Thursday, June 08, 2006
PUBLIC UTILITY
How do you talk to people about politics? How do you get them to listen to what you're saying? If you read a piece posted here about wonk talk you know I advocate Democratic spokesmen talking about things like national health care in simple language. Cutting out the jargon and policy talk. I stand by what I said then. Last weekend there was a discussion of how the left talks to other people. I repeated some of the points I'd made here but had to admit that I wasn't particularly good at it. When being inconsistent it's a good idea to let them know you are aware of the fact before they can tell you. I said that people who were good at it should be the voice of the Democratic Party.
But later I thought that it wasn't good enough. I had to make an effort myself. And I have started. Some of you have urged me to go shorter and gave me other sensible suggestions. I'm trying to do just that. It's like starting a new language, not easy. It's still in the experimental stage. The results aren't ready for posting.
My reason for starting this blog was to go beyond just giving you the news. We know enough about what Republicans are doing to destroy democracy and lives across the world. We don't need an excuse to act. The focus here is about how to act more effectively, to do what can be done now. One of the most important parts of that is talking to the huge part of the population who are uninvolved. If we can get even a quarter of those people out and supporting us, we will win. That job starts with telling them our ideas in the clearest and most engaging way possible.
So, I am declaring myself open to your ideas again. Do you think that the comments format is too hard to use? A leftist blog just can't be without reader participation. Proclamations and talking points handed out from headquarters? That's just so Republican.
This is a public utility. Not to everyone, I will not make myself useful to conservatives. I can't stop anyone from reading it but this is a service to the left, to liberals to Democrats who want to make parts of the progressive agenda into law, making lives better. If I'm doing anything useless or going off on a tangent tell me to get back on line. I thank you for your advice and for doing me the honor of reading my posts.
AND ABOUT ON LINE
Blogger is having some trouble this week. I don't know what that is but it has seemed to have had only minimal effect here so far. Maybe simple living accounts for that. But there might be disruptions. My intent is to post at least every morning but if that isn't possible please check back later.
Also, I seem to have caught what's going around. This round has really unpleasant dizziness as an added attraction so light posting is likely.
How do you talk to people about politics? How do you get them to listen to what you're saying? If you read a piece posted here about wonk talk you know I advocate Democratic spokesmen talking about things like national health care in simple language. Cutting out the jargon and policy talk. I stand by what I said then. Last weekend there was a discussion of how the left talks to other people. I repeated some of the points I'd made here but had to admit that I wasn't particularly good at it. When being inconsistent it's a good idea to let them know you are aware of the fact before they can tell you. I said that people who were good at it should be the voice of the Democratic Party.
But later I thought that it wasn't good enough. I had to make an effort myself. And I have started. Some of you have urged me to go shorter and gave me other sensible suggestions. I'm trying to do just that. It's like starting a new language, not easy. It's still in the experimental stage. The results aren't ready for posting.
My reason for starting this blog was to go beyond just giving you the news. We know enough about what Republicans are doing to destroy democracy and lives across the world. We don't need an excuse to act. The focus here is about how to act more effectively, to do what can be done now. One of the most important parts of that is talking to the huge part of the population who are uninvolved. If we can get even a quarter of those people out and supporting us, we will win. That job starts with telling them our ideas in the clearest and most engaging way possible.
So, I am declaring myself open to your ideas again. Do you think that the comments format is too hard to use? A leftist blog just can't be without reader participation. Proclamations and talking points handed out from headquarters? That's just so Republican.
This is a public utility. Not to everyone, I will not make myself useful to conservatives. I can't stop anyone from reading it but this is a service to the left, to liberals to Democrats who want to make parts of the progressive agenda into law, making lives better. If I'm doing anything useless or going off on a tangent tell me to get back on line. I thank you for your advice and for doing me the honor of reading my posts.
AND ABOUT ON LINE
Blogger is having some trouble this week. I don't know what that is but it has seemed to have had only minimal effect here so far. Maybe simple living accounts for that. But there might be disruptions. My intent is to post at least every morning but if that isn't possible please check back later.
Also, I seem to have caught what's going around. This round has really unpleasant dizziness as an added attraction so light posting is likely.
