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Lets not forget, Dems, THIS IS A PARTY!
...here's a proposal. For all the REAL Dems amongst us...
Lets take a generic figurehead approach to this, and start talking strategy instead of candidates, with the thought in mind that we will get our candidate elected in November.
What have you folks seen, thus far in this election cycle, that you think we need to emulate in the final stretch, between now and November?
And what have you seen that we need to get rid of?
I, for one, believe we need to look outside existing voters, and concentrate on NEW voters.
Not to ignore the already-active base, I think all of us who consider ourselves in that group need to start reaching out to the non-voters around us. Every day, we need to get out of bed and ponder, "who can I get registered today?"
We all know people who aren't involved in the process, who aren't registered, and there are so many of them they outnumber us, what, 70% to 30%?
If there is any place we can find the power to have a 50-state landslide, it is in these new voters.
And one last thing... all of you need to remember we call ourselves a PARTY! Lets make it one.
Nothing can do more for our chances to bring in those new voters than to make it FUN! If you think that isn't taking things seriously, you are mistaken.
I am desperately serious.
If we can find a way to make this a lot more fun for new people to join (Kerry's Bruce Sporingstien event is the best example I can conjur up, on a national level) we will not only gather in many more members, but make our own jobs easier because we get to enjoy the social networking that it will provide us all.
We need to turn this into a summer-long festival of voter registraton.
Everyone needs to start thinking about what sorts of fun, inviting and inclusive events you might be able to organize, to help bring these new voters into the fold.
And I don't mean inviting a bunch of Democrats over for a cocktail party, I mean those very Democrats organizing a BIG event with lots of entertainment and very few speeches, and inviting everyone they know to come to THE PARTY.
Where they can register to vote, along with the fun stuff. Then maybe they will relate politics to something other than a bunch of stuffy old bosses.
Comments (3)
PS;
If you feel compelled to reply to this with either the name Obama or Clnton in the text, I just aske veryone else to ignore you.
May 4, 2008 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I like this quite a bit. After all, no matter how we feel about the candidates, surely we as Democrats (of either subgroup) believe that the more people who vote, the more representative our country's government can be.
However, I wouldn't diss the idea of cocktail parties, as long as they don't just involve people already registered. Not every event has to be BIG... and certain candidates have created a groundswell through small, home get-togethers.
May 4, 2008 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good post. We need to start looking beyond the convention NOW and begin fostering an attitue that no matter who the Democratic nominee is, that's with whom the promise of a brighter future rests. Sure, I've contributed to and supported two different candidates in the primaries (my first choice is obviously gone now), but we can't lose sight of the big picture here. We have an opportunity this Novenber to fundamentally change the direction our country is heading, so why not make it a celebration of change. The idea of finally seeing the current administration's policies thrown into the junk heap of political history is well worth celebrating, if we can only quit snapping at each other's ankles long enough to appreciate the opportunity we have before us.
May 4, 2008 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
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