Web Based Political Networking

WEB-BASED POLITICAL NETWORKING & EVENTS PLANNING

Observation of Opportunity:

The 2008 elections are not just about this election year or even just the next four years. The 2008 elections are potentially about the next several decades. The collapse of the conservative movement has provided an unusual political opening that coincides with major shifts in web-based media technology, and demographics that together give Democrats a rare once in a multi generational opportunity to reclaim the political landscape for the long term.

Even before Obama officially announced his candidacy in early 2007 a 26-year-old Facebook social networking website user decided to rally support for Barack Obama by building an Obama facebook account.

Within a month that young Obama supporter had 278,000 supporters signed up on his Facebook social networking pages. In 2003, it took Howard Dean six months to get a little more than half that many registered supporters on his first generation socio-political campaign website’s supporter database.

Obama’s campaign eventually took over that young supporter’s Facebook account and rolled its supporters database into his campaign’s socio-political networking website as it was first deployed. Obama’s campaign eventually went on to successfully leveraged his socio-political website to build a strong neighborhood-level net/grassroots organization in every state. Through his socio-political networking website, Obama solicited the bulk of the $234,745,081 in campaign contributions (as of March 2008) raised during his campaign.

County Democrats have an opportunity to organize and fund-raise using the same web-based socio-political campaign tools as used by Obama in 2007 and 2008 to build and populate campaign membership. County Democrats can update the party website with socio-political networking functions to:

1. Build a broad neighborhood-level net/grassroots organization
2. Regularly solicit campaign contributions from small individual contributors
3. Organize and advertise activities and events from small neighborhood house parties to countywide events.
4. Motivate County Democrats to register with and then regularly visit our party's county website, thus allowing our local party to build its supporter contact database.
5. Give average County Democratic residents a way to directly connect and communicate with each other on their own streets, in their own neighborhoods or across the county.
6. Give Precinct Chairpersons and average Democratic residents a way to invite fellow neighborhood Democrats to neighborhood house parties, backyard BBQs and block parties where they can talk politics and plan their own neighborhood organizing activities and events to build party registrations and contributions.
7. Interact and support local as well as national candidates by providing better name recognition.
8. Communicate local political news items, pictures and videos of particular interest to local democrats
9. Attract more people to run for county and state office seats that are currently held by Republicans.
10. Eliminate the "webmaster" single-point of website update bottleneck by allowing any party stakeholder to add web content as easily as writing an email.
11. Make the party site “the place to go to” to find news about local candidates, polls, political events, etc…
12. And, much much more…….

These socio-political networking functions can be quickly deployed onto the party website using one of the free-of-charge open source content management and social networking platform web software packages. Such software includes features and functions that will also much improve party internal communications and planning between and among party officials, committees, precinct chairs and etc. These packages also have features that can dramatically help organize and use information about County Democrats, for whom we currently have contact information, to build party participation and solicit donations. These packages even have features that can facilitate the use voter information pulled from many sources to add new names to the contacts database, thus allowing Democrats to invite new people into local social network where they can organize and donate contributions.

Bottom-Up And Top-Down Party Building Activities:

The idea for web-based socio-political networking is to combine in one website the features of social networking websites and the features of sales force automation websites; Social networking to empower people at the grassroots level to organically connect and organize themselves from the bottom up and lead generation/management to automate traditional top-down party building and fund raising by precinct chairpersons and volunteers. The blogs and so forth could also greatly improve basic communication and coordination between party officials, committees and volunteers.

Bottom-up and top-down party building activities functioning together in one system yields greater results than either one working separately. To get the maximum party building synergy between these two party building approaches the official party website, where the grassroots members sign up and network, includes a database of prospective lead contact info that is available online to authorized "party builders." Authorized volunteers can use the lead database to "invite" people to register as website members, where they can network, attend neighborhood block parties, and engage in other party building activities.

The website must allow newly registered members to search for other registered members (or teams or precinct chair) by street name (or list of 10 street names) and/or precinct number and/or zip. This search function empowers people at the grassroots level to organically connect and organize themselves by allowing neighbors to first, easily find one another and second, to organize neighborhood house parties, block parties and etc. These search functions also help precinct and block captains and other authorized volunteers (like neighborhood action groups/teams) to use the lead management database to micro-target party building and fund raising activities to particular neighborhoods. (see DNC blunts GOP Micro Targeting Lead blog entry)

Making A Social/Political Networking Website Work:

The “if you build it they will come” principle is not automatic with any new social networking website. Putting up a great social networking site with all the best bells and whistles does not guarantee that people will automatically find and use the social networking website.

The social networking party website will be effective only if party activists make an effort to actively use the range of web-base tools that collectively implement a social/political networking environment. The trick in launching and then building membership in a social networking website is to get a few early site members to add as much interesting new content (i.e. written material, videos and pictures) as possible to the site almost every day. This initial content draws new people to the site who register as members who add their own politic news and news commentary as well as pictures and videos of their neighborhood organizing events. This content flow draws new members who add their own content until eventually we have a large community of Democratic activists organized fron the grass/net roots up working to elect Democrats to local and national office positions.

Seed The New Party Site With Interesting Content:

Most local party organizations have fairly large library of video content from the County Convention, picnics and other events that can put up to seed the new website.

Local candidates have videos on their own websites that could be, with their permission, cross-posted on the new party site. They all would likely be willing to shoot short videos specifically for our website. They and their supports would likely be happy to make regular blog entries on the party site.

It is likely that many delegates to the state convention will take their digital video handi-cams to shot their own videos. We can invite all local delicates to post their convention videos on our new website. We can also encourage all the delicates to write blog entries of their general and subcommittee participation experiences at the convention.

It would be good for Precinct Chairs to prepare short video clips to urge people in their precincts to get active. Some Precinct Chairs could gather a few people from their precincts to discuss on camera why each thinks it so important to get active in 2008! Just short 2 to 5 minute videos are all that is needed.

Precinct Chairs should create “precinct blogs” to communicate and coordinate with their constituents. In precincts that do not have chairpersons, open precinct blogs can be created and we can invite precinct residents to use the blog to organize themselves. Eventually, precinct chairpersons will step forward – and those people will likely be of the younger generation.

We can invite Obama and Clinton supporters, who are already contributing candidate campaign blogs, to blog on the party site. We can get them active supporting local candidates instead of just our Presidential Candidate.

Short video interviews with people who visit our booth at the Balloon Fest, or "person on the street interviews" with people at the 4th of July parade and chili cook off would be good – one minute videos of what people think about health care or about our ballooning national debt or is the US heading in the right or wrong direction - would be great to post.

Every person and group active in the party (Womens Club, Mens Club, etc...) should participate in the party's blogs.

RSS news feeds from online news organizations and progressive news aggregators should be setup to a create a up-to-the-minute news page.

The idea is to create a town hall and media event interesting enough that people will surf our site daily, a few times a week or at least a few times a month.

Building WebSite Traffic and Membership:

We can use our party membership email address list and email addresses collected at events to invite people to the new site to register membership. We can also use voter research information to invite people to our new website.

We can ask our volunteers who are active in the Clinton and Obama campaigns to spread the work via those campaign’s networks – this should be done while both campaigns are still active.

Many local Democrats read national blogs like dailykos, bradblog, talking points memo, think progress and a host of others. Some of these blog owners will likely put a banner ad for party on their blogs at no cost.

Information and Content Coordination:

While the traditional roll of “Webmaster” becomes obsolete, a “Communications Director/Coordinator” roll takes its place. This roll coordinates and reviews content placed on the website, coordinates/solicits content cross posting/blogging with candidate campaigns and other sources, gets party ads placed on other sites, answers how-to questions, and etc… This new roll also helps the various stakeholders understand how to use the web facilities and then how to effective apply the new facilities to their particular rolls (jobs, committees, fundraising, etc) within the party operation.

Supporting Data: Research Data On Blog And Social Networking Adoption And Usage Patterns

Howard Dean's 2003-2004 primary campaign and John Kerry's 2004 general election campaign were the first to test a truly 21st century, post-broadcast political campaign model that used the Internet to directly engage ordinary citizens as partners in the election fight.

Dean and Kerry pioneered the use of, what was then very new and not widely used, web-based tools that included blogs, early online video and supporter databases dynamically built as supporters registered with their campaign websites. Once registered, new supporters searched for and connected fellow registered supporters in their respective neighborhoods to form campaign action teams. Beyond just a tool to organized supporters, both Dean and Kerry used supporter databases to regularity distribute campaign messages, coordinate activities and solicit campaign contributions in any amount supporters could afford. These faculties comprise the fundamental capabilities of web-based social networking, or more precisely, in this specialized application of the technology, political networking.

Unfortunately, the 2004 the adoption rates of the then ultra new web-based campaign tools were not pervasive enough to help push John Kerry over the electoral hurdle in critical battleground states.

Much has changed in four years! Adoption of the web-based social networking lifestyle has become widespread in American homes and even pervasive among the millennial generation age group. By the end of 2008 industry experts project that 43.5% of the U.S. adult Internet population and 77% of the U.S. teen Internet population will be regularly updating or at least visiting one or more social networking sites.

eMarketer predicts that by 2011 the total U.S. adult social networking audience will grow to more than 49% of online adults and the U.S. teen social networking audience will grow to more than 84% of all online teens.

More than 36% of Web users “highly trust” the information they receive from friends and acquaintances in their online social networks, according to a new social Internet survey by Faves.com (formerly BlueDot.us). The number jumps to 90% when including those that “moderately trust” their social network contacts.

Members of the millennial generation, boomer’s babies born between 1978 to 1996, have become highly active participants in the political campaigns of candidates employing web-based social networking enabled campaign websites. Polling data indicates that millennials are unusually civic minded (they volunteer at the highest level recorded for youths in 40 years, according to one study) and hold a wide range of progressive values. A large segment of this age group are concerned with the environment, support gay marriage, prefer a multilateral foreign policy, and even believe in government again. Sixty-three percent think government should do more to solve the nation's problems. This generation is poised to become the core of a 21st century progressive coalition.

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According to the website Technorati.com, the blogosphere has grown over 100 times since 2004. During the 2004 cycle, web traffic visiting Conservative and Progressive blogs was about equal. In 2008 the Progressive blogosphere is much larger than the Conservative blogosphere. Already by 2006, according to a poll by the online advertising service Blogads.com, nearly 50% of blog readers self-identified as Democrats while only 20% saw themselves as Republicans, with 19% as Independents, 5% as Libertarians, 4% as Greens, and 2% as apolitical.

The raw numbers were equally impressive according to statistics reported last year. Time Magazine estimated that about 6 million Democrats read blogs on a daily basis and Nielson ratings reported that 4.8 million people a month visit the biggest political blog, DailyKos.com. The Liberal Ad Network, which comprises nearly 100 of the biggest blogs that are aligned with the progressive cause, pegged readership at over 90 million page-views a month. And the National Journal’s Hotline conducted a poll in April 2006, finding that 23% of Democrats read blogs at least a few times a month. The raw numbers shaping up for 2008 usage patterns are even more impressive.

Those who do read political blogs tend to be among the most politically engaged Americans. A PEW post-election survey of online activists that supported Howard Dean showed that an incredible 99% voted in the November 2004 election. Because these bloggers and online activists are extremely politically active, they can and do have a disproportionate impact on everything from primary elections to advocacy campaigns.

In 2006, the blogosphere played a key role in the Democratic victory during the mid-terms by helping to launch innovative advocacy campaigns, counter the Republican propaganda machine, coordinate volunteers and fundraise online. But one of the biggest contributions was to expand the playing field of candidates. While the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did a fine job of recruiting competitive candidates for the top targeted districts, the blogosphere identified and propelled candidates in less-known districts, with funding, buzz and momentum. Combined, the complimentary effort allowed Democrats to have a candidate in nearly all of the 435 congressional districts, fielding more candidates than either party in the last 40 years, with blogosphere funding through ActBlue.com. This decentralized, 50-state effort is where the blogosphere will continue to lead as a more localized progressive blogosphere develops.

These Blog And Social Networking Adoption And Usage statistics line up with very recent polls on young voters’ political allegiances and candidate preferences. An April 21,2008 MTV survey of 18-to-29-year-old voters showed Obama beating McCain 52 percent to 39 percent. An April 25, 2008 survey by the Harvard Institute of Politics showed Obama beating McCain among 18-to-24-year-olds, 50 percent to 29 percent.

Surveys show similar trends in party identification. An April 28,2008 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 58 percent of voters under 30 years old identified themselves as Democrats, while 33 percent said they were Republicans. That gap has widened since the 2004 presidential election, when Democratic nominee John Kerry carried voters the same age group by nine points over President George Bush.

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Progressives need to recognize the importance of forming bonds through local blogs. These local blogs are akin to making connections with the special interest groups and constituency groups of the past that have traditionally dominated the progressive movement. The difference is that whereas interest groups traditionally care about only a small range of topics, such as the environment or women’s choice, local bloggers are much more likely to be movement-based and focused on changing the status quo.

Until recently, the perception of bloggers has been that they are more concerned with national issues, and have a questionable impact on local elections. However as the blogosphere has grown, and grown more progressive, this has changed. A series of special elections from 2005 through 2008 makes clear that local blogs can have a real impact.

Paul Hackett came remarkably close to winning a special election, in Ohio’s second congressional district in 2005, in a very Republican district—largely off of funding from the blogosphere. Among the recent victories, the primary U.S. Senate victories of Jim Webb in Virginia and Jon Tester in the Montana showed that the local blogosphere is now capable of connecting blogosphere activism and grassroots action. In the 2006 mid-term election, to the surprise of those inside the beltway, local heroes won upset victories throughout the nation with help from local online activism. In the most recent three special elections:

• Mississippi Democrat Travis Childers beat Republican Greg Davis 54% to 46% in a U.S. House seat special election in a very Republican district.
• In a special election in Louisiana's 6th district Democrat Cazayoux Woody Jenkins, 49 percent to 46 percent, for a seat held by a Republican for the past two decades.
• Bill Foster won the suburban Chicago House seat held for 21 years by former House speaker Dennis Hastert

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One of the areas where the Internet is making online political campaigning particularly potent is in video, specifically the use of YouTube. Today, more than 80% of people in the U.S. have internet access. Internet users spend the same amount of time online (14 hours a week) as they do watching TV. Over 21 million people have watched political videos online, and the daily usage of online video rose by 56 percent over last year.

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Research Sources

1. http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/11/the-50-year-strategy.html
2. http://www.newpolitics.net
3. http://www.newpolitics.net/node/158?full_report=1
4. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1109/p09s01-coop.html
5. http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=t1n20rynvsqvbk0g14g8pth0vlnbl1yd
6. http://www.blogads.com/survey/blog_reader_surveys_overview.html
7. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1538663-2,00.html5.
8. http://web.blogads.com/advertise/liberal_blog_advertising_network
9. http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/4/26/155753/408
10. http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=240
11. http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=56020
12. http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/11/8/42848/3168
13. http://plantingliberally.mydd.com/comments/2006/7/18/11439/3728/20#20
14. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/05/progressive_generation.html
15. Pew: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/98/presentation_display.asp
16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctc-1FCYFck
17. http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/7/18/12628/1966
18. http://bleedingheartland.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=419
19. http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/18/of-winos-and-republican-lockstep-support-for-failure/
20. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/18/12557/4643

More Videos on Web-Based Networking and Communication

Blogs in Plain English



New Media: Moving Forward



New Media: A New Era



Social Networking Tools in Politics - Insight - Nov 14, 2007



Social Networking Tools in Politics - Chris Kelly - Chief Privacy Officer, FaceBook - Nov 14, 2007



Social Networking Tools in Politics - Cheryl Contee - Nov 14, 2007



Social Networking Tools in Politics - Ben Rattray - 16 min - Nov 14, 2007



Social Networking Tools in Politics - John Hlinko - MoveOn and GrassRoots Founder - Nov 14, 2007

DNC blunts GOP Micro Targeting Lead

By: David Paul Kuhn, Politico
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10573.html
May 24, 2008 07:10 AM EST

After years of struggling to catch up to the Republican Party’s sophisticated micro-targeting efforts, the Democratic National Committee appears to have come close to parity.

The DNC has now reorganized its data banks into one centralized file that goes a long way toward neutralizing the GOP’s advantage in drilling down and identifying crucial constituencies of voters.

In the past two presidential cycles, the Republican national voter file allowed the party to more efficiently locate, communicate with and galvanize voters. Democrats, by comparison, relied on a disjointed compilation of national and state party data files that varied widely in quality. To boot, said one DNC analyst, many of their files would vanish after each election year.

For Democrats, the shift to one “solid voter file” is “transformative,” said Ben Self, the DNC’s director of technology.

“Whether it is micro-targeting, regular targeting, neighbor-to-neighbor knocking on doors, or volunteers making calls,” Self said, “all these vital campaign activities are built on a national voter file and were not available in 2000.”

Or, in 2004, when Republicans took full advantage of their advances in technology. In Florida alone, as President Bush sought reelection, consumer data enabled the GOP to locate regular churchgoers who were not Republican, as well as identify a group of Hispanic mothers particularly supportive of the No Child Left Behind law.

The DNC and Republican National Committee now each boast one vast data coffer that merges traditional voter statistics on gender, geography, or party identification with consumer and census data.

Hal Malchow, one of the pioneers of micro-targeting, emphasizes five key characteristics in which consumer data points are most helpful: deciphering ethnicity and race, church attendance, marital status and gender, geography, and gun ownership. Democratic strategists have also found that determining the size of a household and whether someone rents his home also prove to be significant indicators of partisan leanings.

Each party compiles hundreds of these data points on one voter, mines the data for patterns and labels a voter on a 1 to 100 scale to measure likely support. Perhaps more important, the DNC cross-references phone numbers and addresses for each individual.

Mastering the art of micro-targeting is increasingly important to the parties as the more traditional forms of communication become less and less effective in campaigns.

Political advertising, for example, is becoming less salient because digital video recorders permit voters to skip commercials. The Yankee Group, a technology research and consulting firm, estimates that between 20 percent and 27 percent of American homes have a DVR.

According to the most recent report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 15 percent of Americans get most of their campaign news online.

And cell phones have made conventional phone banks less efficient, since it is more difficult to locate a cell number and since users commonly screen calls.

Recently, the DNC began a “neighbor to neighbor” program that “geo-codes” volunteers — a process that assigns geographic identifiers to them — to increase the likelihood that neighbors will canvass neighbors.

In short, a volunteer signs up. The 25 nearest neighbors who pique the DNC’s interest are then mapped out for the volunteer. The DNC also offers a script to use during canvassing as volunteers go door to door, asking their neighbors the degree of their Democratic support or their support for John McCain. The volunteers asks about their neighbors' top issue interests. The aim is to return and later target each person with a specific script based on their previously identified concerns.

Volunteers are ranked locally for their effectiveness and rewarded with invitations to intraparty conference calls or meetings. They are also encouraged to forward invitations by e-mail to friends or family, mimicking the viral success of social networking websites.

The program, which debuted in Kansas in late April, was expanded to Virginia. The DNC plans to gradually roll out the program nationally by mid-summer.

Some Republicans question whether the DNC could catch up in the span of just one presidential cycle.

“Speaking frankly, knowing how difficult a project this is, how many mistakes we’ve made over the years, there is actually no way they will be able to have caught up in such a short period of time,” said a top RNC analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The party continues to build the DNC’s voter file with some assistance from the Obama and Clinton campaigns, which have been offloading data to the DNC file.

That, in itself, is an accomplishment for a party that brought its voter file in-house for the first time in the 2006 midterm elections. That year, Democrats conducted a pilot program using the data in six states, including Montana, where Jon Tester unseated Republican Sen. Conrad Burns.

The data set allowed the party to narrowly predict possible Tester supporters. Democrats found that smaller households and unmarried voters were “predictive” of Tester support as were those with advanced degrees. Voters from more rural areas or with higher travel times were more likely to back Burns.

Burns voters were also more likely to participate in outdoor activities, gardening, investing, to be religious contributors and to have an interest in golf. Tester voters were more interested in health products and more likely to have a retail credit card.

The Montana pilot project expanded the party’s likely voter universe by some 15,000 residents. In an internal poll following the race, the DNC found that 85 percent of their top quartile of modeled Tester supporters voted for him.

“A lot of the consumer data helps at the margins,” said Keith Goodman, the director of special projects in the DNC’s political department. And, as Goodman notes, many elections are decided in the margins .

Voter Activation Network (VAN)

Beginning in 2002, the Democratic Party developed two databases -- DataMart, containing the records of 166 million registered voters, and Demzilla, a smaller database used for fund-raising and organizing volunteers. In February 2007, the DNC replaced these with the Voter Activation Network (VAN) database of voter research data and a web application use to access the data called VoteBuilder. Described as a "state-of-the-art nationwide voter file interface," the Web-based tool is designed to ensure that Democratic candidates from the national party to the state parties have access to the tools needed to help win elections.

VoteBuilder came from Voter Activation Network (VAN) of Somerville, Mass. VAN President Mark Sullivan got his start in politics working for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Sullivan recalled that up until 2001, databases of registered voters resided on mainframes and political campaigns had to buy back their own data from the vendors. So Sullivan developed the VAN software, which became the online data management tool most widely used by Democrats and their allies.

"When we build a VAN for a state party, the party can make it available to every Democratic candidate in the state or any subset of Democrats they choose," Sullivan told CRM Buyer. "For one price, they make the most powerful tool in Democratic politics available up and down the ticket. So, while clients typically reach out to us in anticipation of a big, contested statewide campaign, state legislators and local officials usually become the VAN's biggest advocates."

Texas Democratic Party’s subscription to the DNC's Voter Activation Network PartyBuilder web application gives every county party organization in Texas a powerful decentralized neighbor-to-neighbor field tool that lets local activists access and use voter research data to canvass people within a few hundred yards of their house. Party Builder also allows authorized users such as Precinct Chairpersons to download and customize select, approved pieces of campaign literature. Eventually, this customizable content and distributed model will allow the Democratic party to deploy micro-targeted field campaigns at the neighborhood level.

Declaration of Democratic Values

The Democratic Pledge To America

It is crucial that all of us representing the Democratic Party in this 2008 election year can convey to prospective voters the values that all Democrats hold dear! There are three fundamental principles that inspire our Democratic philosophy:

First, Democrats are resolved to safeguard our individual freedoms. For two centuries, America has been defined by its commitment to constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and rights.

Second, Democrats strive to guarantee equal opportunity for all. America's historic success has come by providing all citizens, not just the privileged few, with an education that empowers every citizen to secure a better life for their families.

Third, Democrats are determined to protect our national security. To make us truly secure, America must not only stop domestic criminals and foreign terrorists, it must also promote our health security, seniors welfare security, infrastructure security, food security, product security, drug security, environmental security, fiscal security, job security and imported goods security. While forcefully continuing to protect lives, health and property, we must ultimately feel secure that a competent government will also respond to protect and then rebuild our lives when disasters, like hurricanes and floods, strike our local communities .

These three principles might be summed up in one simple statement: Democrats believe that government exists to promote and protect the common good for all citizens; that government must play a role to ensure there is a level playing field for every American and that no one special interest is allowed to gain unfair advantage over even a single American.

President Clinton contrasted the "Common Good" values of Democrats with those of Conservative Republicans stating that, "Where [Democrats] favor equal opportunity and empowerment, they believe the country is best served by the maximum concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the right people. We believe in mutual responsibility. They believe in large measure that people make or break their own lives, and you're on your own. We believe in striving, at least, to cooperate with others, because we think there are very few problems in the world we can solve on our own. They favor unilateralism whenever possible and cooperation when it's unavoidable."

The "Common Good" Value Is The Foundation Of Many Answers To The Question; "For What Do Democrats Stand?"

While it is important that Democrats are prepared to carry our Party's message forward, we must also not allow Republicans to redefine any message to their own advantage. First among the messages that Republicans wish to define for themselves, is the message of security. Republicans, particularly presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Senator John McCain, seek to define "Security" only under its most narrow definition of defending against a foreign terrorist threat. The desire to own this "security" message is understandable for Republicans since this is now the only issue where Republicans continue to poll ahead of Democrats.

While the hazard of foreign terrorist organizations is of vital concern and must be thoughtfully addressed by competent leadership, Americans are more likely to face a much more immediate threat of Flood, Hurricane, Earthquake, Tornado, Cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, Diabetes, Contaminated Food, Unsafe Imported Products, Off-shoring Job Loss or even Interstate Bridge Collapse caused by governmental neglect of our national infrastructure! Therefore, Democrats must remind voters that government’s responsibility to keep Americans secure applies to every aspect of American day-to-day life. This is why the following sample Democratic message elevator-speeches, cutting across several key election issues, have been typecast under the "security" theme. (An "elevator speech" is a short overview of an idea for a product, service, or political position. The name reflects the fact that an elevator speech can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride - for example, 30-45 seconds).

Use these sample messages as is or rework them into your own words so that you can deliver the messages with heartfelt passion. Use them individually or mix and match the messages depending on the issues most important to your audience.

The Democratic Pledge To America
"For What Do Democrats Stand?"

Economic Security - Give every American economic security and job security with a fair opportunity to prosper and pass on a better life to the next generation!

National Security – The first responsibility of each U.S. President is to guarantee the security of America through a well trained military that stands at the highest readiness level! The President and every member of the U.S House and U.S. Senate must have a firm grasp on when and how it is reasonable and advised to use military strategy as a tool to advance our national security interests.

Health and Welfare Security – The security of affordable quality health care should be available to every American.

Educational Security – Every American has the right to an education that includes affordable colleges and universities, prepares them to live a better life than their parents, and also allows them to bequeath a better future to their children!

Environmental Security – All Americans deserve a clean, healthy environment!

Energy Security - We need programs to develop energy efficiency and alternative technologies. Energy Independence Strengthens National Security!

Rights Security - America's Constitutional Government has a responsibility to protect and promote the common good for every single American, not just the perceived "majority" Americans! Government shouldn't be allowed to invade every American's email and phone conversations without warrant just because the technology exists to do so!

The Democratic Pledge To America
"For What Do Democrats Stand?"
Talking Point Messages

Economic Security - Give every American economic security and job security with a fair opportunity to prosper and pass on a better life to the next generation!

• Democrats stand for jobs for Americans in America that offer a living wage and fair benefits. Our economy should provide economic opportunities for all hard-working individuals and families. Therefore, we support a legislative agenda that not only keeps jobs from disappearing offshore to China, Russia and India, but also guarantees a minimum living wage for every hard working American!
• Democrats stand for rational government spending and fiscal policies. Through the Republican Party's borrow and spend policies over the past eight years, the National Debt continues to increase an average of $1.42 billion per day - or nearly $1 million a minute - as spending mounts for the U.S. military policing action in Iraq. Republican spending and fiscal policies have ballooned interest payments on the national debt, which now stands at an incredible $9.13 trillion. Today each man, woman, child and infant living in the United States is responsible for $30,000 in national debt; a legacy we will leave to our children and grandchildren. Therefore, we support a legislative agenda that stops the mounting deficit spending of the past six years, balances the federal budget and stops the dollar's six-year decline from its status as the internationally preferred business exchange currency.
• Democrats stand for a strong dollar plan of action. The Bush administration has allowed the U.S. Dollar valuation to fall to historic lows against the Euro and other currencies. The dollar's 41 percent drop against the Euro during Bush's term has contributed substantially to the surge in imported oil and gasoline prices, fanned inflation pressures and contributed to massive American balance of trade deficits. Therefore, we stand for legislation that promotes a trade policy that serves the interests, not just of multinational corporations, but also of every American's vital interest in economic security.
• Democrats stand for legislation that will allow the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission to end speculative manipulation of energy commodity trading markets. The so-called "Enron Loophole" was created and attached to U.S. Senate legislation in December 2000 by McCain campaign co-chair Senator Phil Gramm at the behest of Enron executives. It was this "loop hole legislation" that Enron exploited to speculatively manipulate electricity commodity trading in California energy markets in the summer of 2001, spawning artificial electricity shortages, steep climbs in electricity prices and rolling brownouts across California. Therefore, we stand for legislation that not only eliminates unbridled and unregulated oil and gas commodity trading loopholes, but also regulates speculative commodity trading practices, such as has skyrocketed gasoline prices by as much as an additional 50 percent since the summer of 2007.
• Democrats stand for national infrastructure investment. The lack of infrastructure investment by the Bush Administration and previous Republican controlled congresses has allowed levies and interstate bridges to decay into collapse, roadways to crumble and our electrical distribution infrastructure to lag. Therefore, we stand for a well-maintained national infrastructure where maintenance and expansion is determined not by politics, but by what will maximize our safety and homeland security, and by what will keep our economy growing strong.
• Democrats stand against wholesale foreign ownership of our national infrastructure. The Bush Administration and previous Republican controlled congresses have actively promoted the policy of foreign investment in and ownership of U.S. infrastructure. In 2006 the United Arab Emirates-owned Dubai Ports World almost acquired a company that ran critical U.S. ports until the public became aware of the deal and pressured Congress and the Bush Administration to stop the purchase. Yet, the Bush administration continues to promote foreign ownership of key public interest infrastructures such as roads, public water systems and airports. The Spanish company Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA was almost allowed to purchase the State Highway 121 toll road in North Texas until public pressure derailed the deal at the last minute. In June 2008 the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Affairs has announced it will stop publishing a key report tracking those foreign investments so as to hide such acquisitions from public scrutiny. Therefore, we stand for reversing the Republican legislative and administrative policies that actively promote and encourage foreign ownership of U.S. public interest infrastructure.
• Democrats stand for moderate regulation of financial institutions. Immediately after Republicans eliminated the regulatory guidelines of prudent banking practices, unscrupulous home mortgage lenders were free to unfairly prey on both American home buyers and securities investors. Mortgage lenders were free to aggressively market risky sub-prime home mortgages to unsuspecting home buyers and then speculatively trade those risky sub-prime loans in securities markets to such unrestrained levels that the U.S. Federal Reserve is now forced into government bailouts of private securities companies to avert economic disaster. The U.S. Federal Reserve was forced into such a Federal bailout of Bear Stearns in March 2008 over these risky sub-prime mortgage loan trading practices. The depth of sub-prime mortgage loan risks to the U.S. economy are yet unfolding with thousands more American homeowners losing their homes every month through foreclosure. Republicans would rather allow banks and brokers to take unmitigated and unregulated risks, to profit the few, and then socialize the bailout cost of those "too big to fail" by adding the rotten fruits of their bad decisions onto the public debt. Therefore, we stand for legislation that will restore the federal banking regulatory authority that the Republicans discarded in their zeal to eliminate protective government oversight in every quarter of American financing and commerce.

National Security – The first responsibility of each U.S. President is to guarantee the security of America through a well trained military that stands at the highest readiness level! The President and every member of the U.S House and U.S. Senate must have a firm grasp on when and how it is reasonable and advised to use military strategy as a tool to advance our national security interests.

• Democrats stand for rational use of our military forces. America must have a well-managed military force with rational tours of duty for Active Duty, Guard and Reserve units that do not break down and wear out our first line of national defense. Even before September 11, 2001, our military leaders indicated that members and families of all armed services branches were stretched thin in meeting deployments requirements. The subsequent miscalculations for a quick and cheap war in Iraq, which has extended to five costly years of policing an Iraqi civil war, added to the necessary operations in Afghanistan, have placed extreme stress on Active Duty, Guard and Reserve forces alike. Therefore, we plead for legislation and competent Congressional oversight in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate that will restore rational tours of duty for Active Duty, Guard and Reserve units and that will return America's armed forces to peak readiness levels.
• Democrats stand for rewarding our men and women in uniform for their courageous service to America. In addition to our strong support for the 21st Century GI Bill championed by Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, Democrats also strongly believe that our veterans deserve the best health care available, unimpeded by needless bureaucratic red tape and Republican appointed VA Administrators who seek to hide the true extent of physical and mental injuries that result from repeated back-to-back extended tours of duty. Therefore, we demand legislation and Veteran's Administration oversight from every branch of government that guarantees our self-sacrificing veterans will receive the health care and benefits they rightly deserve!!

Health and Welfare Security – The security of affordable quality health care should be available to every American.

• Democrats stand for a security safety net for the most vulnerable Americans. We must protect the security of our nation's children, elderly, wounded military veterans, and disadvantaged. Children should never have to go to school hungry and never have to skip health care because their parents can't afford it! Therefore, we support strengthened legislation and strict enforcement of existing legislation to make health care, child care, veteran care and elder care accessible, efficient and effective.
• Democrats stand for universal health care through shared responsibility. The American health care system is broken. Over the past five years, families have seen premiums increase by 90 percent while benefits have been cut. America has an embarrassing 47 million adults and 9 million children who are uninsured and 50 million adults who are under-insured. Since 2001, premiums for family coverage have increased 78 percent, while wages have gone up 19 percent and inflation is up 17 percent. Republicans promote a "you're on your own" free-for-all market system to drive health care coverage. Therefore, we support a legislative agenda that drives universal health care for every single American citizen through shared responsibility.
• Democrats stand for modest oversight of insurance, drug and health care companies. Totally unbridled and unregulated free-for-all market forces allow drug companies to reap unprecedented profits -- even after the drug companies annually squander 65 billion dollars for advertising, derived from what Americans paid for their pharmaceuticals. In 2004, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spent 24 percent of their $235 billion in U.S. revenues on promotion, versus 13 percent for research and development. Therefore, we favor a legislative agenda that provides modest controls over what insurance and drug companies can do with their profits, what drug companies can charge for their products, and how fast health care fees can escalate.
• Democrats stand for expanded federal funding of advanced therapeutic DNA research. Advanced therapeutic DNA research will lead to treatments and cures for a range of diseases that begins with Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, Diabetes, Cancer and Spinal Cord Injuries. The American people overwhelmingly support expanded federal funding of therapeutic DNA research, and yet, the Republicans in Washington, bowing to the pressure from their extreme right-wing base, have prevented the passage of bipartisan funding legislation for seven years. Therefore, we favor a legislative agenda that seeks to increase federal support for every form of advanced therapeutic DNA research.

Educational Security – Every American has the right to an education that includes affordable colleges and universities, prepares them to live a better life than their parents, and also allows them to bequeath a better future to their children!

• Democrats stand for building an education system that is the best in the world. Every child should have an equal opportunity to attend elementary and high schools that provide a quality education, and then attend an affordable college or university of their choice. Therefore, we support legislation to invest in our children's education through smaller class sizes, more after-school and pre-school programs, more affordable colleges and universities and more widely available low interest student loans.

Environmental Security – All Americans deserve a clean, healthy environment!

• Democrats stand for a clean and safe environment. We must conserve our natural resources both to secure our own health and well being, and to fulfill our responsibility to future generations. Democrats believe it is prudent to control pollution through a series of increasingly effective policy actions in order to prevent the total destruction of our environment. Republicans would rather allow industry to belch out poisonous wastes and climate warming carbon, in accordance with their "anything goes" free-market philosophy. Republicans are in denial regarding those hidden economic costs of environmental destruction, devastating climate change, and unconscionable damage to people's health. Therefore, we support a legislative agenda to restore and then strengthen pollution and carbon emissions regulations that have been eliminated by the Republican controlled congresses and Bush Administration over the past eight years.

Energy Security - We need programs to develop energy efficiency and alternative technologies. Energy Independence Strengthens National Security!

• Democrats stand for increased National Security through Energy Independence. America must lead the world in the development of new energy technologies and conservation strategies that will free America from dependence on foreign oil. Energy independence will reduce the country's strategic dependence on Middle East oil and thus reduce the risk that the U.S. must maintain armed forces in Middle East countries for the next 100 years, as Senator McCain has suggested. Investment in the development of new energy technologies will also fuel business investment and job growth in America. Republicans would rather "drive pedal to the metal" until the last drop of oil is burned, and then socialize the cost of 100-year military expeditions to secure foreign oil reserves. Therefore, we support legislation that redirects federal tax subsidies that are currently "gifted" to big oil companies, into programs that will develop alternative energy and energy conservation technologies, similar in scope and urgency to President Kennedy's 1960's era "landing a man on the moon in a decade" program.

Rights Security - America's Constitutional Government has a responsibility to protect and promote the common good for every single American, not just the perceived "majority" Americans! Government shouldn't be allowed to invade every American's email and phone conversations without warrant just because the technology exists to do so!

• Democrats stand for the protection of family privacy. For Americans to be truly free, government must stay out of our private family lives. Whether the personal and family choice is related to sustaining artificial life support for family members, health care choices for our aged parents suffering from Alzheimer's Disease or even family planning choices, families must have the right to make the difficult family decisions as God gives them, individually, the light to make their choice. Therefore, we favor a legislative and U.S. Supreme Court appointment philosophy that keeps family life choices strictly within the family without government interference and demagoguery.
• Democrats stand for the appointment of non-partisan U.S. Supreme Court Justices that will impartially apply constitutional oversight in the Supreme Court's review of low court rulings. Long after the next president is gone, his appointments will be sitting on the bench, making decisions that impact our rights and liberties. The next President will likely appoint as many as three new Supreme Court Justices to the bench. Therefore, we believe the President of the United States should appoint U.S. Supreme Court Justices who support the principles underlying the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. We demand Justices who support an individual's privacy and right to make intimate and personal choices.
• Democrats stand for crime deterrence that focuses on opportunity availability instead of retribution. Tough sentences alone don't make us safer. A report released in February 2008 indicates that more than one in every 100 U.S. citizens is now confined in an American jail or prison. The United States has 5 percent of the world's population, and yet it has 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. We need to deter crime with more police on the beat, programs for at-risk youth, better education, a strong job market and job skills retraining. Therefore, we favor a legislative agenda that provides more funding to local police forces across America in addition to the legislative agendas to promote youth programs, to provide better education, and to build a vibrant economy that will provide good jobs on American soil to every American wanting a job.
• Democrats stand for the elimination of discrimination. Discrimination against any American diminishes freedom for us all.

Research Sources

Model Progressive Declaration of Values - PDF
Tapping into Voters Voters' Core Values - Presentation PDF
Findings from a Nationwide Survey - Presentation PDF
Progressive Platform For The States 2006 - PDF
Progressive Values 101 2006
Rethinking Progressive Values
America at its Best. That's Progressive. That's You.
The Center for American Progress Video Channel - YouTube
Progressive Values? Howard Dean - Fairness, Responsibility - YouTube

Don't Allow Republicans to Define the Democratic Values Message

Republicans say that Democrats are anti-family.

However . . .

• Republicans want to mandate what choices your family can make.

Whereas . . .

• Democrats support your right to define what constitutes a family.
• Democrats put you in charge of your family's life decisions.
• Democrats fight for your family's rights against economic and political oppression.

Republicans say that Democrats are anti-business.

However . . .

• Republicans mandate totally unregulated free-market enterprise in every business and public interest quarter. Unregulated free markets simply means there is no rulebook and no referee to enforce the rules. That often translates into monopolies or speculative excesses, which hurts small business and competition and creates speculative economic bubbles and predatory practices that ultimately collapse into economic calamity. An unregulated free-market system is like asking professional football teams to play a season without a playbook and without referees.

Whereas . . .

• Democrats protect small businesses by regulating the larger ones and by breaking up monopolies to promote healthy competition, which naturally drives innovation and controls prices.
• Democrats protect workers in order to create a healthy, well-educated middle class workforce that will help businesses grow.

Republicans say that Democrats are anti-religion.

However . . .

• Republicans are often for one dominant interpretation of religious faith, and are, therefore, against others.

Whereas . . .

• Democrats support complete freedom of religion so that each American is free to choose the manner in which God and faith is a part of their lives.
• Democrats strive to prevent government mandates for one particular interpretation of religious faith and to keep government out of a family's religious choices.

Republicans say that Democrats are anti-freedom.

However . . .

• Republicans want to outlaw homosexuals, eliminate women's rights, and stop freedom of expression through the use of censorship.

Whereas . . .

• Democrats delegate the parents to teach such values to their children.
• Democrats believe each person or family should be free to choose how to behave as long as it does not interfere with another's rights.

Republicans say that Democrats are anti-morality.

However . . .

• Republicans want to impose the moral stance of one group of Americans onto each and every American.

Whereas . . .

• Democrats believe each person and each family must follow their own moral compass as defined by their own family and religious teachings.
• Democrats want the government to protect our freedom to choose what is important to us rather than to impose the laws and codes of another's moral interpretations.

Historical Inspiration

Historical Inspiration

John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States

September 14, 1960

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

But first, I would like to say what I understand the word "Liberal" to mean and explain in the process why I consider myself to be a "Liberal," and what it means in the presidential election of 1960.

In short, having set forth my view -- I hope for all time -- two nights ago in Houston, on the proper relationship between church and state, I want to take the opportunity to set forth my views on the proper relationship between the state and the citizen. This is my political credo:

I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.

I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities. Government is an art and a precious obligation; and when it has a job to do, I believe it should do it. And this requires not only great ends but that we propose concrete means of achieving them.

Our responsibility is not discharged by announcement of virtuous ends. Our responsibility is to achieve these objectives with social invention, with political skill, and executive vigor. I believe for these reasons that liberalism is our best and only hope in the world today. For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society. Its strength is drawn from the will of free people committed to great ends and peacefully striving to meet them. Only liberalism, in short, can repair our national power, restore our national purpose, and liberate our national energies. And the only basic issue in the 1960 campaign is whether our government will fall in a conservative rut and die there, or whether we will move ahead in the liberal spirit of daring, of breaking new ground, of doing in our generation what Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson did in their time of influence and responsibility.

Our liberalism has its roots in our diverse origins. Most of us are descended from that segment of the American population, which was once called an immigrant minority. Today, along with our children and grandchildren, we do not feel minor. We feel proud of our origins and we are not second to any group in our sense of national purpose. For many years New York represented the new frontier to all those who came from the ends of the earth to find new opportunity and new freedom, generations of men and women who fled from the despotism of the czars, the horrors of the Nazis, the tyranny of hunger, who came here to the new frontier in the State of New York. These men and women, a living cross section of American history, indeed, a cross section of the entire world's history of pain and hope, made of this city not only a new world of opportunity, but a new world of the spirit as well.

But in 1960 the cause of liberalism cannot content itself with carrying on the fight for human justice and economic liberalism here at home. For here and around the world the fear of war hangs over us every morning and every night. It lies, expressed or silent, in the minds of every American. We cannot banish it by repeating that we are economically first or that we are militarily first, for saying so doesn't make it so. More will be needed than goodwill missions or talking back to Soviet politicians or increasing the tempo of the arms race. More will be needed than good intentions, for we know where that paving leads.

In Winston Churchill's words, "We cannot escape our dangers by recoiling from them. We dare not pretend such dangers do not exist."

This is an important election -- in many ways as important as any this century -- and I think that the Democratic Party and those who believe in progress all over the United States, should be associated with us in this great effort. The reason that Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson had influence abroad, and the United States in their time had it, was because they moved this country here at home, because they stood for something here in the United States, for expanding the benefits of our society to our own people, and the people around the world looked to us as a symbol of hope.

I think it is our task to re-create the same atmosphere in our own time. Our national elections have often proved to be the turning point in the course of our country. I am proposing that 1960 be another turning point in the history of the great Republic.

I say this is the great opportunity that we will have in our time to move our people and this country and the people of the free world beyond the new frontiers of the 1960s.