Are you guys done mourning the "death of democracy" yet?

[Goldeneye]

Can we get back to work now? I'm actually excited to see what else we can get done. Based on the poll yesterday, a lot of us thought yesterday was a good thing. We have to get back to work now. Get the message out. How, we haven't decided yet. We need to keep working on the fraud and recounts. We need to keep in contact with our leaders. And they are our leaders at least for now. So suck it up at least until the next election cycle. We also need to do something with our party. A third party will never gain traction unless there are tons and tons of disillusioned dems. There are not tons and tons of disillusioned dems. Not even the majority of DUers want to scrap the Democratic party. So, what do we want to do with the party? And the worthless media. What are we going to do with them?

We can talk and talk and talk, but I action is needed now. Any ideas at all?

[emulatorloo]

1. Thanking everyone who stood up, and bombarding Frist and Hastert

w demands for full investigation of Ohio/Ken Blackwell and election standards w full verifiable paper trail. . . .and I mean BOMBARDING so they can't ignore it. . .

[Goldeneye]

4. So what is the most effective way to do this?

Calling or writing letters? Emails dont really work unless you're a constituent.

[emulatorloo]

14. Letters and Calls - require more person-time to handle

Emails easy to mass delete.

Imagine an avalance of letters hitting Hastert's office.

[me b zola]

18. Now that the time constraints are gone

I plan on sending many snail-mails. They seem to get more attention, and particularly because of repuke spin, they have the appearance of being more legitimate.

It will cost $$, but I am going to use this method, hopefully to gain a more receptive ear.

[Jo March]

11. Yep. You are perfectly right.

I've said my thank you's to the applicable people.

It is now time to hammer Frist and Hastert until they start dreaming about election reform. We have to never let up.

Having the Dem support of the issue is huge. We never would have had that without all of the hard work that DUers and others did - calling, emailing, faxing, etc.

We have a lot of work to do but we are making forward progress.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Heh.

:thumbsup:

Me? I am working on pulling real talent into the local Dem party. Ooooo...lemme tell you about some of this talent! Latest is a whip-smart, highly-motivated, young, soon-to-be-former-reporter.

He's moving on to a better position that is NOT in journalism, per se, and he's gonna be getting DEM politically active.

We are getting a real brain trust of talent going here. We can only benefit from that.

[Jo March]

13. Excellent, TS!

That sounds like a good positive move in the right direction for 06/08. Excellent! Thank you for posting that.

[me b zola]

20. Looking forward!!!

This is the tactic my husband is taking. Me, I'm working on exposing those who thwarted Democracy. Together we are the perfect pair.:pals: :hug:

[iconoclastNYC]

3. Use the Social Security fight to damage the GOP

Is there an umbrella group to coordinate the plan? I see this as the best opportunity in the next two years to further grow our base and damage the GOP.

[Goldeneye]

5. I think the dems need to organize

all the groups need to link up. There are too many to keep track of and most of them work independently: Move On, PDA, Democracy for America, etc...we could even pull in the greens for ss reform, election reform...

[Warren Stupidity]

6. senate dems are in full retreat

I think randi rhodes nailed it: the rethugs are threatening them with the nukular rule change eliminating the filibuster. So the wimpy assholes are going to give in on EVERYTHING as otherwise they would lose the filibuster. The idiots can't see even one move ahead. They will cave on every appointment, they will cave on looting social security, they will cave on patriot II, they will cave on tort reform, they will vote in large numbers to make the tax theft extensions permanent, they will allow every sordid piece of legislation proposed by the rethuglicans to make it through the senate. They have no balls (except of course for Barbara Boxer, who it appears has huge balls) and have no clue how to be the opposition party.

I am so pissed.

[iconoclastNYC]

12. If they want to do that then it's time for the BASE to go Nuclear.

We have the power, we can make them do the right thing.

[comsymp]

16. Not a flame, but how?

In all seriousness - just... how?

Maybe I'm too old school, but the only consistently effective motivation I'm familiar with is carrot/stick. If grassroots Dems (read: us - we?) follow what appears to be the general consensus here, apparently "support the party, regardless, cuz the only alternative is the R's", what's the stick?

Honest to God, I'm stumped.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. me too

is Ralph right? Is the DNC so locked up by rightard corporatist losers that there is no hope for an internal reform?

[iconoclastNYC]

24. Look at how the CONS took over the Republican Party

They didn't fracture off and form a third party and they didn't quit, they transformed the Republican party.

We need to run Progressive Democrat candidates at the local, state, and federal level. We need to fund Progressive Democrats canidates. We need to support Progressives for Leadership Positions in the party. We need to recruit more Progressives to the Party. We need to bring the Greens back to the Democratic Party. We need to purge the party of the DLC and run against DLC candidates in primaries. We need to communicate to our elected Democrats the Progressive positions we wish them to fight for.

To quote the chimp, 'it's hard work', but it's the only way, there is no magic cure to fix the DNC and it would take twice as much effort to form a viable third party (the system is rigged against third parties.)

The media stands in our way but we're making our own media on the Internet and with AAR. We will take our party back because the values we support are the values that America supports.

[AlbizuX]

7. yes...

moving on with my life....focused on using this massive organization power to build a new movement of electoral reform..

and focusing on composing some more music (i'm a musician).

[Patsy Stone]

8. There may be an act or two left

in that Passion Play, but I'm ready to fight on.

Thanks for the thread Goldeneye. We rock and we're gonna get those election reforms and paper trails through if it kills us. You watch. As for the future of the party, let's start with organizing our issues, then we can start to work on our State and Federal leaders to get things headed in the "left" direction. We have the power. This exercise has shown us that if nothing else.

CRaig Crawford on KO said it best last night. Since we don't have the majority, our job is to push our issues to the front whenever we can and make the Rs state on the record why they disagree. Give 'em enough rope and they're bound to hang themselves. They always do.

Don't forget also, there's still alot going on in a legal case kinda way with our friend Kathy B. and the Ohio "shenanagaii."

Peace. NGU.

[Blue_In_AK]

25. I liked that Craig Crawford...

Very sensible man. I liked the way KO slipped in the word "constitution," too.

[Patsy Stone]

26. Did you miss last night's KOEB meeting?

We gave Craig many :loveya:'s LOL
Come by, we'll leave a light on for you. We're in GD these days. Long story.

:)

[meganmonkey]

9. Hell NO! The sky is falling!! The world is ending!!

We're all gonna die!! AAaaahhhhhH!!!!!
:P
Actually, this is how I feel, even after having slept on it!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x257342

[txaslftist]

10. YOU ROCK ON GOLDENEYE!!!

It's good to start seeing more of these optimistic threads. I said it yesterday, and I'm going to try to hold to it, every time I see one of these 'doom and gloom' the 'world is ending for dems' or the ubiquitous 'I'm leaving the party' threads, I'm going to flame it.

Please, optimistic, future loving, resurging democrats, do the same thing. This is not the end, it is the beginning. It is not over for us, it is just starting. It will be a long fight, but we will WIN!

:yourock:

[Pepper32]

15. No...

Democracy is not dead until the people it represent are, most of them are still sleeping and do not realize the threat yet. However, as the republicans push and push their radical agenda, the people will rise and start to fight back. We need to make these people mad by getting the truth out to them. The media is not going to do this for us, as we already know.

Unless they have our consent, they can't take our democracy! Why do you think they keep the truth from the people? They know... The question is how far are we (the many that are awake) willing to go to start this fight for democracy, until the rest join us?

I truly believe we are being tested (right now) by the extremist right, they are hoping we go to our corners and whimper away.

If we only fought when we believe there was hope, the Civil Rights movement would have never happened.

Our hope right now, has to be our desire to save democracy! IMO

ON EDIT: fixed typos

Remember, this is the beginning not the end, if we don't give up.

[me b zola]

21. Pepper, I am Sooooooo with you

We are being tested... and I refuse to retreat to my corner, much less with a pathetic whimper. You are exactly right about the civil rights movement, and this IS the beginning of our new movement to take back the Constitution. Actually, it really is the continuation of the original civil rights movement.

The repuke bastids had to choke on the idea that they could no longer openly spew their hateful feelings openly on people of color. Then it changed to code-speak for their hateful thoughts. Then it changed to recruiting people of color so they could dangle them in front of the American people to say, 'look, we're the party that supports people of color'. Pay no attention to the fact that people of color still can't play golf at the repukes f'*in golf courses.

I'm sorry that I went off topic for a quick minute. but I just had to purge.:puke:

Anyway, the civil rights movement continues...and I am here with you.

[Zeebo]

17. We need to try to get a simplified bullet point list...

Of not just the case for fraud BUT the concern every citizen should have regarding this important issue. We can't get the masses concerned and outraged by complex statistical analysis or details of the provisions of HAVA. We need to simplify it and try to target their emotions.

[emulatorloo]

22. Kick n/t

[nashville_brook]

23. they are tabula rasa now --

they are confused -- even bernie sanders doesn't get it (yet).

now is the time to hit them with well thought out letters. get your voice out there. do your very best work!

every letter, every new Radical Democrat breathes life into their deflated forms. we are the leaders now. take it.