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Dear
Mr. Rosenberg...I liked your Hispanic outreach project and agree with much of
your platform, but I am not convinced a further push to the right is going to
win the Democrats elections or do the country any good. I don't believe we can
just try to moderate Republican ideas. We need our own ideas and we need to
market them.
I believe the rightward shift of the Democrats has made it much easier for people to jump off the Democratic bandwagon and onto the Republican one or abandon the Demos altogether. This is especially true given that the Reps are in power and the Demos are in disarray. This will not change even with the White House so far to the right
I
think what the Democrats need to do is reintroduce themselves to America, via
an extensive ad campaign. We need to redefine liberal. Redefine
progressive. And redefine what it means to be a Democrat. We need to show the
history of the liberal movement within the United States and how it is
responsible for nearly all the great things this country has accomplished. I
do not agree that we should run from the L word. We need to deprogram the
American people from the propaganda of the last twenty years.
I figure an effective ad campaign could cost $250 million a year (the army spends $600 million.) If the Kerry campaign proved anything, it is that the money is there. I believe progressive minded caring people would continue to give if they feel they are getting something for the contributions. Shifting more to the right is not going to generate as much cash as better marketing the ideals the party faithful cherish, including protecting the environment, universal health care, assistance to the poor, diplomacy over weaponry, advancing civil and human rights throughout the world and meeting the needs of working class America.
Where
we could shift to the right would be to pick up the valuable pieces the
Republicans seems to have discarded, including fiscal discipline, clean and
transparent government and state’s rights over federalism. We could also
take the moral arguments straight to the people. Even on the issue of gay
marriage, a long-term campaign that educates as well as leads people to the
moral goodness of equal rights for all is achievable.
The
party also needs to develop the highest integrity mailing/phone list ever. I
led phone banks to eight swing states, and the lists were in many cases nearly
useless. The DNC should be working to develop a complete list today, with both
research and outreach departments that are staffed by concerned citizens as
well as those in need of a job. There was no infrastructure for the candidates
in 2004 (or before) other than what they did themselves. This was a travesty
and I believe it alone cost Kerry the election.
I
have liked being a member of the NDN and believe the operational approach of
your group would work for the DNC, but I would hope that the Democrats would
not, as in the words of your rival Howard Dean, become Republican “lite”.
Most of the ideas on the left are still better. The American people just need
to be shown that they are.
Sincerely