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June 14, 2005

Build a real movement if you want to win

If you wanted to be the dominant political party of the next generation or two, how would you do it? I don't mean what positions would you take, because I think that may be exogenous. That is, successful parties make issues, not the other way around. What I mean is how would you organize? What would your short term goals be?

One thing you'd do is insure that you have a deep bench of
young talent being trained in your ideology. You'd cram the lower level courts with judges sympatric to your ideology so that when it came time to appoint more senior judges, if you were in charge you could appoint the most ideologically extreme, and if you weren't your opponent would have to draw from a skewed pool of applicants. You'd focus your recruiting among religious groups that are growing. You might think to come up with new ideas that resonate with your base and centrist voters that no one had .
If you could figure out a way to rename all your to get them moving again, we'll . You would focus on your state level and grass roots infrastructure, going first for lesser offices like state legislatures and eventually governorships. Get people used to voting for your party locally and you get them to vote for your for the house, and eventually,

So, this goes a long way to understanding why the Democrats are losing despite have a big majority among American elites and a platform of policies that overtly appeals to the economic interests of the lower classes. I guess it could be that Republican policies resonate better with the American people, that they have better leaders, that their recommended policies actually are more effective, that social rather than economic interests determine voting patterns, or just plain luck has been at work. But, ignoring the actual seats in the federal government controlled by both parties, would you rather have the junior league politicians, the donors, the professional political flaks and idea people of the Republicans or the Democrats working on your issues?

Posted by OneEyedMan at June 14, 2005 2:24 PM

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