As a supporter of the Democratic Party, I am still overwhelmed by the scope of my party's victory. It has been so long, I do not remember how to enjoy any victory let alone one as massive as this one is. As of the time I am writing this, the Democratic Party has taken at least 28 seats in the House from the Republicans and 5 seats in the Senate. Virginia Democratic Senatorial candidate James Webb leads incumbent Senator George Allen by approximately 7000 votes and essentially has won that race giving Democrats the Senate. The congress is ours to run to the best of our ability.
Democratic Leaders Who Know What They Are Doing
For the first time in many years, we have National and Congressional Democratic Party leaders who know how to lead and know how to win elections. Yes, the voters were angry at Republican hubris and corruption, yes, they were very angry about the Republicans conduct of war in Iraq, but that does not automatically translate into an election plan to defeat them. Somehow, five Democratic Leaders with dissimilar ideas of how to run a campaign came together at least enough to secure victory. Howard Dean, Chuck Schumer, Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid deserve a tremendous amount of credit for running great campaigns. The results are a vindication of the leadership of all five of them.
In particular, Nancy Pelosi faced a lot of national attention and criticism from the Republican Party and dozens of Republican candidates. She faced that head on and with dignity and confidence and instead of being the bogeyman the GOP portrayed her to be, most Americans decided they genuinely liked and admired her.
I think Pelosi is the new Iron Lady of American Politics and like the British woman who held that title in the UK and ruled for 11 years, Margaret Thatcher; Pelosi is going to be a powerful and nearly irresistible force on the American political scene for a long time.
I and many other people owe an apology to Howard Dean. Many of us thought he did not know what he was doing. We thought his 50 state program was too ambitious and costly. Dean was instrumental in making the party competitive everywhere and thus he also deserves a lot of credit for making the right choices from the very beginning. Howard, I apologize, you were right!
Republicans Showed who they really are in attempting to stave off Defeat
When you see likely defeat coming around the corner in politics, you can go one of three ways, you can give up, which I don't recommend, you can fight harder using the best of what you have, or you can fight harder using the worst you have to offer. With the impending blue tsunami that was election 2006, too many Republicans chose to fight with the worst they had to offer. Race baiting, general bigotry, attacking spouses, lying about opponents records, robo-calling, denigrating someone with a debilitating illness all of these and much more was employed by one or more Republicans in an all out effort to eke out a victory. If your party was going to surrender control after 11 years in the majority, is this the last thing you would want people to remember about your party's days in power?
When you talk about character, one of the things that stands out about a person's character is how they behave when things are not going there way. Anyone can be a great guy when success is around every corner. But when you are facing defeat right in the eye, that is the test of character. In Election 2006, Republicans failed this test badly.
Progressive Democratic Organizations Options Limited after Nov 7th
A group I have been following for some time, Progressive Democrats of America or PDA needs to reassess their strategy after this last election. The one thing I would change right away is the ability of regional and local factions of PDA to determine their own policies and strategies.
The New York branch of PDA in particular has started to run amok. NY PDA's running of Jonathan Tasini against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Senatorial Nomination is one of several costly progressive Democratic mistakes of this campaign. NY PDA recently held a progressive conference attended by various area progressive groups where the main consensus reached was that America was largely progressive and the Democratic Party is not serving these needs because they are not running Progressive candidates and pursuing Progressive programs. We can see through the results of this last election what kind of Democrats appeal to most Americans right now. The inability of Progressive groups to see reality reminds me of their ideological opposites the Freepers as we see below.
Recommendation #2 to Progressive Democrats of America and similar groups (i.e. The Greens, etc.) is, if you want to make a difference, find the best speakers and debaters and send them on a continuous tour of the country to change the minds of Americans so they want progressive policies. Just to be clear, when I say Americans, I mean all regions, not just the northeast and west. This isn't as easy or as fun as spewing typical Progressive demagoguery du jour like "Democrats are the same as Republicans", etc., but the difference is, this strategy will work and actually means something. If such groups do not do this, they will be condemned to standing on the sidelines, holding 2% to 6% max of support nationwide and will continue to have no credibility and no influence over the political process and this makes total sense. If the people of this country are not demanding progressive policies, neither party will make it their business to deliver them. It is that simple.
The Freepers over at Free Republic made for interesting theatre on Election night and beyond
The evening began at Free Republic, http://www.freerepublic.com with Freepers predicting that Republicans would not only keep the house and senate, but that they would WIN ADDITIONAL SEATS! If you do not follow the Freepers as I do, I know this probably seems insane (and in a way, of course, it is) but to Freeper logic it makes perfect sense. In the Freeper mindset, the Main Stream Media as they call it, or MSM for short, is this organized and unified entity out to get conservatives and Republicans. As such, no information coming out of the MSM can be trusted, certainly not polls that show the Republican party trailing.
The only news that can be trusted, of course, is Fox News and similar organizations like the New York Post. Incidentally, midway through the night, Fox News decided they did not like the results coming in via the exit polls, proclaimed them to be biased in favor of Democrats by at least 8% or so, and vowed to only make predictions when sufficient amounts of actual votes were counted. Well, Fox, or should I say Faux news, the counts are in and they matched the exit polls. What are you going to say now?
Steven Leser specializes in Politics, Science & Health, and Entertainment topics. He has held positions within the Democratic Party including District Chair and Public Relations Chair within county organizations.
Steven Leser writes for www.opednews.com, an internet only media site that has grown to become one of the highest traffic news sites in America, reaching more traffic, according to alexa.com, than all but the thirty largest daily newspapers in the US. Mr. Leser is one of the 500+ liberal pundits who, each month, are published in what has become one of the top five Liberal/progressive media sites in the US.
As a staff member of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), I was happy to hear that this author has been following our organization, which had some very real positive impact in this election. Twelve of our endorsed progressive candidates won their elections. We are fully aware of the job ahead of us, and are already working on the general election in 2008.
Ours is not a top down organization that dictates to our members. Instead, we are attempting to create a base of grass roots activists who actually understand politics and are willing to actively organize their communities so that we have teams on the ground in every congressional district to Get Out The Vote for progressive Democrats and issues. This strategy requires that each "chapter" have some autonomy to make decisions based on their knowledge of local politics, issues, and personalities. This means that people will go through their paces and some will make mistakes, but all will gain important experience. Overall it is an effective strategy considering the results of this election.
Tasini's challenge of Hillary Clinton was not a mistake from our perspective. Let's not forget that she's running for President. Most PDA members are not in the Hillary Clinton camp, so Tasini's challenge for her seat let her know in clear terms that we're out here and her wishy-washy position on the Iraq War and other issues will not fly with a growing number of active Democrats. Tasini's campaign also served to bring more progressives into our organization, and educated New York residents about important issues like the Iraq War, single-payer healthcare, fair trade, sustainable energy, and an economy that benefits everyone – all issues in which polls show the majority of Americans agree with us. New York will be lucky indeed if Tasini, with his progressive views and energy, decides to pursue elected office again. Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton has been put on notice that she will have to grow a spine if she expects the rank and file of the Democratic Party to give her the nomination for President.
I also take exception to the author's suggestion that PDA may be off target because voters elected a number of Democratic moderates. That's a step in the right direction as far as we're concerned, at least the electorate is beginning to move leftward. The Congressional Progressive Caucus grew by another fourteen members in the last eighteen months and will add at least two new faces in January with the election of John Hall in New York, and Jerry McNerney in California, making it the largest sub-group within the House Democratic Caucus.
As for PDA, we are incredibly adept at moving our focus and will continue to be responsive to our members and to issues as they arise. We will continue our efforts to build a powerful community activist base that can swing into action at a moment's notice, and to educate and learn from our members what works in every congressional district in the country. Learn more about PDA at www.pdamerica.org.
by
laurabonham (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Friday, November 10, 2006 at 8:27:14 AM
I appreciate the effort that someone spent attempting to address my points. I'll expand on my points as I think the expansions will address your counterpoints.
The effort to run Tasini against Clinton was a massive mistake for which the complete implications PDA has not yet seen. I'll list the ways
1. First, in terms of the implications by PDA that Senator Clinton is/was not progressive enough, a composite by no less than eight of the major progressive interest groups, ACLU, ADA, CDF, LCV, NAACP, NARAL, PTA and the SEIU has Clinton rated as 11th most progressive out of the over forty Democratic senators in the 2004-2006 legislative session as can be seen at click here
The implications of this right off the bat is that Senator Clinton was not targeted because of her progressive rankings or votes, she was targeted because she was a big PR target. Otherwise, what is the explanation for not going after and fielding more Progressive nomination candidates against the 30 plus Democratic senators with lower progressive ratings? That is not the way to go for a new organization if their goal is to be taken seriously.
2. Senator Clinton was targeted without having the benefit of prior advice and consent by PDA. In other words, here is this organization that no one ever heard about before six months ago, and now they are holding Senator Clinton to rules she never heard about before. You can bet that the progressive action groups like ACLU that I mentioned in item #1 were letting legislators know which votes they wanted them to make in advance and thus would hold them accountable for later. That is the way to do it. Don't come to me at the end of a job and tell me, oh, by the way, I wanted you to do the job THAT way and because you didn't, I am going to punish you. Again, doing business that way is a serious blow to credibility.
3. The tilting at windmills effect. Because Senator Clinton is regarded by most groups as progressive and because she is loved by the NY Democratic electorate and because of the cumulative effect of these and other factors as well as items #1 and #2, the effort and money spent by PDA to try to defeat her looks completely and absolutely ridiculous. She blew the PDA candidate Tasini out of the water IN THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION VOTE by nearly 80 percentage points in one of the most progressive states in the country.
4. Democratic candidates like Ford in Tennessee could have really used the time and effort wasted on Tasini in NY. A couple of more workers or a couple of more million dollars would probably have made the difference and we would have another senator in the Democratic caucus. If we need one more vote someday in the senate to override a Bush veto on something important, just remember this effort spent on Tasini.
Regarding letting local groups run their own PDAs, obviously I can't stop you from doing the wrong things if you are determined to do it. Just remember that MESSAGE and having a consistent one is extremely important in politics and is one of the reasons Pelosi is so incredible, she enforces a consistent message. Having been receiving much of the internal NY-PDA communications until today when they childishly cut me off for bad press, and seen the types of things they are doing and saying, I completely stand by my assessment that national PDA needs to step in and enforce consistency and for that matter, maturity. NY PDA in particular needs adult supervision. I'm sorry if that offends anyone. I am always going to write the truth as I see it and, to use a trite phrase, let the chips fall where they may.
by
Steven Leser (226 articles, 49 quicklinks, 34 diaries, 1615 comments)
on Friday, November 10, 2006 at 11:07:49 AM
In earlier blogs Steven Leser has wrestled with the definition of what is progressive. At the same time, he has given indications that he would like to see a more progressive Democratic party. Now in his latest missive he criticizes the grassroots advocacy of local New York chapters of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). I'm not sure how he imagines that change will occur if not for the tireless individual and collective efforts of members of groups like Progressive Democrats of New York, 14th Congressional District, which since the beginning of 2006 has:
endorsed and actively supported the anti-war candidacy of Jonathan Tasini in the New York Senate Democratic primary (which endorsement, by the way, along with that of other local NY PDA chapters, brought about an endorsement for Tasini from PDA national)
met with Congressional representative Carolyn Maloney to voice our concerns on a number of issues
convened meetings of New York Metro Area PDA supporters to provide a venue for local progressive candidates to be heard and for other local PDA chapters to organize
held a pre-general election debate with representatives of left-wing political parties, including New York Senate Green Party Candidate Howie Hawkins, to discuss how best to strategically advance the progressive agenda
Leser contends that the Tasini campaign was a costly mistake. Costly to whom? Maybe to Tasini financially. Certainly not to Hillary Clinton who was able to return to the Senate by raking in millions of corporate dollars while refusing to debate Tasini and respond to the concerns of his supporters. Certainly not to those of us who were proud to stand behind a candidate who represented for us what the future of the Democratic Party should look like. And certainly not to Leser who pontificates in this blog while those of us who want to bring about change are out in the field investing a lot of sweat equity to bring about a more progressive Democratic party.
Postscript: Since Leser has brought up the issue, his removal from the PDNYCD14 listserv was prompted by the fact that he has been spamming our listserv (not to mention other left-wing listservs) for months now with his weekly Op-Ed News column. This despite comments from our membership that this was not the intended purpose of our listserv which was created to support the work of our local PDA chapter. In addition, since Leser is not only not supporting our chapter's efforts, but is openly criticical of them, it was felt that the time had come to pull the plug on him. Let him continue to rant about PDA here and in other spaces like DailyKos created for such general discussion.
Jim McCabe
Progressive Democrats of New York
14th Congressional District
by
Jim McCabe (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Sunday, November 12, 2006 at 12:56:45 PM
What NY-PDA is really upset about is that I interrupted...
... their group think. It is particularly telling when a group that purports to be among the standard-bearers of Progressivism censors an acknowledged Democratic writer because he criticizes or disagrees with them. Now they are attempting to back into some sort of non-embarrassing explanation for why I was banned.
First off, they asked me to join their forum, I did not solicit membership. Like with about 40 other groups, I have been cc'ing the group on every article I wrote for the better part of the last 6-8 months with nary a single objection to being included on the mailing list for the one or two articles I write a week. Now, all of a sudden, several days after being banned for criticizing them, my articles are referred to as spam and offered as the reason for my being delisted from the group. I would say that their tactics are positively regressive and reactionary.
Look, I went to dinner tonight with a number of democrats/progressives in Manhattan and we all had a good laugh about the delisting. Most of them still had no idea who NY-PDA were. As of now, it is still a group of no power and no consequence and judging from how they conduct themselves, it will be that way for a while which is VERY good for PDA and Democrats in general. The really sad thing is that national PDA is a good organization staffed with and led by good people. National PDA will probably size up election 2006 and come up with a good strategy going forward. The problem is that with one or more local groups like their NY branch hanging from their necks dragging them down, they are in for a difficult time.
You can see the difference in the responses I got, first from National's lbonham, and now Jim's. One is a rational and well thought out response which directly addresses my points and the other is personal, rambling and unprofessional. I kept waiting for Jim to directly address any of the points I made. He came close on the Tasini issue which is what one would expect because it has so dominated the NY group, but even then, he didnt specifically respond to the points I raised about the nonsense of supporting that candidacy.
Bottom line, NY-PDA is an organization that cannot stand criticism and indeed whose actions and policies do not stand up to criticism or oversight. It is an organization run by people who have no feel for the will of the people of their state, even those who fall in the same general ideological ballpark. It is an organization that completely lacks any political smarts, finesse or for that matter, sense of reality. And more than all of those things put together, they are an organization with Bush-like amounts of hubris and with Bush-like refusal to acknowledge mistakes and missteps. I dont think the group has ever acknowledged any sort of mistake of any kind on any issue. Look how hard they are defending the running of a candidate that was completely blown out in a Democratic nomination!
Their own actions really speak loudly about themselves and what their actions say isn't good.
by
Steven Leser (226 articles, 49 quicklinks, 34 diaries, 1615 comments)
on Sunday, November 12, 2006 at 4:20:03 PM
4 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
