Enhancing Freedom,
Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing
and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is
hundreds of thousands of well-informed
Table of Contents * featured articles Opportunities,
Petitions and Feedback Commentaries from Our Members Liberals and Democrats Links to
the Beef Predicting
Our 2008 Democratic Presidential Nominee* Edwards,
Obama or Clinton? No Circular Firing Squad* State and Local Links to the
Beef Tentative 2008 Legislative Calendar* Washington
State Caucus and Convention Schedule* Nation and World
Links to the Beef 2008
Presidential Primary Schedule* Increasing
the Limits on Our FICA Tax Domestic
Terrorists and Hate Groups Mission
Accomplished? Bring Our Troops Home. Our Liberal Spirit Our Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and Competent Spending ·
Investment for Productivity ·
Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income and Retirement ·
Environmental Protection and Energy ·
Personal Security and Equal Rights ·
Justice and Peace Everywhere ·
International Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives
oppose all of these. Let’s End Our National Nightmare Let’s Restore Our American Dream Quote of the Week The world is my country,
all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion. Thomas
Paine, revolutionary and pamphleteer
Calendar of Events
Friday, February 1-3 at
Precinct Caucuses - Saturday February 9, 2008
Legislative District Conventions - Saturday April 5, 2008
County Conventions - Saturday April 19, 2008
Congressional District Conventions - Saturday May 17, 2008
Washington State Convention - June 14 & 15, 2008 - Spokane, Washington
Opportunities, Petitions and Feedback
Opportunities
Join GoPetition to easily create your own petitions.
Great tool for advocacy groups.
Join
Working America in alliance with labor union members
Wellstone Action will offer its Advanced Management Training
School in Seattle on April 25-7
Order Democracy
in America ‘Precinct Organizing’ and other Night School Training videos
Order Sightline’s
2007 Cascadia Scorecard. See other
research that they share with our politicians.
Send a message to the Federal
Election Commission to support grassroots donors
Send a message to congress that you
support impeachment hearings. Read
Cong Wexler’s Op-Ed.
Support Chris Dodd’s filibuster against granting
immunity to telecoms who betrayed us.
Feedback Needed
Concerning Our Website
Our
website has a new improved home page with a counter of visits. Helpful Websites and Conservative
Organizations and Blogs have been added to our Resources menu. I am updating our Commentaries under the
Commentaries menu. We will soon have a
Blog, so you can post your thoughts and have them discussed.
Please email me other suggestions for improving our website. Dave Thomas
Commentaries From Our
Members
Email from
our Member Chris Stedman
Good afternoon, I must
salute you Dave, to have a link to Ron Paul is very impressive. I have been a
Democrat since the 70's, but due to the numerous dire situations that currently
exist, that appear to be un-noticed by both parties, I have decided to support
Ron Paul. Although I don't agree with all his stances, I feel he is the only alternative.
If there was only one
issue, it would be the war. There is no one from either party that says firmly
and on principle we do not start wars without good cause. Both parties hide
behind the skirt of terrorism, varying only in minor differences in
the words. I would like to think someone has the courage to stand up and
say
Darcy Burner’s guest
column on Unsafe Toys in Seattle PI on December 24, 2007
Liberals and Democrats
Predicting Our 2008 Democratic Presidential Nominee
In
Our Puget Sound Liberals newsletter #70 published on May 18, 2007, under
Liberals and Democrats, They Don’t Know How to Mobilize
Grassroots, I published the following:
Community Organizers
Take Different Approach than Political Campaigners
Most of the political activists I meet assume that
a major objective is to obtain maximum publicity concerning intentions and
capabilities. My background is not
politics. It is community organizing
which makes a very different assumption.
We seek to quietly create an infrastructure, which enables us to
perform. Without advance publicity, when
we perform something that no one believed could happen, it appears as a miracle
which surprises them and catches their attention. We avoid raising expectations and creating
vaporware. Our credibility may come more
slowly, but if it comes it is much more deeply rooted in a product rather than
a dream. Miracles entice people to
become involved.
Among our Democratic presidential candidates,
Barack Obama (who was a community organizer before becoming involved in
politics) is clearly far better than his competitors at grass roots
mobilization. With lesser poll ratings
than
If Barack
Obama’s local groups can canvass and get out the vote in next winter’s
primaries the way they have gotten people out for his appearances and raised
funds, we may see another miracle: vote totals far exceeding those predicted by
the polls. [Bold red added] For us strategy enthusiasts, we want to know
the respective values of local organizing, electronic politicking and media
campaigning. What is the ideal mix for
various political situations?
More
recently, I was persuaded by Hillary Clinton’s high poll numbers, especially
among women that she would become the nominee.
In our newsletter #92 published on October 19, 2007, I wrote:
President Hillary
Clinton and Vice-President?
Hillary Clinton has
maintained and widened her lead over her competitors for nomination as our
Democratic party presidential nomination.
Her lead over Rudolph Giuliani and the other Republican candidates is
widening. Her lead is especially large
among women voters, whose support is unlikely to diminish. So, our next president appears increasingly
to be
It is always difficult
to predict what a candidate will do after they become president. Even they don’t know what they will do when
they encounter unexpected challenges.
While running they find it tempting to emphasize what voters want to
hear and deemphasize what they don’t.
Presidents never perform up to our highest expectations and often
disappoint us, as is demonstrated by a review of even our most revered
presidents.
Facing large Democratic
congressional majorities and favorable support from mainstream
It is difficult to
distinguish Hillary Clinton’s past performance from that of her husband, Bill
Clinton. He repeatedly compromised
liberal causes with special interests, although it may be noted that he had
much less support from congress or the American public than we can expect
Hillary Clinton to have. Hillary
Clinton’s track record independent of her husbands’ has been primarily her performance as a New
York Senator. As senator, she has made
few ideological statements, mainly focusing upon creatively helping New
Yorkers. The result is that her
popularity has continually grown.
If she can achieve a lot
of our liberal agenda, does it matter that she doesn’t speak
ideologically. FDR didn’t speak
ideologically until after he had been president for several years and
encountered stiffening resistance from Conservatives. Perhaps Hillary Clinton will do the
same. If she becomes our Democratic
nominee, I expect to support her wholeheartedly, grant her a limited honeymoon
period and encourage the best.
Another interesting
question. Who will
More
recently yet, Barack Obama’s poll numbers are increasing markedly, especially
in our early primary states. This is what in May, I predicted might happen. But while I think Barack Obama wins in early
states could increase his poll numbers elsewhere, I still predict that Hillary Clinton will retain enough women’s votes
across the country to win.
More on Hillary Clinton
It
has been said that John Edwards emphasizes confrontation, Barack Obama
emphasizes reconciliation and Hillary Clinton emphasizes perspiration. Barack Obama also emphasizes good judgment
and creativity. I think that John
Edwards also emphasizes his background and that Hillary Clinton also emphasizes
her willingness to confront special interests.
But since Hillary Clinton is closely connected to establishment campaign
advisors and donors, many Liberals distrust that she will confront special
interests. It may be that Hillary can
use some of the establishment to confront other parts which resist public interest
reforms.
In
Mark Halperin and John Harris’s The Way
to Win, they describe Hillary Clinton’s many advantages:
”She is already her party’s best-known figure, and
is the most prolific fund-raiser in politics besides George W. Bush. She is popular with large segments of the
electoral pillars of her party, including women, labor unions,
African-Americans, Hispanics, and gays and lesbians. Like her husband, she has been part of the
Democratic Party’s national Conversation for more than three decades. She has close ties to the elected officials,
policy experts, activists, consultants, and political operatives who are needed
to run for president. She has been
traveling to key early nominating states such as
She knows about the importance of not giving up
when conditions look dire in a presidential campaign; about the necessity of
projecting optimism; about the consequence of appearing strong and consistent
in message and policies; about the relevance of reading a poll correctly; about
the reasons national security and homeland security are critical to the job of
president; about the imperative of addressing perceived flaws with alacrity;
about the though processes of values voters; about keeping a keen focus on the
Electoral College; and about why it is vital to reflect on the strengths and
weaknesses of both parties when formulating a campaign platform.”
Edwards, Obama or Clinton? No Circular Firing Squad.
Several Liberals who
prefer John Edwards or Barack Obama have told me they will be quite unhappy if
Hillary Clinton wins our Democratic presidential nomination. I hope we don’t form a circular firing squad,
as Liberals have done so often in the past.
I argue that all three of our leading candidates are tremendously better
than any of the Republican candidates.
Edwards, Obama and Clinton have some differences. For example one commentator summed up their emphases as confrontation, conciliation and perspiration. But all three of them have increasingly displayed similar amounts of all three as ingredients necessary to making changes. Most of all, I believe that based up