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It’s time to vote again in the dual effort to primary Barack Obama in 2012 and to form a broad, lasting coalition of progressives.
Our aim is to either take back or replace the establishment Democratic Party, and once again give a real, unapologetic, determined voice to progressives and our policies at the national level.
Three weeks ago, through IRV voting, we chose a list of ten potential candidates to oppose the president in the 2012 primaries.
Last week, commenters nominated names for this effort and topics for the platform on which we’ll want our candidate to run. Now through Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. (Pacific) is your chance to consider and vote for your preferred names and platform topics.
How To Vote
As we did with the nominees, we will again use IRV (Instant Runoff Voting).
To vote, begin by copying/pasting the following in the comment box:
EFFORT NAMES
1.
2.
3.
PLATFORM TOPICS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Then, from the two lists below, enter your three preferred names and your five preferred platform topics. VOTE ONLY ONCE, and please VOTE ONLY; do not include comments. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. The format is designed to make tabulation as simple as possible, and comments must be deleted to ensure uniformity of the printed-out ballots, so please save us that trouble. The same is true of duplicate votes from the same commenter; they must be thrown out, another manual process we’d like to avoid.
The list of names is straightforward enough. The topic list is arranged a little differently, however.
Topics are grouped (as much as was possible) by category. Speaking purely for myself, the topic names leading off each category are the kind of succinct phrases I think we are looking for, for now. Policy specifics will be discussed and debated as we work on the text for each plank. That being said, if you feel any of the other phrases are better – or even if you want five phrases from the same category – that’s your call. The main reason I’ve grouped things as I did is that, as I tried to arrange this list, it seemed the easiest way to consider the many topics nominated while also capturing the general sense of the beliefs that commenters expressed in each category. That’s gotta make the next step, writing each plank’s text, a little easier.
Thanks again to everyone who has stayed on board with and helped expand this effort by telling their friends. Please keep tweeting, facebooking, e-mailing, and texting about it. Please also click “recommend” so this diary remains easy to access for the next two days here at MyFDL.
Finally (and call me a tease), between now and Christmas, expect some news that will have a major – highly positive – impact on this effort.
EFFORT NAMES
<250K
250K And Unders
American Citizens Party
American Peoples Party
Commonwealth party
Federal Dollar Liberation Movement
Labor Party
Law and Order Party
Main Street Alliance
Main Street Party
Make-Work Protectionist Party
Most Of Us Party
New American Labor Party
New Deal Party
New Progressive Alliance
Party Alliance
Progressive Patriotic Alliance
Real Democratic Party
Red-Green Party
Rent Is Too Damn High Party
Rule of Law Party
Sticky Greens
Sustainable Democracy Party
Teapot Party
Workers Party
Working Families Alliance
PLATFORM TOPICS
Full Employment
Full Employment Guarantee
Living Wage
Lower Retirement Age
Peace
End the Wars Now
No Pre-Emptive Wars
Strong Defense
Civil Rights/Human Rights/Civil Liberties
Choice
Medicare for All
Citizen Empowerment
Electoral Reform
Equal Access to Education
Democratize All Institutions
Justice and Accountability
Labor Rights
Legalize Marijuana
Political Equality
Prosperity for All
Rule of Law
Environmental Stewardship
Bee Habitat
Energy Farming
A Real Social Safety Net
Economic Equality
Economic Sustainability
Federal Policy
Balanced Budget
End the Federal Debt
Bottom-Up Democracy
Campaign Finance Reform
Cut the Cost of Health Care in Half
End Torture
Presidential Powers
Progressive Taxation
Prosecute U.S. War Criminals
Sociable Urban Planning
Transparency
Commerce
Control Bankers’ and Financiers’ Greed
Corporate Regulation
Fair Trade
Financial Regulation
Hemp Reform
Exclude Corporations Who Export Jobs from the American Market
Manufacturing
Regulation of Constitutional Rights of Corporations
37 Comments
EFFORT NAMES
1.Working Families Alliance
2. Workers Party
3. Labor Party
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Full Employment guarantee
2. Medicare for All/cut medical expenses in half
3. Environmental Stewardship
4. fair trade/reform nafta
5. End the wars now
Hi Themalcontent! Have a good rest of the night!
EFFORT NAMES
1. New Progressive Alliance
2. Commonwealth Party
3. <250K
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Full Employment
2. Peace
3. Civil Rights/Human Rights/Civil Liberties
4. Environmental Stewardship
5. A Real Social Safety Net
“It is now an Individual vs. Corporate debate – and the Humans are losing.” – B.R.
I’d put it differently: It’s the Plutocracy in collusion with our Government are arrayed against all of us (D/R). Your notion of a Progressive coalition is immature, hasn’t caught up with the Zeitgeist:
“The Left Right Paradigm is Over: Its You vs. Corporations”
“Consider:
• Many of the regulations that govern energy and banking sector were written by Corporations;
• The biggest influence on legislative votes is often Corporate Lobbying;
• Corporate ability to extend copyright far beyond what original protections amounts to a taking of public works for private corporate usage;
• PAC and campaign finance by Corporations has supplanted individual donations to elections;
• The individuals’ right to seek redress in court has been under attack for decades, limiting their options.
• DRM and content protection undercuts the individual’s ability to use purchased content as they see fit;
• Patent protections are continually weakened. Deep pocketed corporations can usurp inventions almost at will;
• The Supreme Court has ruled that Corporations have Free Speech rights equivalent to people; (So much for original intent!)”
“What difference did the Left/Right dynamic make? Almost none whatsoever.”
“In many ways, American society is increasingly less married to this dynamic: Party Affiliation continues to fall, approval of Congress is at record lows, and voter participation hovers at very low rates.”
“Keynes vs Hayek? Friedman vs Krugman? Those are the wrong intellectual debates. Its you vs. Tony Hayward, BP CEO, You vs. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO. And you are losing . . .”
–Barry Ritholz
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/09/you-vs-corporations/
•••
“No matter how often corporatists call themselves conservatives, the two hail from very different moral, historical and intellectual antecedents.”
“Earlier this year, Barney Frank and Ron Paul convened the Sustainable Defense Task Force, consisting of experts “spanning the ideological spectrum.” They recommended a 10-year, $1 trillion reduction in Pentagon spending that disturbed some in the military-industrial complex.”
“Other members of Congress were surprised by this improbable combination of lawmakers taking on such a taboo subject. But the spiral of bloated, wasteful military expenditures documented by newspapers has reached the point where opposites on the political-ideological spectrum were willing to make common cause.
A convergence of liberal-progressives with conservative-libertarians centering on the autocratic, corporate-dominated nature of our government may be growing. To be sure, there are obstacles to a synthesis of anticorporatist views becoming a political movement.”
– Ralph Nader
Thanks for your cooperation, fuckno. /s
EFFORT NAMES
1. Real Democratic Party
2. New Deal Party
3. New Progressive Alliance
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Full employment
2. Medicare for all
3. Progressive taxation
4. Fair trade
5. Financial regulation
EFFORT NAMES
1. New Progressive Alliance
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Full Employment
2. Peace
3. Civil Rights/Human Rights/Civil Liberties
4. A Real Social Safety Net
5. Environmental Stewardship
EFFORT NAMES
1. Workers Party
2. Working Families Alliance
3. Labor Party
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Full Employment guarantee
2. Medicare for All/cut medical expenses in half
3. Environmental Stewardship
4. fair trade/reform nafta
5. End the wars now
EFFORT NAMES
1. Main Street Alliance
2. New Progressive Alliance
3. New
ProgressiveAlliancePLATFORM TOPICS
1. Economic Sustainability
2. Full Employment
3. Rule of Law
4. Campaign Finance Reform
5. Legalize Marijuana
To everyone:
Sorry to butt in, but this is important.
There is a diary by Blue Texan, “Challenge Obama from the Left in 2012 Not to Save His Presidency — but the Democratic Party Itself.” 294 comments and counting.
http://firedoglake.com/2010/12/05/challenge-obama-from-the-left-in-2012-not-to-save-his-presidency-but-the-democratic-party-itself/#Respond
Others on FDL are picking up on the Primary/Dump Obama theme in the last few days, whether over the secrecy stuff or the 9.8% unemployment, I don’t know. But it’s exploding. Other Primary/Dump diaries springing up here. Even Kos is getting hot. At the same time, I’m seeing what looks like Democratic Party operatives mounting their counteroffensive. “Get with the program,” they whine.
Most of the commenters, as far as I can tell, seem completely unaware of our efforts, FDL being somewhat compartmentalized, I guess.
I think we need to get in there, adding our accumulated wisdom and bringing folks up to speed. This is getting big, and we need to grow with it.
Name
1)Labor Party
2)New Progressive Alliance
3)New American Labor Party
——-
Platform intro
1) Full Employment
2) Medicare for everyone
3) End Corporate Personhood
Robert Kuttner overt at HP with “Where now for the Democrats” has 364 comments.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/what-now-for-the-democrat_b_792301.html#comments
It states Obama as being a disaster as a crisis president and has turn this Republican made disaster int the Democrats fault.
please e-mail me ASAP, arch, admin_at_themalcontent_dot_com. Thanks!
EFFORT NAMES
1.New Progressive Alliance
2.Sustainable Democracy Party
3.Main Street alliance
PLATFORM TOPICS
1.Peace
2.Medicare for All
3.Prosperity for All
4.Regulation of Constitutional Rights for Corporations
5.Environmental Stweardship
EFFORT NAMES
1. Main Street Alliance
2. Working Families Alliance
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. End the wars now.
2. Regulation of Constitutional Rights for Corporations
3. Medicare for All
4. Environmental Stweardship
5. Economic sustainability
EFFORT NAMES
1. The Return of the Liberals
2. The FDR Democrats
3. Mainstreet Democrats
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Full Employment guarantee
2. Medicare for All/cut medical expenses in half
3. Environmental Stewardship
4. fair trade/reform nafta
5. End the wars now
EFFORT NAMES
1.New Progressive Alliance
2.New Deal Party
3.Sustainable Democracy Party
PLATFORM TOPICS
1.Living Wage
2.End the Wars Now
3.Political Equality
4.Progressive Taxation
5.Corporate Regulation
EFFORT
1. New Progressive Alliance
2. Mainstreet Alliance
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Economic Prosperity For All
2. Civil Rights and Liberties
3. American Global Citizenship
EFFORT NAMES
1. Sustainable Democracy Party
2. Main Street Alliance
3. Working Families Alliance
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. End the Wars Now
2. Full Employment
3. Civil Rights/Human Rights/Civil Liberties
4. Economic Sustainability
5. Environmental Stewardship
Effort Names:
1) Main Street Alliance
2) American People’s Party
3) 250K and Unders
Platform Topics:
1) Full Employment
2) Environmental Stewardship
3) Corporate Regulation
4) Electoral Reform
5) End the Wars Now
Malcontent – Thank you for organizing this. It’s an important step!
Okay os now Robert Kuttner over @ HP has 1250 comments on his article “What now for the Democrats”. Not to mention there was another primary obama article there this last weekend. I gotta look to find it.
Efforts:
1) 250k And Under
2) Labor Party
3) Working Families Alliance
Platforms:
1) Living Wage
2) End of Wars Now
3) Civil Rights/Human Rights/Civil Liberties
4) Medicare For All
5) Campaign Finance Reform
EFFORT NAMES
1. New Progressive Alliance
2. American First Party
3. Real Democratic Party
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Civil Rights/Human Rights/Civil Liberties
2. Economic Equality
3. Bottom-Up Democracy
4. Control Bankers’ and Financiers’ Greed/Corporate Regulation/Regulation of Constitutional Rights of Corporations
5. End the wars now
Effort names:
Add 4. Trickle-up Party
That Robert Kuttner article has over 1250 comments now.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/what-now-for-the-democrat_b_792301.html#comments
Dohhh..(Homer Simpson) sorry about that double posting….
Someone else has noticed our effort: Sam Seder, on today’s “Majority Report.”
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/6087
you only get 3 dan, them’s the roolz…
Congrats, malcontent.
Clarence Jones
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clarence-b-jones/time-to-think-to-unthinka_b_792237.html
Hey everyone – I just submitted this post to reddit – so click on the little blue alien right above “tweet” at the top of the page and vote for it to drive it up their charts and bring traffic this way!
And I just submitted it to Digg as well – click on the little guy just under the “Tweet.”
EFFORT NAMES
1. New Progressive Alliance
2. Labor Party
3. Workers Party
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Full Employment
2. Prosecute War Criminals
3. Financial Regulation
4. End the wars now
5. Regulation of Constitutional Rights of Corporations
EFFORT NAMES
1. New Progressive Alliance
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Cut the Cost of Health Care in Half (and cover everybody)
2. Control Bankers’ and Financiers’ Greed
(3. Kill Corporate Personhood)
All, please remember to hit “recommend” at the bottom of the diary to keep it accessible for voting through tomorrow.
We also need your help. For the past few weeks, just a few of us have been working hard to get this effort to this point. As today’s HuffPo and Sam Seder Show references (above) clearly show, the organization we continue to establish will be perfectly positioned to bring the disparate Left together. So now I’m asking you for help: WE NEED VOLUNTEERS.
People are needed people to blog, tweet, facebook, e-mail, and text on a daily basis. Things are beginning to move too fast for a a few people to handle, but a group of 25 or 50 can do it with ease. IF YOU CAN SPARE JUST AN HOUR A WEEK, it will make a huge difference. Please e-mail me at admin_at_themalcontent_dot_com to volunteer.
We are also looking for coordinators in every state. Florida, North Carolina and New Jersey are covered for now, but if you are willing to stand up for your state, if even for a month or two in order to help establish this effort there, I’d like to hear from you.
Please keep your votes coming on this thread, and please, link to it on any other sites you may visit. Thanks so much for your participation and passion.
Thanks Jim, this is awesome.
I didn’t do it, you all did. And we’re just getting warmed up.
EFFORT NAMES
1. New Progressive Party
2. American Progressive Party
3. New Progressive Alliance
PLATFORM TOPICS
1. Strengthen Social Security, Raise Cap on Taxable Income
2. Living Wage for all
3. Strengthen the wall between church and state, tax the churches
4. No preemptive wars
5. Renewable energy to be main energy sources in America