As many of you have asked about my purpose here, I thought I should share some wisdom and experience from a hardcore traditional Democrat, and the thoughts of my people.
1. Many of you make the amateur mistake and assume the nobility of your views will inevitably be accepted by the masses. This is projection. And it is incorrect. Some of your views will never be adopted by many, and for others, the internet has fooled you into thinking he reform process will speed up. It won't. Much like the selection of a favorite grocery store, the process of finding an ideological home is one not about price, but comfort.
You continue to rail against the right wing, knowing full well you need conservative indies to buy into our platform, but you continue to promote price, not shopping experience. What do I mean by that? You tout the benefits of being a Democrat-inclusiveness, better wages, health care, with all the marketing subtlety of sledge hammers. Not full-throated marriage equality? Bigot. Won't take a bullet for Planned Parenthood? Woman hater. You are not inviting people to shop with you as much as castigating them for being stupid not to.
Look at the Republican shopping experience. Private club. They are not really inviting anybody in. Not a woman hater? Probably gon' burn foreva. Not for allowing a woman to discard a rape conception? Evil baby killing scum. Largely, the Democratic party by leader, is a moderate party that progressives have tried to mold and tug to the left. But the progressive left is still trying to shake a decades old label of radicalism, and the bile spit out here against social moderates such as myself does not help that cause. The American political shopper does not have a comfortable shopping experience. Give them one.
Do you want the American people to go left? Hold mini-conventions for them, not just for activists. At ballrooms and centers all over the country, invite for sandwiches and cookies and make your case-this is WHY abortion is a women's rights issue, this is WHY marriage equality is consistent with American values, this is WHY unions raise the prevailing wage.
Give them something to do other than watching grown men in helmets half-kill each other. Why should you fear Rand Paul? Because while two parties preach to choirs, he is out gathering flock. Be careful.
2. Mike Brown's tragedy started at birth. Many of you care about what I believe is the murder of a hopeful young man. But only some of you understand the dynamics. Born into a system of inequality, burdened by educational failures, and part of a metro area that views young black men as threats, he one day got crushed by the eight ball. But the bullets that killed him were fired long ago-when whites fled cities, they ABANDONED cities. Then they used police and similar to enforce economic segregation, then they fashioned systems of educational inequality using capitalistic arguments to buttress their bigotry. We create self-fulfilling prophecies when first we chain a child with the shackles of an eight ball. They tie their feet together, then complain when they can't run.
Now most of you here know all of this-so what is the solution they do not know? Howard Dean, the man who should take a shot at it next, touched on it and as viciously hit by John Edwards. Tell white people they are broke. Now I do not mean poor white people, I mean suburban leveraged to the hilt white people who confuse a credit rating for wealth. Explain to them how broke they are. Explain why. Explain that so long as they spend time keeping blacks in economic cages the full promise of prosperity will no be realized. Most of all explain how they are chained in a different way. Then tell them to join up with old foes-minorities, and cast out the oppressors that burdens them. The Republicans explanation for white poverty is welfare, spending, i.e., black people. It isn't 110th street to fear, but Wall Street. This argument will hit home long before any type of anti-authoritarian position will, which is part of the aforementioned comfort level.
3. Wendy Davis is unlikely to win Texas. But Wendy Davis could win Texas if-
If, she hammered on the minimum wage in the piney woods. If, she touted the military in the rural west, and if she focused n women's rights in the suburbs. If she did all of that, she might have a shot to get to 35 percent of the white vote, which is all this race comes down to. She will win between 70-75 percent of the minority vote. She needs 35 of the white. Currently, she sits at 27. Which, leads to a larger argument in terms of political strategy-Democrats need to start micro-targeting not voters, but issues.
I mention the three issues above, because in those specific regions, those issues resonate. Sure, she did well in the debates, but broad talk of Medicaid expansion and property taxes do not change the INDIVIDUAL minds needed to swing this race. When Reagan defeated Carter, with the whole "Are you better off line", he did not do so by speaking to a broad swath of electorate, but to Jim the clerk, Jane the nurse, and so on. The politician that wins, wins by speaking to individuals, not the broader electorate. Clinton was effective because Jim and Jane personally, felt he was talking to them. What I have outlined could potentially change the individual white minds in Texas in sufficient number to change the race, but as of now, she peaks at 47 percent of the vote, at best.
4. Your spokespeople suck, and are dumber than dirt. Well I believe the first part, and mainstream America believes the second. Valerie Jarrett should never be on a television. Donna Brazile should be. Yes she was a lousy campaign manager, but she is an excellent advocate for the platform. Jarrett is prototypical cold liberal, straight from the cartoonish Dukakis mold. There is not an ounce of warmth, same problem CDC director Tom Frieden has. This is largely because the left relies too much on Ivy Leaguers. Ivies, or Poison Ivy as I call them, condescending, hyper-educated dimwits who have not actually run much of anything. Frieden does not fall into that category, as he actually has a resume. But HHS director Sylvia Burwell is just a Xanaxed twit political crony, with no more business in the cabinet than I have as a NASCAR racer. Yes this is a Republican slam, and on this issue, they are right. BTW, travel bans are coming, it just depends on how much the politically deaf in the beltway turn up their hearing aids (polls) before they decide to. More to come, but need food and wine..
6:14 AM PT: UPDATE
"Rock Da Casbah is back, get in on this before he gets banned!"
I too can grab things for posterity skohayes.
Do you know what this makes you? A 10 year-old. Encouraging pack mentality does not build the party-it destroys it. My point is proven.