Help, with an essay/open letter thing...Southerners pls read

[BamaGirl]

I'm still in shock I think, and trying to figure out where/how we went wrong this year. I have many theories and thoughts not even touched here, but I have an executive party meeting next week and things need to be addressed. Frankly, I don't care how long this gets. They're Democrats. They'll read it lol. :D Thoughts, additions, edits welcome. I'm still working thru it all. Still in shock, still not sure what or how I want to say it. However, I do have a deadline and I welcome CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. If you only have bad things to say about us, please keep it to yourself. It doesn't help.

Thx, BamaGirl

Mr ____ was on to something important when he spoke to the _________ Thursday about the old Populist movement. As much as many of us hate the Republican party, as much as many of us disparage the Republican party, we must accept that they have done something remarkable. They have turned working America against itself, a mighty accomplishment. It has been our practice as Democrats to try to sway people to our cause, or back to our cause, with logic. Logic is a dead science. Voltaire declared God as dead. I tell you now, logic is dead and God reigns supreme in America. History is cyclical and this will change. The question is when? And how do we deal with the way things are NOW?

I have read many discouraging articles, essays, blogs since Nov 2. There is a division in the Democratic party. I have read many, many diatribes against the so-called Red States—both the conservatives in those states and the progressives. We find ourselves under attack from the both parties. It is hard to keep the faith in such circumstances. I have long been researching the genealogy of my family. It was fortuitous today that I received an email for a fellow researcher, which included a member list of a Populist group that included some of my ancestors. I know where I come from. I know my Populist, union loving roots. I know that the Trusts were busted by Populist groups that rose out of impoverished Red States. I know that I owe Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Interstate System, the National Park Service, minimum wage, child labor laws, and every other law that benefits the people (as opposed to the rich) to Populist movements, Teddy Roosevelt, and FDR. I am farsighted. I am a “whole picture” kind of thinker. I understand what the erosion of these institutions will mean to my grandchildren. And I am not selfish. I was taught to live the words of Christ, not preach them. I understand that churches cannot take up the place of public social systems especially in a corporate business environment that encourages wholesale rape of the economy and working class. People who have never suffered, people who have fared better than their parents don’t seem to grasp that corporations are not out for the best interests of middle class America. They don’t seem to grasp that the more they (corporations, i.e. the Rich) pay workers, the less they (the working and poor classes) make. The people who vote Republican because their Daddy did, because their Daddy was a racist Nixonian, do not get that the Republican party is the party of the Rich. And the Democratic party is the party of the People.

They don’t get it because WE QUIT TELLING THEM. Mr _____ is absolutely right. We must take back our party. We must rebuild the Populist party. We must find a way to fight the churches. We must find a way to fight the Republican pr machine. And Mr _____ was right. Senator Kerry should have won Alabama. Why didn’t he? Are we really so separated from Blue America? Are we really so different? Aren’t we the party of inclusion? Isn’t everyone who welcomes tolerance welcome in the Democratic party? Then why is Senator Kerry not the President Elect? Because we cannot get our message out. Because we will not fight. Because we Democrats in the South have rolled over and played dead. Because we have allowed the Democrats in New England to define our party HERE. This must stop. This has to stop. We have to define on a local level, and we have to make people understand that disagreement is good. The rights of individuals have always been more important than the rights of the majority in America. The Republican party has been allowed to rewrite American history. Why on earth have we allowed this? Why? Because we haven’t protested. We haven’t stood up. We haven’t said, enough is enough. In November, I was nominated and elected Secretary of the Wiregrass Democratic Club. I have transcribed a copy of the sign list from the Democratic Headquarters. There are notations on this thing of people who came in, but were afraid to give their name. Have we really progressed this point? I am 13th generation Southern. I am not going to abandon my family’s Populist, union loving legacy to these people. I dare you to call me un-Southern. I dare you to call me un-American. I am completely insulted that these people have hi-jacked my culture, my history, my South. We allowed it. I allowed it. But how can we stop it if people won’t even allow themselves to be identified as Democrats?

Mr. ______ said we need leaders. I heard him speak for the first time Thursday, and I say, there is your leader. And here I am. I am a leader. It is not a position I want. It is not a position I would seek. But someone must take it. Someone must be a voice for the Democratic party in our region. Who will it be? I will throw my support behind anyone the majority of us agree on, but the current state of affairs must not be allowed to continue. I have considered running for the 2nd Congressional seat myself. _____ should have been a strong candidate, but he received zero support on a state or national level. I will not run with no support, and I think we can find a better candidate than myself. You know the people of the Wiregrass. You know who might be a strong candidate. To take back this seat, we must start soon though. We must organize and we must campaign, and it is not just a matter of the candidate running, it is a matter of the party running. We are all either for it, or not. We will not get anywhere without a voice.

Sincerely,

[DemBones DemBones]

1. I just scanned it so far but it sounds good. I'll read more

carefully if you'll just tell me who the heck Mr. ___________ is! And who is the ____________that he spoke to?

Is it someone local who you don't want to name? Just give me a clue as to why you're talking about him and I'll name him Mr. Smith or something. It just throws me to see _________ all through the thing. There's probably a thread that explains it but I didn't see that.

[BamaGirl]

3. He's a local guy that ran for a local office this year

who spoke at a local club lol. I just figured for privacy reasons it would be better not to name names lol.

Thx!

[GainesT1958]

2. Remember to include one more thing about the New Deal and Alabama...

The TVA!:D

My mother was born and raised in Sheffield, and she sat on my grandfather's shoulders to watch FDR speak from the back of a train the day he re-dedicated Wilson Dam in Muscle Shoals as the headquarters of the TVA. Much of Northern Alabama got cheap electric power--a lot of it for the first time--and industry along the Tennessee River corridor because of TVA. That part of the state got major recreation areas in Wilson Lake and Lake Wheeler. They also, likely, got Marshall Space Flight Center and Werner Von Braun in Huntsville because of its presence, too. And Decatur got a lot of that development, which brought with it Point Mallard Aquatic Center and Jennifer Chandler (and her Olympic gold Medal in 1976) because of it. Also because of that development, Florence State Teachers' College grew to become the University of North Alabama.

This singlular project from the New Deal shows just how much more Democrats--even from places like the Northeast--have benefitted Alabama so much more than any Republican--president, governor or senator--ever has. All the jobs created in that region, just because of the foresight FDR had to take up Henry Ford on his dream of building an industrial corridor off of a series of dams generating cheap electric powr--something that the Repub presidents of the 1920s laughed at, because of too much government involvement.

That, BAMAGIRL, shows why re-building the Populist spirit of the Democratic Party in Albama--and here in North Carolina, for that matter--is not merely vital to our Party's future success, but to our families' future well-being, too!

B-)

[BamaGirl]

4. Thx Gaines!

My family is from Ga and Tn...I'm the first in Bama, so I need this kind of info!

[Virginian]

7. I just felt a big "awsome" from that post on FDR

He actually brought this nation into the 20th century. It was because of him that we became a superpower.

If FDR had just skipped off to wage war on an Arab country, look at what wouldn't exist. The people of Northern Alabama wouldn't have electricity and would still be using out houses. We would probably have an emmigrant problem with our smartest and hardest working moving out of the country to take higher paying jobs in other countries.

[The Straight Story]

5. Perhaps

Something to be added about not spending so much energy fighting against something or someone (or party) but fighting for something. Ignore the right and hammer home the cause and create a passion for it - and the rest would follow in logical order.

One thing about the right is they are cause oriented - they fight for things like 'the terror war' and so on ad nauseum. We go ABB and fight against people (which offends them and does not win them over). Focus on our core values and ideas, compete on those ideas and not on party names and labels or based on red states/blue.

People I think fail to see our ideas because we spend and equal (or more) amount of time bashing other people's ideas and beliefs. We need to offer them a better alternative and show it works, make them want it. They have a few core issues they rally behind based on their core beliefs (ie, a core extracted from a core). We attack america and how it does things, which to them is attacking them. We attack all over the place. To me, personally, I would rather attack less and educate more at the base level - and if we believe people can use their own minds to come to the best conclusion, and we think our views are the best, then they will choose ours.

maybe something like "I respect and understand your values and ideas, and how you have come to hold your views. I believe we share a common goal of better country and life for us all. Let's examine ways to do that without labels of parties or philosophies (ie, liberal, conservative, christian right or left, et al). Let us come together at the core we all share - a better world, and find a logical method based on principle and experience to create a road plan to achieve that". Seperate there the politics - some on the dem side are just as bad as some on the repub side, remove the sides and divisions politicians create and use to keep it all watered down (ie, keep us scared - did we vote abb or kerry because he was the best man out of all for the job? They want to keep things stagnant and do that by keeping moderates on both sides imho).

Let me provide an example - The christian missionaries. We go forth offering people 'salvation' and preaching to them how they are sinners. They need to go our way or the country will go to hell, it will be doomed unless they follow. Repent republicans or the end is near (and some things on DU seem like revelation in the bible - * is in, end of the world, camps coming, etc). Fear. We accused them of using it, and yet we do to.

Remove the fear and condemning of others as 'sinners against us all' mentality. Offer a clear choice, a reason, a platform, and show logically how the ideas work without the rhetoric of party vs party. Let people discover for themselves who has their best interests in mind and it will help them to change (and it too reminds me of folks I have seen who fled christianity in late teens and such because their parents forced it on them so long - they wanted freedom to think for themselves and discover things in a new light. Treating people like kids we ridicule for not holding our beliefs does little to get them to see our beliefs in a neutral light).

[BamaGirl]

6. I've been thinking along these lines too.

Have you read Straus and Howe? Having read them, and done what is a pretty basic review of American history and my own family's history, I have come to the conclusion that religion is going to be a part of the equation for at least another 10 years. In that case, it is a matter of taking the issue from them, i.e. the RW.

I am completely with you on the attacks comments. I think unfortunately we (Americans in general) have a short attention span and our (Democrats/progressives) job is going to be to figure out how to answer those attacks in a short, concise, sound bite manner that challenges current religious dogma.

Thx for commenting

[The Straight Story]

8. What really is religion

In the context we speak of? It is a system of beliefs shared by a common group under a broader umbrella of similar ideals. Strip away the 'god' portion of it all and we still have beliefs people hold to even in the face of other information - mainly, I think, because we don't all believe the way to reach the goal is the same. One man's utopia is another man's hell.

We must accept the difference of delivery and home in on the desired goals. We will never all think alike and find the same path to the same desitnation.

Christianity is a good analogy to all of us in the US. there is left and right, moderate, orthodox, etc, and the list goes on. In the US we have the constitution (and other docs) which we not only interpret in different ways but also pull out of things which may not be in the spirit of the writings to support our views and ideals. Instead of a bible we have a constitution, which the different factions of the belief system it encapsulates do battle over in the arena of ideals. In religion we have seen factions exist for centuries, always have and always will. It will be the same here in the US politically (since politics is really nothing more than a system of beliefs which has a goal and tenets, et al).

But one thing is most common to people in this belief. Freedom. And if we can reach people by showing them that their freedoms are greater under system X than Y we can get them to sign on/convert.

I often use the amish in this example. They don't care what is on tv, et al, because they live in their own little world within this world (and this country) where they have come together and are free to pursue their life in a common manner (and are free to leave it and have other choices). Choice is what matters, for in that there is freedom. Less power in the fed hands, more to the people, less regulation, more freedom for all. It is like the internet. Online communities (akin, if you will, to the amish) spring up to accomodate the varied ideals and beliefs others hold. Gays, orthodox, skin heads, jews, democrats, et al and so on all can exist freely here in this realm - they have a freedom and all want to protect their freedoms (even when they want to remove others' freedoms, they still value 'a' freedom).

If we reach out to people on a common theme and ground they will listen. Instead of pointing out how bad things are going in iraq or with *, simply point out information which they can use and most, imho, will figure out the truth and go with it (but when we attack people they shut down and defenses go up).

I dunno, rambling again, sorry about that!

[chaska]

9. Friedrich Nietzsche said "God is dead", not Voltaire.