Those DCCC Emails Will Still Be Generated Even When Only Cockroaches Remain On The Planet

Neither gone nor forgotten

The DCCC is still sending out their despised e-mails. Wednesday, deposed committee chairman, Steve Israel, sent one titled "I'm So Proud." The greatest failure in the history of the committee but he's proud... why? Because, he says, "Moments ago, we learned that we beat Boehner in one of the last uncalled Congressional races. This one was Republicans’ top target in the entire country. The Republicans spent a fortune to elect Obamacare-repealing, Social Security privatizing extremist Doug Ose. In fact, Boehner, Rove, and the Republican outside groups spent more money to win California’s 7th district than any other race in the country. On Election Night, the race was too-close-to-call. But in the end, their right-wing cash was no match for your grassroots strength. Your donations and volunteer hours allowed us to reach out to key voters over 126,000 times-- and pull off a big victory!" The sad little man is in serious denial-- and because Pelosi gave him another undeserved leadership position, he's putting the Democratic Party in serious jeopardy. Obama won that California district both times he ran. It was so close because the wretched New Dem incumbent is utterly unqualified to be in Congress or to represent himself as a Democrat. His crap, tepid voting record-- a ProgressivePunch crucial lifetime progressive score of 51.54%-- inspired contempt from Republicans and confused resignation from Democrats.

Of course it wasn't just the discredited Israel-- discredited everywhere except in the minds of Pelosi's geriatric leadership clique-- who was sending out pitifully self-justifying e-mails. One DCCC staffer bragged about how they won races because they spent money on them. They also lost races-- far more-- that they spent money on. "Nearly half (47%) of the DCCC IE dollars were invested in races that House Democrats won," she wrote. Really? Well over half was spent on races they lost. And she's as excited as Israel is that of the 14 races too close to call on Election Night, Dems have won 13 so far and Republicans have won none. Is that some kind of a new benchmark we should be measuring success by? Races in blue districts that should never have been close to begin with wind up being won?

This morning, I was going through an old copy of The Nation from 2002, soon after the Republicans won a midterm and claimed a mandate. Jim Hightower-- remember a dozen years ago-- wrote about what the Beltway Democrats must do to regain the trust of grassroots voters-- "Only if the party gets a clue, gets a program and gets with the people." They didn't and they won't now either, not with the sad sacks running the DC party leadership.

PROGRAM: To get them, the party has to get a program, because (here's another wacky concept) people tend to vote when their self-interest is touched. So let's touch it, unabashedly and unequivocally, by offering a short to-do list that would include such measurable benefits as (1) a tax cut for working stiffs: remove the cap (now $85,000) on the grossly regressive payroll tax, reduce the percentage bite and spread the burden up to include the billionaires' club; (2) healthcare for all, provided by a single-payer system; (3) free education for everyone, preschool through higher ed, modeled after the enormously successful GI Bill; (4) energy independence for America through a ten-year moonshot project that'll put Americans to work building an oil-free future based on alternative technologies and systems; (5) public financing of all elections, so we can get our government back from the greedheads; and (6) [Add Your Favorite Here]. A six-pack is plenty. Stay focused.

PEOPLE: Get out of Washington, literally and figuratively. At present, progressive groups and funders direct probably 80 percent of our energy, talent and money toward DC, putting only 20 percent into the countryside. Yet our strength is not inside the Beltway but out here, where people are doing great things and wondering why the Democratic Party isn't with them. Reverse that ratio. Start by scrubbing McAuliffe's $28 million plan to upscale the party's headquarters, move the DNC's whole kit and caboodle into an abandoned, gone-to-China factory somewhere in the heartland and put the money into building a grassroots organization that communicates, organizes and mobilizes across America, block by block.

Politics can't be viewed as something that involves people only in the last thirty days of an election. Rather, to be a movement capable of governing, it has to be rooted in people's reality. In addition to high-tech outreach, we have to get back to a high-touch politics that physically, emotionally and soulfully connects with people's lives 365 days a year. Yes, talk issues. But through potluck suppers, block parties, festivals, salons and saloons. Fewer Meetings, More Fun. There's a bumper sticker.

Nothing's more fun than winning, and it's time to tell the Democratic jefes that winning in politics requires getting more people (not more money) than the other side gets. To get people, there has to be a long-term strategy of going to them with something of interest. As the fighting populist Fred Harris puts it: "You can't have a mass movement without the masses."

And another DCCC e-mail, this one from Ben Ray Luján, right after he announced he would keep the incompetent Executive Director and the entire incompetent, corrupt staff in place: "My name is Ben Ray Luján. I’m honored to be emailing you as the new Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. There’s so much I want to say, but right now we don’t have time for pleasantries." And then he asked everyone to sign a petition so the DCCC can harvest contact info they can monetize.