With the bitter, sad, infuriating news about the overturning of Roe I think we might be need to take a moment to reflect on past assumptions and what works to gain a Democratic majority.
This topic has been on my mind for quite awhile but with the ruling today I think it’s time to float this idea here, now and then expand on the specifics later.
As many of you know, Markos is a former Republican. I too am a former Republican. And there are quite a few former Republicans here on this site. We are here because we believe in the motto “more and better Democrats” even though we may not always agree with all positions espoused by the awesome progressives/liberals that drive this site.
With this ruling today, the need to radically expand Democratic voting blocks is very apparent. And I think we need to pause and think of all possible strategies.
One of the strategies that I propose is to create a forum here at DKOS to empower former Republicans to have regularly scheduled diaries between now and the 2024 election explaining several possible things. The first is why we supported Republicans in the past and why we are now supporting Democrats. The second is why we viewed a specific issue through a conservative/Republican lens and why we now better understand a wider perspective and disagree with the Republican approach.
But to get down to brass tacks, the main thing that I want to say to this community is that Saul Alinsky had a lot of great ideas on how to influence, engage, energize the base of the Democratic party. I personally think that right wingers like Sean Hannity both crucify Alinsky and yet faithfully follow his teachings to phenomenal effect amongst Republicans. In short, Republicans are better at implementing Alinsky’s ideas than Democrats are at implementing them.
One of Alinsky’s sayings was to “reach people where they are”. That very simple observation/guidance is, I believe, a key component to changing our country. My contention is that we apply that guidance and understand two key facts: 1) Republicans are in an echo chamber and they view all Democrats as socialists and communists. 2) The best voice to reach Republicans and Independents are the voices of people that were former independents and Republicans.
If you follow that logic, one of the things we need here is to empower (trusted) former Republicans on this site to help bring disgruntled independents and Republicans into our fold. We have a lot of issue specific groups here and I think we need to create a group that gives voice to why people are now voting for Democrats even though they may identify as conservative/independent/Republican.
By way of analogy I’ll cite the movie Mississippi Burning. In that movie an idealist northerner teamed up with a “conservative” Southerner to help solve the murders in 1965 of three people (two voting rights activists and a local Mississipian). The takeaway that I have is that while the northerner “do gooder” had the right values, the southerner that grew up in the South bettre knew how to reach southerners (and do so in safe way).
My take is that former Republicans are better at explaining to independents and Republicans why we switched from Republican to Democrat. We can better explain why we are pro-capitalism, we love our country, we abhor what the Republican party has become and why Democrats aren’t what they are portrayed in right wing media.
My call is to empower former Republicans (like Markos himself) to enlarge the Democratic tent and have a platform here at DKOS to help bring in independents and open minded Republicans.
There are literally millions of Republicans that are shocked by the ruling today. Let’s give them a reason to reconsider the Democratic party. My view is that we need to reach independents and Republicans where they are and the voices that they are most likely to listen to are people like them that have made the switch from independent/Republican to Democrat.
I humbly suggest we need to create a former Republican forum here where we can help transition people to the Democratic party and assure them that we aren’t what they say we are in their echo chamber.
I’m a poor writer but I know a lot of talented writers here at DKOS that were former Republicans. Let’s empower them to welcome people to vote Democratic even though they may not have all the same views as the majority here.
This is our time to turn this shit around. We need to empower all sub-groups to GOTV and change “hearts and minds”. Forming this type of subgroup at DKOS is a way to give an entry point to disaffected Republicans and Independents and reach them where they are, not where the average DKOS reader is.
Let’s discuss the pros and cons of this and see if we can enlarge the tent.
