To Ralph and Lee, yes, we need to hear from people like Gallego and people in formerly blue states. We also need to hear the gripes from activists. Many are ground level rank and file who have become disgruntled due to years of frustration. Mostly, we need processes for taking in and considering feedback. Right now, we have none. It's nearly impossible to reach anyone even when you have legit business to conduct. Here's the thing. It's not so much that they're disinterested, as much as they're understaffed, inexperienced, and burned out. To listen, we need people whose JOB it is to listen. It's about funding priorities and capacity.
I worked on an AZ state senate race in 2019/2020. The fundamental problem I saw with the DNC is that they are episodic and transactional in their state party structures and entirely candidate vs. community-focused (also, very tribal—down-ballot races and Presidential/Statewide office campaigns rarely, if ever, coordinated).
By this I mean, I was paid to work the one campaign cycle with only short-term goals. I worked 18 hr days (my choice, as I moved to AZ from CA to take the job, but also the expectation and norm) and then after the election, while I exceeded my assigned campaign goals/metrics, after losing, there was literally no PPR (post project review) to learn what went wrong. Worse there was:
1) no option for me to stay on with the party and develop my skills (or even if the candidate had won, no career path within their office);
3) no process for me to make sure the next campaign manager in two years had my knowledge and connections (even when I was willing and offered to do so); and
3) no ongoing nurturing of volunteers and (critically) voters between election cycles
Soooooo much money goes into campaigns for marketing/ads/consultants, when really, the party needs to be building up its year-round organizing capacity and retaining staff who have built up critical relationships with constituents in the voting district, and then communicating IN BETWEEN elections with those volunteers and voters on the work the candidate they elected is actually doing for them (i.e., talking about shared values over time).
Of course, there may be states where this is not the case—Ben Wikler in WI may have broken this mold; Clayton Anderson in NC may be trying to break this mold; and at the national level, Howard Dean tried to implement a 50-state strategy (imagine how different the narrative would be today if Harris had won a majority of the popular vote in states like CA and NY, where Dem turnout was depressed)?
Fundamentally, the Democratic party needs to treat its own employees and campaign staff as part of a community it's building/strengthening, not merely some fungible input in a one-size fits all manufacturing process.
You are 100% right! Which campaign did you work on? I went out from Chicago to do a pilot project in the 2018 Special Election in the then 8th CD, a project to empower volunteers to do skilled work. Then I stayed on and worked with Felecia Rotellini and Kelly Paisley to do this statewide needs assessment process.
I am familiar with Felecia and have lots of respect for her.
I worked in LD 7 in northern AZ (now redistricted to be even more MAGA) for a State Senate (and coordinated State House) campaign; my candidate was Retired Col. Felicia French.
I would love to connect more directly as I fully embrace the 3V messaging and Lakoff's moral framework and think it is vital for it to permeate every level of Democratic party messaging.
I run a small Democratic club in south Orange County, CA. I took over mid-term last year when our previous president had to step down. The club had atrophied coming out of COVID and was never revitalized. We have had some really big wins, one being to help get the first Democrat ever elected to the Laguna Niguel city council. Between the work that the club already needed and some significant losses this election cycle, I have been thinking a lot about how to rebuild and be as effective as possible. Even though your list is targeted at some of the larger Democratic organizations, it put into words some of the thoughts bouncing around in my head and gave me some other ideas. I feel like in the conversations about rebuilding the party, organizations like mine are overlooked. I know that not every place has a Democratic club culture, but we are a really vital and active part of the party in Orange County. Collectively the clubs have played a huge role in winning and holding congressional seats here and electing down ballot Dems.
Democratic clubs are wonderful and a critical part of how we should be operating. Clubs provide community belonging, which is the most important thing we have to offer people. I would be happy to support your efforts and those of other clubs and smaller party committees!
I think we need to pay attention to what "non-elites" say. Ruben Gallego, who won, said Hispanic voters cared most about how to provide for and protect their family. We need to be the party that makes that simpler and easier and speaks in "outside the Beltway" language.
Nobody looks at the gas pump or the grocery receipt and says, "Inflation only went up 2% last month." They think "OMG, I'd better not buy ice cream and the lean ground beef next week." Or "If the cost of getting to work keeps going up, I'm gonna have to find a way to get overtime." And do CPI numbers include cost of car and home insurance skyrocketing due to climate change? Or how high credit card balances are getting?
Elites (like me) can look after themselves. We should be the party that shores up the foundations of a good American life. In a pandemic, we call these folks "essential." We should act like they are.
Antonia, I want every single local, county, state Dem leader and activist in the country to read this. I am an experienced organizer in my profession helping people to work collaboratively in decision making. I was active in the Dem party in the places I lived, including two state conventions.
I was trying to get across the same messages you wrote about here as newly elected chair of my town committee- which had not held a single meeting for two years. I got pushback from "leaders" who preferred to stick to what they had always done, very ingrown and very much within their silo. They talked only to people they knew, and called meet and greets at a popular public house. 20-30 people would show up, but when I called meetings for strategizing and training, we got five. Five, and two refused to do the jobs they'd signed up for.
Frustrated, I finally resigned and chose to put my skills and time toward GOTV in close races. Satisfying results there, but it hurt that my town, as a result of the failure to step out of accustomed ways of doing things, ended up losing a skilled and dedicated state rep to a no-new taxes right-winger with no experience in government at all. It breaks my heart. I had wanted to train people to canvas starting early, with simple no-agenda door knocking and introductions, and follow up later with a little more, spend time talking and learning, and repeat as needed. No one listened.
It really is time to open the Dem party up, make it two-way instead of one-way, and reach out beyond the usual boundaries. I'm going to save your post and use it to help people start thinking about a different way of organizing. When I can, I will "officially" join your group so I can learn from you and pass it on. I am not young, but I still have the ability to help move the Dems in the direction we need for a healthy democracy WITHIN the party- because that is the only way that we are going to turn this country around.
Thank you so much! It is terribly frustrating trying to unstick a stuck organizational culture. Thank you for trying! This is not an "official" project yet. At the moment, I am just a conversation, so you have already joined me in it! Please do share this with everybody you can. And I would love to hear more about your experience in collaborative decision making. I need to learn more.
I am glad that it is "just a conversation", Antonia. That means you don't have an agenda for us, or for what we "need to do". We get to explore this together and bring also what we learn from other people who are trying to figure out the way forward.
Don't get me wrong - I have plenty of ideas about what we need to do! But my only commitment is to our succeeding. I have just learned over the years that if I create a space for everyone to talk, I get to learn things I didn't already know! Collaborating is so much more rewarding. :-)
I like your list. Another issue that has risen through the years (speaking from the perspective of being an activist in Oregon during the '80s and '90s) is the degree to which the party has disassociated itself from issue campaigns and platform statements. This started in the late '70s--the Oregon Democratic party went to the extreme of trying to hold the state platform convention in a coastal resort town away from the major cities in hopes that activists wouldn't be able to attend.
They were mistaken, as carpooling and room sharing (on a level I haven't seen outside of science fiction conventions) happened. But it pointed to a continuing trend, and a shying away from even discussing controversial issues. Which...on the one hand was good for the party because they weren't associated with those issues. On the other hand, it fueled the rise of more extreme interests associated with third parties and accelerated the drive toward splintering off into third parties.
The other unfortunate side effect is that along with the left progressives, more moderate rural voices were silenced. Oregon used to have a pretty balanced representation statewide. Not any more. It's not that there are fewer liberals and progressives living in rural areas or that the moderates are all Republican in rural areas; it's that the state party moved further and further away from listening to voices outside of major urban areas.
Howard Dean was right. We need a 50 state organization and--more than that, we need contested races at all levels, in every county in the country. I've been saying this for years and have been repeatedly ignored. Does that mean compromise? Yes. Does that mean learning about rural life for urbanites, and urban life for ruralites? Again, yes.
It's weird that the Party tried to block out more extreme progressives and ended up blocking out rural people too. I think that the solution is to put everybody together and talk it out, instead of becoming more and more insular!
Part of it was due to a rather insular group in the Willamette Valley...and the Neil Goldschmidt cabal, that pretty much controlled state politics for a number of years. But the party also didn't provide much support to rural Democrats. The east-side Congressional district needs to find a moderate rancher. The closest they've come is Jamie Macleod-Skinner. She pulled off 45% against Greg Walden which...was a big deal. Then they went back to the usual professors from Southern Oregon or Bend. Sigh.
Joyce, I was born in Oregon and lived there until the 80s, when I left for WA state for personal reasons and then grad school (and state service). In Oregon, I had watched the beginning of this process as tea partiers took over the Republicans, causing the party to shift right, and the Democrats seemed to just not get it. I watched the state lose one fine Republican after another, and for a while it seemed that the Dems were okay. But it was an illusion.
A friend of mine who is an elected official filled me in on the changes as he moved through the changing system. I think you are right about some of the factors that split the state into rural conservative and urban liberal. But I don't think that was all of it. I think reactionary opportunists took advantage of weaknesses in the Republican Party and made it into something it had not been until then: a go-for-broke and no-holds-barred one issue party that ended up hurting the remarkable social gains Oregon had accomplished. That is when the party split and we lost the fine Republican men and women who served Oregon well. All that was left were the reactionary Republicans, who were determined to oppose anything that came out of the Democratic party. When they began losing, instead of recognizing their own failures they blamed the Dems. That dynamic is still sadly in place, and the Dem party has not been able to break through it to real collaboration. Collaboration requires both sides to reach out, and while a few Republicans have, the party seems to keep a tight hold on its own.
I love Oregon- it still feels like home- and always have wanted to return. Not sure it will happen now, though I still have family and friends there. The passage of time has not changed my passion for the land, but it has made me see the dynamics in a different way.
Do you read Seth Cotlar? He's working on a history of Walter Huss and...it's older than the Tea Party. I was seeing it emerge in the '80s but the roots are older than that.
I have been reading everything I can since the election because it drives me crazy that our country voted someone into office who is certifiable. I want to understand why. I think you have the most down to earth response I have read yet. We cannot only listen when we want something - like a vote. We cannot let someone else drive and interpret the narrative, while we sit back on the defensive. We need to be engaged in between elections so people feel invested in the outcome and turn out to vote. I'm looking for my own space in this process. For now it's reading, but the more I read the more effectively I can involve myself in the process. I hope the Democratic Party will develop laser focus and begin to develop a well articulated plan to move forward. If they don't, they can expect more of the same results, because the Republican's seem to be doing the long range planning and messaging more effectively to date.
Thank you! I firmly believe that if we are serious about actually achieving the change we need, we have to be open minded, listen, and work to find practical solutions.
Volunteer involvement is a must. Many of us who canvassed in 2022 could have told the DNC that Biden was in trouble, in my case in New Hampshire, and there should have been real primaries for POTUS. Also the DNC needs to put 24/7 365 programming out to educate us volunteers and general public on legislation and issues. A shadow cabinet of members of Congress would help. How about a YouTube channel to start. This would be unabashedly partisan with no apologies, but full of facts. Radio Free Democrat.
I like it! It's kind of shocking how little content we are actually putting out. And what we do put out is dry policy press releases, all facts, no feelings.
1. We need leaders who will look into the mirror and realize they, DNC consultants, and others made mistakes in strategy and messaging if not details like targeting for GOTV.
2. Since the election, we have had a tremendous opportunity for leaders to surface to lead the opposition, or at least work with advocacy groups on messaging, to both appointees and Trump policy proposals. Silence is all I get.
3. Today, Peter Navarro is back in govt. D's and others knew this would happen. Where is their response? Why can't they start with some sort of appeal to law and order, special political unit, if you will?
4. Election losses always give people to air grievances, dirty laundry, and ambition (I am a former elected and appointed official and have worked on local, state, and federal campaigns).
5. Being in Iowa, many of us raised the red (really, the red flag) 10 years ago, when Iowa started moving from purple to red. Iowa had had D legislative control, D governors and 2 Obama victories. So, pick a state, like Iowa, that is changing colors..Learn from us..
Ralph, thank you for putting into words what I have been thinking - what is the Democratic Leadership??? Have they just gone home? Where is the opposition?
Biden had Trump in the Oval Office grinning for the cameras after telling us Trump is a threat to democracy.
On Navarro, the response is just like after Roe. Leadership KNEW this was coming. Why no response?
Why is Corey Booker praising Kennedy? Why is Moskowitz joining Elon’s committee to destroy government? And why is Nancy Pelosi filing to run in 2026?
I’m so disgusted with so many of our current leaders.
Thanks Melissa. I am similarly critical with advocacy groups who have been relatively silent. One DC insider told me that D’s are deliberately quiet, wanting to save political capital for a fight and let others do the work on nominees. I shake my aging head
Oh the old Strategic Silence. How do they not see how wrong the strategy is? Before I get angry, I’m going to log off social media and start making calls to recruit candidates for local elections.
I think that anyone associated with this overwhelming party failure should be disqualified from being in DNC leadership. We absolutely need new voices, new vision and a whole new direction.
Very True, but also - we need to also understand that most people in "the party" are as frustrated about the lack of change as we are. Even those on the National Committee get there and find out that the only input they have is voting for resolutions four times a year. It's virtually impossible to find out who is actually making decisions, and even harder to hold them accountable. So instead of throwing everybody out, we need to join forces with the 90% of the people in the system who are just the "us" from the previous two election cycles.
Interesting point. But, if those people haven’t been able to break through before now, why should I, or anyone, think they ever will. Nothing changes if nothing changes! Keeping 90% of the current leadership is equivalent to nothing changing.
Actually, the DNC members who will be voting on the Chair are currently being elected across the country by rank and file members of local Democratic parties. They are no different than we are. They choose a new chair and leadership on Feb 1, so most of them actually will be brand spanking new. The question is, what will the new leaders do once they are elected?
The practice of writing off vast swaths of the country has bit us in the ass. I understand it, especially when you look at it through the lens of progressive/conservative mindset. It’s like here’s the money you need, do what you’ve got to do vs we have all this money, lets target it to areas where we’ll get the best bang for the buck especially in dense population centers.
I have a whole post worth of stuff about the perverse effects of everybody trying to target their funds toward the one most effective thing. Collectively, it's a disaster!
While we were enraged on January 6th. The Proud Boys, Patriot Front, Q anon and other hate groups were open chapters in small counties all over the country and organizing Trump's campaign. The Proud Boys came to my county here in Ohio and wanted us, the women's caucus to join them.
I like your list. I've seen some of the year round outreach and organizing working here in Mecklenburg County NC.
I am guessing that the following addition might help. Perhaps you can tell me if you think it will. Building and demonstrating organizing power. For instance, the party helping voters (individuals and groups) lean on elected officials to vote and deliver things for those constituents. And being there a month, year, or two later to show that the efforts paid off.
That's an excellent question. I will have to think about that! One question is, if you organize to pressure a Republican lawmaker and then they actually do what you tell them to do, do do we get the credit or do they? They frequently vote against good things and take credit for them anyway! I think this could be pretty complicated.
Hi Antonia. To your question, the book Reclaiming Our Democracy says you publicly thank the R lawmaker for the good vote (letters to editor, op Ed, etc) both to thank and tie them to the action/result.
The key is not to get credit from someone else, but rather to accrue and use power that's recognized by the lawmakers.
To Ralph and Lee, yes, we need to hear from people like Gallego and people in formerly blue states. We also need to hear the gripes from activists. Many are ground level rank and file who have become disgruntled due to years of frustration. Mostly, we need processes for taking in and considering feedback. Right now, we have none. It's nearly impossible to reach anyone even when you have legit business to conduct. Here's the thing. It's not so much that they're disinterested, as much as they're understaffed, inexperienced, and burned out. To listen, we need people whose JOB it is to listen. It's about funding priorities and capacity.
I worked on an AZ state senate race in 2019/2020. The fundamental problem I saw with the DNC is that they are episodic and transactional in their state party structures and entirely candidate vs. community-focused (also, very tribal—down-ballot races and Presidential/Statewide office campaigns rarely, if ever, coordinated).
By this I mean, I was paid to work the one campaign cycle with only short-term goals. I worked 18 hr days (my choice, as I moved to AZ from CA to take the job, but also the expectation and norm) and then after the election, while I exceeded my assigned campaign goals/metrics, after losing, there was literally no PPR (post project review) to learn what went wrong. Worse there was:
1) no option for me to stay on with the party and develop my skills (or even if the candidate had won, no career path within their office);
3) no process for me to make sure the next campaign manager in two years had my knowledge and connections (even when I was willing and offered to do so); and
3) no ongoing nurturing of volunteers and (critically) voters between election cycles
Soooooo much money goes into campaigns for marketing/ads/consultants, when really, the party needs to be building up its year-round organizing capacity and retaining staff who have built up critical relationships with constituents in the voting district, and then communicating IN BETWEEN elections with those volunteers and voters on the work the candidate they elected is actually doing for them (i.e., talking about shared values over time).
Of course, there may be states where this is not the case—Ben Wikler in WI may have broken this mold; Clayton Anderson in NC may be trying to break this mold; and at the national level, Howard Dean tried to implement a 50-state strategy (imagine how different the narrative would be today if Harris had won a majority of the popular vote in states like CA and NY, where Dem turnout was depressed)?
Fundamentally, the Democratic party needs to treat its own employees and campaign staff as part of a community it's building/strengthening, not merely some fungible input in a one-size fits all manufacturing process.
You are 100% right! Which campaign did you work on? I went out from Chicago to do a pilot project in the 2018 Special Election in the then 8th CD, a project to empower volunteers to do skilled work. Then I stayed on and worked with Felecia Rotellini and Kelly Paisley to do this statewide needs assessment process.
I am familiar with Felecia and have lots of respect for her.
I worked in LD 7 in northern AZ (now redistricted to be even more MAGA) for a State Senate (and coordinated State House) campaign; my candidate was Retired Col. Felicia French.
Here's a bit of the background if you're interested. https://nataliehb.beehiiv.com/p/a-note-of-gratitude
I would love to connect more directly as I fully embrace the 3V messaging and Lakoff's moral framework and think it is vital for it to permeate every level of Democratic party messaging.
Everyone running for DNC Chair should be committed to the fifty-state strategy at absolute minimum, if not an every county, every seat strategy.
I run a small Democratic club in south Orange County, CA. I took over mid-term last year when our previous president had to step down. The club had atrophied coming out of COVID and was never revitalized. We have had some really big wins, one being to help get the first Democrat ever elected to the Laguna Niguel city council. Between the work that the club already needed and some significant losses this election cycle, I have been thinking a lot about how to rebuild and be as effective as possible. Even though your list is targeted at some of the larger Democratic organizations, it put into words some of the thoughts bouncing around in my head and gave me some other ideas. I feel like in the conversations about rebuilding the party, organizations like mine are overlooked. I know that not every place has a Democratic club culture, but we are a really vital and active part of the party in Orange County. Collectively the clubs have played a huge role in winning and holding congressional seats here and electing down ballot Dems.
Democratic clubs are wonderful and a critical part of how we should be operating. Clubs provide community belonging, which is the most important thing we have to offer people. I would be happy to support your efforts and those of other clubs and smaller party committees!
I think we need to pay attention to what "non-elites" say. Ruben Gallego, who won, said Hispanic voters cared most about how to provide for and protect their family. We need to be the party that makes that simpler and easier and speaks in "outside the Beltway" language.
Nobody looks at the gas pump or the grocery receipt and says, "Inflation only went up 2% last month." They think "OMG, I'd better not buy ice cream and the lean ground beef next week." Or "If the cost of getting to work keeps going up, I'm gonna have to find a way to get overtime." And do CPI numbers include cost of car and home insurance skyrocketing due to climate change? Or how high credit card balances are getting?
Elites (like me) can look after themselves. We should be the party that shores up the foundations of a good American life. In a pandemic, we call these folks "essential." We should act like they are.
So will you be supporting Ben Wikler? He seems like the obvious choice to me.
He does to me too
Antonia, I want every single local, county, state Dem leader and activist in the country to read this. I am an experienced organizer in my profession helping people to work collaboratively in decision making. I was active in the Dem party in the places I lived, including two state conventions.
I was trying to get across the same messages you wrote about here as newly elected chair of my town committee- which had not held a single meeting for two years. I got pushback from "leaders" who preferred to stick to what they had always done, very ingrown and very much within their silo. They talked only to people they knew, and called meet and greets at a popular public house. 20-30 people would show up, but when I called meetings for strategizing and training, we got five. Five, and two refused to do the jobs they'd signed up for.
Frustrated, I finally resigned and chose to put my skills and time toward GOTV in close races. Satisfying results there, but it hurt that my town, as a result of the failure to step out of accustomed ways of doing things, ended up losing a skilled and dedicated state rep to a no-new taxes right-winger with no experience in government at all. It breaks my heart. I had wanted to train people to canvas starting early, with simple no-agenda door knocking and introductions, and follow up later with a little more, spend time talking and learning, and repeat as needed. No one listened.
It really is time to open the Dem party up, make it two-way instead of one-way, and reach out beyond the usual boundaries. I'm going to save your post and use it to help people start thinking about a different way of organizing. When I can, I will "officially" join your group so I can learn from you and pass it on. I am not young, but I still have the ability to help move the Dems in the direction we need for a healthy democracy WITHIN the party- because that is the only way that we are going to turn this country around.
Thank you so much! It is terribly frustrating trying to unstick a stuck organizational culture. Thank you for trying! This is not an "official" project yet. At the moment, I am just a conversation, so you have already joined me in it! Please do share this with everybody you can. And I would love to hear more about your experience in collaborative decision making. I need to learn more.
I am glad that it is "just a conversation", Antonia. That means you don't have an agenda for us, or for what we "need to do". We get to explore this together and bring also what we learn from other people who are trying to figure out the way forward.
Don't get me wrong - I have plenty of ideas about what we need to do! But my only commitment is to our succeeding. I have just learned over the years that if I create a space for everyone to talk, I get to learn things I didn't already know! Collaborating is so much more rewarding. :-)
I hope you will join us this week on the Friday Power Lunch with Antonia: https://tinyurl.com/2024fpl
I like your list. Another issue that has risen through the years (speaking from the perspective of being an activist in Oregon during the '80s and '90s) is the degree to which the party has disassociated itself from issue campaigns and platform statements. This started in the late '70s--the Oregon Democratic party went to the extreme of trying to hold the state platform convention in a coastal resort town away from the major cities in hopes that activists wouldn't be able to attend.
They were mistaken, as carpooling and room sharing (on a level I haven't seen outside of science fiction conventions) happened. But it pointed to a continuing trend, and a shying away from even discussing controversial issues. Which...on the one hand was good for the party because they weren't associated with those issues. On the other hand, it fueled the rise of more extreme interests associated with third parties and accelerated the drive toward splintering off into third parties.
The other unfortunate side effect is that along with the left progressives, more moderate rural voices were silenced. Oregon used to have a pretty balanced representation statewide. Not any more. It's not that there are fewer liberals and progressives living in rural areas or that the moderates are all Republican in rural areas; it's that the state party moved further and further away from listening to voices outside of major urban areas.
Howard Dean was right. We need a 50 state organization and--more than that, we need contested races at all levels, in every county in the country. I've been saying this for years and have been repeatedly ignored. Does that mean compromise? Yes. Does that mean learning about rural life for urbanites, and urban life for ruralites? Again, yes.
It's weird that the Party tried to block out more extreme progressives and ended up blocking out rural people too. I think that the solution is to put everybody together and talk it out, instead of becoming more and more insular!
Part of it was due to a rather insular group in the Willamette Valley...and the Neil Goldschmidt cabal, that pretty much controlled state politics for a number of years. But the party also didn't provide much support to rural Democrats. The east-side Congressional district needs to find a moderate rancher. The closest they've come is Jamie Macleod-Skinner. She pulled off 45% against Greg Walden which...was a big deal. Then they went back to the usual professors from Southern Oregon or Bend. Sigh.
Joyce, I was born in Oregon and lived there until the 80s, when I left for WA state for personal reasons and then grad school (and state service). In Oregon, I had watched the beginning of this process as tea partiers took over the Republicans, causing the party to shift right, and the Democrats seemed to just not get it. I watched the state lose one fine Republican after another, and for a while it seemed that the Dems were okay. But it was an illusion.
A friend of mine who is an elected official filled me in on the changes as he moved through the changing system. I think you are right about some of the factors that split the state into rural conservative and urban liberal. But I don't think that was all of it. I think reactionary opportunists took advantage of weaknesses in the Republican Party and made it into something it had not been until then: a go-for-broke and no-holds-barred one issue party that ended up hurting the remarkable social gains Oregon had accomplished. That is when the party split and we lost the fine Republican men and women who served Oregon well. All that was left were the reactionary Republicans, who were determined to oppose anything that came out of the Democratic party. When they began losing, instead of recognizing their own failures they blamed the Dems. That dynamic is still sadly in place, and the Dem party has not been able to break through it to real collaboration. Collaboration requires both sides to reach out, and while a few Republicans have, the party seems to keep a tight hold on its own.
I love Oregon- it still feels like home- and always have wanted to return. Not sure it will happen now, though I still have family and friends there. The passage of time has not changed my passion for the land, but it has made me see the dynamics in a different way.
Do you read Seth Cotlar? He's working on a history of Walter Huss and...it's older than the Tea Party. I was seeing it emerge in the '80s but the roots are older than that.
I have been reading everything I can since the election because it drives me crazy that our country voted someone into office who is certifiable. I want to understand why. I think you have the most down to earth response I have read yet. We cannot only listen when we want something - like a vote. We cannot let someone else drive and interpret the narrative, while we sit back on the defensive. We need to be engaged in between elections so people feel invested in the outcome and turn out to vote. I'm looking for my own space in this process. For now it's reading, but the more I read the more effectively I can involve myself in the process. I hope the Democratic Party will develop laser focus and begin to develop a well articulated plan to move forward. If they don't, they can expect more of the same results, because the Republican's seem to be doing the long range planning and messaging more effectively to date.
Thank you! I firmly believe that if we are serious about actually achieving the change we need, we have to be open minded, listen, and work to find practical solutions.
I hope you will join us this week on the Friday Power Lunch with Antonia: https://tinyurl.com/2024fpl
I missed your message and the meeting. I would love to join - hopefully next Friday.
Volunteer involvement is a must. Many of us who canvassed in 2022 could have told the DNC that Biden was in trouble, in my case in New Hampshire, and there should have been real primaries for POTUS. Also the DNC needs to put 24/7 365 programming out to educate us volunteers and general public on legislation and issues. A shadow cabinet of members of Congress would help. How about a YouTube channel to start. This would be unabashedly partisan with no apologies, but full of facts. Radio Free Democrat.
I like it! It's kind of shocking how little content we are actually putting out. And what we do put out is dry policy press releases, all facts, no feelings.
This...ALL OF THIS!!!
I hope you will join us this week on the Friday Power Lunch with Antonia: https://tinyurl.com/2024fpl
Good list.
1. We need leaders who will look into the mirror and realize they, DNC consultants, and others made mistakes in strategy and messaging if not details like targeting for GOTV.
2. Since the election, we have had a tremendous opportunity for leaders to surface to lead the opposition, or at least work with advocacy groups on messaging, to both appointees and Trump policy proposals. Silence is all I get.
3. Today, Peter Navarro is back in govt. D's and others knew this would happen. Where is their response? Why can't they start with some sort of appeal to law and order, special political unit, if you will?
4. Election losses always give people to air grievances, dirty laundry, and ambition (I am a former elected and appointed official and have worked on local, state, and federal campaigns).
5. Being in Iowa, many of us raised the red (really, the red flag) 10 years ago, when Iowa started moving from purple to red. Iowa had had D legislative control, D governors and 2 Obama victories. So, pick a state, like Iowa, that is changing colors..Learn from us..
Ralph, thank you for putting into words what I have been thinking - what is the Democratic Leadership??? Have they just gone home? Where is the opposition?
Biden had Trump in the Oval Office grinning for the cameras after telling us Trump is a threat to democracy.
On Navarro, the response is just like after Roe. Leadership KNEW this was coming. Why no response?
Why is Corey Booker praising Kennedy? Why is Moskowitz joining Elon’s committee to destroy government? And why is Nancy Pelosi filing to run in 2026?
I’m so disgusted with so many of our current leaders.
Thanks Melissa. I am similarly critical with advocacy groups who have been relatively silent. One DC insider told me that D’s are deliberately quiet, wanting to save political capital for a fight and let others do the work on nominees. I shake my aging head
Oh the old Strategic Silence. How do they not see how wrong the strategy is? Before I get angry, I’m going to log off social media and start making calls to recruit candidates for local elections.
Love this. I call it the message death spiral.
I think that anyone associated with this overwhelming party failure should be disqualified from being in DNC leadership. We absolutely need new voices, new vision and a whole new direction.
Very True, but also - we need to also understand that most people in "the party" are as frustrated about the lack of change as we are. Even those on the National Committee get there and find out that the only input they have is voting for resolutions four times a year. It's virtually impossible to find out who is actually making decisions, and even harder to hold them accountable. So instead of throwing everybody out, we need to join forces with the 90% of the people in the system who are just the "us" from the previous two election cycles.
Interesting point. But, if those people haven’t been able to break through before now, why should I, or anyone, think they ever will. Nothing changes if nothing changes! Keeping 90% of the current leadership is equivalent to nothing changing.
Actually, the DNC members who will be voting on the Chair are currently being elected across the country by rank and file members of local Democratic parties. They are no different than we are. They choose a new chair and leadership on Feb 1, so most of them actually will be brand spanking new. The question is, what will the new leaders do once they are elected?
The practice of writing off vast swaths of the country has bit us in the ass. I understand it, especially when you look at it through the lens of progressive/conservative mindset. It’s like here’s the money you need, do what you’ve got to do vs we have all this money, lets target it to areas where we’ll get the best bang for the buck especially in dense population centers.
I have a whole post worth of stuff about the perverse effects of everybody trying to target their funds toward the one most effective thing. Collectively, it's a disaster!
“This shortsighted desire to squeeze out every penny for this one election hurts every candidate in the long run.” Well said!
While we were enraged on January 6th. The Proud Boys, Patriot Front, Q anon and other hate groups were open chapters in small counties all over the country and organizing Trump's campaign. The Proud Boys came to my county here in Ohio and wanted us, the women's caucus to join them.
Really! Wow. I keep hearing about stuff like this and it frustrates the heck out of me.
I like your list. I've seen some of the year round outreach and organizing working here in Mecklenburg County NC.
I am guessing that the following addition might help. Perhaps you can tell me if you think it will. Building and demonstrating organizing power. For instance, the party helping voters (individuals and groups) lean on elected officials to vote and deliver things for those constituents. And being there a month, year, or two later to show that the efforts paid off.
That's an excellent question. I will have to think about that! One question is, if you organize to pressure a Republican lawmaker and then they actually do what you tell them to do, do do we get the credit or do they? They frequently vote against good things and take credit for them anyway! I think this could be pretty complicated.
Hi Antonia. To your question, the book Reclaiming Our Democracy says you publicly thank the R lawmaker for the good vote (letters to editor, op Ed, etc) both to thank and tie them to the action/result.
The key is not to get credit from someone else, but rather to accrue and use power that's recognized by the lawmakers.