Hello, All,

<>I'm a Democrat. There's nothing else I could
be. Yes, I voted for Barry Commoner and LaDonna Harris in the 1980
election, but that was a unique circumstance.

I'm active in my
local party which brings me to the point that I want to discuss. A few
nights ago I was at a meeting for the committee through which
resolutions pass on which the larger organization will vote. We
were doing some post-election regrouping and creating new
subcommittees. The subcommittees have the usual general names such as
"Environment", "Government" and the like. There was a good deal of
energy in the room, but it was all directed toward LARGE issues of
national scale: Women's Rights and the Right of Choice, Electoral
College Reform, Opposition to a new Military Draft, etc. I am not
belittling those issues or their importance. There is every reason for
Democrats to examine them and take strong positions on them. But let me
contrast those issues with some local issues that also are important.

Where
I live a lake provides the drinking water for over 100,000
people. Development around the lake in recent years has put a large
number of powerboats on the lake with resultant pollution from spilled
fuels. No one in the room the other night was interested in taking up
that issue.

On another point, the city and county have turned
down special tax levies to improve and expand EMT services in two
successive elections, in part because the only group that took an
active position on those special levies was a right-wing, pro-business
and development, anti-tax group of Republicans. The elderly population
here is fast expanding not least because of the development of many
assisted living facilities. Others are drawn here for the scenic beauty
and temperate climate. Again, no Democrats were anywhere near as
interested in those small issues as they were in ones of grand,
national import.

I would like to suggest that the late, great Tip
O'Neill's dictum that "All politics is local," has a particular
application here and elsewhere. Protecting a local drinking water
supply from pollution is an absolute no-brainer. More voters drink the
water than have powerboats polluting it. Similarly, more people are
going to need EMT services for themselves or for a friend or family
member than will be adversely affected by the additional tax of, on
average 50 cents a week.

Building coalitions around these issues
and devoting at least as much energy to those local needs as we devote
to the national ones is what will win more voters to Democratic
positions and create the force that will take control of the Senate and
House in 2006. In short, I think that we need to sweat the small stuff
at least as much as we sweat the great issues. Get voters where they
live.

In one sense, a cynical and fraudulent one albeit, that's
what the Republicans, the neo-nazi party, did in the last elections.
They convinced people that "Their" marriages were at stake if same-sex
couples marry. They convinced them that "Their" safety was in jeopardy
if Dubya weren't there to protect them from the "wolves".Rather than
fussing over how immoral their "moral values" are, let's get out and
organize on the basis of immediate, local concerns and win more
elections at every level in the process.

Anyway, that's just what I'm on about at the moment.