Posted on 12/10/2004 5:41:19 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Lose the brainy Washington-speak. Expand the playing field to states President Bush captured. Baby-sit for moms who want to get involved in politics. Democratic activists, gathering for the first time after last month's election losses, offered plenty of ideas for how the party can get back to its winning ways.
Discouraged after two defeats in the presidential election and losses in high-profile Senate races, state party chairmen and other Democratic leaders who gathered here Friday largely agreed that they failed to reach the hearts and minds of Americans.
There was no shortage of advice on how to win them over.
Nancy Jane Woodside, vice chairwoman of the Utah Democratic Party, said Democrats have to change their habit of "laundry listing" the country's problems and come up with solutions that can be easily explained.
Woodside noted that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry was always telling people to visit his Web site to read about his plans, something only the intellectual elite will do, not voters glued to the television waiting to hear answers.
"I'm sick of it," she said. "Tell me what you are going to do. Democratic Party, what are you going to do? I don't want the laundry hung out any more."
That criticism came from an activist who has known Kerry since the days when they both opposed the Vietnam War. Woodside also said she wished Kerry would have campaigned a little in her home state of Utah where she likely would have pulled him aside.
"I would have been able to teach him how to talk to people outside of that Beltway language he's used to," she said of the four-term Massachusetts senator.
That was one of the general complaints from many of the Democrats in attendance. The majority were from states that weren't even a factor in the presidential race as most of the party's resources were funneled into fewer than 20 states where Kerry thought he had the best chance of winning.
"The party has to be broader than the East Coast, the West Coast and around the Great Lakes," said former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, one of at least seven candidates considering a bid for party chairman.
Webb's home state of Colorado has voted Republican in recent elections and went for Bush again this year despite a push by Kerry. But Democrats won a Senate seat, a congressional seat and regained control of both houses in the state legislature and need to keep reaching for victory there, Webb said.
Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, noted that many governors were elected in states where Bush won re-election. But he argued that the party is driven by Washington and outside voices are not heard.
"Clearly Democrats know how to win red states," Brewer said. "We need to learn how to win from them."
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a 38-year-old who was just elected to Congress from southern Florida, said plenty of young women would get into politics, but the party needs to be more welcoming. She suggested that the party pay for baby-sitting at meetings so more moms would come.
"You all know young people in your community and you all know that you aren't doing enough to replace yourself when you are too old and tired to keep going," she told a meeting of the DNC's executive committee.
On Saturday, potential candidates for DNC chairman will introduce themselves to the state party chairs - the largest bloc of voters that will choose a new leader in February.
Potential candidates are Webb; former presidential candidate Howard Dean; former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard; defeated Rep. Martin Frost of Texas; political strategist Donnie Fowler; Simon Rosenberg, founder and president of the centrist New Democrat Network; and former Clinton adviser Harold Ickes.
New York businessman Leo Hindery Jr., withdrew from the race Friday.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who is not seeking another term, said the party could have done a better job of reaching out to specific voters. Republicans were far more effective, he said.
While Kerry and the Democrats were trying to reach swing voters with broad messages about the economy, for example, Bush's team was reaching swing voters and traditional Democratic voters with more tailored messages.
Fliers distributed to black churchgoers said Kerry wanted to give gay couples the same rights as married couples. Mailings to middle-aged women argued that Bush would protect their families against terrorism. Older Hispanics heard about Kerry's opposition to a ban on late-term abortions, and male union members heard about Bush's support of gun rights.
These are techniques that the Democrats will use over the next four years, McAuliffe said, as they try to recapture voters who live in rural areas and the South as well as churchgoers.
"But for a shift of 60,000 votes in the state of Ohio, John Kerry would be inaugurated on January 20," he added.
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That sums up their dilemma.The problems they cite are fabrications most of the time and even if not they have`nt come up with a new solution to anything since 1964.
Their solutions trace all the way back to Marx which have been an abysmal failure wherever and whenever applied.
With that their hopes are fleeting.
Ummmm .. is she saying that voters are to stupid to read???
"What do the democrats stand for? What is their platform?"
They are not a "for" party; they are an "against" party except for their drivel of "better schools, better health care, war on poverty, fight AIDS, etc."
And pay for babysitters
Nominated as the "Understatement of The Year."
Democrats? BRAINstorm?
Maybe a light drizzle, I can believe. Even a tempest in a teapot. But a storm generated by their brains? No, this is not possible.
This is like a football coach who only calls a few plays during the game. Eventually the defense gets wise and shuts them down. Then after the game the coach blames his players for not executing his game plan.
They can use the money they got back from Bush's tax cut!
Won't work .. they gave the money to the Dems so they can get free babysitting
"But for a shift of 60,000 votes in the state of Ohio, John Kerry would be inaugurated on January 20," he added...
Horse shoes and hand grenades. Oh well.
These folks don't realize that they have grown completly out of touch with just about everything good that America stands for.
And no, you can't put lipstick on that pig. It's still a pig.
I have three words to Dim-o-rats if they want to be viable again in the election process;
Stop promoting communism.
It's a he. Rush apparently knows of him. He made a comment about him on his show during the summer.
Hey, McAuliffe you guy's still don't get it, do you?!
Let me splain' somethin' to you stupid! We DO believe in all of the above as you stated; just talking about it for the sake of winning an election is not going to cut it.
One/The Party HAS to stand on some core principles in order to be believable. Since when is the Democrat Party for the 2nd, antiabortion, anti-gay marriage, lower taxes, pro defense, pro business, against government monopoly on education ad nauseam!?
Just "me too" talking about it is not going to cut it bonehead! You guys are such a ...like, so 60's, 70's, 80's regurgitated!
Fossils comes to mind!
They could start by a program of national excellence in education, i.e.,get rid of the teachers' unions and begin rewarding excellence rather than "time in place".
Disavow class warfare solutions.
Get a "LIFE"- Get a Brain- Get a Clue Get out of Dodge!
Concede that affirmative action is itself racist.
Here is the answer.
I found this interesting, as it does describe the party well.
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/United_States_Democratic_Party
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