Advice from the "Common Man"

by: ProfessorMike

Wed Nov 10, 2010 at 16:06:13 PM EST

"Your business is really dependent on what you do and not your competition. It's how you perform in the eyes of your customers, or not."

I think that this is where we made a mistake.  The policies of President Obama and the Democratic Congress have had a positive effect on our economy.  Government is our business and the election shows that the voters, our customers if you will, lost faith in us.  However in a real sense we lost faith in ourselves long before the election.  Week after week I listened to Democratic candidates talk about how bad the economy was, how we needed to cut the deficit, how we needed to take some unnamed action.  Nowhere did I hear praise of the health care bill which while not perfect is a strong move in the right direction.  No where did I hear President Obama's economic policies defended. I didn't hear Democratic candidates correct the misstatements and outright lies of the Republicans.  In other words we abandoned our principles and presented ourselves as a confused group of want to be Republicans.

President Obama is our leader and the policies he is pursuing are the best short we have correcting the economic mess that we are in.  By not backing the President we hurt ourselves and I believe cost Democrats the election.
On the road to Election 2012 we need to find ourselves again and take the leadership role.  We need to be less dependent on polls and realize that we have to sell our point of view to the voters or not simply follow the polls.  The Republicans, especially the "Tea Party" group, were perceived as leaders and even though much of what they said was nonsense, the people listened.  

To paraphrase Alex Ray, the Republicans didn't win the election, we lost it.  The voters, our customers, lost faith in us and we need to get that back.  We need to change how we present our message to the voters before it is too late.  The Democrats need to win in 2012.

(Source:  The Portsmouth Herald, November  

Democratic Values

by: ProfessorMike

Sun Sep 26, 2010 at 19:55:04 PM EDT

Now almost two years later the media and other political "experts" are predicting disaster for the Democratic Party.  My problem is that I don't see any reason for this other then the natural midterm fall off.  President Obama has done an excellent job in starting the process of getting us out of the recession, taking the first steps to a fair health care system, and he has begun the process of undoing the damage of twenty years of Republican misrule.  So how do we reward this good man?  He finds himself being called a disaster and one of the worst presidents of all time.

I can understand the Republican strategy in that they will do everything they can to undermine President Obama and the Democratic Party.  After all they only care about what is good for the Republican Party and nothing about what is good for the United States.  Also I really can't blame the disillusioned citizens who have flocked to the banner of the tea party and other groups.  They are scared by the economic and security situation we find ourselves in and don't really understanding it. As a result they believe the massive lies sent out by the Republicans and others.

I blame us.  Those of us who call ourselves Democrats but in an effort to get elected turn our backs on the President and many of the traditional ideals of the Democratic Party.  I find some campaign ads to be, not only disgusting, but ineffective.  We are Democrats but some of these campaign statements are pushing Republican Party ideas.  One Democratic candidate has even call for the reestablishment of the Gramm-Rudman Act, a landmark on the Reagan/Bush era.

How about suggesting some of President Clinton's economic reforms?  After all those policies led to a reduction of $600 billion dollars on the national debt.  Bush 43 comes into office, scraps the Clinton budget and more than doubles the national debt.  And we let these guys call us "tax and spend!"  The Republicans claim that they are going to reduce taxes, increase military spending and reduce the deficit all at the same time.  Even an idiot knows that you can't do this!

I think that we need to get off of this policy of trying to out Republican the Republicans and go on the offensive pushing the Democratic agenda.  Right now it looks like someone polls on an issue and then candidates back the most popular result regardless whether this is best for the county.  Following the polls is the opposite of leadership and the country needs leadership.  The republicans sound like leaders, we don't.  We need to get away from these polls and provide the leadership needed to get us out of the Republican created mess.

It isn't too late to change to an aggressive issue based campaign.  The Republican's "Pledge to America" gives us an opportunity to show the Republican "Pledge" for what it is an ill conceived disaster.