Camp OFA(Training)
Camp OFA is a training program for OFA Fellows and volunteers to learn key organizing skills and connect with other volunteers in their communities around the issues that are important to them.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
OFA Training in Memphis this Saturday!
Jennifer Buck Wallace passed this to me and I wanted to share with you!
Monday, September 23, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Why Medical Costs are too high in the USA
It is complex, but I have three words that would simply this: MEDICARE FOR ALL.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Next steps to rebuild the TNDP
Good to see that Clay Crownover took my response in the right spirit and asked for my thoughts as where we should go next.
First, I do NOT believe that we should be an urban-only party. Rural parts of this state are hurting and hurting badly, especially West Tennessee, which has been hemorrhaging jobs. We as a party have to show that we can create the infrastructure that creates jobs and brings companies to this state.
We need more small business to start and grow, as they provide more jobs in the long run. We need to stop paying big companies to move here and subsidize the jobs they provide. They are supposed to be paying for their share, not vice versa.
As a party, we have to develop from the ground up, in EVERY county. We have to make people realize that politics is personal, and crucial, and is NOT a bad word, except when megabusiness owns the process. We need YOUNG people involved, and not just to be gofers in campaigns, but to be involved at EVERY level and not just to be blown off when we are done with them.
With regards to the word conservative, that term has been so bastardized that no one really knows WHAT it means any more. People are scared, and rightly so, but we have to help them understand that by voting Republican, they are hurting themselves more than they are hurting anyone else.
Unfortunately, our media is so dominated by the corporate right-wing, all you can see and hear are right-wing memes on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and his ilk. When that's all you ever hear, you expect people to starting believing the lies they put out.
This is going to be a long process for the state and local Democratic Parties. We cannot operate as we have in the past. We need organization, organization, organization because we cannot ever win a money war with the Republicans. We need to GROW Democrats, and that doesn't happen overnight.
Your thoughts?
First, I do NOT believe that we should be an urban-only party. Rural parts of this state are hurting and hurting badly, especially West Tennessee, which has been hemorrhaging jobs. We as a party have to show that we can create the infrastructure that creates jobs and brings companies to this state.
We need more small business to start and grow, as they provide more jobs in the long run. We need to stop paying big companies to move here and subsidize the jobs they provide. They are supposed to be paying for their share, not vice versa.
As a party, we have to develop from the ground up, in EVERY county. We have to make people realize that politics is personal, and crucial, and is NOT a bad word, except when megabusiness owns the process. We need YOUNG people involved, and not just to be gofers in campaigns, but to be involved at EVERY level and not just to be blown off when we are done with them.
With regards to the word conservative, that term has been so bastardized that no one really knows WHAT it means any more. People are scared, and rightly so, but we have to help them understand that by voting Republican, they are hurting themselves more than they are hurting anyone else.
Unfortunately, our media is so dominated by the corporate right-wing, all you can see and hear are right-wing memes on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and his ilk. When that's all you ever hear, you expect people to starting believing the lies they put out.
This is going to be a long process for the state and local Democratic Parties. We cannot operate as we have in the past. We need organization, organization, organization because we cannot ever win a money war with the Republicans. We need to GROW Democrats, and that doesn't happen overnight.
Your thoughts?
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Advertisements for Myself, and other happenings
Remember my post about Jim Cooper that noted that he should run for the Senate in the event Joe Carr knocks off LAMAR! in the primary? Jackson Baker saw fit to run it in the Flyer this week, for which we are grateful. He is as good a friend as this blog has ever had and he champions it at every opportunity, for which I offer him a heart-felt THANK YOU.
Next, I hesitate to write about this, but WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON AT THE TNDP THESE DAYS? After what was noted to be a highly-successful Jackson Day fundraiser on Saturday night, we were greeted with the news that Kevin Teets, TNDP's Executive Director, had resigned his post.
How surprising was this news? So much that it caught our friend Gale Jones Carson, the longtime TNDP Secretary, completely offguard. I am here to tell you that if GALE didn't see this coming, no one else did, either. Then, to compound matters, Steven Hale of the Nashville Scene, who broke the Teets story, then broke the news that staffers Allison Jones (office manager) and Cortnye Stone (deputy finance director) ALSO resigned. This left the TNDP with TWO paid staff members, Brandon Puttbrese, the terrific communications director, and chief fundraiser Jake Dunavant.
How in the hell are you going to run ANY campaign with ONLY TWO paid Staffers? And why also did Finance Committee Chair Jerry Maynard and Finance Committee member Mary Patterson resign their positions on that committee (they chose to stay on the Executive Committee)?
ExecCom, it's YOUR JOB to stay on top of Roy. What the hell is going on there, and why should anyone have any confidence in his leadership? With the exception of the potential Sara Kyle for Governor campaign, why should we support the TNDP, if it is not effective? I am asking YOU to investigate this matter.
Enough on that.
While all that's going on, a young fellow named Clay Crownover, who apparently has his own firm in Knoxville called CFC Strategies, LLC, (first I have heard of it, to be truthful) wrote a piece about what ails Tennessee Democrats. Allow me to summarize this:
STFU, YOU DAMN HIPPIES. TENNESSEE IS A CONSERVATIVE STATE AND ONLY CONSERVATIVES CAN BE ELECTED, SO SHUT UP AND GET IN LINE.
Well, you read it yourself; go ahead, I'll wait. This fellow, who I thought was actually quite thoughtful, just came to inaccurate conclusions in defense of the aforementioned Roy Herron. What Mr. Crownover doesn't seem to understand is that Blue Dog Democrats are no longer electable in this state (Ask Bart Gordon, Jim Cooper, et al). 2010 drove the last nail in that coffin. People who quit voting for Democrats after 2008 when we elected that, well, YOU KNOW, to the Presidency are not coming back to this party. I really don't care about whether they do come back because I don't think racists should be welcome in our party.
It's their children and grandchildren that I want to bring into this party, those open to a message of equality in opportunity and in ALL matters, to ensure that the megacorporations are broken up to give small businesses a chance, and to ensure that workers receive a fairer percentage of the bounty they produce. Mr. Crownover seems to fall into the trap that we have to chase older white folks who turned their backs on the New Deal message once they understood we meant to be for more than just white folks. They're not coming back. EVER.
Younger Tennesseans will be more open to our message, and we need to be working on them NOW. We need to bring them into the party, and LISTEN to them, and encourage them to work in campaigns, and to get them to RUN, even if they might lose at first. I hope that Mr. Crownover, who seems like a good person that cares about his party, will take part in this, because I don't want to run him off, I do want to have a conversation. I just think that if we forget who we ARE as a party, that we stand for equality, small business and the working man, we might as well not exist.
What are your thoughts?
Next, I hesitate to write about this, but WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON AT THE TNDP THESE DAYS? After what was noted to be a highly-successful Jackson Day fundraiser on Saturday night, we were greeted with the news that Kevin Teets, TNDP's Executive Director, had resigned his post.
How surprising was this news? So much that it caught our friend Gale Jones Carson, the longtime TNDP Secretary, completely offguard. I am here to tell you that if GALE didn't see this coming, no one else did, either. Then, to compound matters, Steven Hale of the Nashville Scene, who broke the Teets story, then broke the news that staffers Allison Jones (office manager) and Cortnye Stone (deputy finance director) ALSO resigned. This left the TNDP with TWO paid staff members, Brandon Puttbrese, the terrific communications director, and chief fundraiser Jake Dunavant.
How in the hell are you going to run ANY campaign with ONLY TWO paid Staffers? And why also did Finance Committee Chair Jerry Maynard and Finance Committee member Mary Patterson resign their positions on that committee (they chose to stay on the Executive Committee)?
ExecCom, it's YOUR JOB to stay on top of Roy. What the hell is going on there, and why should anyone have any confidence in his leadership? With the exception of the potential Sara Kyle for Governor campaign, why should we support the TNDP, if it is not effective? I am asking YOU to investigate this matter.
Enough on that.
While all that's going on, a young fellow named Clay Crownover, who apparently has his own firm in Knoxville called CFC Strategies, LLC, (first I have heard of it, to be truthful) wrote a piece about what ails Tennessee Democrats. Allow me to summarize this:
STFU, YOU DAMN HIPPIES. TENNESSEE IS A CONSERVATIVE STATE AND ONLY CONSERVATIVES CAN BE ELECTED, SO SHUT UP AND GET IN LINE.
Well, you read it yourself; go ahead, I'll wait. This fellow, who I thought was actually quite thoughtful, just came to inaccurate conclusions in defense of the aforementioned Roy Herron. What Mr. Crownover doesn't seem to understand is that Blue Dog Democrats are no longer electable in this state (Ask Bart Gordon, Jim Cooper, et al). 2010 drove the last nail in that coffin. People who quit voting for Democrats after 2008 when we elected that, well, YOU KNOW, to the Presidency are not coming back to this party. I really don't care about whether they do come back because I don't think racists should be welcome in our party.
It's their children and grandchildren that I want to bring into this party, those open to a message of equality in opportunity and in ALL matters, to ensure that the megacorporations are broken up to give small businesses a chance, and to ensure that workers receive a fairer percentage of the bounty they produce. Mr. Crownover seems to fall into the trap that we have to chase older white folks who turned their backs on the New Deal message once they understood we meant to be for more than just white folks. They're not coming back. EVER.
Younger Tennesseans will be more open to our message, and we need to be working on them NOW. We need to bring them into the party, and LISTEN to them, and encourage them to work in campaigns, and to get them to RUN, even if they might lose at first. I hope that Mr. Crownover, who seems like a good person that cares about his party, will take part in this, because I don't want to run him off, I do want to have a conversation. I just think that if we forget who we ARE as a party, that we stand for equality, small business and the working man, we might as well not exist.
What are your thoughts?
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