I've sent out a version of the following to a variety of people looking to get things moving on 3 key fronts:
From my perspective, having assessed the local and regional successes achieved against the backdrop of the national debacle on Election Day, there are 3 key strategic imperatives to be addressed:
- Media
- Message
- Infrastructure
Keep reading for the details... Oh, and Happy Holidays!
- Media - I see Air America Radio as our Anzio, our beachhead on the shores of the deep-red media machine that has been beating the hell out of us for the last 10 years or so. We must break out of the beachhead and begin marching in-land if we are to have any long-term chance of success. It would be great if the grassroots could have an impact here, but the reality is that substantial financial resources must be brought to bear to make any real progress. There are a small number of committed progressives with the resources needed to tackle this imperative - the grassroots can fund many important initiatives going forward, but not this - in short, it's got to be folks like George Soros and Warren Buffet (if his stance on Bush's Sherrif-of-Nottingham tax policy extends to other areas).
- Message - The GOP has outflanked us here to a degree that is truly astounding. George Lakoff's framing strategies must become 2nd nature to all of our national and regional leaders and we need to ramp up our think-tank capabilities to back up Lakoff's progressive framing. The grassroots can help fund a broader and deeper think-tank capability, but here too, the committed top-tier progressives must step up to the plate to get the ball rolling and provide a stable financial base to build upon.
- Infrastructure - This is where the grassroots can and must take the lead. The grassroots has gotten a big boost this cycle, but they are generally inexperienced and lack the organizational skills needed to maintain a healthy growth curve. Grassroots training, and this is different from candidate/campaign-staff training, is critical. Growing widespread grassroots capabilities, both within and outside the Democratic Party is needed to ensure the ongoing ability to execute massive registration drives, near flawless GOTV and to serve as farm teams to develop candidates for local, regional and national office. (My outfit, Grassroots for America, will be supplying a substantial portion of the grassroots training component with our Root Camp project. At the outset, we hope/expect this to be implemented in concert with Democracy For America and Progressive Democrats for America.)
I look forward to feedback/thoughts and most of all concrete suggestions for making things happen.
- Joe