a welcome thread to new Democratic leadership
The College Dems elected a new leadership tonight: President Elect Eric Lesser and Vice President Elect Matt Bosch. They're both great guys, and it will hopefully be an exciting year for them.But, here's my question: what advice would you give Eric and Matt for the next year? What's your impression of what the Dems do, or what they should do? What do you think the campus's impression is? Use this thread to offer some productive advice, constructive criticism, or unabashed praise...
posted by andrew golis @ 8:49 PM
6 Comments:
I have an idea: they should make sure that Mitt "I have good hair and therefore I think I should be President" Romney is no longer the Governor of Massachusetts!
I think the first thing they should do is embrace the more progressive groups on campus rather than this silly move to the middle and basically support the war stuff. This is Harvard: the democrats should act like democrats...
As Golis mentioned yesterday, the College Dems, much like the DNC itself, have become too obsessed with logistics and strategy--the ground game, gotv, etc--and far too disdainful of 'genuine' discussions on policy and ideology. The College Repubs, while a minority on campus, are an outspoken one, and they clamor to have their positions on issues taken seriously on their intellectual merits.
There is no reason the Dems, especially in a very important and potentially rewarding election year, shouldn't promote debate of the same depth and frequency, far beyond the platform discussions of convention day. A Harvard college dem party that knows what it stands for may have more than a passing influence on a national dem party that is still wavering on what it stands for.
Lesser and Bosch should look to publicly sponsoring this kind of debate on campus, to trying to transcend the long-held cynicism of the college population. This year, we shouldn't look for the "most electable" candidate, but rather the most sensible policies and dominant ideologies for a party poised to finally present a strong and hopefully affirmative (that is, not reactionary) counterpoint to the disintegrating republican status quo.
Focus on the University's motto and make a HUGE stink whenever anyone, anywhere on campus, lies about matters of public concern.
Democrats are the party of facts, and Harvard's motto is Veritas.
The Dems should be fact-checkers because they are students; and these students should be vocal respondents to public lying because they are Democrats.
Get a method in place to publicize lies. Every lie told on campus -- IOP, op-ed, any public setting -- should go on a flyer, with refuting documentation, and then postering should happen every week with the whole crop. Odds are you won't even need to xerox any to cover the whole Yard at first.
Jim
I agree that the Dems should return to discussions about policy and ideology. I think this was recognized by the fact that 6 people ran for Legislative Chair, the policy arm of the Dems.
As a candidate for this position, I advocated two main points. The first was uniting the different committees of the Dems. Legislative Committee would serve a central role in this as the policy it formulates would then be publicized and promoted by the rest of the organization. Magdey, in running for President, made this his central goal as well. The second point I put forward was a democratization of the process of making policy decisions. The whole Dems membership would have a vote (on the website, with comments on our blog too) on each policy proposal (and alternatives) we come up with.
Although Magdey and I lost, I am still going to work hard to make sure that the Dems start to engage in clear policy discussions with its membership and the campus as a whole.
I'd like to see the Dems reach out to our IOP groups more, and engage more with us. I'd like to see them form a strong alliance with the Roosevelt Institution, and in general do more serious work about policy and ideology. I'd like to see them spend more time on the formation of great democratic leaders rather than great Democratic campaign managers.
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