What would you like Dean to do as DNC Chair

[WI_DEM]

It is looking like he has this wrapped up. His run for DNC Chair has been focused and is in sharp contrast to his presidential run where there were too many operatives. I think the Howard Dean who enginered this victory for DNC is the real Dean--a focused and politically savvy pol who can get the job done and work with many different factions.

As DNC Chair what would you like a Dean Administration to accomplish? What steps do you think he should take to effectively oppose Bush and set the party on the road to victory in 2006 and 2008.

[tk2kewl]

1. Fist and foremost stop the party's back peddling

No more appologizing for being on the side of good. Wheather its about war, taxes, SS, health care, gay marriage, environment the Dems must have a Dean spine.

[chicagojoe]

6. No kidding.

The Dems should not only stop apologizing, but should also embark upon a scorched earth campaign against the Radical Right.
I know our nation needs unity more than acrimony, but these fucking Neanderthals need to be put in their place--preferably out of DC.
All Americans need to have a voice, but not those intent on destroying America with their NeoCon and Christo-Fascist fantasies.

[Zenlitened]

16. Totally agree. Speak out, speak plainly, speak from the heart...

... and from the gut. Quit trying to mollify every possible constituency -- we gain respect when we make a stand, and stand by our principles.

I don't know whether Dean has the chairmanship wrapped up, but to be honest, on a certain level I don't care. Whether he gets the job or not, I think he's going to continue providing leadership and giving a voice to the left. To "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." :)

[terrya]

34. I completely agree.

You are so right. We ARE on the side of good. We have nothing to apologize for, nothing to qualify, nothing to be defensive about.

We need to articulate a vision of America that represents our core beliefs...and that most Americans do agree with. Americans care about the environment. We need to be for universal health care. Preserving Social Security and NOT privitizing (that is, ultimately abolishing it) it. Being FOR the right for same-sex couples to legally marry (which is NOT a "special right"

We need to be for these things steadfastly, resoultely, passionately. No backing down. No compromising.

And that's why I'm so enthusiastic for Dean to become DNC chairman. Because he can and should and will give us that spine.

[FreedomAngel82]

39. I agree

Help the dem's get a backbone and get our message out clear and loud and attack back those negative ad's like the SBV people.

[brainshrub]

2. Make the Dems the party of the People again.

Stop apologizing for being a Liberal. Stand up for human rights, health care and freedom.

Take back the word Freedom! It's a Liberal word.

[Warpy]

3. Dump the DLC and embrace the economic populism

that bunch abandoned 30 years ago, with predictably disastrous results.

Remember what got Clinton elected: "It's the economy, stupid!"

Being on the right side of social issues is simply not enough. They have got to stop taking the side of the rich in the class war that's going on.

[mhr]

4. Hear, Hear - Unemployed 58 Months Now - Dems Need New Spine

Let's hope that Mr. Dean will not back down!

[dvaravati]

5. punish the "osama ad" traitors

purge the scum.

[NYCGirl]

9. Democrats don't purge. We're the big tent, remember? NT

[bowens43]

7. Move our party to left.

I am absolutely convinced that we have been losing elections because we have been stressing the similarities between the parties rather then differences.

[AP]

8. Raise money and organize the grass roots. Pave the way for

victories in 06, and make sure that we have a good presidential primary in 08 that's on a level playing field and picks a great winner.

[bemildred]

10. Red State Democratic Party organizations need new blood, new money. nt

[WI_DEM]

12. I agree we need to start being more competitive

in red states and not just running a 18 state campaign every four years.

[Orlandodem]

13. He should spend a ton of time in red state America

I want to him to publicly declare that his mission to death is to create a Blue America. To do so he needs to know red America. The repugs have publicly proclaimed their goal is to create a red America. I want him to go balls to the wall to do just the opposite.

Put a DNC "sub headquarter" in a red state like FL or OH. These states are attainable for Dems.

The DNC needs to make sure that there are candidates on every ballot across the nation from school board to state legislatures and all the way to the WH.

With a coherent message and agenda the Dems can take this country back!!! And FWIW, being from Florida I was always skeptical of Dean, but I am a complete convert! He has made a believer out of me because he can work the grassroots like nobody's business, but he obviously worked the insiders to get to the point he is right now.

[bemildred]

19. Yes. ALL states are attainable by Dems.

It's time to play the game as it was meant to be played.
Full court press.

[FreedomAngel82]

40. I agree with that too

Stop ignoring the red states completely. Sure, Kerry and Edwards did some campaigning here but not as much as they could've to win. If Tennessee can have a democratic governor surely we could go blue. In 2000 Bush only won by four percent (according to electoral-vote.com)and in 2004 the final tally here was Bush 53% and Kerry 47% so it's possible to win with more campaigning. I want my state to be blue in an election in my life time.

[AntiCoup2K4]

11. Put the mediawhores on notice - again.

True, the DNC chair probably won't be able to do much to break up corporate whore monopolies, but the chair IS the guy who gets called on to speak on Sunday morning talk shows and the like, and that would be a great opportunity to tell the whores, on their own dime, that we ain't playing their game anymore. And that the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine and breakup of the monopolies will absolutely be part of the Democratic Party platform in the next election.

And if I may drift off topic for just a second - I hope the Senate pays very close attention to whomever Junior picks to replace Mikey Powell at the FCC. Any media corporatist in that position is simply unacceptable.

[FloridaPat]

14. Equip all Democratic representatives with backbones.

I am so tired of the enabling party and not the opposition party. We're talking 25 years of this crap - since Reagan.

[greendog]

15. Limit influence of the corporatists

n/t

[marcologico]

17. Get Dems elected in '06 and '08 and stay out of their races. n/t

[last1standing]

24. So you want him to help and yet not help?

How do you propose that? Better yet, is it those Eyes of Truth or your hatred that's clouded your vision to the realities of the situation here?

Dean has won the DNC chair. He will be involved in many campaigns for the next four years. During that time he can do no worse than his predecessor or Shrum/Cahill. Your people lost. It's time to let a new crowd in to fix things.

Why don't you just take a couple of days off and come back as someone with something to say, not just someone to slander?

[marcologico]

27. Look, if you don't tone it down I'm going to figure out how to ignore you.

Okay?

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CAcyclist]

33. Well I will take great pleasure placing you on my ignore list nt

[cybildisobedience]

18. Two primary issues facing us that MUST be dealt with:

- The corrupt and compliant media. Dean needs to address the issue of media monopolies, and call these "journalists" out when they pull the same old crap with him that works so well when so-called "Democratic strategists" go on these programs. He needs to publicly chastise them for failing in their duty to act as a watchdog for democracy, and for blatantly prostituting themselves for access, favors, status, etc.
For ex., he should remind every single journalist who was in attendance at the press corps dinner last year and laughed when Bush's skit about not finding WMDs played. He should remind them that being led into a war based on a lie isn't so funny to the families who paid the ultimate price, and that if Clinton were the one doing it, they'd be at the gates of the White House with pitchforks and torches.

- Secondly, fix electronic voting. Call for a halt to efforts to install these machines in any state that isn't already corrupted by them, and demand that a voter-verified paper vote capacity be added to any system that is already in place.

Dems will never win another major election if the two issues of a corporate-controlled (i.e. Repuke-friendly) media and insecure voting machines aren't addressed.

[marcologico]

20. Agree, electronic voting is job 1.

The press he'll have to kiss up to like everybody else, unless he can buy them back from the GOP.

[FreedomAngel82]

41. Speaking of that video of Bush

does anybody have a link on it handy? I might need it in the future so just wondering. I've seen it before but can't remember where it was.

[Richard D]

21. Make sure someone sane gets elected in '08

[marcologico]

23. You mean rig the primaries, like McCaullife supposedly did?

You guys sure have short memories.

[dsc]

28. He said ELECTED not NOMINATED

When one wins the primaries (the elections Dean will be able to rig or not rig) one is NOMINATED. When one wins the general elections (the ones Dean won't be able to rig) one is ELECTED. Hence the post your responded to was beseeching Dean to make sure a SANE PERSON won the GENERAL ELECTION and hence be ELECTED. Presumedly by making sure a DEMOCRAT won.

[marcologico]

31. I know what he said and I know what he meant. So do you. n/t

[dsc]

35. Yeah he meant what I said he meant

[benny05]

22. Reframe the Issues

Especially the social ones that can cause wedges. Instead of countering pro-life with pro-choice, how about pro-family? It's still about choice--you choose your family (pets, spouse, etc).

We need to talk about moral issues, like poverty. The good book spends a lot of time talking about helping the poor and lifting up. John Edwards will be speaking about this tonight (8pm ET live on C-SPAN)in NH, and I hope Dean will be watching or meeting with JRE there.

[Adelante]

25. Reform and Restructure

I have supported Dean for DNC chair, mainly, for two reasons: reform in the election system overall; and to party structure; because of his proven commitment to local level politics, and his proven ability to grow and maintain grassroots activism. The pols need to know we are watching and waiting. Dean has the cred for this.

I don't view him as the best spokesman for the party, necessarily, and we have a lot of them, anyway. We also have good minds in the party who seem to have finally woken up to its gross failures and are hot on making needed changes in policy and strategy. As we speak, House Democrats are meeting in a 3-day retreat to tackle just this, and I hope it's only the beginning. I also think the view of DNC chair as "kingmaker" is naive. He will have to listen to a whole lot of voices and bring about consensus, which I believe he will.

So I would like to see Dean put his hardest focus and considerable energies into building a winning structure from the bottom up ahead of the '06 races, which would only help us eventually in '08. Money needs to be directed to the ground first, rather than to the big shots at the top who may need it less. I think Howard Dean understands this deeply and can turn the situation around.

At the same time, I do believe without the larger reform to the election system, I might say rescue, we can restructure the party all we want and get nowhere. So I hope Dean keeps this issue way out in the forefront of discussion within the party and works hard on concrete steps to turn this around. There is simply nothing more important to our democracy than this.

The only thing I would add to my original hopes is that some diplomacy be done among the various segments within the party. From what we can see from the overwhelming support for Dean for chair, I think he can definitely achieve a better level of unity among Dems than we've seen.

Thanks, WI_DEM, for looking for answers to this question. It's already produced an interesting thread.

[ProgressiveConn]

26. He'll have a mandate to finish the populist shift in fund-raising.

Other than that I'd like him to get lots of populist progressive candidates elected. =)

[moggie12]

30. Wow, great post and thread -- this is kinda exciting, isn't it?

I'm very encouraged by the widespread support Dean is getting on DU -- everybody seems to realize that we need to pull together. Like you said in your post, I think Dean is well-equipped to work with the various factions in the Democratic Party. I see that as a critical task in order to better fight Bush and the Repubs.

If you've got any ideas about how we "little people" can support Dean, please add them to my post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1567741iw

This seems like a "fork in the road" for the Democrats and I want to do everything I can to help.

[CAcyclist]

32. Investigate what is going on in California

and fund Kevin Shelley's legal defense.

[tokenlib]

36. Stay the course...

Speak out, stand firm on convictions, and to make us proud. If he does that--the media slime who took his "scream" out of context will find out that like the proverbial rubber ball--Howard Dean is bouncing back and bringing the whole Democratic Party with him.

[Dr Fate]

37. Bring moral consistency back to the party...

...continue to be blunt about Bush's disastrous policies, speak out against the pro-Bush media,"fire up" the base and raise some $$$$$.

[blm]

38. Deal with GOP control over the media and our voting machines. All else is

a waste of time and breath.

[Cha]

44. I know what you mean..this looks

promising..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1568959

[Paulie]

42. Chew Bubble Gum and KICK ASS!

I would love to see some serious spine for a change. Please oh please!

[BlueManDude]

43. Hire 5 full-time talking heads who...

know how to fight back and win the propaganda wars on the cabelnets and radio and pay them to do nothing but appear on Hardball etc and take on the RW propaganda machine. This is a full time job that requires tuff, articulate, telegenic people to study up every day on the GOP line du jour - counter it and come back with their own line du jour.

[Adelante]

45. A small thing

I hope the DNC website is more creatively directed, kept current and offers more for online activists to do.

http://www.democrats.org/


I signed up over a year ago as a team leader and took the actions made available, but there wasn't ever all that much action. I hope this can change with a more Internet-sympathetic chairman.