A few post June 4th election thoughts

This is from a Drebes posting about Brian Wahby'saward at the St. Louis County Central Committee dinner last Saturday.
"Wahby was presented with the award at the 32nd Annual Thomas Jefferson Days at the Sheraton Chalet Hotel at Westport Plaza. The award honors those who've helped put Democrats in office across the region."

I've been helping candidates in the St. Louis and Franklin County areas for 10 years and don't remember any of them getting help from Brian Wahby.
Then I read a posting about how Roy Temple, one of the Carnahan's old guard, might be chosen as head of the state Dems this weekend. He has no record of helping candidates get elected, and most of us wouldn't know him if we saw him.

What's wrong with this picture? Cirrhosis? Pulmonary edema? Arthritis? or maybe just too much inbreeding. People getting awarded for what? Because they are good friends of the people making the decisions? That happened for years out here in Franklin County until some newcomers broke into the pack.
Take it to the national level and we have one of the poorest spokesmen in history as Senate Majority Leader. Be honest. Don't you cringe when Harry Reid steps up to the microphone? I know he can't help having a weak voice, but he could at least look up at the cameras. Bad eyesight and a weak voice describes lots of us old folks. That's why we let the younger ones do the talking. Imagine Chuck Schumer or Claire McCaskill as Senate Majority Leader. There wouldn't be any trouble hearing them and knowing they are seriously pissed. (Bravo, Claire. Great job at the Armed Services Committee hearing on sexual assaults.)
Here's an example of how Democrats are letting Republicans and tea party extremists roll over them. Last week John McCain went to Syria and came back with all kinds of ideas about how the U.S. should get involved militarily. Can you imagine if the shoe were on the other foot? If a Democratic senator did that during a Republican administration, he or she would be blasted all over the media as a "loose cannon" or "a threat to our national security." What was the Democratic response to McCain's saber rattling? Nothing. Jon Stewart is the only one who took to the microphone and filleted McCain for his arrogance. And then who does CBS go to for a commentary on McCain's visit? Condoleeza "mushroom cloud" Rice. As someone from the Vietnam era commented about asking Henry Kissinger for advice about war, "What? Was Goebbels not available?"

To Sum: Our Democratic Party is risking getting more and more necrotic. The current leaders need to turn some of the major responsibilities over to younger firebrands chomping at the bit. Fire in the belly. That's what we need. When the fire goes out, so does the passion and ability to inspire.
That's IF the goal really is to elect Democrats locally and nationally. If the goal is to maintain a semblance of power and keep close friends in office for their own benefit, that seems to be working very well on the local level. If Mayor Slay and his friend Brian Wahby have done anything to promote, support and defend public education in St. Louis, please enlighten me. I read how one of Slay's old Catholic schools is getting paid big bucks in rent by a charter school and have to wonder what the game is really all about. But maybe I'm just old and cynical.

On the state level, our beloved governor seems to keep to himself until he needs 2500 people to show up for a Medicaid expansion rally at the Capitol. I'm glad he vetoed some of what the Post Dispatch calls the "silly stuff" passed by Sen. Brian Nieves. I hope Nixon has the courage to veto the stupid gun bills too. We'll see. Has the guv helped local newbies running for office? I don't know.

In fact I don't know anyone in a position of power and prestige willing to go out on a limb except Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the anti gun thing. And he's not a Democrat.

So the buddy system is part of the problem.

And that may be why we don't have strong messaging on issues of importance to us. I've been beating the ALEC thing for several years and am slowly but surely getting people to realize that the leaders of the current Republican Party on the state and national level do not think it is government's job to help individual citizens. Repeat: They do not BELIEVE it is government's job to help us down here at the grassroots level. This political ideology is so strong that Speaker Tim Jones and his ALEC buddies were able to fend off Medicaid expansion despite all the evidence being against them. But they are not interested in evidence or economic facts. And they are certainly not interested in sad stories about people dying for lack of health insurance. They don't BELIEVE it's their job to worry about those things. They will go to the next ALEC meeting and brag about their success in Missouri.

I could give this same information to a young firebrand messaging expert and he/she would eviscerate the opposition with powerful sound bites. Yes, I know that's shallow. But so are the voters when it comes to studying the issues. Look at what happened Tuesday in the 8th Congressional District. A district with some of the poorest citizens in the nation just voted in an ALEC member who will continue to starve them, reduce their wages even more and make it damned near impossible for them to send their kids to school. Because ALEC members don't BELIEVE in helping poor families. Jason Smith will fit right in with the Eric Cantor/Paul Ryan right wingers in D.C. He'll vote against the best interest of his constituents just as he did as a state rep. And they'll re-elect him in 2014. Why? Because they don't hear an opposing message powerful enough to make them change their minds. All Smith had to do was say that Steve Hodges was a "Pelosi Democrat." Why? Because the Repubs have been very successful at pounding that anti-Obama, anti-Pelosi message.

I drive to Springfield MO frequently. There are big, hand painted signs in fields along I 44 denouncing Obama and Pelosi as the devil and his handmaiden. Someone would have to really BELIEVE that to take the time to erect and hand paint a sign like that. That's how good the Republican message machine is. Those people will continue to vote against everything they actually want to see happen, especially when it comes to the social safety net programs many of them count on. Why? And why can't Democrats be just as convincing?

In fact, why can't Democrats help each other even when we don't agree on 100% of the issues? We can continue to be staunch purists, or we can elect more Democrats. But we can't do both. Like it or not (and I actually do like it) we Democrats don't set up dictatorships and bully each other into voting the same way on every issue. The tea party hotheads will "primary" anyone who doesn't obey their commands. And it's working for them. We Dems respect each other's reasoning ability too much to do that.
But we can do a much better job of persuading voters to choose the Democratic candidate. And we can start by bragging about how liberal and progressive we are and how our policies lead to a stronger, healthier state and nation. Once voters realize they really do want our liberal and progressive candidates to win, it will be easier for our candidates to run on our platform. We have to stop playing defense. We have to BELIEVE in our political positions just as much as the ALEC members believe theirs. We have some incredibly bright, passionate younger office holders both at the state and national level. We need to support them, hold their hands when the mud is flying, and help them repeat, repeat, repeat our message.
I’ve connected with some wonderful Democrats in the 8^th and 7^thCongressional Districts while doing my part to help Steve Hodges. We are the belly of the party, and that’s where the fire is going to have to come from. When I complained on Facebook about the lack of help from our “leaders”when it comes to recruiting and supporting Dem candidates, one of our young, passionate local progressives took issue with my comment. She said we can’t rely on them. WE are the party. WE have to find good candidates or run ourselves. She’s right. There are lots of ways we can connect now with social media. Let’s do it. Let’s tell the voters who is lying to them and robbing them of the “freedom” to be successful. Who is making it impossible for them to support their families by destroying unions and good paying jobs? Who forces them to breathe polluted air and drive on unsafe bridges? Who doesn’t give a damn if their elderly parents have to sleep on a cot in their basement? Who makes it impossible for an average family to pay for cancer treatments?

We will never have the big corporate bucks that the Repubs have, so we’ll have to make up for that with brain and muscle power. The Democratic Platform is a winner if we can explain it so that voters feel as strongly as we do about helping working and middle class families, protecting our environment and defending our civil rights. Let’s start now organizing local study groups to learn the Platform and find ways to persuade voters to join us. It’s one thing to tell them the “free market” extremists are robbing them, but we have to have something better to offer them.
Susan C