The Democratic Party of Virginia State Central Committee at its December 2009 meeting voted to form a Strategic Plan Committee. Ten tactical thoughts to consider:
- Coordinate DPVA goals with those of President Obama. We all worked very hard together in 2008 to change America and elect Barak Obama. As he said on election night, “This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change.” President Obama’s successes are the Democratic Party’s successes and will be our country’s successes, so we better get on the same page.
- Improve DPVA coordination with Organizing for America. OFA staff and volunteer activists are awesome, but we need better coordination between OFA and DPVA and local Democratic Committees, including making OFA part of DPVA meetings.
- Hire Field Staff. The DNC 50-State Strategy did a terrific job of funding regional coordinators to help the party organize. The new DNC approach provides some support for State Parties, but focuses more on OFA. Can we use OFA folks for field activities or should we separately fund those organizers?
- Improve the DPVA website. The site needs to be fixed to make it easier to find and use resources and to facilitate social networking, virtual phone banking, and fundraising. For example, Democrats from anywhere in the state ought to be able to access the website (with passcode), get names of voters to call for Eileen Filler-Corn’s special election, and input the results on-line. (Also, I think we can retire the 2009 campaign pictures on the front page.)
- Improve Central Committee communications. For starters, why don’t we have an updated Central Committee face-book-type social networking page that people know about and use? We don’t circulate Central Committee minutes for three months, but we can post meeting summaries, as well as regular updates regarding party activities, on the website, and/or distribute via email.
- Stand for something. The DPVA 1995 Strategic Plan (the last time we did this) called for the establishment of a Message Committee. When the Party lacks a Governor, we need to step up and craft a message so people know what we stand for. And DPVA should set up a speakers’ bureau to spread that message.
- Assist City and County Democratic Committee year-round efforts. One of the best things we have is the Virginia Association of Democratic Chairs – we should continue to support its training efforts to build local committees and facilitate year round voter registration, voter identification, and other party building activities.
- Reinvent meetings. For years, Central Committee meetings have focused on candidate speeches. T hat’s fine, but we should also explore more interactive, workshop-type approaches.
- Continue improving the lists and upgrading voter technology.
- Raise some money. Without the Governor, raising money is harder. W e need to be creative to fund all the great ideas folks have.
Sounds Great! This is exactly what we need to do.
Millions of Americans, who had NEVER voted Democratic in their lives, voted for President Obama. Most did not vote for him because of his biracial background, but because they desperately wanted someone to un-do the harm done to our LIBERTY by the Bush regime.
The citizens wanted to stop government agencies from spying on us, and they wanted government reigned in, so that our citizens would no longer be imprisoned without trial or formal charges. Most of us, although we are not “peaceniks” also wanted an end to the undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We wanted to use those resources being pissed away on Bush’s wars on developing a US energy independence program that would make us energy independent by 2020. We also wanted strong action against the multinational corporations who have been raping US labor for the past two decades. Our unemployment is more like 20-30 percent, if you count those who have given-up and who have reduced themselves to living off of relatives, and most Americans want to know where the J-O-B-S are.
Instead, we got gridlock over a health care bill that protects the insurance parasites and their pals, big Pharma, while making our citizens liable for a fine or jail if they refuse to buy into the program.
President Obama should not hear fake claims of support from the grassroots. He doesn’t have any and won’t have our support until he gets back to focusing on the economy and job creation. That stinker of a health care bill should be tabled and Democrats should go back to the drawing board. Focus on JOBS and restoring the usurpations to our LIBERTY that were enacted by Bush.
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