2012 Reality Check: The Burnt Orange Report Perspective

Doing what we can (0.00 / 0)

We're a small county with a small number of precinct chairs that have gotten some hands on experience during the general election but it was mostly GOTV. We're about to embark on a concerted campaign move the political center and oust a certain long serving state rep using tools and techniques learned from Robert Creamer's book "Stand Up Straight", Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" and George Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant". We may not succeed in by 2010 but there's always 2012 so we'll just continue to build on our efforts.

If each county works to change the debate from "tax relief", "tort reform" and "environmental regulations" to "tax breaks for the wealthy paid for by taking food from poor kids", "justice and fairness for individuals" and "protecting health" we'll pick up swing voters for all candidates up and down the ballot.

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -- John Kenneth Galbraith

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by: Blue_in_Guadalupe @ Mon Jan 19, 2009 at 20:01:31 PM CST

It is up to the volunteer to choose his or her path (0.00 / 0)

"We need to stop exporting our Texas talent and dollars. As long as we allow our best trained and active volunteers to campaign in Louisiana, New Mexico, and Colorado first, we will never win the big races."

______

Personally, I think it is up to the volunteer to decide where they want to work.  It is not up to others to "allow" people to go out of state.  It isn't servitude.  They aren't YOUR volunteers.  They have minds of their own

People made decisions to go out of state and I imagine they were happy that they did so -- everybody that I talked to that did so was ecstatic.  If that is a problem for some in Texas, tough.

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by: v2aggie2 @ Mon Jan 19, 2009 at 21:04:09 PM CST

Perhaps A Poor Choice of Wording... (0.00 / 0)

...but a very worthwhile sentiment.

Yes, you're exactly right that the decision is up to the volunteer as to where she or he goes and who she or he works for.

However, raising money to pay for and recruiting candidates to motivate our Texas talent to take a second look ought to be priorities in order to give our best and brightest viable alternatives here in-state.

This nut really has two parts to crack from where I sit. The first thing is that going to work on races in other states is usually more about the bigger experience than it is about politics. In what other line of work do you get to meet scads of new folks in your age group who are all super motivated about politics AND get paid to live in a part of the country you've never lived in before? That list is pretty short.

The second thing...and, in my mind, the most important...is that once these folks have built up some campaign chops elsewhere, we need to be able to have coordinated campaigns set up and running here that they can come back and contribute to if they so choose. From those coordinated campaigns flow the local, state and national races.

Look, it's going to be a long road for most of us not in Travis, Dallas or Harris counties. The good news is that it's a road that we've already started down. All over this state we have possibilities for candidates who've run from everything from County Commissioner to the Texas State House to lay down some lessons learned that can help the next generation of candidates, staff and volunteers. We can build off these lessons learned, hopefully in coordinated campaigns, to improve our next generation of activism. By doing this, we can lay a foundation of county infrastructure and campaign infrastructure that will make our subsequent election cycles more attractive to our Texas talent.

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by: misternaxal @ Mon Jan 19, 2009 at 23:32:37 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Some thoughts... (0.00 / 0)

I don't necessarily think that going to work on races in other states is usually more about the bigger experience than it is about politics.  People go where they think they can make the most difference which is a critical element of politics.

The coordinated campaign concept is extremely worthwhile, but it never seems to go anywhere.  I imagine money may be part of it.

Finally, I will note here in Northeast Texas, that many of those who went out of state were not "party regulars."  My guess is that they were wary of the "we're too good for anyone else" attitude that can exist here.  They were much more motivated than many of the local party insiders and were attracted by the Obama campaign's direct approach.  Quite frankly, many of these party insiders may oblivious to these motivated volunteers -- they are often too interested in pettiness and inertia to notice

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by: v2aggie2 @ Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 00:02:25 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Nice Goal (0.00 / 0)

But I am worried as to how much funding and organization can be put in place by 2010. The Texas Democratic party only has so much money and is not swimming in the dough like some other state parties, or even our counter part, the Republicans of Texas. That money goes to hire and train activists and precinct chairs and there's only so much to go around.

For example, huge progress was made in Dallas, Travis, and Harris this cycle, but there is more to be done like we did in the Valley and Bexar county, especially Nueces County as well as those where progress has been made. Additionally, we are losing ground in East Texas, we need some help there if we want to hold our ground.

By precinct in Galveston County had 1300 voters this year and went 80-20 for McCain (~290 Obama votes). One down ballot democrat got close to 470 votes here and she had a little bit of a field program in my neighborhood. Our current precinct chair is just an older person who does very little, if anything. Now, we're working on turning things around, but it's only one neighborhood. How many more precincts are like this, especially in the Valley or Bexar county?

The goal is right, but is there the money and people to back it up?

And yes, I will work on my neighborhood to give better results in 2010 and do my part.

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by: trowaman @ Mon Jan 19, 2009 at 22:41:51 PM CST

Obviously (0.00 / 0)

Texas Monthly sees it all as "entertainment," while some of us correctly see it as life and death.

Glenn Smith's brilliant response should be the one in Newsweek.

But the rest of the country just wants to forget Texas and any of its politicians and politics for a very long time. Evan Smith is the right Smith for that job. Sleek writing, indeed. Shiny. And magnificently stupid.

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by: Elsbeth @ Mon Jan 19, 2009 at 23:15:37 PM CST

All points are good, including TM's points (0.00 / 0)

It's funny. I finally got the chance to dig through Evan's piece and all the commentary on it. I didn't find anything shocking in any of the pieces. Entertaining all around but also enlightening.

Four years is a lot of time between elections. Can we flip Texas in 2012? Sure. Can we lose even more ground? Sure. It all depends on what happens during those four years as to what will be outcome. If Obama and Congress achieve success we have the opportunity to win and win big. If Obama stagnates during those four years we have a challenge ahead. If Obama and Congress fail or something drastic happens during those four years we stand to lose and lose big. So Evan could be right, Glenn could be right and Matt could be right. As I've said before predicting the outcome of elections in the future is fun and foolish. But it doesn't damn the efforts.

Now regarding the efforts, Evan makes some interesting points we should consider and take action such as fielding strong statewide candidates. Glenn mentions some other points that we should build upon such as capitalizing on the bad aspects of the Rs. Matt brings out some very good points at the end of his piece we ought to take to heart such as building a strong statewide party effort for elections. But none of those three nor anyone else in here has the ability to predict what's going to happen in 2010 much less 2012.

One thing I do caution is that we should not bank on the numbers of 2008 as our basis for success. That year was an anomaly in elections. We may never see it again. The primary alone pulled us together as Ds, something that may not happen in 2012 because we'll be electing an incumbent. Get ready again for those boring primary nights where it's just you and maybe another die-hard at the caucus.

I'm willing to see how this year progresses and if we truly start building on 2008 like we keep saying we will. If we fall back into our old ways we're destined to repeat the past and Texas will stay red.

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by: RBearSAT @ Tue Jan 20, 2009 at 21:32:43 PM CST