The Path Forward
One of the biggest pet peeves my better half has is when people complain about stuff. but never offer any constructive suggestions. It occurred to me that in my last little rant I mentioned that the Texas Democratic Party has been a dumpster fire over the past two and a half decades. So, I am offering a few suggestions to the party in case they are listening.
Craft a Consistent Message
The GOP does a few things well. The main thing they do well is repeat their message ad nauseum. How many times have we complained about their obsession about transkids using the wrong bathroom, wanting to play girls sports, or Hunter’s laptop. It’s all about distracting you from stuff we don’t want you to see. It is all about working you into a frenzy. Hell, they spent five decades trying to overturn Roe v. Wade. It took a long time but it worked. We can do the same thing.
Could you imagine if we could muster an anti-assault weapon message and keep sustaining it over years? If all you did is link the GOP and our state reps to gun violence and gun deaths then you’d go a long way. This is where strategy comes into play. We care about a lot of things. That’s good, but that’s not good for elective politics. If you care about twelve different things then you really don’t care about anything. If you care about one or two things and repeat that message over and over again you have a fighting chance.
Avoid the Labels
Most Texans are not progressive. At least they don’t label themselves that way. Usually when you describe a policy or idea they buy in even if it is a progressive idea. For the love of everything good and holy, please avoid catch phrases. Stuff like “defund the police” isn’t going to win elections. All it does it give the GOP more fodder. If you describe it then you have a fighting chance. It should go without saying but we cannot step too far away from the center in this state. I can’t speak for anywhere else, but when you start talking gun confiscation or anything else that sounds radical you’ve lost. That is why Beto got his ass beat. Too many people saw him as extreme.
Run your best
It drives me absolutely nuts when Democrats run people for statewide office that no one has ever heard of. It’s what I loved about Howard Dean when he ran the DNC. He had the 50 state strategy where you contested every election in every state. On a national level it might swing one state, but as we have seen in recent elections, one state can make a huge difference. At the state level it might be a handful of legislators. It might be a few percentage points here or there. When you run prominent people that can both repeat a message and offer a realistic alternative then you have a chance.
I think your suggestions are good and apply to many states and might be especially helpful in purple states. Consistent messages without foot in mouth labels and extreme positions are how independents decide. The defund the police type messages hurt in almost every election and helped R’s take the house. Leave putting the foot in the mouth stuff to trumpf and other far right politicians. There are plenty of those.
1Let’s give Nick a couple of bullwhips, a mace, and a .45 ACP M1911 w/extra mags, and put him in charge of the TxDP ASAP damnit!
2A friend was a precinct chair in a very conservative area east of Dallas. She got the daily talking points every day. You could see the tv news and have lunch with her and it was the same topic. All the talk show Republican politicians, same subject. I always thought it was straight from Frank Luntz through to the party big wigs and elected on down to precinct chairs.
Currently in Texas and elsewhere the subject is Democrats love criminals and they are letting them all out of jail, no bail. They can kill and rob more people. Nobody knows jack about the O’Donnell suit. Harris county put up a site to inform anybody about arrest, bail, convictions, etc. It’s there for all to see. But nobody knows about it. The Ds say nothing. Now that the Rs have the 10 Commandments in the bag, they are after chaplins in the schools. It’ll happen next season.
3Please suggest a statewide-known democrat in Texas that we should be asking to run? I can’t think of a single one (besides Beto) I’m supporting Colin Allred for Senate today, but I’d never heard of him 2 weeks ago.
4One of the characters in The West Wing once commented that “Republicans are good at naming things.” The Ds used to be – that’s where terms like “estate tax” came from.
“Forced birth” is a good start (though IMHO “forced pregnancy” might even be better, even if it is more syllables).
5The Democratic Party at both the state and national levels think that running on the “Not as bad as the other guy” will win elections. They keep doing the same thing over and over and getting nowhere.
6I’ve heard that organizing Democrats is like herding cats and I believe it. We need some discipline and organization or we will continue to live under GOP domination.
7The Dems I hang around with all consider themselves to be decent, ordinary people with sane ideas and think that they can influence the uncommitted voter by example rather than engagement.
Unfortunately, the uncommitted don’t pay much attention to arguments by example.
8these are not things within the control of the TDP, except possibly #1. even then, asking democrats to unify under a central message sort of misses what being a democrat is all about. and the failure to do so is certainly not unique to Texas Democrats.
#2: no one is campaigning to “defund the police.” that is a catchphrase used by activists, not the TDP, and not just in Texas. nothing the TDP can do about that.
#3: really? you think they have better options asking to run and they are saying no?
i appreciate the attempt to go back and clean up your previous post, but this post just highlights how empty the criticism really is.
9Joel,
Actually yes I do and I am not the only one. El Jefe has spent time in this space outlining why some of the candidates they have picked have been the wrong ones.
In terms of labels and catchphrases, your point is valid except the TDP has allowed the GOP to saddle them with these labels without hardly any pushback. Collier was labeled as a Biden Democrat when there is little evidence of that. This goes back to old-fashioned high school debate rules. When your opponent makes a point you do not challenge, you have conceded the point.
Whether the TDP is guilty of any of this myopia or not is certainly debatable, but they aren’t doing much to combat the charges that they are. In fact, they don’t seem to be doing much at all.
Of course, these criticisms could be empty. I suppose that’s for every reader to decide, but I don’t know if anyone could argue that the TDP has been effective at anything over the past two and a half decades.
10wow. ok.
“Actually yes I do and I am not the only one. El Jefe has spent time in this space outlining why some of the candidates they have picked have been the wrong ones.”
TDP doesn’t “pick” candidates, they take whatever they can get, from a pretty slim pool. the candidates run and the primary voters vote. when you criticize the TDP, are you referring to the 20 or so people working in an office in Austin, or all texas democratic voters?
“In terms of labels and catchphrases, your point is valid except the TDP has allowed the GOP to saddle them with these labels without hardly any pushback. Collier was labeled as a Biden Democrat when there is little evidence of that.”
well, if you think Texas Democrats should resist being associated with perhpas the most moderate Democratic politician this century, OK. lining up behind your party’s presidential candidate is not generally considered political malpractice, nor is it a sign that the TDP is too progressive. if anything, this could be an argument for the opposite.
“Whether the TDP is guilty of any of this myopia or not is certainly debatable, but they aren’t doing much to combat the charges that they are. In fact, they don’t seem to be doing much at all … I don’t know if anyone could argue that the TDP has been effective at anything over the past two and a half decades.”
I can assure you they are working hard. This particular verison of the critique discounts context. the TDP is losing, not because of a failure to identify or confront these issues, but rather because they are competing in a game that has been totally rigged against them. Texas Republicans have spent my entire lifetime changing the rules, making it harder to vote, dumbing down the education system in which you and I both work, and generally fanning the flames of bigotry, in order to lock in their power. It worked. There is literally nothing the TDP can do now to be “effective” and win back the state, until the “moderates” who want to bash them start doing the work needed. Holla back when you next go to Uvalde to start registering voters.
11Joel, The TDP has certainly utterly failed in many of it’s missions. At the link below I made comments (among many similar on others) about how my US House District TX-15, which had been 100% Democratic throughout it’s long history, was flipped to the Rethugs with Mayra Flores, a pleasant appearing RWNJ. Mostly because the TDP and national D Party just bugged out of that race. I gave examples of what I witnessed in the way of adverts, mailings, etc. The Democrat running was buried by the onslaught, and got almost no party support.
So this District became one of the FOUR critical seats that have given a lot of power to the Rethugs (and in the same relative position the Democrats have proven time after time to be toothless!).
Now the Rethugs are giving Biden and the Dems fits.
And the Dems never seem to learn how the games are played…
https://juanitajean.com/mind-the-gap-4/#comments
12“The Democrat running was buried by the onslaught, and got almost no party support.”
this seems to be your main piece of evidence (the bottom part is not about texas democrats at all).
what would you have had them do? spend more money? what money? who gives money to the TDP? do you?
13ops, i just re-read your comment, Sandridge. now i realize it isn’t about the TDP *at all*.
the TDP has nothing to do with US House races. take your complaint to the DCCC.
14Multiple things can be true at the same time. So, the GOP has been effective at rigging the system. No one can argue that. However, it’s difficult to claim that the TDP has been effective. Talking about where candidates come from and who is responsible for choosing is certainly a salient point but we also know that effective parties recruit good candidates and groom (damn I hate how that word has been hijacked) existing ones to help them be more effective.
Let’s take Beto as an example. Beto was well known and an excellent fund raiser. He almost pulled off the upset of Ted Cruz. From there he seemed to go downhill. In general, the party (national and state) needs to do a better job of sheparding these candidates when they emerge. Someone was giving him bad advice. A presidential run after a failed Senate run was not the right move. Talking about gun confiscation was not the right move.
Now your opinion on party politics largely depends on how much blame you want to attribute to the party, the candidates, or the voters. It’s an uphill battle to be sure, but no one really likes Cruz, Abbott, or Patrick. They are beatable on that level as Beto almost showed. I see parties as being more responsible for messaging, overall strategy, and general fund raising. If I wanted to run for office (for instance) then what kind of support would I get? Would I get advice, fund raising support, tactical support or am I on my own.
Even if the party said, “no one knows you. Start smaller and build up a resume” that would still be something other than “best of luck, we are all rooting for you.”
15There was a time in my life when I was engaged in political campaigns 24/7/365 in Texas. In all the campaigns there was nothing from the TDP controllers in Austin. I gave up when they turned their noses up at Howard Dean’s admonition to be active in every district, Texas house, senate and congressional.
16I was at the John Hill headquarters in Houston everyday. I’ll never forget the day I told the V&E lawyers he was gonna lose. It was a couple of weeks before election day. They thought i was nuts as they were busy selecting their state job. But they also thought talk radio was for crazy people. It was. But they vote. It’s a damn shame nobody in that campaign would listen to Alvin Van Black and the other station’s precursor to Dan Patrick. He knew the significance so he bought the radio station. Now he runs the state.
And the TDP is still doing nothing.
AFA Beto goes. He almost did it. And he brought out a lot of voters so Harris county is now D.
But they know nothing about nurturing volunteers. My house was a training center. And when the woman from California told me she was driving from the U of H area housing to Waller, to my house to the UoH every night, I said stay here for the remains 5 weeks or so. As did the volunteers who came from out of town on the weekends..
Beto campaign never once contacted us, sent a thanks email. Not that I was looking for any of that. But, it’s part of campaigning. The persons running Beto’s campaign can KMA. Because they have no clue about nurturing volunteers they will need next time.
Campaign people do not ride in the POTUS limo with the POTUS, the hard working volunteers do. The Texas Democratic party needs that lesson.
Joel, So, in your opinion none of the branches of the Democratic Party have any effective connections to each other, right?
You know what? That is exactly why the fucking Republicans are kicking the Democrats asses all the way up and down the ballots.
The Republicans run a tightknit MONOLITHIC party apparatus in which every fucking bit of it is tied to and aware of what the other parts are doing.
And they are all on the same goddamned page, ALL of the fucking time! Their entire raison d’entre is to kick Democratic ass and acquire and maintain power.
Meanwhile, Democrats flit all over the goddamned landscape, chasing rainbows and pissing in the wind at every silly ass topic du jour that catches their fancy. And get beat into the dirt every damned time.
Nick, El Jefe, Crone, and all of us keep trying to tell your type that doing the exact same things over and over and getting our asses whipped every time is the very definition of INSANITY!
17At a minimum, maybe we can do our own little small part. We can put up a gun deaths tracker in Texas and just say “Brought to you by Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP.” The key is not for us to stop caring about all the things we care about. The GOP doesn’t stop caring. They care about gerrymandering, cutting taxes, protecting guns, eliminating regulations, busting unions, taking women’s autonomy over their own bodies, and censorship. They only tell you about the ones that will get you to vote for them. We need to do the same. Dammit, I want us to govern. Workshop these things and focus only on those things that galvanize the public. Then keep repeating it over and over and over and over and over again until they can recite it backwards and forwards.
18I’m going to suggest someone that can reinvigorate the state Democratic Party. Henry Cisneros understandably left politics and has made a lot of money. The business community respects him and his wide ranging expertise. I urge him to run against Ted Cruz!
Ted Cruz is as responsible for the January 6 insurrection as Donald Trump. He allowed Donald Trump to disparage his wife and father yet kissed his ring. Cruz will do or say anything to get media attention, such as claiming Anthony Fauci belongs in prison.
Cruz still doesn’t have any values of his own. He will pretend to be a friend if it will help his ambition to get elected to a higher office.
19Sandridge: I just got an email from Rochelle Garza (former Democratic candidate for TX Att General) campaigning for Michelle Vallejo (Democratic candidate for US House TX-15).
So I guess problem solved? Some Democrats coordinating with other Democrats?
PS – I agree that Democrats could coordinate better. But that is not a criticism of the TDP, and it isn’t anything they could solve. Any more than blaming your local, neighborhood school for the problems with public education …
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