News flash.
A progressive is not going to win the 2008 election.
A Democrat might.
We – kossacks, progressives, netroots - are not going to determine who wins the election.
We are not going to gain access to power from this election.
But we need to build toward the day when we will by winning in 2008.
What kind of a campaign will it take to win?
Which Democratic candidate will build the kind of a campaign that will gain the White House, 6 more Senate seats, and a dozen House seats?
Winning will require getting out the youth and minority votes.
Hillary has been able to mobilize white women over 50, and
Barack has been able to mobilize youth and African Americans. The
next few primaries will tell us more about this.
We need a candidate that will build a new majority in this country.
How do we get there?
How will we change the political landscape and make room for future
success, by which I mean taking over the Democratic party and getting proportional representation, so we can become a decent society, save the earth, address global warming, and leave a decent future?
If you’re 22- 25 years old you were 17 when George Bush was elected.
You’ve begun to pay attention to politics. Your political awareness has been dominated by the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, hate radio, anti-immigrant, anti-ethics, spineless Congress debacle. It’s formative for you.
My formative period was the 1960’s. I learned to distrust the Democratic Party at Chicago 1968, when the new draconian democratic centralism rules eliminated grassroots power sharing.
The 2008 campaign will create a significant environment for young voters. I see that this generation seems to date and work together across racial
lines.
This has not been true in prior campaigns. The Jesse Jackson
campaign was the creation of the black
community and some progressives.
Even if Barack Obama does not win the nomination, race and racism are now on the national radar, if not agenda.
To win, Democrats will need to frame the debate.
They’ll need to separate the died-in-the-wool racists from the majority of Americans, who do not see ourselves as racists and who are in denial about our own racism and about the importance of racism in our society.
The GOP plans to use anti immigration hysteria in the 2008 campaign. They’re working it now: check out Lou Dobbs, read the newspapers, see the Romney and McCain rhetoric. The Republicans will seek to consolidate their long use of race as a wedge issue by running an anti immigrant effort. They will claim they are not opposed to immigrants, just illegal immigrants. But, they will mobilize a racist vote. We need to prepare for an anti immigrant campaign with which ever Democrat candidate who emerges.
It is crucial to bring in as many new young people as possible and to engage them in opposing the GOP anti immigrant histrionics.