Posted on 04/30/2015 5:35:18 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The heartache and bewilderment is still prevalent in Wisconsin following three election victories for Gov.Scott Walker (the presumptive presidential candidate) in the span of about four years. This is also coupled with majorities in both state legislative houses for Republicans, which allows them to impose their agenda with little to no protest. All of these facts underscore a pretty dire situation for Democrats in this state. So what is being done to try to reverse this tide?
Within the last few years, a trend has emerged of people mischaracterizing the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They make statements about him which make it seem like they haven’t read anything about him beyond the material for a fourth grade book report.
King discussed a number of thought provoking, pivotal topics in his groundbreaking essay Letter from Birmingham Jail. Among these topics was the need for self purification before engaging in a campaign, meaning before you can try to convince others to side with you in a campaign, you must first rid yourself of all of the things that could potentially hold you back during said campaign. This purification includes reflecting on what makes you personally strong and focusing on those areas to ensure endurance during a campaign.
When King referenced this more than 50 years ago, it applied to non-violent direct action campaigns that lobbied for social change. But this advice is also incredibly useful in the political realm, as well.
The heartache and bewilderment is still prevalent in Wisconsin following three election victories for Gov.Scott Walker (the presumptive presidential candidate) in the span of about four years. This is also coupled with majorities in both state legislative houses for Republicans, which allows them to impose their agenda with little to no protest. All of these facts underscore a pretty dire situation for Democrats in this state. So what is being done to try to reverse this tide?
One solution is to teach a younger generation the ropes and get them immersed into politics instantaneously. Case in point: the Democratic Leadership Institute that was held this past weekend. I attended this event and had a wonderful time.
I met very intelligent, like-minded students and learned how to successfully launch a political campaign, as well as the ins and outs of financing one. I gained valuable information at this event, and it has me thinking that someday down the road would I might want to run a political campaign.
But for all of that valuable information I received, there was one thing that I thought was missing, not only from this institute, but also from the larger swath of state Democratic politics: the self purification and inventory King utilized. Democrats strongly believe in their causes, and based on referendum results, a significant amount of citizens believe in them as well. The biggest barrier to translating this commonality into a commitment at the polls is failure to cast a narrative that accurately showcases these beliefs.
Republicans have admittedly done a fine job over the years of crafting their own narrative, while also characterizing the narrative for Democrats. If Democrats want to take that narrative back in the next cycle, they need to reflect, go back to the drawing board and try to figure out why they believe in their causes in the first place.
They need to thoroughly determine how their causes positively impact the everyday non-partisan Wisconsinites beyond blanket answers that vaguely reference the one percent and/or the middle class. The most important step in this process is to figure out a way to get citizens to care enough about those impacts to come to the polls.
King’s idea was about releasing negativity and making the cause and mission that much stronger. If Wisconsin Democrats don’t figure out a way to formally integrate this into their plan of action for the next few election cycles, a decade from now, we could be talking about Rebecca Kleefisch’s fourth term as governor — and that’s a future not even some Republicans want to envision.
Miles Brown (mjbrown22@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring political science and history with a certificate in Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies.
If we run and get a conservative in the White House, one with coat tails to drive up the numbers in the GOP column (inc. on Capital Hill), we can make Miles Brown and his party sit it out for a very, very long time.
Higher taxes?
Fewer jobs?
More union thuggery?
Yeah, good luck with that.
Is this guy living in some parallel universe where Republicans rule Wisconsin and the protests and "occupy the state house" riots of the past 4 years never happened? Or does he equate Republicans winning every once in awhile with subjugation?
It’s scary how omniscient college seniors believe themselves to be. They don’t pay any real taxes (yet), but they are authorities on how the world should be viewed and handled.
Naive doesn’t even start to express it...
>>This young Democrat sees his party in the political wilderness for decades if the trend in State legislatures and governorships keeps moving to the right.<<
So frequently, we see democrats and liberals saying “we didn’t get our message out!” when the reality is they got their message out perfectly.
The electorate just rejected that message.
Wisconsin is a great example. I was THERE. The left kept saying “you don’t understand how awful Right To Work is” while the hoi polloi answered “yes we do and we like it!”
“The biggest barrier to translating this commonality into a commitment at the polls is failure to cast a narrative that accurately showcases these beliefs.” No little boy, your problem is that Scott Walker forced Democrats to show who they really are and the voters said “No!”
The ugly, violent Wis protests hurt the Left (continues to hurt them).
Walker brings out the worst in their base, which animates the American people to snap out of it and vote R.
I support his effort! If the Rats were to “purify” themselves there would be no more Rats. At this point they are nothing but corruption, led by The Grandma of all Corruption.
This is so sad, it just makes you want to cry yourself to sleep. The horrors of the people of Wisconsin electing politicians who implement a conservative agenda because that’s what the majority wants has to be a nightmare.
Wisconsin Democrats need to take back narrative from Republicans Replace Truth of Republican Narrative With Another False Democrat Narrative - Truth Hurts Them
In the good old days, a few years of struggling to pay their bills and support themselves on an entry level job salary cured that sense of entitlement in young adults. But these days, they can go on for years living off their parents or the public teat so the old cure doesn't work as well anymore.
Scott Walker already has them beaten psychologically.
I know how they can take back the narrative. They could have the police go in the middle of the night, guns drawn, round the conservative’s families’ up, threaten them not to talk to anyone about it, in sight of the whole neighborhood, and count the Republican governor to do nothing about it. Just force the Republicans to shut up by threats of being SWAT-teamed. Boom! The conservative narrative is finished. But nobody would really be able to get away with that.
Well played.
I think I’m starting to understand what Leftists mean when they say stuff that makes no sense. It has something to do with process vs product (outcome). When they talk about democracy, justice, fairness, etc. they’re really talking about outcomes and not processes. Occupy the State House was a process. The product was Walker’s head hanging on a pike. That latter didn’t happen so the former is viewed as “little to no.”
Nice.
So, yes, parallel universes is exactly right.
“The biggest barrier to translating this commonality into a commitment at the polls is failure to cast a narrative that accurately showcases these beliefs.”
Sheesh!...How many people do you know who actually think that way? So the commies in Wisconsin "failed to cast a narrative"? Right
>>Walker brings out the worst in their base, which animates the American people to snap out of it and vote R.<<
IO had the singular advantage of working in Wis and living in TX and shuttling between the two during the elections. It was like I was in the same place in both places, with Abortion Barbie in TX and SEIU Burke n Wis.
Literally, until election day the MSM was saying that Walker and Abbot didn’t have a CHANCE! Especially with unionstargeting both Rs and helping both Ds.
Of course, Walker and Abbott of them wiped the floor with their opposition, just as you said: The D base exposed themselves completely and were rejected,
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