"The Revolutionary"...this writer grasps the essence of Dean's goals.

[madfloridian]

Dana Blankenhorn has written other articles about Howard Dean, and once again he sees exactly what is going on. I don't know that much about this guy's politics, but he does a great job on this article.

Right now this article is very much appreciated with the increased scrutiny on the 50 state plan. I will just post a few snips to show he sees so clearly what Dean's intentions are.

The Revolutionary

Critics like to say Dean's 50-state strategy will "destroy the Democratic party" and claim there "is no Democratic establishment." Both claims are specious. There are in fact two parties, one composed of activists who believe in what the party is all about, the other consisting of professionals who say they are trying to implement that vision.

Once people cross the line from just complaining (as bloggers often do) to getting in the line and working (which Dean wants people to do) these lines start to blur a bit. Those who were just complaining start to see the problems more clearly. They may find themselves fighting corporate interests within the party, even waging primary fights, but their involvement is what makes the party go.

Second, a campaign based on TV ads won't work anymore. Many folks are smarter than that. The Internet is pushing political knowledge, and political bullshit detectors, further-and-further down into the body politic. You can now design, and implement, a TV ad campaign for just $4,000. The depth of knowledge available to even the lowliest political Indian is incredible. In this kind of environment it's the side with the best Indians, not the best chiefs and not necessarily even the most Indians, that is going to prevail.

Exactly. That is the crux of Dean's argument with Rahm...that he would give him money for GOTV, but he did not want to fund TV ads anymore.

And he sees even more, that the strategy is to start building the party from bottom up, with the blogosphere as the connecting piece. Many times Dean has referred to the pyramid. The Republicans have their pyramid with the wide, well organized base. The Democratic Party is like an inverted pyramid, with the wide base at the top, only reaching down to the ground level every four years. That is what is going to change.

Dean's 50-state strategy is designed to create activists. It's designed to turn bloggers into activists, to turn people concerned with just local issues into activists, and to connect all these people to the top reaches of the party through the Internet and a self-sustaining pyramid of bloggers acting as a "jungle telegraph" between the bottom and the top.

There is an immense difference between Dean's strategy and even the Republicans' Netroots strategy, one that many in the Democratic blogosphere still don't get. Dean is trying to get all people working from the bottom-up, with the blogosphere working to transfer information between the bottom and the top. The Republican blogosphere strategy works from the top down, with politicians holding meetings and giving orders, talking points to be repeated endlessly on the Internet.

Blankenhorn refers to the NYT artlcle by Matt Bai last Sunday in his opening paragraph.

Just imagine what it will be like in 08 for the party's nominee, to have some kind of ground plan already in place. It will make such a difference.

[NoodleBoy]

1. I've already seen some subtle but astonishing effects of this

it's truly incredible.

and now I've been hooked on local politics like a bad smack addiction.

[madfloridian]

3. I have the poliitical addiction and the late snack addiction as well.

So I know what you mean. We are facing a lot of odds in Florida, though, as our state party does not like what he's doing. They say it often, too. They say that the FL party is losing money on the deal. They refuse to see that they gained so many activists along the way.

In fact, they would rather not have activists...easier to do things their way.

Hate to say that, but it's true.

[NoodleBoy]

19. I find it interesting... FL's Bush approval rating is lower than AZ's, but

AZ's races are considered more competitve and favorable to the Dems.

that to me sounds like a state party badly in need of a shot in the arm, or, better yet, a heart transplant.

[madfloridian]

25. There is not the enthusiasm here in the party itself.

DFA groups are active, but we are not very welcome as leaders yet. The state party seems to have a lot of resources, and a voter roll, GOTV guy named Luis Navarro who is getting paid 180,000 a year. Hired by the state, though. Don't know much about the others.

The state party has good people, but their way does not yet include activists. I guess it will take time.

The enthusiasm is not here yet, not like it should be...at least not in our area.

[Tellurian]

2. It would be nice for someone to send this article

as a memo to Terry McAuliffe, the former do nothing chairman...
Showing him how it's done by someone who really cares..Dr. Dean!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. but terry cut deals with all these corpserations!

How can you say he did nothing? Or nothing good?

[madfloridian]

14. To be fair, Dean always credits McAuliffe for good finances...

and being out of debt. To be fair.

[blm]

15. Of course, but he didn't spend the money on the INFRASTRUCTURE that

dealt with securing the election process as he was charged with doing in the early months of 2001.

McAuliffe wanted the big building in DC with all the bells and whistles and got Haim Saban to bankroll most of it. Fine - but the rest should have been used to strengthen party infrastructure and secure the election process in the crucial states they always knew would be battlegrounds.

[madfloridian]

16. I agree.

Is that the Haim Saban that is now funding Arnie's campaign in CA...or do I have the name wrong.

[madfloridian]

17. I was right. Saban is supporting Arnie.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/politics/15651558.htm

[Toots]

23. Nothing except raise more money for Democrats than any person ever before

It is too bad he wasn't the one spending the money though or the Democrats may have won the 2000 & 2002 elections. I think Democrats are not very ept in getting their message out and waste a tremendous amount of money on really bogas adds.

[longship]

4. Tip O'Neill was right about that, too.

Although the O'Neill principle, "All politics is local", is undoubtedly inoperative this election, he was right about another thing. You build a party up from the bottom, not from the top-down. That's yet another thing that the Democrats in Congress have forgotten. But they'll learn soon because we're seeing it in action this year--in spades.

[pinto]

5. Good analysis, imo, and good politics. I think the one major

flaw that Dean made - as a Presidential candidate, way back then - was to recruit "outsiders" from the coasts and big blue cities, to literally descend on Iowa. That door to door campaign failed.

Locals don't want outsiders telling them how to vote. They want to hear from neighbors, locals that share their concerns.

I think Dean has learned the lesson and applied it to the DNC strategy. The 50 state program is a great benefit to the party.

[madfloridian]

6. Yes, he would agree on that.

He worried about Ohio being that way as well. What was the group sending so many in there? Doggone, can't think of the name. They did a great job, but it was outside folks.

[pinto]

7. Don't know. They did do a great job. Just didn't work out

as envisioned. That was then, though, and this is now.

We do it one State at a time...

:kick:

[NoPasaran]

22. ACT?

I think America Coming Together is the group that was working in Ohio (and some other states as well).

[hedda_foil]

8. Go Howard! K&R

[Cha]

9. KNR on my

break, will be back later for a more thoughtful post!

Good find, mad!

[madfloridian]

10. I check out this guy now and then.

I don't think it is a political blog, more of a technical one. But now and then he writes something I agree with.

[madfloridian]

12. Another article: "Turning the Party on its Head"

http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/008243.html

"J. Scott Christianson of the Columbia Daily Tribune has an analysis of how local DFA groups fit into the inverted pyramid of the Democratic Party structure:

Democracy for Missouri—www.democracyformo.com—is one good example. A local chapter of the national Democracy for America, DFM recently held its statewide convention in Columbia. While some Democrats view organizations such as DFM as competing with the party proper, they are really more complementary than competitive.:

Here is the article, very long, by Scott.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Aug/20060822Comm001.asp

In a 2005 New York Times editorial, Bill Bradley compared the structure of the Republican and Democratic parties to pyramids. The Republican Party’s pyramid starts with a broad, solid base built of organizations and think tanks that generate funding, ideas, policies and talking points. Conservative commentators and networks that spread the message of the party form the next level.

"At the very top of the pyramid, you’ll find the president," Bradley wrote. "Because the pyramid is stable, all you have to do is put a different top on it, and it works fine."

But Bradley then describes the inverted pyramid that is the Democratic Party.

Bradley continued:

To understand how the Democratic Party works, invert the pyramid. Imagine a pyramid balancing precariously on its point, which is the presidential candidate. Democrats who run for president have to build their own pyramids all by themselves. There is no coherent, larger structure that they can rely on."

...."I have had a front-row seat to much of the building process here in Boone County, and while it is building slowly and steadily, it still has a long way to go. Bradley estimated it would take at least a decade to build the type of infrastructure the Republicans have in place. This fall will be the initial test of the stability of the Democratic Party’s new structure.

And Dean further mentioned this in his interview with Matt Bai in June.

And Howard Dean referred to this same problem in his interview with Matt Bai. No link, it was audio and no transcript.

"He says the Demcratic party has essentially been "non-functional as party" for about 30 years. The functions of the party have been taken over by the campaigns. He says he thinks Kerry's GOTV effort was terrific, but that was "John Kerry's GOTV effort" and the DNC played a secondary role. He says the Democratic "party" has not really been driving things, but that it is true on the Republican side."

[Cha]

13. The dlcers should just let

Dean do his thing..Dean's been a LOT more prescient on issues than they have. Look at now how the congresspeople are "running like cockroaches and we haven't even taken over yet.

[madfloridian]

18. Never happen, though.

It is too much change for many to understand.

We have run into problems in our area a lot lately. The word has gone out from national and state to not worry about district offices and local offices this time. Use the money for billboards, local ads, and run things from home offices. But no, our area had to do thing their way, the old way, spending nearly all the money on several offices.

No one would listen, just had to be their way.

Gonna take a long time, zidzi.

[Totally Committed]

20. We, as a Party, will not see the kind of success

it will take to turn this country back around 180 degrees from the Republican debacle it now is until we embrace this 50-states strategy, throw out the dead wood, and allow ourselves to be DEMOCRATS again.

This is how the Republican took power so completely... they developed a plan that started with getting as many Republicans into government starting at the local level in school committes, and working out from there. It took discipline and determination, and they almost succeeded. We have to be as disciplined and determined.

Tell the DLC to go f*ck themselves, and let's take this government and this country back!

TC

[JNelson6563]

21. Amen! Can I get a witness?!?!?

For too long now the Democratic party have been invisible except for every 4 years. That is no way to grow the ranks of the base.

Here in MI, specifically the 14 county swath of the state that is the 4th Cong. District, there has been pockets of great progress at the grass-roots level and I think we will see the benefits of this on election night. While the actual US House candidate for this district hasn't stirred much excitement and doesn't have much of a chance, the progress will be noted in other races that matter a great deal. I suspect this particular district will contribute mightily to winning back the state House by winning many of the races for all the SH districts it entails. Those are some seriously local races and it will be thanks to the grassroots activists and quality candidates stepping forward to run (and working tirelessly).

The old guard fights it tooth and nail but they will continue to lose this fight. :toast:

Julie--member of the New Guard

[madfloridian]

24. Proud of your work, Julie.

You have been so strong. We are still trying here, but we had some setbacks recently. Some are going to do it their way, no matter what...no rules, just what they want.

But we are still trying.