[Politics]
DNC Irrelevant?
During the 2004 election, the Republican Party had an amazingly powerful tool called the "Team Leader" program. It combined a vast database of information and a sophisticated online tool and turned average citizens into media lobbyists. Each week, the RNC posted a new topic, complete with talking points and background information. This might have been an initiative the President wished to highlight, or an attack campaign against Kerry or the Democrats. Loyal party activists would swing into action using Team Leader. Following a personalized interface through a series of drop-down menus, Republicans could select e-mails for talk radio hosts, reporters, and columnists for local newspapers, or producers and reporters for local TV. Using the (often misleading and always one-sided) GOP talking points, they would then compose brief messages urging the media to parrot their position. If you wished to telephone or fax, this information was also provided.
Meanwhile, when I attended a meeting of my local county Dems, they were raving about an innovation they'd just made: after weeks of preparation, they had secured a credit card machine. Now you didn't have to leave your donations in sacks with dollar signs on them.
It was no wonder that the GOP had a more effective system for bringing out the base and swing voters. Howard Dean promised to give local Dems the same kind of firepower the GOP has, and I've heard from Oregon Dems that it's working.
Then again, maybe we don't need the DNC, after all:
The goal is to create a go-to site for Colorado activists -- a sort of online hub for everyone from environmentalists to abortion rights advocates to those concerned about the direction of their school boards. The group hopes liberals will use the site -- ProgressNowAction.org -- to find each other, organize and meet people working on other issues. In the process, it hopes to assemble a statewide network of activists and, ultimately, give Democrats a new and easily replicated model for local political organizing.Hopeful news.
3 comments:
not to stroke my junk, but i had the idea for this about 4 years ago...talked with Sandra about it at the Yukon one night when we were all there boozing. i was generally poo-poo'd because it sounded too grand a scheme.
i think my idea centered more around fighting righty propaganda with lefty propaganda (even if it was "disinformation"), but the centralization theme was similar.
good to see the Dems are finally getting smart. i still say '08 is 50/50 though.
Hey, the more the merrier. I say get on it, man. Call it Propaganda Ministry....
I had the misfortune to attend a local Democratic Women's organizational meeting a couple of months ago. After passing the mic for introductions, it was clear that the room was packed with some fired up, pissed off, ready for action women.
So what did the organizers do? They read the proposed bylaws out loud. Like ten pages of feckin sleep-inducing rules and procedures.
When I expressed my dismay that the energy present and available wasn't being harnessed for some effective action, I was told how proud I should be that the Fashion Show activity had been removed from the bylaws. Let me repeat: Fashion Show.
The mind boggles.
I sat there thinking about how the Republicans would have organized that meeting. No one would have left without some serious action items, there would have been some sort of inspirational speaker or video, etc. -- the waste of opportunity makes me cringe.
The DNC needs to get serious about supporting local organizing, now.
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