- Barracuda Bang!
- Oct 21, 2008
-
The first rule of No Avatar Club is: you do not talk about No Avatar Club. The second rule of No Avatar Club is: you DO NOT talk about No Avatar Club
-
Grimey Drawer
|
i second this post. i'd go to the meeting tomorrow but i got class
Anyone have any details on their relationship to the New Queens Democrats?
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2016 18:32
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2024 09:26
|
|
- Barracuda Bang!
- Oct 21, 2008
-
The first rule of No Avatar Club is: you do not talk about No Avatar Club. The second rule of No Avatar Club is: you DO NOT talk about No Avatar Club
-
Grimey Drawer
|
I wonder what trying to join the Republican party is like? Is it equally difficult, or is it more streamlined? That might explain why they've got better ground game.
My understanding of the Tea Party is that they basically ran into similar issues with the Republican Party local groups when they were getting started, and that part of their ferocity had to do with how frustrated they were because of it.
The Republican Party seems a lot more responsive and open than the Democratic Party right now, and I think that's because the Tea Partiers cracked it open like ten years ago (not actually sure about the exact time frame).
I don't have any quotable evidence for this, but I'd be curious if anyone has any supporting or contradictory opinions.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2016 20:31
|
|
- Barracuda Bang!
- Oct 21, 2008
-
The first rule of No Avatar Club is: you do not talk about No Avatar Club. The second rule of No Avatar Club is: you DO NOT talk about No Avatar Club
-
Grimey Drawer
|
Found a treasure trove of NYC-specific Democratic Party participation information in this article: http://cityandstateny.com/articles/politics/new-york-city/the-who,-what,-where-and-why-of-county-committees/#.WEr3W-YrJhE
It's also mixed in with a lol-worthy account of something in the Bronx where people signed up people for their county committee without them knowing, and all of these unknowing committee members basically all lived in the same apartment building. I'm assuming there was also a move to get these people to give proxy votes to "real" members, but who knows.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2016 19:31
|
|
- Barracuda Bang!
- Oct 21, 2008
-
The first rule of No Avatar Club is: you do not talk about No Avatar Club. The second rule of No Avatar Club is: you DO NOT talk about No Avatar Club
-
Grimey Drawer
|
Here's an obvious one that I think most liberals/progressives agree on (to a degree), but still worth adding to the list:
"Everyone Deserves A Vote"
It's an utter failing of the democratic process that there are people who are unable to vote due to failure to register, lack of ability to reach voting stations, or other reasons.
1. Automatic voter enrollment upon turning 18 for all US citizens. All naturalized citizens are automatically enrolled upon taking the oath and receiving their naturalization. Make it illegal to strip a citizen of their voting rights for any reason, most notably change of address and incarceration.
2. Mandatory 2-week early voting period, including weekends.
3. Election Day is a mandatory county/state/national holiday, allowing those who can't vote early to vote on election day.
4. Equal distribution of voting stations in all precincts and districts. Strict regulation and harsh fines for states in violation of this regulation.
5. Declare all voter ID laws unconstitutional.
6. Allow all citizens to vote by mail, for any reason, not just disabled citizens and citizens of a certain age.
Targets: Minorities, the elderly, the disenfranchised, and working class citizens.
Opposition: By and large, conservatives and Republicans. Increases in voter turnout pulls the overall voting population to the center or center-left.
That's maybe not such an easy soundbite since it has so many parts, but each one is equally important. Maybe split this into two groups, anti-disenfranchisement and overall reform?
Comedy Option: "Eat the Rich"
Summary: The bourgeoisie have gone too long without being eaten. Let's rectify that.
Targets: The working class. Also would provide food for those below the poverty line.
Opposition: Those not wanting to be eaten.
3 is a bad idea and will disproportionately impact the working class in a negative way. Do you think that someone making minimum wage is going to get paid for that holiday? Of course they won't. They'll be short $100+ for the month, and two weeks of early voting with enough polling stations would be sufficient to make this unnecessary.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2016 22:50
|
|
- Barracuda Bang!
- Oct 21, 2008
-
The first rule of No Avatar Club is: you do not talk about No Avatar Club. The second rule of No Avatar Club is: you DO NOT talk about No Avatar Club
-
Grimey Drawer
|
Here's an obvious one that I think most liberals/progressives agree on (to a degree), but still worth adding to the list:
"Everyone Deserves A Vote"
It's an utter failing of the democratic process that there are people who are unable to vote due to failure to register, lack of ability to reach voting stations, or other reasons.
1. Automatic voter enrollment upon turning 18 for all US citizens. All naturalized citizens are automatically enrolled upon taking the oath and receiving their naturalization. Make it illegal to strip a citizen of their voting rights for any reason, most notably change of address and incarceration.
2. Mandatory 2-week early voting period, including weekends.
3. Election Day is a mandatory county/state/national holiday, allowing those who can't vote early to vote on election day.
4. Equal distribution of voting stations in all precincts and districts. Strict regulation and harsh fines for states in violation of this regulation.
5. Declare all voter ID laws unconstitutional.
6. Allow all citizens to vote by mail, for any reason, not just disabled citizens and citizens of a certain age.
Targets: Minorities, the elderly, the disenfranchised, and working class citizens.
Opposition: By and large, conservatives and Republicans. Increases in voter turnout pulls the overall voting population to the center or center-left.
That's maybe not such an easy soundbite since it has so many parts, but each one is equally important. Maybe split this into two groups, anti-disenfranchisement and overall reform?
Comedy Option: "Eat the Rich"
Summary: The bourgeoisie have gone too long without being eaten. Let's rectify that.
Targets: The working class. Also would provide food for those below the poverty line.
Opposition: Those not wanting to be eaten.
5 doesn't really make much sense. An unconstitutional ruling comes from the courts, not the legislature, and it's not something you can do in a blanket way, preemptively.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2016 22:53
|
|
- Barracuda Bang!
- Oct 21, 2008
-
The first rule of No Avatar Club is: you do not talk about No Avatar Club. The second rule of No Avatar Club is: you DO NOT talk about No Avatar Club
-
Grimey Drawer
|
I don't mean to pick apart each of the crude proposals here. I'm kind of trying to illustrate the thought that each of these could have a thread of their own, and maybe we could keep this thread to doing what the title implies -- cracking open the Democratic Party to get a shot at actual participation. That's a big enough task on its own, and for a page or two, this thread took it seriously.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2016 22:56
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2024 09:26
|
|
- Barracuda Bang!
- Oct 21, 2008
-
The first rule of No Avatar Club is: you do not talk about No Avatar Club. The second rule of No Avatar Club is: you DO NOT talk about No Avatar Club
-
Grimey Drawer
|
There's that, but I also think there's a genuine discomfort among liberals when it comes to talking about power. Especially for neoliberals, the policies they want are just self-evidently the right ones, supported by data and backed by reason and science. Liberalism is thus inevitable and post-political. People just need to be told what the data shows, and they'll simply rationally accept these things that are in their own self-interest.
Power, in this context, is immediately suspect. It seems like a corruption. If things happen not because they're self-evidently the right move, but because some group has seized enough power to get them done, then that's the system breaking down. This resonates emotionally even liberals aren't usually aware of it at a conscious level. It's why they don't push as hard as they could when they have power and why the resistance they mount when they don't is closer to playacting than knife-fighting.
The problem, of course, is that the struggle for power isn't a corruption of the system, it's the system itself. Western democracy is founded on the idea that no one person has the answer, but the people, collectively, can find it. This search takes the form of a kind of intellectual Darwinism where advocates for different answers combat one another for the approval of the crowd. It can't function when one side thinks it's above the fight.
The latest episode of Chapo Trap House had an interview where they talked partly about the left's aversion to power, and how that dooms them.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2016 20:59
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2016 18:32
