Posted on 06/18/2005 7:20:49 AM PDT by Commander Salamander
India is a nation of traditional family values and hard work. Social norms are enforced. Their American born children are told to ignore the decadent American values (booze, drugs and loose behavior), be traditional and take advantage of the economical freedom and opportunities in this country. So how does the DNC support for sodomy, no judgemental values and welfare compatible with Indian culture?
Yea: tell that to Justice Janice Rodgers Brown.
Democrats hope road back to power runs through Austin
Members of progressive wing of party descend on town to talk shop.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, June 18, 2005
The long road back to political power may start beneath a live oak tree beside the chapel on the Huston-Tillotson University campus. Friday morning, groups of Democratic activists gathered in its shade to plan the national turf wars still years away.
"We've got to establish the message of the Democratic party: that we're not against America, that we're not immoral people," Sandra Brown, a committed Democrat from Galveston County, said. "We've been relying on Republicans to define us."
The activists, more than 900 of them all told from 36 states as well as the District of Columbia, Japan and France, have descended on Austin for DemocracyFest 2005, a three-day convention of progressive politics that is one part kvetch and two parts prep.
They have brought their donkey shirts, their American flag koozies and their buttons with "DeLay" in strike- through.
If November's losses make them seem a bit like a rebel guerilla force putting together forest tactics, the event also marks their willingness to go on the attack again, the wounds from their previous battle finally healing.
Tonight, Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee and in many ways a near-religious figure for these pilgrims, headlines a celebration at Stubb's Bar-B-Q.
The festival aims to engage the grass roots in a nonelection year and to improve the electability to borrow a commonly heard word in 2004 of the progressive wing of the party.
In policy discussions such as "How the left can reclaim a moral foundation," organizers are hoping to prompt discussion that translates into platform changes.
And in meetings like "Candidate Development," "Turning Red States Blue," and "Projecting Turnout for Your Race," they will discuss how to win back blocs of the Hispanic vote, how to shorten their message and even how to talk to Republicans.
"We've got to quit having such good manners," said Carolyn Moon, a precinct chairwoman in Nueces County who actually owns a yellow dog. "If it wasn't for those damn Yankees, this state is Democratic."
Anybody north of the Nueces River, Moon explained, is a Yankee.
Dean founded Democracy for America last year after he lost his bid for the Democratic nomination for president. Its base is "socially progressive and fiscally responsible," said Fran Vincent, director of the Texas chapter.
Some of these delegates, the self-described Deaniacs, found themselves in the position of being at odds with a centrist streak in their own party and scorned by the Republicans who paint them as radicals.
"They think we're the outcasts of the party," is how Sal Liccione, a Democratic political operative from Westport, Conn., summed up the relationship between progressives and the party old guard in his state.
Meshing the viewpoints is one of the challenges Democrats face in coming years.
"We're regrouping," Liccione said.
The state Republican chairwoman, for her part, has called DemocracyFest part of the "Howard Dean Insult and Alienate America Tour."
"In Texas, Dean will find what everyone else already knows: that under a decade of Republican leadership, we are one of the most diverse and prosperous states in the country," the chairwoman, Tina Benkiser, said in a statement.
"I recommend that Howard Dean enjoy our Southern hospitality for a short time while taking note of the fact that Texans have rejected his liberal Democrat ideas and that Democrats don't win elections in Texas."
Some of the discussion Friday indeed revealed just how much Democrats' fortunes have dwindled across a state that once sent a Hill Country boy to the White House.
In a session about "How to be a state leader," DeeJay Johannessen of Tarrant County urged Democrats to open booths at local festivals, just to let rural Democrats know that other Democrats still exist.
...or any other black conservative/Republican (like me)
Dean lives in an alternative universe.
Me too, Howie
But .. when Dean gets through insulting voters .. the GOP will have a HUGE LOCK ON TEXAS.
Well, in a way he's right, as long as the Travis County DA can indict any statewide officeholder for any reason.
I'm looking forward to Dr. Zowie criss-crossing Texas, telling everyone to "forget about God, guns, and gays!" That'll either put Texas in play, or else it'll get Zowie's ass shot off. My money's on the latter.
Texas - Republican. Florida - Republican. India? I'm not too sure...
Dean reminds me of a couple of teachers I use to have that did not know what was actually going on in the class room most of the time.
I'm not sure what data you look at, but Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Auston all have strong RAT leaders. It is a little hard to win a state when your big cities vote for the other guy. In addition, Perry has a less than perfect business rating - he has broken more promises than you can imagine. That leaves who after he runs one more time? GWB truned the state towards the republicans, but he did not build enough - not because he didn't try. I'm not so sure that Texas - which put a lot of Klinton votes on the board is a Republican stronghold.
""This party is a party that believes in diversity.""
Unless of course you are a Christian, a white male, a black conservative, or a member of the military whose family has not protested the war in Iraq or against terror.
You can't write jokes about this sort of stuff. The laughs just jump off the screen without modification.
"Turning Red States Blue"
Well, if the libs get back in power in Texas, I will be blue.
If Texas ever goes blue.....the end will be near.
Dean is showing that he belongs writing for Letterman or Leno instead of the DNC. But as long as he works for the DNC, I can't see the dems taking any part of the government back for a long long time.
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