The vision is becoming clearer

I am heartened that some Democrats seem to be moving beyond "Resistance is our strategy" to "Let's figure out what our strategy is."  Tom Perez, the new chair of the DNC, was recently interviewed by Dan Balz of the Washington Post.  (You can see the interview by clicking on this link:  wapo.st/202perez).  I was happy to hear Perez say that he knows that people felt that the Democrats were not listening to them. (not that I am happy about that - I am just happy that they realize it.)

Perez said that the DNC needs to make "house calls", and needs to have an every zip code strategy.  He also said that we need to build an economy for the 21st century.  The country needs to invest in basic infrastructure, not to help Wall St., but to help every person in the country.

I was finally able to speak to someone at the Ohio Democratic Party.  She told me about a few initiatives that are being taken in the Buckeye state (where I grew up).  One is the Main St. Initiative - a program to help Democrats run for office throughout Ohio.  This effort supports candidates through training, phone banks, canvassing operations, and direct mail.  In 2016, 38 new Democrats were elected to office.  A Democrat won back the mayorship in Toledo.

There are also programs to engage with ordinary citizens.  One is called C.A.N. meetings (concrete action now).  Another is called Kitchen Table Conversations.  The latter is for small groups of people.

I was not able to speak to anyone at the Wisconsin Democratic Party - I will try again next week - but I was glad to see that they have a meaningful statement of purpose.   "Giving every person and every community in our state a fair shot at success and the opportunity to achieve the American Dream is what Wisconsin Democrats stand for."

Strategy and Tactics

The Democratic leadership has a fixation with pledges, petitions, and "pony up" (sorry, I couldn't help that one.)  The democratic senatorial campaign committee (dscc.org) website has three places where you can take "action".  Two of them involve handing over your information.  The third asks you to watch a newly released TV ad about the perils of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

I am as scared as the next person about repealing the ACA.   Is it appropriate, though, that the organization tasked with taking back the Senate in 2018 is spending its money on an ad defending the ACA?

If the Democratic National Committee were a well run company, precious funds needed to market a new product would not be spent defending an old product, no matter how worthy it is.  Someone should be spending money to protect the ACA - just not the democratic senatorial campaign committee.

The DNC and the DSCC need to focus on strategy, not tactics.  Strategy is what guides an organization in its desired direction.  Strategy is what help you evaluate whether you are on or off track.

Tactics are the things you do to achieve your strategy.

Spending money to create an ad defending the ACA is a tactic that is not supporting the strategy of taking back the House in 2018.

Who knows what the strategy of the Democratic National Party is.  Right now, it seems to be Resist, Resist, Resist.

Problem is, that does not excite anybody about voting for your candidate in 2018. 

I have prepared an "artistic" explanation of the difference between tactics and strategy.  Consider the humble shingle.

You can use it to build all kinds of stuff.  If you don't have a strategy when you are building your stuff, you can end up with something like this:

If you have a plan, a strategy, you can end up with something like this:

(I have been looking at this house for over 33 years!)

I am still hoping that the Democrats come up with a foreward thinking strategy to take back the House in 2018, and to govern for the people, of the people, by the people.

What I learned about leadership in fifth grade

I had the best example of leadership in fifth grade at St. Dominic's School in Shaker Hts., Ohio.  Sister Timothy had come to teach at our school from some place exotic on the East coast - maybe New York.  She took an immediate dislike to us, and we reciprocated in kind.

In her mind, we were dumb as sticks.  None of us knew how to diagram a sentence! (actually, I think they should teach it now.)  She thought we were sneaky, too.

As the year progressed, things got worse.  Something happened to Sister Timothy's prized possessions - her very own Child of Prague statue - that really set her off.  The statue had been damaged slightly - I don't remember exactly what happened.  This normally angry woman became furious.

Father Worley - the cool priest, tried to talk to her.  She got angrier, and insisted that we were trying to make her life a living hell.

(Sister Timothy with her "neutral" face.)

Finally, the school principal, Sister Thomas Howard, took charge of the situation.  I will never forget what she did, and I have always tried to emulate her wonderful leadership skills.

First, she spoke privately with Sister Timothy.  Then, she spoke to our class as a group.  She let us vent for a few minutes.  Then, she asked us to give Sister Timothy a chance.  She acknowledged that we had legitimate issues with our teacher.  She asked us to make an effort, to do something hard, to try to get along with a difficult woman.

I imagine that she did the same with Sister Timothy.  First listen, then ask to try to get along with us.

It worked.  For the remainder of the school year, we worked well together.

I learned about leadership from a pro in 1967 -  leadership involves listening and challenging your followers.

I hope that our leaders start showing some of these same qualities soon - our country depends on it.

The donut shop

I recently spent a few hours drawing in a donut shop in a western suburb of Boston.  I was hoping to talk to somebody about what they want from elected officials.  The only person I spoke to was a man who admired my drawing.

I did discover something interesting, though.  The man behind the counter was an immigrant - either from India or Pakistan, I would guess.  The donut shop serves a largely blue collar community.  Young men, appearing to be construction workers, came in and out, grabbing a coffee and a donut or two, before or after their shift.

There was a friendly, comfortable banter between every customer and the fellow working behind the counter.  These people were familiar with each other.  Nobody felt threatened by somebody because of their accent or the color of their skin.  I might have been the most threatening person there.

It is tragic that there is such frightened and angry talk about "illegals" today.  Perhaps everybody needs to visit a donut shop like the one I drew in, and get a little perspective on immigration.

Ask and Listen

Yesterday I asked the owner of my local hardware store if I could draw in his store.  I explained that I am interested in what non-politicians, in other words, ordinary people, think about the last presidential race.  I really want to talk to Trump supporters, and just listen to them talk about why they voted for Trump, and more importantly, why they didn't vote for Clinton.

The owner did not want me asking people about politics.  He was fine with me drawing.  I asked him "what if someone approaches me?"  That seemed to be fine.  I promised not to get in anybody's hair, or start a riot.

I am not the only person who wants to talk about what people want from their politicians.  There are a couple of notable groups that I hope to talk to soon.  The first is the Blue Collar Caucus, started by Representative Marc Veasey of Texas and Representative Brennan Boyle of Philadelphia.  In a 2/16/17 article in Politico, Representative Boyle said that Trump got that people were upset when a manufacturing plant shut down.  He mentioned an Oreo plant that had closed.  The Democrats did not seem concerned; Trump did (or at least he communicated that.)

There is another group, called Knock Every Door (Knockeverydoor.org), that is aiming to canvas voters across the country to find out what voters want.  You can contact them and volunteer to be a canvasser.

As it turns out, I did get to speak to someone with strong opinions in the hardware store.   She came over to see what I was doing, and I explained what I was trying to find out.

The woman I spoke to is a conservative.  She made two really good points.  The first was that she did not feel that the Democrats listened to people like her.  The second was that she felt many conservatives were afraid to open their mouths for fear of being ridiculed by liberals.  I could empathize.

She then started down the rabbit hole of Democrats planting fake news, rich liberals paying people to cause trouble at Republican town halls, and Obama's interference with Trump's presidency.  This conversation was going nowhere, and I was able to end it on a cordial note.

I am going to continue to talk to people - next week - a donut shop in a neighboring town.  I hope that someone is willing to talk to me.