Will "online Dems" take control or drop the ball? You decide.

[John_H]

There are two kinds of Dem operatives these days in DC now that Dean's in: Those that are shitting in their pants, scrambling to keep their paws in the gravy dish, and those frantically trying to get their spoons into the gravy dish. And, my friends, you are going to play a major role in outcome of their grabbing and reaching.

Pardon my French, but we can either be used cheap or we can be used on OUR terms.

Since the online community played a major role in Dean's rise, we are seen as a major key to the gravy train. "If I can get my the online community behind my little gig, I'm in like Flynn and the money is mine," say the consultants. Take a look around the message boards and blogs. Some are using the Dem Internet community to raise money that they will take credit for raising, others will sell their "demonstrated prowess" at "organizing" the online community. Some are selling goods and service they hope to be paid handsomely for by Dean's DNC.

Kudos to the operatives and consultants currently working DU who are up front about their professional interest in our support. A few are being a little more sneaky about it.

So we are faced with a choice: Do we let these people have our money and our support to go back to business as usual, or do we demand a price for our support?

Rank and file dems used unprecedented power to get dean in, and we have the opportunity to use just as much power to make the DNC--and dean himself--impose change. Change the way we need to change to win.

I'm not talking about bleeding the party. I'm talking about using our new found power to WIN. Win by quickly ending the self-serving consultant culture. WIN by getting rid of the nepotism that keeps idiots who lose race after race. WIN by forcing the DNC to realize that our support will never be given to a continuation of the status quo.

So, send the DNC a million bucks if you want to, start working hard. I'd just wait a little bit to do it, just to receive some of the change-the-party-in-the-right-direction power you're due.

[democrank]

1. What little extra money I have to

donate to the cause will be used wisely. I`m done helping out the current Democratic leadership, which is exactly what I`ve said to them in response to the half zillion emails they`ve sent begging for money. They don`t represent me or anyone I know so they might as well go ask someone who cares.

If Dean pulls this off and begins to nudge the party back to basic Democratic Party principles, I`ll help all I can. If I see the same old faces with the same spineless rhetoric, they will get not an iota of help from me.

At this point, being true to what I believe in is of far greater importance than becoming a mini-Republican so my party can win.

[Nothing Without Hope]

2. YES! Progressive Dems can use the web to fight and win

Several tangential points I'd like to add:

1. Internet-based information exchange and activism may be the single biggest safety anchor for representational democracy in this country. We know it -- saw it with fund-raising and see it every day in getting the truth and passing it around, giving Conyers' committee and Boxer with what they needed, and so much more. We are evolving toward being a credible threat to the fascists.

2. We're not invisible any more. The corporate media and the blivet** administration have begun to take note and to respond. Witness the recent flurry of ridculing cherry-picked posts to show how we are wild-eyed tinfoilhatters.

3. Because of #1 and #2, WE NEED TO PROTECT THE INTERNET. We can expect attacks on our freedom to communicate and obtain information through the web. The cartel wants the situation to be more like Nazi Germany, where the corporate media could be controlled. It's worked well for them so far, and they don't want that to change. They have the power, and now we are on their radar as a possible threat.

4. Because much of the country does NOT yet use the internet as its source of news and information exchange, WE NEED TO BRAINSTORM WAYS TO REACH PEOPLE WHO DO NOT USE COMPUTERS REGULARLY. As long as internet-based activism remains limited to regular users of the internet, the reach of truth will be severely limited and we cannot succeed. Ihave some ideas about this and have been planning to try to do something to encourage this brainstorming process of coming up with ways to reach non-web-using people who would become Progressive Democrats if they only knew of the possibility.

5. We CANNOT GIVE UP. The stakes are the highest. We must take care not to drink the Kool Aid, which includes all sorts of propaganda and freeper intrusions designed to make us despair. If we give in to chic cynicism, it will all be over.

6. WE NEED TO LOOK AHEAD. Enough with the Kerry-bashing, already! Who cares if he really said that Osama's tape was the reason he lost the election? Does that really matter to what we do now?

7. WE NEED TO HOLD POLITICIANS RESPONSIBLE AND HELP GET THE RIGHT ONES INTO OFFICE. Every vote of importance needs to be watched, pressure applied, praise and censure used. We use the internet daily, a medium that is the natural place for the most efficient fund-raising, PR, organizing of all kinds.

I could go on and on but don't have time now. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!! I believe that the DU board is the prototype of what can be the new political communities -- not bound by location and mobility and not dependent onthe corrupt corporate media for information.

[Al-CIAda]

3. kick

[sarahlee]

4. Great points

Since I believe we are on the brink of economic, democratic and environmental disaster - I don't personally intend to cut anyone much slack. We don't have the time for compromises anymore.

[Old Mouse]

6. On the brink or just over the edge

Sarahlee, you are absolutely correct.

The online activists are the last and most unexpected line of defense. I hope suggestions such as this idea of economic leverage can give us some measure of success.

[prairierose]

5. I agree with saralee...we

don't have time for the usual wimpy compromises. I have told the dnc regularly since the last selection that unless they get rid of corporate bribes and move back to traditional populist values, I'm NOT sending them one damn dime and I won't work for them either. I have not yet made the effort to go find my county or state chair but when I run across them, they'll get the same message. Other local pols I've run into have already heard this from me.

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. Kick! n/t

[KoKo]

8. Good points! I agree about some seeing "Internet" as Gravy Train...

But, they don't understand what an "Independent" group we are. We can "
turn on a dime" if something seems "off."

I don't think "they" quite get that, yet.. :D....