legitimate voters off the rolls, manipulating the tallies, etc. Not at all.
LEARN HOW TO FIGHT THE BEAST
What I am suggesting is that the Democrats must recognize and study the success of the GOP's M.O., and then devise creative, effective
counter-strategies; in short, our side has to be at least twice as efficient, passionate and dedicated to victory if we're to have any hope of taking down the corrupt, reckless, dangerous Bush crew at the top and thus of turning this country around.
That means forethought, planning, competence, smart thinking in terms of candidates, speeches, focus on issues, staying on-message, framing the issues correctly, massive campaigns to register new voters,
pre-emptively going to court if need be to guarantee honest and transparent elections, and so on.
Can it be done? Is the Gregoire scenario noted above going to be the negative example of how uncertain, incompetent Democratic campaigns aregoing to be conducted? It could be, but let me end this rant on a
positive note.
THE RIGHT KIND OF SPEECH
The speaker after Gov. Gregoire was one chosen by the faculty: Jose Gomez, J.D., who said he's been waiting for 50 years to deliver his public address, and it was a doozy. It connected his hardscrabble life
-- eventually winding up working closely with Cesar Chavez on behalf of maltreated farm workers, and then with La Raza Legal Center -- with the challenges open to today's graduates.
Gomez showed how it was possible, and vitally important, for single individuals to make major differences in their own lives and the lives
of others through sincere and dedicated commitment to honesty and social justice. The audience responded enthusiastically to his passionate speech, to his life story, to his urging the graduates to make a difference in their communities.
That's the kind of energized, focused, progressive policy and speechmaking the Democrats need to fire up their base, and to make us believe in the significant differences between the Democrats and the Republicans.
A huge slice of America is waiting to be energized and moved to action and support. The sooner the Democrats get their act together -- and Howard Dean's 50-state experiment may well pay off in this regard -- the easier it will be to generate the anti-GOP momentum necessary for November and for the race in 2008. Let's get to work. #
Originally published by The Crisis Papers and Democratic Underground 6/20/06.
Copyright 2006 by Bernard Weiner
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