Democrats Try to Use Katrina as G.O.P. Used 9/11, NY Times, 4/22/2006

[Coastie for Truth]

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, toured a house on Friday that the Hurricane Katrina floods wrecked, picking up debris, lamenting the federal response and leaving little doubt of the powerful symbolism his party sees in the ruined neighborhoods here.

As Mr. Dean's well-covered hurricane-cleanup mission suggested, New Orleans may well become for Democrats in 2006 and 2008 what New York was for Republicans after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, an evocative metaphor rooted in tragedy that can potentially be turned to electoral advantage.

Where Republicans looked to the imagery of a battered but resilient New York to project a tough president standing up to the dangerous world, Democrats are looking to this city as the symbol of an administration that is at once incompetent and heartless.

"It brings back home the notion that there is a difference with the two parties," said Donna Brazile, a Democratic leader whose family home was ravaged by the flooding.

The Democratic National Committee gathered this week on the edge of the French Quarter for its spring meeting. Talk is in the air of staging the 2008 nominating convention here, though that would require scaling considerable logistical obstacles.

<<<SNIP>>>


I have known since September 9, 2005 that this total and complete failure on the part of the Bush White House was going to pull a hell of a ot of traditional Democrats back into the Democrat fold.

Note: I am a Red Cross Volunteer (at the "boots on the ground" level, soldering wires and working in shelters and going to residential fires at 2AM - NOT MANAGEMENT OR LEADERSHIP), a Citizens Corps "Community Emergency Response Team" Neighborhood Captain, a Citizens Corps Radio Amateur Emergency Service operator. and a veteran of the United States Coast Guard - New Orleans LA Captain of the Port office (my wife taught school in the Lower Ninth Ward)

[scot]

1. I don't see this working in any big way.

Unfortunately, the local dems did not do us proud. Too many will see this as a split decision.

[sandnsea]

2. Maybe southerners will figure out what a Dem really is

Because it's not Mary Landrieu, Bill Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, or Mark Pryor; and certainly not Zell Miller. If enough real Democrats go down there, maybe southerners will finally figure out what functional government is and decide they'd really like to have it, and pay for it too.

I can dream can't I???

[scot]

10. Far be it from me to try to step on your dream,

but if you think the southern electorate is on the verge of some seismic electoral shift, I bow to the strength of your hope over the power of the present reality.

[Coastie for Truth]

6. I see it working very well

with the "Conservative Dems" and "Reagan Dems" and "Church Goin Dems" who were once the backbone of the Old Democratic Party (I am 65 years young) and who are the Dems who volunteer at the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Southern Baptist Brotherhood (disaster mass feeding), St. Vincent de Paul, Bishops' Relief Fund, Kiwanis, Rotary, etc. These are the old Dems who are working with the Katrina refugees across the US. And these "Old Dems" are abandoning Bush's phony piety and coming back.

I talk to these prodigal Dems, I work with them, I know them. I share values and experiences with them.

See my append at www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=955431&mesg_id=957299 to see what I mean and where I am going.

[scot]

8. I hear you on the need to bring back the Reagan Dems,

I just don't think that this is the issue to pull it off. All it takes is one good issue, this ain't it.

[DanCa]

3. All those poor people of Katrinia

The government at all levels failled them. It makes me sad. :cry:

[depakid]

4. Just from the title I knew it was ADAM NAGOURNEY

Read it at the risk of becoming misinformed.

The fact that the Times refuses to place his work on the editorial page is symptomatic of why they've lost so much of their former credibility.

[Coastie for Truth]

9. You are arguing with an Officer of the United States Coast Guard

who has served and lived in New Orleans, and who as a volunteer is working with Katrina survivors, and who has been a solid Democratic volunteer since he was seven years old.

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[depakid]

11. It would matter to me if you were Sinbad the Sailor!

Adan Nagourney is an intellectually dishonest man who writes slanted copy that consistently attempts to place Democrats in a false light. He's been doing it for years- and once you've read enough of his "work," the rhetorical style is as identifiable as a dead skunk on the road.

Brownstein at the LA Times is another one of those guys you can peg from a headline or a few words and phrases. Same kind of deal... slanted copy designed to misinform and cast doubt on the Dems, while ostensibly writing an informational piece.

[Coastie for Truth]

12. Don't worry-

My old job as a Coastie was (and my volunteering as a Red Cross grunt locally- not in Washington is) like a fire fighter's or Rescue Medic's --- to save your butt no matter what I think of your opinion.

And I volunteer alongside the "" to provide support to the Katrina Survivors. And we "" will be there for the Katrina Survivors and for the Katrina survivors' kids and for the United States of America while the "" are doing their narcissitic "Green" thing and enabling and facilitating another round of GOP victories in 2006 and 2008.

And we didn't lose 2004 and 2000 soley because of Diebold. We lost those elections because the "" were too busy battling over Green credentials to win the votes of the Regan Democrats and the Bush Democrats and the Macomb County UAW Autoworker Regan Democrats in the battles of the church parking lots and the Kiwanis and Rotary and Red Cross and Salvation Army volunteer efforts.

The "" stabbed the "" in the back.

I AM NOT ACCUSING YOU OF BEING A "" - BUT YOU KNOW MY VALUES AND WHERE I STAND. BTW- I ONLY VOTED FOR A REPUBLICAN ONCE - IN 1969 I VOTED FOR JOHN TABOR FOR MAYOR OF PITTSBURGH PA - BECAUSE DEMOCRAT PETE FLAHERTY WAS AGAINST MASS TRANSIT, AGAINST SCHOOL INTEGRATION, AND AGAINST OPEN HOUSING. AND I DO DRINK LATTES, EAT SUSHI, DRIVE A PRIUS, READ THE NY TIMES AND THE SF CHRONICLE AND SATURDAY REVIEW AND NEW REPUBLIC AND NY REVIEW OF BOOKS AND LIVE IN THE SF BAY AREA

"Semper Par" and "Together We Can Save A Life"

[depakid]

13. Hey, all I said

was watch what you're reading with Adam Nagourney (or Brownstein). Want to talk about a couple of slimey backstabbers... they'll slime your party- and plant seeds of doubt and discontent- and you'll like hearing it!

[Coastie for Truth]

14. Even a broken clock is right - twice a day

And - based on my experience in the Red Cross and Salvation Army and Ham Radio and American Legion and AFL-CIO world of us "" Katrina was our turning point.

I will credit Katrina with the "Zero out of Five" defeat Schwarzenegger suffered in the special election right after Katrina.

My point - don't throw out the Katrina effect because of Nagourney or Brownstein. I felt the electorate "turn" as the Katrina follies of the Bushies were revealed.

And, it even "shook the faith" of some of the "Rapture Right" (we have several big "Rapture Right" prayer palace megachurches here in town - much less strident for Bush after Katrina).

So, Nagourney and Brownstein don't make no difference. Katrina was a factor in Schwarzenegger's phony "Special Elections" - I canvassed and did field registration.

[beltanefauve]

17. Marc Sandalow,

San Francisco Chronicle, another one of those "reporters" whose "reporting" is indistinguishable from the opinion pages. Same function as Nagourney: he writes in a point/counterpoint style with a deliberate slant (casting doubt, creating angst) against Dems in the counterpoint. Like Nagourney, you know its a Sandalow piece in the first three sentences. And almost always, the "Democrats don't have a plan!" meme surfaces somewhere in the piece.

[uppityperson]

5. Again, Dems show the truth, Katrina easy to show failures, 911 harder

That is all. Both were failures of the bush administration, Katrina was much more obvious and should be used.

[Oversea Visitor]

7. Ask

Dean to invite repuke to do the same
After all for good cause
Even offer to send dems to help when they do it
Also ask media to cover when they do.

[Asgaya Dihi]

15. Potentially dangerous, but maybe good

The biggest problem I see with the idea is that it could be turned around on the party if it's not handled right. If the argument is phrased around the idea that things have gone wrong and it's time to fix them then we've got a chance, but if we try to act as if we've always been a friend to the poor I'm afraid it'll backfire.

Before you misunderstand that you have to consider one important detail, the dems didn't start the drug war but when Reagan and the first Bush left office Clinton was in a rush to prove he could be tough on crime as well, and it had some pretty stark effects on the poor, and on blacks in particular. Rather than try to explain it I'll post three links, the first is a longish article but has an interesting chart near the top that shows our prison systems growth between 1925 and 2002 or so. The second compares us to other nations, and the third is our current racial distribution in prison. It's not pretty, and it's far from new.

Attack the idea as if we're fixing problems and we might be onto something. Attack it as if we've always been there for you, and it could backfire. They don't believe it, and might have reason for it.

http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/pub9036.pdf
http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1044.pdf
http://www.prisonsucks.com/

Edit to add a note, where prison is stated it should be prison and jail combined, I don't want any confusion on it.

[Demeter]

16. GOP Used 9/11 To Build Themselves Up; We Use Katrina To Tear Them

down, down, down!