Penn Poll on "The Democratic Party and the 2004 Election"

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The linked documents below refer to a poll taken by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates July 2003, presented to the DLC's "National Conversation" on July 28th.

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=127&subid=269&contentid=251929

http://www.ndol.org/documents/PennPoll_0703.pdf

What does this poll say to you about the future of the Democratic party, the strategies of the DLC, and the prevailing political beliefs of the American public?

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1. The DLC doesn't speak to me, for me...

...or about me. And since they ignore me, I don't plan on paying much attention to their self-justification.

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4. DLC doesn't speak to me or for me either.

And that's my point in bringing up this poll. It seems pretty dishonest in what it ignores and in what it concludes.

I don't know enough about Democratic Party politics (i.e., at higher levels), perhaps, but it was my impression that the DLC still carries a lot of weight.

Frankly, they seem more interested in staying on a course of neoliberal, take-care-of-business, placate-the-people politics than getting elected.

Is it because they really believe that this IS the way to get elected?
Or (IMO more likely) is it because they are virtually owned by the same business interests who care much more about staying on this course than allowing the party to be transformed?

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2. Of "Conclusions conveniently ignored"

On page 11, out of 13 statements about the Democratic party, the following statement was BY FAR the statement agreed to by ALL those polled:

The Democratic Party is too beholden to special interest groups. (67% agreed, 24% disagreed).

Perhaps some people were thinking of 'special interests' like gays or minorities, but I believe that some were probably thinking of special interests like lobbyists for certain business sectors. The Republicans are worse in that respect, but they aren't typically trying to sell themselves as the party of the people. (Well, okay, sometimes they do try that approach, too..but it's not their main focus.)

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3. Military / soldiers are a huge opportunity..

because of a tremendous perception gap.

People saying that the Republicans have the best programs for the military personnel and soldiers was 37 percenthigher than those saying the Democrats have the best programs for military personnel and soldiers.

Our candidates need to be much louder on this issue, because the Republicans are treating the soldiers like garbage.

If it weren't in bad taste, I'd say we need "Republicans treat soldiers like cannon fodder" bumper stickers..

In fact, getting an activist letter-writing group to focus on this one issue with periodic letters to the editor would be worth its weight in gold.