Remarks by Simon Rosenberg to the ASDC Meeting in Orlando, FL
December 11, 2004
[as prepared for delivery]
"Meeting the challenges of the 21st Century"
We are here today because together we want to help lead the country with a new strategy – a modern strategy – to restore the great promise of our nation and our party, ensure our ideals and our values and our candidates will win again in all regions of the country and stop the reckless path of the radical Republicans in control of our government today.
I join you today with profound optimism about the journey before us, and a deep belief that the future is ours to reclaim.
We here know – our Party knows -- what the Promise of America means. My family – like so many of yours – came to this country not long ago to work hard to make it in this remarkable land. My family’s history – like yours – is a narrative of hope, opportunity, and hard work.
My father’s parents started their own business but during the depression often had little food to eat. My mother never finished high school, and had three children by the time she was 19, four by the time she was 22. In those hard years, my parents found a home and a voice in our party. And it never let them down.
And that’s why I am a Democrat.
Today’s Democratic Party must become a winning Party again because if we aren’t fighting for all our families– the way we used to fight - then no one else will.
And in all the ways folks have talked about the directions we can go to win again – to the center, to the left, to the South, to the grassroots – I believe the single most important direction we can move as a Party is forward. Forward into the 21st century and all its particular challenges, forward into a new century with a Republican Party ascendant but struggling, forward into a new century with a new modern strategy that can restore the greatness of our Party and offer America a better and much more compelling path.
I don’t have all the answers for what we need to but I do have some thoughts.
We need a fifty state strategy. If we are to be a national Party, we must fight in every state, every county, every town and every parish.
We need a new partnership between the national and state parties. Together we can craft a new modern strategy that allows the national party to better learn from all of you, respects your knowledge of your states, and makes a solemn commitment to rebuild and modernize your parties from the ground up.
We need a bold 21st century vision that applies our traditional Democrats values to new times and that can play in all parts of the country. At its very core it must focus on opportunity, security and values.
And we cannot cede the debate about the values that make our country great and our communities strong to the Republicans.
Our new agenda must include a commitment to win the war on terror, keep us safe here at home, lead the world towards greater prosperity and peace; and offer an economic approach restarts growth, is fiscally responsible, provides universal health care and puts people and working families first.
We need to embrace being a Democrat. If we are to convince the American people of our cause, we must make the word Democrat work in all regions of the country. NDN ran two multi-million campaign this year that promoted Democratic values in tough states like Alaska and Oklahoma. We have to embrace and define our values, not run away from them.
We should re-imagine what our Democratic community looks like. Technology has allowed us to envision a very different type of Party, one built from the ground up, with the labor, money and passion of average Americans fueling our efforts. We need to turn this new wave of activism into something that revitalizes your parties across the country.
We must build a new modern intellectual, political and media infrastructure to match what the Republicans have built over the past generation that will give you more support on the ground.
We need to invest in and better groom our leaders. Elected officials, party leaders, media consultants, investors, entrepreneurs, academics, bloggers – all need more and better training earlier in their careers. We must take leadership development much more seriously.
We can use modern media and technology to design strategies to speak to every community. Our proper obsession with swing voters cannot allow us to neglect groups like African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, rural voters, and young voters. NDN just completed a $6 million national media campaign targeted at recent immigrants. We can replicate this type of modern campaign in other communities and in every state.
We have to build our new majority in the coming America. Republicans are winning with growing regions and groups. They won in 97 of the fastest growing 100 counties; most of the so called red states are gaining population, the blues ones losing. They are making real gains with Hispanics, the fast-growing part of the population. We have to project forward and build a new majority coalition based on where people are going not where they’ve been.
And today, here in Florida of all places, we should commit to make sure that every vote is counted – and that in this DNC election: you have a say, you have a voice, your vote is counted, and there are no backroom deals. We need an election and a healthy spirited debate about our future.
I believe I am uniquely qualified to build this emerging Party of the 21st century. I have proven I can build, manage, unify, fight, lead and win. My organization, NDN, has raised ten of millions of dollars, helped hundreds of candidates win in all regions of the country, offered a compelling agenda for the future and produced powerful media that has made our voice louder and more clear. What I do today is very close to what the Chair’s job requires, and I have shown I can do my current job and do it well.
The task of building our modern party is urgent. Despite their effective political machine, Republican government is making America weaker, less prosperous, less safe and less free. Their government is weakening America, betraying its values and hurting the very people we represent. America is counting on to organize ourselves in a new way to defeat them at their game. Because Americans know if Democrats don’t effectively fight for them then no one else will.
We have an important to choice to make – status quo, or a modern path forward. This is no time to settle. It is a time to be bold and confident, a time to choose hope, progress, optimism, faith in the future and a new path forward that allow us to win again in all regions of the country and meet the challenges of this dynamic century.
Our best days are ahead of us my friends. I look forward to working with you to make them so.
