Right now, at the top of the recommend list, is edsall's
diary titled
Question about 50 State Strategy. The question is an appropriate one for dKos, but anyone familiar with the site or with
Crashing the Gates should already know what our answers would be.
One part of the Rahm Emanuel question that Tom Edsall poses is especially interesting to me, and that is the assumption that
Democrats running in 2006 need to have as much get-out-the-vote and television support as possible
The assumption here is that the public in the public sphere (a slight bow here in the direction of Jürgen Habermas) is passive until stimulated from above. The assumption here is that the center does not put out information for the populace to ingest, debate, and decide upon, but is involved in a simpler task of providing motivation.
The American people don't need to be motivated from above. That strategy is working less and less well--just look at the falling percentages of people who vote! We need to be brought into the discussion, not pounded on by those who have already made up their minds and are now trying to badger us into voting their way. And that goes for both the politicians and the media.
We are not sheep and want the herding to stop!
The public sphere has turned from one of debate to one of propaganda. Thing is, careers based on telling the masses what to do have made too many politicians and their handlers blind to the realities of American life and American minds. Rather than trying to convince us through television bombardment, we would like to see politicians who have enough faith in their positions--and enough patience and enough faith in the American people--to start discussing with us, rather than telling us.
I don't like being one to say, "Go read the book," but Markos and Jerome's Crashing the Gates does explain all of this better than I can here... and lays out what can be a successful strategy for the Democratic Party.
For this coming election and for the future.