The Republic National Committee has added a new tool to its arsenal in the high-stakes battle for the lifetime allegiance of Millennial voters. FarmVille, a popular Facebook application game with over 80 million monthly users, allows players to “grow delicious fruits and vegetables and raise adorable animals on your very own farm!”

The RNC is hoping to capitalize on the “neighbors” component of the game. Neighbors, who are friends and contacts who connect with each other through the game, allow players to level up faster and accumulate more plants, animals, and decorations for their farm. The idea is to turn their FarmVille neighbors into fans of the RNC Facebook page as a foot-in-the-door to more meaningful outreach and participation.

The official RNC Farmville account will be managed by staffers within the organization’s new media department. A video explaining the new program has been posted to YouTube.

Come on Democrats, you let the RNC beat you to FarmVille. You have to at least try for Mafia Wars.

• 0 Comments

Young Democrats of America Vice-President Colmon Elridge of Kentucky issued the following statement regarding the actions of Senator Jim Bunning:

It is unfortunate that Senator Jim Bunning has been away from Kentucky so long that he has forgotten the values that have shaped our Commonwealth and the spirit of commitment to the common good that is present in communities from Pikeville to Paducah and everywhere in between.

Because of the actions of the Junior Senator from Kentucky, one million Americans stand to lose their unemployment insurance. One million Americans, their families, and their communities will suffer because one person has put politics above people and partisanship above compassion for his fellow man.

The people of Kentucky deserve a Senator who shares our values. “United We Stand, Divided We Fall” are more than just words on our state flag. They are a reminder that how we survive as Kentuckians – and Americans – is to offer a helping hand to those in need and to work in a spirit of good-faith to shape America into that more perfect union.

Senator Bunning’s actions prove that a strong Democratic presence is needed in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This incident stresses the importance of wining in November and returning a Kentuckian to Washington that shares our values and speaks to the common decency. Young Democrats are dedicated to shaping a Kentucky and an America that rise above these petty political maneuvers and put people first. My only wish is that, as so many Kentuckians who have served us in our nation’s capitol have done before, Senator Bunning would have retired a statesman and not a tyrant.

Colmon Elridge III
Vice-President
Young Democrats of America

• 0 Comments

If there is a single universal truth, it is that young people love everything that is EXTREME!!! Especially when it is so extreme the first E can’t keep up, resulting in XTREME!!!

This past weekend conservatives swarmed the District for CPAC, their annual orgiastic encomium of Ronald Reagan, shooting things, racially-tinged humor, and bow ties. After losing the youth vote 2-1 in 2008, Republicans have called in the big guns for youth recruitment: Stephen Baldwin.

Stephen Baldwin and Kevin McCullough created XPAC for this year’s conference, which stands for “Xtreme Politically Active Conservatives.” The XPAC Lounge (AKA Kiddie Table) featured Xbox 360s and Wiis (kids love that crap) with Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The best part is that co-host Kevin McCullough is the same guy that freaked out about a “sex scene” in the video game Mass Effect in 2008. Sadly the originally article he wrote does not seem to be available any longer since he was called out for being a complete idiot. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, if you would remember, is the game that Fox News lost their minds over saying it would turn kids into terrorists and killers. Of course now Fox News says it is “turning up the hip quotient.”

Below is some video that spends some time in the XPAC lounge:

Reports from the ground indicated that XPAC wasn’t all that Xtreme:

On the other hand, the party wasn’t always hopping. The schedule read: “11 p.m. XPAC Rap/Jam Session, live music and special performances by Rappers: Hi-Caliber, Young Cons and many more!” Alas, the reality — as a group of young Harvard conservatives found — was an empty room with a bunch of Wii video games (XPAC was strictly non-alcoholic). As the gray-haired contingent ate a “presidential banquet” upstairs at the Marriot Wardman, where the conference was being held, listening to George Will explore the future of the movement, the cool kids had already moved on to Adams Morgan and beyond.

Time magazine did a profile on the youth presence at the convention:

There was a “Smoke Out the Terrorists” hookah party at Queen’s Café in Adams Morgan where 18-year-olds coughed their way through apple tobacco and lamented Washington’s 5-cent tax on plastic bags. Down the street, things got rowdier at The District, where the DC chapter of the College Republicans hosted a welcome party. “Liberty is contagious,” said one underage drinker — you could tell by the giant X’s drawn on their hands — between shots of Southern Comfort.

Here is a lesson for both political parties: stop trying to be “hip,” “Xtreme,” or “off the hook.” It’s just embarrassing. If you want to win the youth vote, do youth outreach and voter contact. Invite young people to your actual events, not to the Xbox set up outside. The vote of an 18-year-old counts the same as someone who is 65. Maybe you should try showing them the same respect.

• 0 Comments

As Democrats approach the end of their first year of the 21st century in control of both Congress and the White House, we are reminded of a hard truth: progressive change is much more difficult than conservative retrenchment.

Throughout history change has always faced an uphill battle against the seductive forces of fear, hatred, dogma, and tradition. In fact, major progressive change is so difficult and occurs so infrequently that such victories are historical outliers. As Mike Lux points out, only four or five decades in the history of the United States have proved to be fertile ground for such change.

Some believed that the 21st century would be different, that the proliferation of technology and the internet would be a panacea. However, this view ignored those aspects of this century that make change more difficult. While it is true that the internet has enabled more public participation and government transparency and allowed people to compete with the media power of corporate television and radio, it also allowed people to self-select their news, information, and facts. No longer can a Walter Cronkite turn the tide of American public opinion against a war with a single statement. The internet is a value-neutral platform and it spreads conservative messages just as effectively as progressive ones. Life expectancy is dramatically longer than in the past, slowing generational change and keeping old prejudices and fears alive (this is where conservatives will convince themselves that I am arguing for death panels as a progressive conspiracy). Change today will be just as difficult as it has been in the past.

Also extinguished a year in is the naïve belief in bipartisanship, that we can convince Republicans to join with Democrats to do the right thing for the American people. Bipartisanship only exists when there is a Republican in the White House, and such bipartisanship has had devastating consequences (see Iraq War, Bush’s tax cuts to the wealthy, deregulation).

Republicans view government as a zero-sum game. Health care is not a service for the American people but a battle to be fought for political gain. Helping the uninsured and those who have had the American dream shattered by health care costs is nothing compared to the potential to recreate Waterloo. The conservative platform is dogma, with their evangelists castigating those who do not show proper devotion to the faith. To them, legislation is but a chessboard where black and white move their pieces through amendments and procedures to ultimately topple the opponent’s king.

Change takes time. The Presidency, control of the House, and a 20 member majority in the Senate is not a sufficient condition. Democrats need candidates that are not just electable but also effective, as well as the courage to believe that standing firm for our ideas can actually be a winning strategy. We need to enlarge the electorate by putting serious effort into engaging Millennials and minorities. Progressive victories have proved us to be on the right side of history–ending slavery, universal suffrage, the New Deal, and Medicare–and we need representatives that will make the right decision now and not worry about whether history will move fast enough to prove them right before the next election.

Change requires sacrifice and effort, new strategies, more profiles in courage, and a dream that will never die.

• 0 Comments

One of the big conservative talking points attempting to lure the youth vote is that the current health care bill would include a mandate to purchase health insurance without increasing affordability.

What they fail to mention is that it has been the GOP and a few conservative Democrats that have stripped away those things that would have made insurance more affordable.

It’s like someone sold you a bicycle and John Boehner jumps out and smashes it with a hammer, only to say “can you believe that guy sold you a broken bicycle?”

And what are these conservatives who are apparently so concerned about the plight of young Americans doing for us? Shutting down the Senate for 12 hours.

• 0 Comments

If you have been watching any news over the last month or two there is probably a word that you have been hearing every 10 minutes. It’s also a word that you probably did not hear all that often in the past. The word that I refer to is “dithering.”

I used Google Trends to visualize the effect that this sparsely-used word’s inclusion in the GOP talking points had on its popularity.

“Dithering” was hardly used until late in 2009. Let’s look at the last few months.

At the end of October “dithering” spikes when former Vice President Cheney kicked off the talking point buzz-word bonanza, only to be followed by nearly every GOP spokesperson, elected official, candidate, and all the media outlets.

The GOP noise machine is as strong as ever. If they were half as good at stimulating the economy as they are at stimulating the usage of dormant verbs, we wouldn’t be in a recession right now.

Now I should probably stop dithering and get ready for the YDA National Conference in Orlando this weekend.

• 0 Comments

Conservatives are freaking out because President Obama wants to tell kids to stay in school, obviously a part of the socialist marxist liberal Democratic agenda. Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer, who apparently stayed in school but didn’t learn anything, had the following to say:

“The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the president justify his plans … is not only infuriating, but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power.”

Of course, President Obama justifying his plans for America’s youth to work hard and succeed has no place in the classroom. Not only that, his life story of being a poor mixed-race child in a single parent home and through hard work and education becoming the first black President of the United States is far too relevant and inspirational, and would likely create “a cult of personality.”

Conservatives, members of Ronald Reagan’s personality cult, should ask themselves “What Would Reagan Do?”
Actually, we know what he would do, because he did it on November 14, 1988 to junior high students. The difference is that Reagan actually did give a speech that conservative criticism seems to describe perfectly.

Let’s take a look (all emphasis mine):

We also find that more countries than ever before are following America’s revolutionary economic message of free enterprise, low taxes, and open world trade. These days, whenever I see foreign leaders, they tell me about their plans for reducing taxes and other economic reforms that they’re using, copying what we have done here in our country. I wonder if they realize that this vision of economic freedom — the freedom to work, to create and produce, to own and use property without the interference of the state — was central to the American Revolution when the American colonists rebelled against a whole web of economic restrictions, taxes, and barriers to free trade. The message at the Boston Tea Party — have you studied yet in history about the Boston Tea Party, where, because of a tax, they went down and dumped the tea in the harbor? Well, that was America’s original tax revolt. And it was the fruits of our labor — belonged to us, and not to the state. And that truth is fundamental to both liberty and prosperity.

That seemed a lot like President Reagan justifying his agenda and telling kids that taxes are bad and everyone in the world knows it. And of course there is a tea party reference.

The basic values of faith and family will be just as true when people are living on distant planets as they are today. So, for America to gain greatest benefit from all the exciting new technologies that lie ahead, we will also need to reaffirm our traditional moral values, because these values are the foundation on which everything we do is built. So, yes, I would encourage you to study the math and science that are at the basis of the new technologies. But in a world of change you also need to pay attention to the moral and spiritual values that will stay with you, unchanged, throughout a long lifetime.

Traditional moral and spiritual values? That doesn’t sound like a conservative platform plank or anything.

And, again, I would say that the most important thing you can do is to ground yourself in the ideas and values of the American Revolution. And that is a vision that goes beyond economics and politics. It’s also a moral vision, grounded in the reverence and faith of those who believed that with God’s help they could create a free and democratic nation. They designed a system of limited government that, in John Adams’ words, was suited only to a religious people such as ours. Our Founding Fathers were the descendents of the Pilgrims — men and women who came to America seeking freedom of worship — who prospered here and offered a prayer of thanksgiving, something we’ve continued to do each year, and so that we’ll do it again on Thursday of next week.

And children, remember that we are a Christian nation and the only reason our democracy works is because we are so Christian. Jesus wants us to have a limited government.

This speech is encompasses everything that conservatives are accusing President Obama of doing, yet President Obama is only speaking about staying in school and working hard, something President George H.W. Bush did in 1991.

The Republican Party over the last decade has attempted to declare a monopoly on patriotism, yet take actions that are as unpatriotic as anything seen in a generation. It’s time to stop being afraid of Republicans and conservatives and actually start to do those things Democrats were elected to do.

• 1 Comment

Yesterday Dr. George Tiller was assassinated in church by a right-wing domestic terrorist. His assassin believes that his act of terrorism was justifiable homicide, and there are voices from the right that are expressing joy at this act of violence. While this may appear shocking and inhuman, are these voices from the extreme right all that different than the advocates of “justified violence” in the “pro-life” Republican Party?

For it appears that the designation of “pro-life” is granted solely for defense of the fetus, not for humanity. They wish to protect only the fetus, not the lives of mothers. They claim to believe that life begins at conception, yet they cease defending it upon birth.

Upon birth, violence against you can be justified.

The apple of terrorism does not fall far from the tree of the Republican Party that continues to justify murder and violence to this day.

The Republican Party supports administrative murder euphemistically called capital punishment: a “justifiable” homicide. They claim it is justified by serving as a deterrent to crime, despite the fact that the vast body of knowledge disproves this. The danger of an irreversible error, the execution of an innocent, does not move them. The death penalty is nothing more than an act of revenge, a triumph of emotion over reason, and revenge is nothing but violence carried out to satiate a single violent passion.

Republicans are defending the use of torture as justified violence, returning us to the acts of barbarism that serve the cycle of violence begetting violence. This is a lesson most of the Western world has learned, but we remain committed to placating our inner demons. Take the following passage:

Reprisals against civilian populations and the use of torture are crimes in which we are all involved. The fact that such things could take place among us is a humiliation we must henceforth face. Meanwhile, we must at least refuse to justify such methods, even on the score of efficacy. The moment they are justified, even indirectly, there are no more rules or values; all causes are equally good, and war without aims or laws sanctions the triumph of nihilism. Willy-nilly, we go back in that case to the jungle where the sole principle is violence. Even those who are fed up with morality ought to realize that it is better to suffer certain injustices than to commit them even to win wars, and that such deeds do us more harm than a hundred underground forces on the enemy’s side.

(…)
Torture has perhaps saved some, at the expense of honor, by uncovering thirty bombs, but at the same time it aroused fifty new terrorists who, operating in some other way and in another place, will cause the death of even more innocent people. Even when accepted in the interest of realism and efficacy, such a flouting of honor serves no purpose but to degrade our country in her own eyes and abroad.

This passage seems like it could have been written yesterday about the United States, yet it was composed 51 years ago by Albert Camus about France’s struggle with Islamic terrorists in Algeria. History does repeat itself, and Republicans refuse to learn its lessons.

These things, combined with the Republican Party’s propensity to declare war without necessity, as well as being committed to making weapons available but not health care, illustrates their philosophical underpinning of violence.

Some of the inflammatory comments made by pundits on the right may have encouraged the violence against Dr. Tiller. This culture of violence serves the best interest of no one, and it must not be encouraged.

Our generation needs to take a stand against this antiquated glorification of justified violence and realize that spreading hatred leads to a society that is constantly at war with itself.

• 0 Comments

During a campaign rally for Republican Gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell in Virginia Mike Huckabee made this statement:

You have two jobs. One, get all those people who are going to vote for Bob out to the polls and vote. If they’re not going to vote for Bob, you have another job. Let the air out of their tires and do not let them out of their driveway on Election Day. Keep ‘em home. Do the Lord’s work, my friend. I’m giving you an opportunity…yes, do the right thing.

This looks like a pretty good reason to do something to help Brian Moran.

• 1 Comment

Looks like the GOP is sticking to their favorite strategy. When you have a tight race try to scare the hell out of Americans with September 11 and terrorists.

The question too is this: does the death penalty for terrorism suspects keep America safe? Is it a deterrent to someone who is willing to commit a suicide attack? The GOP is wrong on national security and these tasteless ads only highlight that.

• 0 Comments