Blacks, Hispanics At The Core Of The Democrat Rainbow Coalition

Blacks vote for Democrats in this country like all of them were their cousins. The Democratic Party does not have a more staunch group of supporters. And hence I imagine a high tech boom in Harlem, among other things.

But Bush managed to dent into the Hispanic vote with his mangled Spanish, and that was not good. A Hispanic co-passenger in a bus in Florida once told me when she was at high school her teacher used Bush' Spanish talk as an example of how n-o-t to speak Spanish. Go figure.

But, seriously. There has to be an all-out effort to court the Hispanic vote.

1. Apply the spentrum/dialogue concept on gay marriage rather than the litmus test concept. (The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power)
2. Articulate progressive family values.
   
3. Offer progressive, cuttinge edge immigration policy. There can be no room inside the Democratic Party for any hostility to immigrants. And such hostility among the Republicans has to be exposed and fought.
   
4. Bi-lingualism.
   
5. Quality public education, universal health insurance for all children on US soil.
   
6. Increases in college financial aid.
   
7. Mainstream issues of jobs and wages. Create jobs. Increase the minimum wage. Introduce micro credit in the most destitute neighborhoods, and urban renewal programs, and economic empowerment zones.
   
8. In a city like New York, non-citizens should be allowed to vote. No taxation without representation.
   
9. A major emphasis on US-Mexico relations.
   
10. Help with institution buliding in the young democracies in Latin America.
    
11. Fight voter intimidation of the ethnic minorities with the passion of a civil rights movement.
    
12. Tough on hate crimes. Tough on hate speech.
13. Howard Dean should take a crash course in Spanish. You don't have to get fluent, but you do have to be able to meet and greet. I will do it with you.
    
14. Deaniacs, let it be a fashion statement. Let's all of us learn at least some Spanish.
    

These are just some of the early stage thoughts. I am sure there are many more. And even these need to be cultivated.

Dick Morris: "The biggest reason for Bush's victory was that he finally cracked the Democratic stranglehold on the Hispanic vote. While Gore won 65 percent of the Latino community, holding Bush to a mere 35 percent, Kerry only carried the Hispanic vote by 55-45, paving the way for the Bush victory. Since Hispanics cast 12 percent of the vote in 2004, their 10-point movement to the GOP gave the president an additional 1.2 percent of the national vote. Take a similar amount away from Kerry, and the Latinos gave Bush a 2.4 percent edge in the general election balloting. Since Bush beat Kerry by only 3.1 percent, how important was the Hispanic vote? Vital and crucial. There are two reasons for Bush’s success among Hispanics. The most important seems to be his emphasis on social values issues, particularly his opposition to gay marriage. ...... Bush worked very hard to win the Hispanic votes. He reversed traditional Republican positions opposing the interests of Latinos. He endorsed bilingual education, reversing decades of Republican agitation for English-only policies. He opposed benefit cuts to documented aliens and rejected out of hand the contention that the children of undocumented workers should be denied public education. He even embraced a version of amnesty that permitted illegal immigrants to gain lawful status and eventual citizenship. Bush may have begun to crack the unholy triple alliance of blacks, Hispanics and single women that anchors the political base of the Democratic Party. These three groups accounted for 54 percent of John Kerry’s vote on Tuesday even though they cast only about one-third of the total vote in the election. Bush still lost blacks by 89-11. He lost single women by 64-36 (while carrying married women by 9 points), but his gains among Hispanics permitted him to win the election anyway."

The Hispanic Vote Elects Bush
PUERTO RICO HERALD: Many Hispanic Voters Skeptical On Bush's Promise
Kerry Has Strong Advantage Among Latino Voters (washingtonpost.com)
Hispanic vote key to Bush win
NPR : Kerry Woos Hispanic Vote; Bush Up Next
VDARE.com: 11/10/04 - Bush Didn't Win 44% of Hispanic Vote - The ...
VDARE.com: 12/09/04 - NRO Rebunks Bush’s Hispanic Share Myth
Richard Nadler on Hispanic Vote & Election 2004 on National Review ...
CNN.com - Kerry, Bush, court Hispanic voters - May 5, 2004
Bush, Kerry try to swing Hispanic vote in their direction - 04/13/04

2006: When DFA Could Really Grow

Dean has the national name recognition that not even John Edwards has. Dean is no vanilla Democrat, unlike the likes of Kerry and Edwards, neither of which are in any position to lead the charge: Edwards is thoroughly out of power, Kerry is in the Senate. Dean is the only Democrat who could lead the charge for 2006. DNC Chairs are not usually known to lead a congressional effort, but these are challenging times. Budget deficits have gone amok. The War On Terror seems to be going nowhere. (3 Bomb Blasts Each: London, Delhi, Jordan) The Democrats are absolutely, totally out of power. And Dean can do better than Gingrich did for his party precisely because Dean will not be running for House Majority Leader or for Senate Majority Leader. Dean is it, there is no other.

Howard Dean should lead the effort for the Democrats to regain control of both the House and the Senate and a majority of the Governorships. One leader, one 10 point program. It is key that all Democrats running for Congress in 2006 come around to one agreed upon 10 point program. As to what shape and form that will be can be discussed. But once it has been decided upon, that is the party manifesto.

Money, message and organization.

Dean has come up with this wonderful idea, that 2 million Democrats across the country sign up to automatically give $20 a month to the party, kind of like paying one of your smaller utility bills, or something like that. This has to be implemented full force.

The message is the 10 point program.

And Dean can bring something to the fight noone else can. Lord, thy name is DFA. Yes, Democracy For America. DFA needs to approach the 2006 elections like it were the presidential election. 2006 is the real thing, but it is also the dress rehearsal for 2008. With the Supreme Court having gone conservative for a generation, the Democrats need to be taking and keeping the White House and the Congress for a generation. The founding white men called it balance of power.

2006 is a kickass opportunity for the DFA. We really could expand. 2008 is the year when America the republic becomes America the democracy. 2008 will be more like 1776 than any year in between. This is a gigantic opportunity. This is going to be historic. And DFA needs to kick into gear in 2006. The future is now.

Expansion is about applying the one-person-one-vote-one-voice concept. Everything you need at the grassroots to launch and grow your DFA chapter, you already have it. This is to be a bottom up approach.

Use Blogger to the max. Solo blogs, Linkup blogs, group blogs. Expand your personal network as much as possible within the DFA. Get invited to blogs with like minded themes. Definitely have more than one blog, many more. Every level of your organization should have a blog of its own. That is your 24/7 virtual office, kind of. Use audio, and video as well. This is what they call the new media. 2008 is to be the first new media election in history. Prepare.

DFNYC TV, DFNYC Wiki
Blogging Is Scalable Media
The One Voice Concept
Don't Need To Wait Till 2008
One Blog One LinkUp One Atom
More On Organization
An Email From Headquarters
DFA Organization Framework
DFNYC Research And Advocacy Group
The Three Pillars

Not long ago I wrote my first draft of the 10 point program. (Ferrer Gets Aggressive At A Ferrer Fundraiser) I still think it is a decent framework. But it needs a lot of work put into it.

1. Balance the budget.
2. Have an exit strategy for Iraq.
   
3. Proactively spread democracy to win the War on Terror.
   
4. Tax cuts for the middle class.
5. Raise taxes on the top 1%.
   
6. No pension for George W.
   
7. Enhance quality of public education.
8. Health care reform: introduce market forces into the sector so it gets into a position to take a lead on adopting information technology. Universal insurance coverage for all children.
   
9. Focus on universal wireless broadband like they built the interstate highways a few decades back.
   
10. Campaign finance reform, electoral reform.

Team, let's expand.

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