I'm not a highly political person---at least not until about a year ago. I have GWB and dKos to thank for helping me get my head out of my political ass.
I'm almost a life-long Ohioan---if you don't count the first 5yrs in a foreign country and the several years in a NYC college. I consider myself an Ohioan, regrettably, and think that I have a good grasp on my fellow neighbors. What I see is that most Ohioans don't have a good grasp on the political issues in our state. Generally, Ohioans don't get heavily into politics and don't seek out issues and candidates' positions unless there is a big issue that plays out in the local media. Even so, Ohioans seem to have very short political attention spans. I've said it before, if it's not sports then they don't care! Not even if it impacts their daily lives and jobs.
The reason that Dems keep losing and we keep losing issues that are important to us is because the OH Dems are woefully unorganised and inept.
Take RON, for instance.
It's been posted by me and by several others that the pro-RON messages were much less organised and less effective than the anti-RON messages. The only place that I heard the correct information on what the issues were about was here, on dKos!---and I'm a much more highly political person than most people that I know here in OH. I know that most of them have no idea what dKos is, don't spend much time on blogs, and get most of their news from local tv and the papers---primarily the Cleveland PD. Faced with that, it was essential to present a strong, hard-hitting, and clear message of what RON would do. In short, simple phrases and words that don't force people to think too hard. That's what the anti-RON folks did, and it worked for them! Only, the message that they presented were all lies, from what I heard. I received anti-RON messages from print, tv, radio, and telephone. I heard MUCH more anti-RON messages than I heard pro, and the pro messages were weak and not too convincing. I only remembered them because I knew about RON from this site and RON's own website.
Also, a few days ago I received a heavy paper stock flyer in the mail that said to vote "no" on issue 7, and not to be confused by the lies that have been said about it. I had NO clue what issue 7 was about. The flyer said it was paid for by the OH Democratic Committee and had Dennis White's name on it and someone else's that I can't remember. I turned that card over and looked all over it to find out what the heck this issue 7 was all about that the OH Dems were telling me to vote against, but can you believe, they didn't even put what the issue was about on that flyer??? How stupid is that? So their message was, "just trust us, don't believe the lies, when you see something that says issue 7 just punch no." Issue 7 was a county issue, so I hadn't really paid much attention to it as I was thinking about issues 1-5, and some local school & city races which were more important to me. I'm STILL not sure what issue 7 was all about, and why it was important to the OH Dems that I vote no on it.
And, finally, here in our town we have a local city magazine. The last magazine had equal coverage for the local Republican Ladies group and the local Dems group. I was very embarrassed because the Republican Ladies article was very clear on what they stood for, what kinds of issues they support, what kinds of candidates they support and raise money for, and the purpose of the group. The local Dems interview, on the other hand, was rambling and didn't really say anything! It even said that they don't do any fundraising or promoting of any candidates. Really? So, er...what is it that they actually do?
It really struck me when I read those 2 articles that they were a perfect representation of the differences between the Republican party in OH and the Democratic party. One is well-funded, organised, and has a simple, clear, hard-hitting message that they support and reinforce at every opportunity. And the other...well...what can I say...
If OH Dems can't even take advantage and prevail, in a year with one Republican scandal after another, I won't need a crystal ball to know what will happen in 2006 and 2008!
dKos being the site that it is, I'm sure that there will be some who will wonder why I don't jump in the political waters myself. I really don't know what I'd personally do to help turn this around. I don't want to get into politics at this point in my life with small children and a new business starting up, but I feel like I have to do something. Anything! Heavens knows, the OH Dems are in such a mess that maybe even someone like I can do something to help. With the party in the sad state that it's in now, I know that my participation sure couldn't make it any worse! I think I'll start by contacting the local Dems group and really seeing what they are about since I still am not sure what they represent after having read our local magazine article.