Dean's in power. Now what? What are the things that need fixed,

[blondeatlast]

what do we keep, and in what priority?

IMHO, we need to start by meeting with our traditional support outside the party: unions, women's groups, minority organizations.

Let them know what we have to offer and listen carefully to how to gain their constituencies. I think this is crucial, as we lost some of our traditional base in 2004, even though we got the organizational support; the rank and file voted Bush (not just union, either).

[n2mark]

1. DU should decide

they know all the answers.

[blondeatlast]

2. Well of course; I just thought we could conduct our fruitless endeavors

with a bit less rancor now that the deed's done!

:hi:

[blondeatlast]

5. Sheesh, apparently so. I'm outta this forum.

See ya at the finals?

[President Jesus]

3. folks: The title of "Party Chair" is little more than fundraiser-in-chief

This "now that he's in power" crap shows a serious misunderstanding of what the position entails.

The quicker you get used to this, the less you be disillusioned down the road.

[blondeatlast]

4. I'm plenty aware of that. I'm not new to the party or politics.

There;s a good chance I've been a voting Dem longer than you've been alive.

I am in absolutely NO danger of being disillusioned, son. None.

Edit: I'm far from a Deaniac, either. FAR from it.

[imenja]

14. it doesn't need to be

That was how Terry M. used the position, but Dean can do more. I know he plans on it. One thing he does not plan on doing is setting policy.

[erpowers]

6. Build the Party

One of the major things that need to be done is to put more young Democrats and College Democrats groups on college campuses.

[blondeatlast]

15. I'd like to see them go to work in junior high and high schools.

Even when I was a teen (predating the Carter era, yikes!), we had a sort of informal Young Dems at my HS. We were pretty active, too.

I'd love to see this happen.

[ailsagirl]

7. Question about Dean...

Has he ever stated publicly or even intimated he believes there were "election irregularities" in 2004??

Just curious.

[Ken Burch]

8. Here's some things that definitely need changing

1)Switch fundraising emphasis from corporate donors to small activist donations. McAuliffe's millions didn't do a damn bit of good for us, and they cost us our soul.

2)Develop new ways people can be involved on a grassroots level, and a continuing grassroots level at that.

3)Set up permanent training programs for rapid response teams and organizers.

4)Talk about class. TALK ABOUT CLASS. TALK! ABOUT!! CLASS!!!
It hasn't done us any good to be "centrist" and "pro-business".
We need to represent the working class majority.

[Democrat Dragon]

9. ok...

1. Be the media, the DNC needs to make it's own money rather than soley relying on corporate donors. DNC magazine anyone?

2. decrease funding for DINOs who want to be reelected. Pretty soon they'll be dropping out. That's how you get rid of em'

3. More grassrots involvement.

4. A unified and more bold message.

5. Don't just attack the opponent! SMEAR HIM!

[pstans]

11. I agree with your points

I love the idea about the DNC magazine. It would be a great way to market up and coming Democrats across the country.

Dean will help with # 3, 4, and 5. His campaign was all grassroots, he definitly has a bold message, and we all know Dean knows how to attack.

Give 'em Hell Howard!

[chicagomom]

10. Fix the state and county party websites

Most of them suck. Dems need to be able to talk to other dems easily.

[mandyky]

17. A diarist at mydd has a blog project

encouraging state parties to have blogs and provides examples of good and bad blogs. Apparently they found that 2/3 to 3/4 of state parties did not have a blog or website.

[welshTerrier2]

12. my nickel ...

there are millions of unregistered voters who don't vote ... there are millions of registered Democrats who don't vote ...

we know we want their votes ... so how do we go about it? well, so far, we've let either our candidates or a bunch of insider-consultant types craft a message ... and has this message resonated with those who didn't vote? did our slick candidates and their fancy message packaging "touch the hearts" of those who stayed home?

it's easy to cynically label these "stay at homes" as uninterested ... with the whisper of a "whatever", millions could be dismissed ... "who needs 'em anyway??" ...

this isn't just some little special interest group we could appeal to ... we're talking millions upon millions of voters ... not worth the effort, you think ??

my friends, there's gold in them thar hills ...

so, what do we do? do we continue to guess at what might appeal to them? how's that been working out? seems to me that it time for a re-think ...

here's what Dean, our elected officials and every Democrat should be pushing for:

1. we need to start a real campaign to contact voters and get them involved ... for the last two years, my town's local Democratic committee held it's annual meeting and did not notify Democrats who live in the town ... before we start throwing around the apathy label, maybe we should make a bit more effort ...
2. voters, i.e. ALL Democrats from top to bottom, should be given a real voice in defining the Party's platform ... i've been calling for a nationwide series of town meetings ... no one should have to travel more than an hour to get to one ... elected Dems should participate as much as possible in these meetings ...
3. we cannot continue to "define" policy from the top ... we need to build a platform that appeals both to registered voters and to those who are not registered and don't vote ... the process to do this effectively should begin with questions, not with answers ...
4. we should try to obtain email addresses for every registered Democrat ... we cannot afford to contact our membership only once every 2, or worse yet every 4, years ...
5. we need to find a way to build unity in the Party ... we are deeply divided right now ... this is understandable because we do not have an adequate framework to resolve our differences ... elected Dems vote for Condi and half the Party is alienated ... no discussion, no input, no explanation ... just, tough ... deal with it ... that's no way to build unity ... if we had a process where better, much better, communication occurred, we might not reach any kind of consensus on many issues but perhaps there would be better understanding and less hostility ... as things stand now, elected Dems vote and we either like it or we don't ... we have to do better than that ...
6. message development and message discipline ... we need a clear and consistent message that eminates from the Party's core values ... we cannot have each and every candidate doing whatever the hell they want to do ... we should tolerate differences but there has to be a connection back to the Party's central messages ... absent that, we have no identity ... we're just a bunch of guys running around in t-shirts with donkeys painted on them ...

[imenja]

13. Organization

We need to start mobilizing volunteers now, not wait for two months before the election like Kerry did. We also need to run get out the vote efforts better. There are many things that need to be improved upon from the last campaign.

[mandyky]

16. I just sent in my suggestion via the website

We have a lot to do in the party, but we need to come up with a media plan first. Here's what I sent.

Chairman Dean & DNC staff,

I think we have moved in the correct direction by electing Gov. Dean as Chairman. During the DNC winter meeting (I watched on CSpan) it was mentioned that the DNC has a "state of the arts" TV and radio studio. One of our main weaknesses right now has to do with media coverage and bias by news channels and shows. I have heard Warren Buffet and George Soros are buying stock in CNN and other media outlets. Do they plan on making changes more friendly to Democrats?

The DNC and local and state Democratic party organizations need to apply pressure to media. We also need to furnish a weekly rebuttal to the president's radio address, and work on getting more outlets to carry it each week. I am sure AAR would carry our rebuttals and there are independent Democratic and progressive radio shows through out the country, that might carry as well. Cable news channels may take more effort.

Here in Richmond, KY via Adelphia Cable, we have a government channel. Maybe other small cities have such channels. Perhaps we could get local democratic meetings covered. This channel is dead air for a large part of a 24 hour period.

I listen to an independent radio show Sat. nights out of South Florida. Guy James jokingly refers to broadcasting from behind enemy lines (very republican area). He is a listener supported show. He does call ins and not only broadcasts locally but streams online. We need to find and support other such shows, and also help AAR get on more radio stations.

Our online media needs some work too. At mydd.con I read of a project to make sure all state democratic parties have a blog and learn to use them to our best advantage. Once each state party has a blog that should trickle down to county and local party organizations. But having a blog is not an end all be all, the folks need to learn to use them for maximum effect. I am a poster at democraticunderground.org and they have state forums for people to post info about local issues and races. We need to share information with our state parties about these resources.

As Chairman Dean is aware, we have a virtually untapped army of grassroots ready to move on projects online and off. We need a clearinghouse type website that has a list of blogs, publications, radio shows, and forums friedly to Democrats. Use us! Please have our online coordinator at the DNC make a post for the blog. I am willing to bet they'd get a bunch of online activists signed up in a few days.

Anyway, as you can see my concerns are mostly with media issues. Please pass on any finding to our Congress people (reps and senators) that we need to re-enact the Fairness Doctrine where possible. I think the reason liberal has become such a dirty word is that people like Rush Limbaugh have had so much exposure. We need to counter those voices, and soon.

Sincerely,
Marlene Jones
Richmond, KY

[ulTRAX]

18. What The Party Needs is VISION

The problem with the Dems is they have begun to confuse core principles with constituent issues. It has no idea where it wants to take this nation in 10-20-50 years. Contrast that with the methodical advance of the Right.

Democrats live the Orwellian contradiction that it believes in democracy yet in reality protects our dysfunctional two-party system which deprives citizens of a chance to vote their conscience and get representations.... and refuses to call for democratic reforms in our anti-democratic federal system.... a system that gave us Bush in the first place.