The Dean speaks: (1) DNC Chair: We need white male voters & a message; (2) Mac Collins or Mike Bowers vs. Perdue in 2006; & (3) A tribute to Bo Ginn.
Bill Shipp writes:
Democrats should concentrate on candidates, not ideology
Seven candidates, including a former presidential wannabe, came to Atlanta last weekend to make the case that one of their number should be the new Moses of the national Democratic Party.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and six other people showed up at a hotel conference center to launch their bids for Democratic National Committee chairman.
Being in Atlanta, they all agreed, of course, that the Democratic Party needed to regain the South. Specifically how that goal could be achieved never came up.
In truth, what Democrats need more than the South is a message. And they need more white male voters on their side.
They are not close to meeting either need. None of the seven would-be chairmen spent much time worrying about either issue. They talked of campaigns to turn out more black and women voters. Never mind that turning out their base voting population is not a Democratic problem; instead, it is widening the party's base to include others. The flaps of the big tent need lifting.
Talk of trying to lure white men back into the party scares the Democrats' minority base. Discussion of formulating a party message with wide voter appeal is nearly impossible.
Democrats have a special problem. They are too diverse. By contrast, Republicans can whip up enthusiasm among white males without fear of a backlash. Republicans can issue a call to prevent same-sex marriages, and their plea resonates in every state (and even with some of the Democratic base).
Democrats lack that luxury. An appeal to whites is seen as an affront to blacks, although an unidentified African American at Saturday's gathering dared raise the white-recruitment question. He was brushed aside.
Among many national Democrats, a call for fundamentalist morality is interpreted as an abrogation of basic freedoms.
In a sense, Zell Miller might be right. The Democratic Party is a national party no more. Perhaps it never was. Instead, the Democratic Party is a mishmash of 50 different parties with different agendas. What might work as an effective Democratic message in Georgia obviously doesn't work elsewhere. (And it might not work here.)
In Georgia, for instance, the party's key issue is based on ridding the governor's office of Sonny Perdue and what many Democrats see as growing evidence of incompetence and misfeasance.
Two Democrats, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox, already are staking out their anti-Perdue positions for a 2006 gubernatorial election.
Putting most of their eggs in an anti-Perdue basket could turn out to be dead-end strategy. Suppose former Congressman Mac Collins or former Cobb Commission Chairman Bill Byrne or even ex-Attorney General Mike Bowers unhorses Perdue in a GOP primary. Overnight, Taylor's and Cox's plans would become little more than shredder feed. Their stock as potential winners would plummet.
I digress. Instead of seeking the return of white males to the fold or finding a one-size-fits-all message, the new Democratic chairman and his committee ought to set out to find the true holy grail: decent candidates for public office. Forget about ideology and special sensitivities. Think instead of character and dedication and securing gifted office seekers.
As a start in that direction, ranking Democrats ought to read Bob Hurt's eulogy to former Georgia Congressman Ronald "Bo" Ginn, who died last week of cancer. Ginn served more than a decade in the House before running an unsuccessful campaign for governor.
Hurt, Ginn's longtime friend and top staff member, said of his former boss:
"For him, public service was not a means to an end - it was simply about the fulfillment he could get in helping someone. That help might be in voting in the best way he could on all the legislation that came before him, or helping a constituent solve a Medicare problem, or finding money for highways or hospitals or education.
"There are literally thousands of families who were touched by Bo's kindness and caring in his district and elsewhere. There often were deeply compelling cases where Bo would move heaven and earth to help a sick child, a destitute widow. When the day came that he ran for governor, and lost in a runoff, I think the point that gave him most pride was the fact that in that election the voters of the First District gave him something like 90 percent of their vote. They know the same thing that we did on his staff: He had a generous and unselfish spirit; he loved what he did; his word was his bond."
To be certain, Ginn had personal difficulties and his political career ran out of steam at a relatively early age. Though he might be considered obscure in the long march of political history, the new Democratic leadership could do worse than to review his stellar public career as Democrats try to find their way back to positions of influence.
Democrats should concentrate on candidates, not ideology
Seven candidates, including a former presidential wannabe, came to Atlanta last weekend to make the case that one of their number should be the new Moses of the national Democratic Party.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and six other people showed up at a hotel conference center to launch their bids for Democratic National Committee chairman.
Being in Atlanta, they all agreed, of course, that the Democratic Party needed to regain the South. Specifically how that goal could be achieved never came up.
In truth, what Democrats need more than the South is a message. And they need more white male voters on their side.
They are not close to meeting either need. None of the seven would-be chairmen spent much time worrying about either issue. They talked of campaigns to turn out more black and women voters. Never mind that turning out their base voting population is not a Democratic problem; instead, it is widening the party's base to include others. The flaps of the big tent need lifting.
Talk of trying to lure white men back into the party scares the Democrats' minority base. Discussion of formulating a party message with wide voter appeal is nearly impossible.
Democrats have a special problem. They are too diverse. By contrast, Republicans can whip up enthusiasm among white males without fear of a backlash. Republicans can issue a call to prevent same-sex marriages, and their plea resonates in every state (and even with some of the Democratic base).
Democrats lack that luxury. An appeal to whites is seen as an affront to blacks, although an unidentified African American at Saturday's gathering dared raise the white-recruitment question. He was brushed aside.
Among many national Democrats, a call for fundamentalist morality is interpreted as an abrogation of basic freedoms.
In a sense, Zell Miller might be right. The Democratic Party is a national party no more. Perhaps it never was. Instead, the Democratic Party is a mishmash of 50 different parties with different agendas. What might work as an effective Democratic message in Georgia obviously doesn't work elsewhere. (And it might not work here.)
In Georgia, for instance, the party's key issue is based on ridding the governor's office of Sonny Perdue and what many Democrats see as growing evidence of incompetence and misfeasance.
Two Democrats, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox, already are staking out their anti-Perdue positions for a 2006 gubernatorial election.
Putting most of their eggs in an anti-Perdue basket could turn out to be dead-end strategy. Suppose former Congressman Mac Collins or former Cobb Commission Chairman Bill Byrne or even ex-Attorney General Mike Bowers unhorses Perdue in a GOP primary. Overnight, Taylor's and Cox's plans would become little more than shredder feed. Their stock as potential winners would plummet.
I digress. Instead of seeking the return of white males to the fold or finding a one-size-fits-all message, the new Democratic chairman and his committee ought to set out to find the true holy grail: decent candidates for public office. Forget about ideology and special sensitivities. Think instead of character and dedication and securing gifted office seekers.
As a start in that direction, ranking Democrats ought to read Bob Hurt's eulogy to former Georgia Congressman Ronald "Bo" Ginn, who died last week of cancer. Ginn served more than a decade in the House before running an unsuccessful campaign for governor.
Hurt, Ginn's longtime friend and top staff member, said of his former boss:
"For him, public service was not a means to an end - it was simply about the fulfillment he could get in helping someone. That help might be in voting in the best way he could on all the legislation that came before him, or helping a constituent solve a Medicare problem, or finding money for highways or hospitals or education.
"There are literally thousands of families who were touched by Bo's kindness and caring in his district and elsewhere. There often were deeply compelling cases where Bo would move heaven and earth to help a sick child, a destitute widow. When the day came that he ran for governor, and lost in a runoff, I think the point that gave him most pride was the fact that in that election the voters of the First District gave him something like 90 percent of their vote. They know the same thing that we did on his staff: He had a generous and unselfish spirit; he loved what he did; his word was his bond."
To be certain, Ginn had personal difficulties and his political career ran out of steam at a relatively early age. Though he might be considered obscure in the long march of political history, the new Democratic leadership could do worse than to review his stellar public career as Democrats try to find their way back to positions of influence.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 7:31 AM
1 Comments:
I agree with you on the need for a Democratic message. Taylor and Cox both need to stand for something besides just being the anti-Sonny.
The same thing is true on a national level. Even though he was a generally crappy candidate, I believe Kerry would have performed better if he'd done more to articulate his own vision for the future.
I've believed for a while that Democrats define themselves too much by being against the Republicans, rather than having any specific plans or values of their own. I think there are core Democratic values that can be articulated on a national level and implemented in different ways at the various state and local levels. The national and state parties just have to work together to come up with them.
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