makes Americans why they should vote Democrat but the ability to get that message out to the extent that we can win elections again on a very large scale in the very near future.
Pork Barrel Spending, National Security, Class warfare, Abortion:
Pork Barrel Spending/Government Waste - 9 billion "lost" in Iraq, a rainforest in Iowa, etc. Reid is on the right track with his oversight hearings but we've got to expand on that and bring the full weight of the press on huge government waste by Republicans everywhere and in particular the red states. Take away the payoffs that are getting them elected and at the same time expand on the belief that they waste taxpayer money and we watch over it wisely.
National security - Every single time a defense budget is submitted we must oppose every single cut to it in a very public way. Every time Bush requests 80 billion for Iraq, Democrats must take to the airwaves saying we must send 160 billion over there. Make them stand for 80 billion and let us stand for 160. We are in a never ending lifetime war on terror regardless of if it is real or imagined and we are not going to win elections as the party who "would use spitballs to defend us against the terrorists". We must begin advocating more and more defense spending and tying it to tax increases to the super wealthy. Make them choose between the rich and protecting America and make them do it publicly. If they try to paint us as wasting the taxpayers money it will ring hollow because we've become the party against waste.
Class warfare - Fight it. Now. The DLC is obsolete and we have no need to fight for corporate America any longer. If we fight for the environment we secure the outdoorsman vote not just the tree huggers and we begin to turn states like MT, ID. UT and WY blue. Fight for small business over big business and make them choose tax breaks for corporate interests over our tax breaks for small businesses. Americans are desperate to know where the jobs of this decade are going to come and we need to show them that we want them to come from small business and not from corporations that ship them over sees. Set up a tax structure that penalizes them for doing it and rewards them for not. Make the GOP fight for corportate America over regular Americans.
Abortion - If you haven't read Tim Roemer's recent op-ed in the WaPost you should. Our party must not just make people realize that our party reduces the poverty that allows women to consider abortion and theirs increases but we've got to truly become the party of choice and not the party of abortion. Having Reid (Anti-choice) and Pelosi (Pro-choice) as our leaders is the right first step but we've got to do more. Our tent must be much bigger and not be defined by that single value so we can run Democrats in the bible belt as anti-choice. I'm solidly pro-choice but I'm even more committed to winning and if it takes a anti-choice Democrat to get elected in Alabama then so be it.
Dean must call on Kerry to transfer our donations to his 04 campaign to the DNC - This money belongs to the party, not to Kerry so he can fund his run in 2008 or even the more likely scenario that he'll use it to create a winner such as Edwards by funding him early. This money could and should be used to quickly create state party machines in the state I talk about later. If I was Dean I would publicly call Kerry out on this if he won't do it himself. The reality is that Kerry is such a schmuck he'll have to be forced to do it because only a schmuck would've kept it in the first place.
Re-organize and direct talent and money to two blocks of states and their state parties :
NM, NV, CO, AZ - These states are close to tipping and we need to push them over to the blue column. They are there for the taking and we've got to do whatever it takes to grab them. Ineffective state parties are usually the result of lack of funds and lack of talent. We need to make them flush with the former in order to find the latter. These states must have everything they need, period. Each state should get a million each from the money we gave Kerry's 2004 campaign to start running ads and working toward branding the Democratic party the way desire.
PA, OH, FL, WI, MN, IA - These are just as important as the first group and with the same basic strategy but we must make priority number one in these states standardized election reform via ballot initiatives and the election of Democrat Secretary of States. These states must hold the most transparent and fully funded elections in our nation and should be the model for national election reform. I believe we won these states but we just can't produce the evidence that we did.
The Lieberman Doctrine - If you wish to use the office you hold as a Democrat while undermining the party's strategy you'll have to do so as a Republican or third party. We as Democrats are all in this together and if you're not willing to help the party then join the party you're so willing to help. There is too much at stake for us to have to suffer through another Lieberman appearance on Fox reinforcing every negative Democratic stereotype out there as we struggle to shed that image. We'll out spend you two to one in a Democratic primary and destroy you both personally and professionally and send you on a lifetime book tour as the next Zell Miller. We win as a party not as individuals.
The Daschle Doctrine - Every blue state must have Dem Governors, Senators, Congressman and control both houses of state leg. We've got to attack the moderate Republicans that are hanging on in our states as patsies for all that their voters despise. Paint them as not being obstructionists.
Now lets begin a 50 state strategy using this as the megaphone through which our message blasts. Let's then become the party of ideas again and move from attack to attack with better solutions to problems than they have. Let's run Democrats who have values that identify with the states they run in and expand our tent include them.