Splitting the GOP Coalition Forever - Project Splinter

[LocalDem]

Many are pessimistic about the Democratic Party right now.

Not me.

I think we have the chance - right now - to deal the death blow to the powerful GOP coalition of moderate "Main Street" Republicans who believe in small, responsible government, and the aggressive religious conservatives that want government to enforce their own mean-spirited dogma.

Recent events, including the Schiavo stunt and the ensuing assault on the judiciary, have many moderate Republicans questioning whether the modern Republican Party still represents their view of the world.

I believe that we grassroots Democrats can help fracture the GOP coalition by showing moderate Republicans that our party is the one that represents thoughtful, rational policymaking and compassion for our fellow man.

Let's get a discussion going: http://projectsplinter.blogspot.com

[ClassWarrior]

1. Thanks LD - I appreciate your hope.

:patriot:

NGU.

[dcfirefighter]

2. I'm game

There is a potential coalition on the left-ish side of the aisle for many who favor small, or at least more decentralized government. I think one of the keys to building this coalition is adopting some form of proportional representation within the democratic party.

I think the events of the past few years have opened the eyes of many who realize that a large, unaccountable government, is a dangerous beast indeed. I don't wish to trade one form of authoritarian government for another, and feel the best way to do this is by decentralizing as many government functions as possible.

I also think that more people are recognizing the fragility of their economic well-being, as well as the negative effects that current national policies are having on their individual economic situations.

With less federal taxation, there is more revenue available for states and localities. However, the real problem of a race to the bottom exists if states & localities insist on taxing productivity. Conversely, if they tax the one thing that cannot be taken out of their geographic boundaries, their revenue stream can support and expand on programs vacated by the federal government.

Regardless, I'm in. I live in Maryland as well.

[eallen]

3. It requires that the Democrats are seen as thinking capitalism is good.

(1) "Good" doesn't mean "perfect." Obviously, the Democratic Party should not adopt the idolatrous notion that the free market defines what good is. (2) "Good" just means recognizing that capitalism is the economic engine that builds the modern world. To the mainstreet Republicans -- entrepeneurs, small business owners, investors, etc. -- the scariest fringe in the Democratic Party are those who want to end capitalism. (3) This view is quite compatible with notions of a social net. As many historians have argued, FDR rescued capitalism, rather than harming it. (4) The "seen" is important. In politics, it's not enough to be something, but also necessary to be seen as being something.

How long 'till someone complains about Clintonism? "Five. Four. Three..."

:bounce:

[ClassWarrior]

5. Honest, responsible business is good. Corporatism...

...in all its blood-thirsty, power-hungry, profit-mad criminality isn't.

NGU.

[blondeatlast]

9. Attacking the fiscal irresponsibility of the NeCons is a great way

to start. Our guys have been far too soft on this issue. This will win lots of Main Street Rs.

They need to continuously attack our indebtedness to China, for one thing.

The NeoCons have proven that one doesn't need to have a SOLUTION, only an attack strategy.

We, and rightly so, look for the solution first--and lose. We have to start doing what's expedient and the morality and intellect will come along later.

[CrispyQ]

4. Tsunami '06 -- good article at Common Dreams

regarding exactly what your are talking about.


Tsunami '06
Totalize It, And Put A Stake Through The Heart Of This Monster, Once And For All


http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0506-34.htm


snip...

Democrats couldn't win a campaign if they had Field Marshal Rommel and a division or six of panzers with which to do it.
Republicans are so skilled at marketing they have been able to sell an administration that makes Enron look like a model of comparative probity and success.

Or such was the case. The latter half of this equation is now growing stale. The wheels are coming off the wagon, and the main question remaining is can Democrats, mired in despondency and debilitation since Reagan rode up, find the smarts and guts to take advantage of a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

The stakes could not be higher. There is the chance in 2006 to kill the abomination of contemporary American regressivism (what the right likes to call conservatism) altogether, wholly and decisively.


more...

All this means that Democrats, who have in recent years elevated to an art form the snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory, now have the opportunity of a generation hanging like ripe fruit before them. It always struck me that losing the presidency in 2004 could prove a blessing in disguise - provided that the right did not then take the full fascist plunge and use its lock on national power to kill off altogether that whole pesky democracy thing (still a very scary possibility). That is, instead of the election producing the singular 'victory' of a weak, badgered and hapless Kerry presidency, relentlessly hounded by the dark cadres of regressivism and - judging by what we saw in the campaign - completely incapable of effectively responding, progressives could instead lose the presidency battle in 2004 and hope, ironically, to thereby win the wider war for America.

Now that possibility looms large on the horizon, much earlier than might have been imagined. Yes, Republicans control all three branches of government and have achieved everything they have so far sought, but this victory is morphing from juggernaut to bull's-eye underneath their feet. Their destructive agenda was never popular on its own merits, and was therefore always dependent upon world-class marketing expertise to keep it afloat. Those deceits now wear thin. When it comes to American government, they have broken it, they own it, and they can no longer plausibly redirect public dissatisfaction with their failures onto Bill Clinton, Janet Jackson or sundry Teletubbies. Americans are waking up with a bad headache the morning after their lost weekend of hallucinatory imbibing, and they don't like what they see, . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0506-34.htm

[BornaDem]

6. There's only one problem with your theory...

the "moderate 'Main Street'" Republicans don't agree with us on money matters. They are the biggest money grubbers on the spectrum and would sell their mothers as well as ours for their piece of the action. They only side with us on cultural issues. If they joined us, it would mean giving up the only thing they believe in - MONEY. If you think they have any "compassion for our fellow man." GOOD LUCK!

[blondeatlast]

10. WRONG--at least in these times.

These are businessmen and women, and they are profoundly affected by the out of control deficit.

These aren't the Halliburtons, GEs, or Brown and Roots.

The way we win them is a strong, effective economic policy that returns economic strength to the US--and with it jobs, so we play to the lower-echelon Main Streets as well.

Fiscal policy is a HUGE weakness for the Democrats now, and with this administration, it should EASILY be a strength.

[sandnsea]

18. That's the benefit

They're being hurt by the corporatocracy too. They need help competing globally. They need Democratic small business programs, as much as workers need college tuition and health care.

[Liberty Belle]

22. Convince them the economy's tanking, inflation and foreign investors

dumping US investments will make the dollar nearly worthless, and they'll come around.

[many a good man]

7. If not now, when?

Social moderates should be easy to peel off from Radical religionists...

Internationalists should be easy to peel away from the unilateralist Neocons...

Fiscal conservatives should be easy to peel away from the borrow and spenders...

Libertarians should be easy to peel away from the neofascist big brothers...

But that makes it too tempting to run toward the center. We must proclaim loudly the utter failure of the principles of the conservative movement. They've had their moment in the sun, they got their chance to put all their harebrained notions into actions. Look at the results.

Conservatism is a failed ideology and must be consigned to the dust bin of history!

[blondeatlast]

11. We need to attack, attack, attack.

This makes many Dems uncomfortable, but it's working for the theo/neocons.

We don't need to have a grounded policy--the theo/neos have proved that with Social Security. Just ATTACK.

[LocalDem]

13. Yes, now now now!

T&P, your post gets me fired up in a couple of ways:

1) You're absolutely right, now is the time for this. The Republican view on nearly every major issue coming through the national government - Bolton, judges, Approps - should be repugnant to thinking people of all stripes.

2) I don't think that we need to change who we are for this effort to be successful. Indeed, as blondeatlast indicates, this is in significant part marketing. What we need to show moderate R's is not that we are conservative, but that their party has repudiated the principles that led moderates to support them.

The fact is, in a two party system we will always capture part of the middle. And our current policies reflect well-reasoned and intelligent moderate policies. We just need to show moderate R's - especially those in the midwest IMO - that the Democratic Party is doing a better job of representing values of fiscal responsibility and human compassion than their party is.

http://projectsplinter.blogspot.com/

[PATRICK]

15. The weak link

that is the main subject in effect of this article is whether our party LEADERSHIP is capable of even trying to seize the moment.

The potential is there. Under Dean some of the action is taking place, but the fatal Achilles heel in all of this is the unbearable inertia of being of too many sitting at top, in both belief and personality.

The RW is afflicted, in exactly and I mean exactly the same way, with a sense of exhilarating terrible destiny, an almost sexual ecstasy of self apotheosis supported by a Cultic elite. Tepid competence, moderation and argument never won such a war. Cries of triumph or outrage, until they morph into their true souls, squawking chickens, the Dems shouldn't do the opposite, mute the destiny thrust upon their shoulders into timid inferiority. They should start acting like the people who won wars because they have that in them, suppressed unwisely and by deceit.

Before WWII polite reasonable people shoved aside the confrontation it would take to put down a worldwide holocaust. Kept waiting for a catalyst, kept denying reality, kept believing in their weakness or in the weakness of others. Then in war it had to be proved and all those pathetic voices disappeared in an ocean of blood.

Suffering is only a trickle now of what is coming on fast. An ounce of foresight would cry for passionate resistance. What is leadership without that? Like it or not this is a time to test all souls. Republicans very often vote for a strong good democrat without an ideological shift, especially when THEIR leadership turns rotten and hopeless. It isn't up to them or ideological paradigm legerdemain. It is up to us.

[sandnsea]

19. Our left needs to splinter too

I think they think I'm kidding. I'm not. We desperately need a strong left. A real Green Party that advocates single payer, global economic equity, prison reform, all of that. The Democrats can grab the center. If a left party advocates and differentiates themselves from Dems, clearly, then we can start pulling the country leftward again. But they have to be realistic in that any Green candidate in Congress would have to work with the Progressive Caucus, or they'd have no influence at all and that would be useless.

[blondeatlast]

8. I've thought this for some time. I'm so in, and btw,

I LOVE the term "Main Street" Republicans.

This has another effect as well--the Main Street Republicans tend to have money. They are more likely to give generous individual donations.

I posted a comment and will take a regular peek at your blog.

Great idea.

[blondeatlast]

12. Can we get another nomination here?

Never mind--too late.

Damn.

Perhaps you could start this up again in GDP?

[LocalDem]

14. Done.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1771812

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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

[jarnocan]

17. This kind of relates,

Wow, I hadn't bothered reading this article because, it just wasn't a priority for me at this time.But It did get me thinking.
Joe Kline's article concerning the 2008 elections-"Hillary in 2008-no way"<http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,1059000,00.html>
It is an interesting article. His main point seems to be that it would get too UGLY and hateful!

Quote:
I like Senator Clinton. She has a wicked, ironic sense of humor (in private) and a great raucous belly laugh. She is smart and solid; she inspires tremendous loyalty among those who work for her. She is not quite as creative a policy thinker as her husband, but she easily masters difficult issues—her newfound grasp of military matters has impressed colleagues of both parties on the Armed Services Committee—and she is not even vaguely the left-wing harridan portrayed by the Precambrian right.
Quote:
"I also think that a Clinton presidential candidacy in 2008 would be a disaster on many levels."
"It would doubtless be a circus, a revisitation of the carnival ugliness that infested public life in the 1990s. Already there are blogs, websites and fund-raising campaigns dedicated to denigrating her. "

So he does understand how disgusting all this HATE, Lies and SMEARS are!?! Perhaps there is hope for others in the mainstream media????

Quote:
"quality of anger, the sheer hatred, directed against her. That experience would be a walk in the park compared to the vitriol if she ran for President. And while I'd love to see someone confront, and defeat, the free-range haters on the right, the last thing we need is a campaign that would polarize the nation even more."


I understand this point, but it is a bit like the Chamberlain's attitude against Hitler. This hateful march toward fascism NEEDS to be confronted! Perhaps if Hillary is respected by the conservative folks; who are not hard core right wing fanatics-Crazed with hate, and if the far right does fallow up with another reconstructionst mandated/BushInc. type. This might be the way to BREAK them.
The first thing we need IS NONPARTISAN confrontation of the free-range haters!
HOPEFULLY that break will come before 2008, I am really hoping the decent relatively honest republican politicians have grown more disgusted with the FACTS concerning the Impeachable lies and disastrous polices and plans of BUSHINC. by 2008. I hope a partisan effort will seek justice and restore our democracy.
In 2008 perhaps; we will have a decent frugally conservative republican running a fairly clean campaign, against a progressive DEM. If third parties are involved, I hope we have instituted election reforms, that mandate run off elections, between the top 2 candidates-IF the votes for a throed (or 4th 5th etc.) is enough to have changed the results. Otherwise we are courting even bigger problems wherein another even more dangerous fanatic could win.
I do agree that a straight forward campaign based on the issues would be nice, and an HONEST ELECTION!
We are so far from that right now. Alot has to happen before we should begin to hope. the way it is right now; the campaign will be very ugly regardless of Hillary's aspirations. THAT IS the BushINc./ROVE/GOP method, and it is deeply entrenched in their vast system, and we are still FAR from having meaningful electoral reforms.
The Verified Voting-(see info/links/actions in my blog lobby Day June 9th) will help but we still need REAL INVESTIGATIONS!
Mandate accountability! IPIP
Investigate! Prosecute.
Impeach? Punish

[belladonna]

20. kansas

if you want to know how to break up the reborn Christians with the money republicans read a book called what's wrong in kansas. How did a female liberal democratic governor get elected? it's a nice read but a little to academic.

[LocalDem]

25. Absolutely, what a good book

It really nails the internal divide the Republicans face. He's got a great line about the way that the social conservatives are working for policies against their economic interests. He imagines that the working class is marching on wealthy Shawnee Mission and declares, "We're here to lower your taxes!!"

[displacedtexan]

21. I think we need to laugh at them.

Seriously.

I mean it, damn it!

[dajoki]

24. ok

ha,ha,ha,ha,ha. i HAVE TO LAUGH whenever i see one of the puke disciples spreading the gospel according to bush or i'll pull my hair out.(and i can't afford to lose any more):D

[wabranty]

23. SFAM's ION Strategy has a similar idea. . .

under the "Corporate Independence" section and the entire "Opportunity" component of the ION strategy:
http://sfam.blogspot.com/2005/02/explaining-independence-and.html

You both have a great idea because if the Democratics can split the business vote into large corporations and small businesses, then the corporate control of the GOP is even more apparent. In Thom Hartmann's book, Unequal Protection, he explains how small businesses would prosper when corporate personhood is taken away (http://www.thomhartmann.com/summary.shtml).

[LocalDem]

26. Reading List?

The post about "What's the Matter with Kansas" made me think. I would love to get input on what kinds of books or articles we could pass along to well-intentioned (but obviously misguided!) main street Republicans to show them that their party has abandoned them.

My go-to guy on this is Krugman. Any others?

http://projectsplinter.blogspot.com/

[LocalDem]

27. Stem Cell Veto

If W vetos the stem cell bill, it would be a travesty that hurts millions of sick folks and for that reason I hope it doesn't happen. But if it does, it would be an absolutely incredible opening for us to show that control over national policy has been ceded to extremists.

I would like to see the Democratic Party launch a massive ad blitz highlighting the veto if it happens, particularly in areas that we can turn, like the Mountain West and the Southwest.

http://projectsplinter.blogspot.com/

[MrSandman]

28. Another similar organization...

http://westerndemocrat.com/welcome.html

Welcome to WesternDemocrat.com. Our mission? To reshape the Democratic Party by encouraging it to turn West. By turning to the West, our party can build a new majority that can win. Western Democrat covers the political news of the West - and will be a gathering place for Democrats that want to win by goinging west.

[flaminbats]

29. the DLC was started in 1985..

since then Democrats lost Congress, most of the Governorships, and the support of working class voters.

The DLC was organized to give moderates more leverage within a liberal party. Now liberals have no leverage in either party, and moderates dominate a powerless party.

The DLC must stop being partison, but focus on moderating the more powerful political party.

[David Van Os]

30. Let's hope so.