(no subject)
alison asked me for my thoughts on how to fix the broken, battered left in our nation. what follows are my ramblings on said rubric.
in general, the left needs to find a coherent message that goes beyond "george w. bush is evil." you have to connect his evilness to people's everyday lives. that was howard dean's genius; he spelled out in concrete terms how bush is fucking over this nation and what he would do to fix it. kerry(and most of the democratic leadership) spoke in abstraction about what bush was doing and why we need to change course.
'progressives', greens, democrats, left-leaning independents, etc. need to find *real* common ground. again, this is where the anybody but bush/bush is pure evil school of thought failed. in this regard, the democrats need to find their voice again. i blame chairman terry mcaullife for this. though he's a brilliant fundraiser(and we've a fuckton of money because of him) the party's message and core values have gone astray during his tenure, mostly due to the corprorate intrests that gave us all this wonderful money. democrats should also stop be afraid of the greens. i guarantee you that the democratic base shares 90-95 percent of the green party's views on healthcare, economic and social justice, etc. the combination of greens and and energized democratic party would be unstoppable.
so what can YOU do? you've got to get involved. there's no way around it. this is war, and the political is permament. the democratic party in north carolina is DESPERATE for new blood. there's about to be some seismic shifts(possibly including the first openly gay state chair), but it's still the domain of good ol'boys and goodtime charlies. find out when your precient and county meetings are, then go and raise hell. if you don't want to get involved in the dems(though it would be nice to see a familiar face at some of theese meeting because i don't know anyone and i feel like a stranger) there's plent of advocacy and single-issue groups in raleigh that could use your help. find out who your congressman and state legislators are and hold their feet to the fire.
in general, the left needs to find a coherent message that goes beyond "george w. bush is evil." you have to connect his evilness to people's everyday lives. that was howard dean's genius; he spelled out in concrete terms how bush is fucking over this nation and what he would do to fix it. kerry(and most of the democratic leadership) spoke in abstraction about what bush was doing and why we need to change course.
'progressives', greens, democrats, left-leaning independents, etc. need to find *real* common ground. again, this is where the anybody but bush/bush is pure evil school of thought failed. in this regard, the democrats need to find their voice again. i blame chairman terry mcaullife for this. though he's a brilliant fundraiser(and we've a fuckton of money because of him) the party's message and core values have gone astray during his tenure, mostly due to the corprorate intrests that gave us all this wonderful money. democrats should also stop be afraid of the greens. i guarantee you that the democratic base shares 90-95 percent of the green party's views on healthcare, economic and social justice, etc. the combination of greens and and energized democratic party would be unstoppable.
so what can YOU do? you've got to get involved. there's no way around it. this is war, and the political is permament. the democratic party in north carolina is DESPERATE for new blood. there's about to be some seismic shifts(possibly including the first openly gay state chair), but it's still the domain of good ol'boys and goodtime charlies. find out when your precient and county meetings are, then go and raise hell. if you don't want to get involved in the dems(though it would be nice to see a familiar face at some of theese meeting because i don't know anyone and i feel like a stranger) there's plent of advocacy and single-issue groups in raleigh that could use your help. find out who your congressman and state legislators are and hold their feet to the fire.