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Showing posts from May, 2006

Building a Democratic Majority: Strategy and Demographics

Summer of the 2006 election year is now upon us and folks everywhere are asking the question: what are the Democrats going to do differently in 2006?  That is the question at hand.   Whether it's the testing ground of the imminent California primary election, or prognostications and critiques from journalists , authors and bloggers : we're all looking for a formula: what new strategy will prove most effective for Dems in 2006? In the last couple essays I've talked about a) overhauling completely the way Democrats communicate   b) understanding the role and limits of the activist base in building a "tipping point" and c) honing the overall effectivess of party strategy by dropping the losing mindset of "the carp" in favor of the tactical effectiveness of the "dolphin" and the "connector." (The links above are to essays as they appeared on dailykos.com.)  Uniting all of these pieces has been one principle:  the Democratic party ha

Sharks, Carp and Dolphins: applying a model from business to politics

From where I stand, it is encouraging to read essays expressing creative and critical ways to think about Democratic strategy in what is shaping up to be a significant election year.   Thereisnospoon has served up another solid challenge (always welcome) to Democratic assumptions...and bmaples addendem to that diary (including a nice summary of some thoughts from Markos) extended the idea of a  "broad assault" on conservatism that I (with many others) advocated in the wake of Katrina with flipping the rock . What I'd like to do with this essay is adapt a paradigm from the world of business strategy that I think applies to the Democratic party in 2006.  I think you'll find these ideas dovetail with the above essays, and, I hope, will prove useful tools for thinking about Democratic strategy in 2006... Dudley Lynch's 1989 book Strategy of the Dolphin: Scoring a Win in a Chaotic World divided business strategy into three competing paradigms:  that of Sharks, that

Energize America

This strategic energy plan , drafted with the help of the dailykos community and authored by Jerome a Paris, Meteor Blades, George Karayannis and Mark Sumner is a worthy policy document. This is exciting stuff. The kind of stuff that makes you want to take back Congress and get started.

Ready Return: a good idea versus business as usual...and how you can help

Making paying taxes easier for working people and improving government efficiency may not seem to be breathtaking issues in the grand scheme of things; in politics, however, sometimes it's the "small" and "local" issues that stand in for the bigger battles.  In fact, I'd argue that it's often with a program like the one I'm about to tell you about, that a party makes its reputation for standing up for the people and for what's right.   People remember the small things. With Ready Return , California State Democrats have a chance to do the right thing and to help the little guy.  Read below to find out what stands in the way and how you can help. The link you are about to click on below is to a page that lists the feedback of real California citizens regarding a State pilot program called Ready Return: * The program is innovative. * The program would increase California State Tax revenues. * The program would increase government efficiency. * The

Mavens, Persuaders, Connectors and Us

A week ago I closed the first essay in this two-part series with a take of how Malcolm Gladwell's concept of "Connectors,"  ie. people innately skilled at translating the Democratic message for the Majority, applies to our current political situation.  At the end of the essay, I invited readers at dailykos.com to highlight folks they see as Connectors. Kossacks put forward this brief list:   Brian Schweitzer , Mark Warner , Jim Webb , Russ Feingold , Rev. William Barber , Andrew Duck , Ed Schultz , John Edwards , John Murtha , Howard Dean , George Lakoff , Molly Ivins , Alex Sanders . Now, the above list is an interesting...though not in the least complete...snapshot that helps prove a point I'm going to make below:  if you want to know something, ask a Maven. What's a Maven?  In this essay I will address just that, and take the analysis begun in the first essay (using Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point ) and apply it to the netroots.  In particular

the Nukak-Maku

I post a link to this story by Juan Forero in the NYT without intention of making too much comment on the author or paper's point of view or presentation. You can read it, look at the pictures, and figure out what you think for yourself. My point in bringing this article to your attention is this: stories like this get more and more rare. The world's indigenous peoples and the ecosystems they live in are daily encroached by...well...us...directly and indirectly. At the same time, stories like that of a group of Nukak-Maku who "decided to leave" (ie. were driven from) their land and way of life have a kind of sad predictability. It's not easy to imagine a satisfactory outcome to the journey these 80 people undertook. I don't think it's possible to judge, from the position of the comforts of a Western lifestyle, whether it would be preferable to be a hunter/gatherer in the rainforest or, making the choice that these Nukak-Maku have, to live a semi-dep

Cartel of Defiance

Cartel of Defiance is a group blog that mixes political and cultural observation oftentimes by quoting texts by other people. With a few others, I'm an occasional contributer...but awol and wendellgee do the heavy lifting. Awol has a really interesting post up tonight...it's a simple transcript of three moments of political speech. As you think about it, however, you realize that the " slip of the tongue " awol caught and preserved for the record...is also the byproduct of GOP talking points delivered straight through our TVs by supposedly "neutral" public figures like David Gergen and Tim Russert. Hint to Sunday Morning Talk Shows: you've reached a new low when your delivery of GOP innuendo is so rote and careless...that you can't even figure out which prominent African-American Congressman you're demonizing.

crossing the chasm: creating a tipping point in 2006

New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point: How Little things can make a Big Difference blazed to the top of nonfiction bestseller lists by introducing sociologist Mortin Grodzins concept of "the tipping point" to popular audiences through the use of cogent real world examples and elegantly drawn conclusions that made it a joy to read and hard-as-hell to put down. Subsequently, the concept of the "tipping point," the moment at which a trend breaks out of the confines of its "early adopters" and into mainstream prevalence, has become one of the "buzz concepts" of the decade. The emerging conventional wisdom from pundits of all stripes has constructed a narrative for the elections of 2006 that presumes a tipping point in the Democrats favor . The argument of this essay is that, while 2006 does represent a great opportunity for the Democratic Party, the presumption of a tipping point that favors Democrats in 2006 is premature .

the Porter Goss resignation

The sudden resignation of Porter J. Goss from the CIA today, while inspiring spirited discussion of Republican scandal and insider speculation as to why Goss resigned, drives a different train of thought in my mind. All the evidence from Washington points to, to use Congresswoman Jane Harman's words, not simply a "freefall" at the CIA but also raises deeply troubling questions regarding the Bush administration's use and abuse of United States' intelligence gathering as a whole. For one, Goss's resignation marks the second markedly abrubt resignation of a CIA director in the space of two years. In the wake of 9/11, the Plame scandal, and in the midst of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States has now seen two CIA directors leave suddenly, neither providing much explanation or, significantly, time to provide for a smooth transition for a successor in a time of crisis . There is no way to spin this in a positive light. This is disturbi

zen cabin

Ripley of zen cabin has got a nice reflective post up now....about...rrr...life...called "I used to be a rock star." Springtime, you know, the other depressing/hopeful/reflective time of year. I vote for hopeful.

one small victory against high fructose corn syrup

An agreement reported in the New York Times today means that soda pop will be removed entirely from most public elementary schools. Count that as one small victory in the battle against a national and global epidemic of obesity. While I support the companies taking this action and thank President Clinton and Governor Huckabee for working this deal...let's get real: processed sugar drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup have no place in the human diet. Period. End of sentence.

a pyramid of schemes

It's become a bromide to talk about "the lies" of this administration. Dick Cheney's lies. Condoleeza Rice's lies. Karl Rove's lies. Colin Powell's lies. Donald Rumsfeld's lies. Scott McClellan's lies. Scooter Libby's lies. George W. Bush's lies. This talk of lying, however, hides an underlying truth; from the very beginning, this cabal of prevaricators has used lies as their m.o....they've schemed . And, like con-artists on the run from the inevitable collapse of their con, the Bush Administration in 2006 is now caught up in scheming how to outrun its own burgeoning pyramid of schemes. What was "compassionate conservatism" but a ruse to get George W. Bush elected? What was Dick Cheney's selection for Vice President anything but a pre-ordained way to graft big Oil and big Guns onto the candidacy of the Boy King Bush? What is the current current talk of "turning a corner" once again in Iraq? Or t

May 1st Solidarity...and "Law Day"

I'd like to post in solidarity with the millions of hard-working immigrants staging a peaceful nationwide day of boycott and protests today..... May Day . This principled stand for civil rights and labor rights is also a way of communicating to the rest of the nation a salient fact: immigrants are tired of being treated as second-class. That should not be too hard to understand, but many don't. Now, George Bush, as is his wont, has chosen to emphasize a more recent holiday... Law Day . Leaving aside the hypocrisy of this president advancing the concept of "respect for the Law"...it's not hard to guess why. Here's what Law Day's founder, Charles Rhyne, said about his motivations in founding the holiday: The immediate inspiration for a May 1 celebration of law was directly related to the Cold War . For many years the American news media gave front page headlines and pictures to the Soviet Union's May Day parade of new war weapons. I was distressed t