The other day a voter in Rockingham asked me what is the difference with the Main Street Democrats, how would we govern the state?
It was a legitimate question and one I welcomed. Here is what I said.
It is important for Democrats to rebuild their trust and their brand with voters. We must be forthright in admitting that our party drifted away from our core principles and lost the faith of the people who have supported us in the past.
Since we lost the majority our strategy has been to simply defend the status quo. We have failed to offer the voters a viable option. That breakdown in trust and understanding with voters, especially independents, has resulted in a mass exodus of traditional democratic voters across the state.
To get them back we need to reconnect with Main Street voters and offer them a vision of how they can participate in the American Dream of economic security for themselves and provide a better future for their children.
Our goal is to build a new majority with Democrats who can create a working coalition that will concentrate on our state’s prosperity and then deliver on what we say we are going to do.
Main Street Democrats believe that voters want their politicians to be frank. They want their leaders to present solutions and deliver results. They want their government to work efficiently and to be accountable and responsible.
In building a governing party for the future, we must embrace young dynamic leadership who can help us point our state in a new direction. That’s why it’s exciting to see young leaders like Brian Turner from Asheville, Tricia Cotham and Joel Ford from Charlotte and Erica Smith-Ingram from Hertford County take emerging leadership roles in state government.
As we find new leaders for our party, we must also deliver a message that clearly defines for North Carolina voters who we are and what we believe.
Main Street Democrats want to advocate public policy positions that center around three core issues (1) job growth and economic prosperity; (2) supporting public education; and (3) making critical investments in our community such as health care and infrastructure.
So what’s the difference?
Main Street Democrats believe we can govern the state successfully by focusing on the issues that unite us rather than constantly battling the poisonous politics advanced by a vocal minority of social conservatives. We want to offer a positive message and a vision that embraces economic prosperity and success for our state.
The Main Street difference is based on our desire to govern from the center. There we said it, we will promote a pro-business, middle-of-the road agenda. Main Street Democrats believe we can bring people together by advancing good public policy and common sense government.
We believe that voters expect us to work in a bi-partisan manner to advance the issues that will make a difference in the lives of our working families and the middle class. We want to advance a public policy agenda that improves the lives of those people on Main Street in Dunn, Forest City as well as the corner of Tryon & Trade in downtown Charlotte.
We will push tax policies that ask every citizen to do their fair share. We will support our public education institutions and those who work in our classrooms training the next generation. We will advocate for good roads and a health care delivery system that can take care of our aged, blind and disabled.
We do not believe that partisan purity has a place in governing. A good idea is just that a good idea and it deserves to be heard, debated and implemented.
Our legislative policies will be focused. We will be fiscally responsible. We will be coalition builders to advance sound public policy. We will build a bridge to the business community with a message that a fair tax policy with great schools and strong communities without a social agenda – is good for North Carolina.
We will work to restore the public’s trust. We will offer a different vision. We will show the voters that Democrats have a plan that will build a stronger state without an injection of the divisive politics we have seen the past few years. We will provide bold leadership with big ideas for a better North Carolina.
We will embrace a policy position that local governments at the municipal and county level have been duly elected and should be allowed to govern without interference from a heavy handed Legislature.
We will promote our vision and show the voters of North Carolina that Democrats have a plan to govern, that we have the leadership to govern and deserve another chance to govern.
That’s the Main Street difference.
PAID AND AUTHORIZED BY THE NC MAIN STREET DEMOCRAT PAC.
Wonder if he Wrimongering it himself or merely had a “young consultant” do it for him? ;-). Follow the money! The business progressives might have been better than the current Republican knuckle-draggers, but they were far from the mainstream. They ignored the party platform, and we’re the reason why HKonJ was started up by the NAACP. the business-progressives might have been good for NC years ago, but we’ve changed and must grow and be more economically progressive. Meaning the working people must get a share of the pie. That means higher wages, collective bargaining, and not transferring the tax burden from corporations to working class. This Main Street Dems is more of the same old thinking that lost us the majority in 2010 and lost the Governor’s Mansion in 2012. Like Kay Hagan finally realized – it’s time to retire that old moderate BS!
Damned auto-correct!
Can not one of you say “Blue Dog”, or remember the catastrophes devolving from the “DLC” and then the “Third Way” (where Kay Hagan, a middling, muddling Dem was cochair”. The Main Street crowd is yet another group of graspers seeking to pub “bipartisan” on their sheet of merit badges, none of whom realize that where the Dems are NOW is a result of that type of moderate, reasonable behaviour, which is absolutely contemptible. And the Platform is a piece of useless pleadings, not an acceptable action plan. The NCDP and the extended rich girl/kid misleadership have lots to answer for. Right Governor? And much of the current condition of Dems is the result of miserable leadership for near on 40 years. Well, there is still no leadership, and Main Street Blue Dogs will provide none. And, Art Pope and the idiots in the NCGA will ignore them, given the super-majorities there. So content yourselves with nostrums which have repeatedly not worked and will not work. This Main St stuff is the simple minded resort of a foolish bunch wanting to (1) have recognition of bipartisanship and (2) seeking the love of the Chamber and other thieves. At best it is a distraction and worst misleading example of Clintonian triangulation (which is part of the overall Democratic failure of past decades. Why vote for a Blue Dog when you can get a Teaparty Republican? The Dems need real and firm principles and not publicity stunts and gimmicks. Scew Blue Dogs!!
I repeatedly insisted during her last campaign that Hagan was foolishly running away from Obama and away from her voters. Who would have ever voted for that weak tea? Hardly anyone, obviously. The Main Street statement here abandons the same people the Republicans have rejected. This is a technocratic statement with no social grounding. It could have come from the Republicans a few years before they went totally nuts. It fails to call out the Republicans directly on their assault on the social fabric. If it is not worth a few paragraphs, neither are they.
Our urban populations are growing. Rapidly. And bringing with them, a more progressive element, especially on social issues, that has been constantly ignored by our middle-of-the-road Dems. In addition, the younger generations in our state also are more likely to support progressive social issues.
When Sen Hagan’s commercial claimed she was ‘the most moderate’ senator ever, what people heard was ‘mediocre.’ Moderate is not necessarily a positive in our current environment.
Yes, in the past, moderate Dems did some great things for North Carolina. But the future is to be more progressive, not less. Businesses with an interest in locating here are now demanding a positive atmosphere for their gay employees, appropriate health care and ‘choice’ for women, business WANTS renewable energy, quality rapid transit for urban corridors, quality public education and universities that actually teach critical thinking skills. All cost money and all can be considered social issues, as well as business issues.
How many of our ‘Business Dems’ have even read the planks in our own state party’s platform?
What happens when ‘pro-business’ is not ‘pro-citizen?’ How will you vote then? What happens when ‘pro-business’ is ‘anti-environment?’
Norma Munn’s comments should be taken to heart by our business Dems.
You’ve got a little contradiction going on there, Ken. Communities *cannot* by definition be strong in the absence of a social agenda. A social agenda is about lifting up those in the community who are struggling, whether that struggle is economic in nature or due to discrimination. A community that isn’t constantly striving for equality isn’t a community, it’s just a place where a lot of individuals happen to be gathered geographically.
Chill folks. Look up the voting records of the Main Street Democrats. They are very strong on voting rights and certainly progressive on the other issues embraced by the previous commenters. On the other hand, they are realists, and for the most part, native North Carolinians who have labored long and hard in their home communities on local boards, in their churches, and civic and nonprofit groups, all for the betterment of North Carolina. Most importantly, they are actual elected members of the General Assembly who are fighting hard to save our state from the current majority party.
You may wish they were more out front on some particular social issue that’s near and dear to your heart, but the Main Street Democrats represent the best of the old Main Street progressivism that used to make our state so different from the Alabamas and South Carolinas of this world. Without past generations of Main Street Democrats, we might have had a governor who stood in the school house door in the early ’60’s instead of presiding over the boom at the then-new Research Triangle Park, and we certainly wouldn’t have the world-class university system and all of the improved quality of life and opportunity it has brought to the whole state.
If you want action on your particular social issue, help the Main Street Democrats elect more Democrats to our General Assembly, because without more Democrats in those seats, the entire state will continue to slide backward, and I can assure you that your issues will never be addressed.
The previous commenters may or may not know that in the waning years of Democratic control of the legislature, Main Street, General Assembly Democrats enacted the now sadly repealed Racial Justice Act and actually enacted anti-bullying legislation in Chapter 115C to protect LGBT public school students. These are just two examples of the progressive action taken by Democrats when they were most recently in control.
If you really care about your particular issues, but more importantly, your neighbors and this state as a whole, please avoid the temptation to get hung up on particular litmus tests, and help the Main Street Democrats elect more Democrats of every sort to the General Assembly, and support Roy Cooper too!
God bless the Main Street Democrats!
Good points. It’s just that when you start placing yourself on the political spectrum, you start cutting off discussions. People stick labels on things as a shortcut past the thought process. Issue by issue, people agree with the Democratic position.
That said, the “center” position has of late been a losing position for Democrats. Cf. the Kay Hagen Senate campaign last year. Nationwide, it lost the Congress every year from 1994 to 2006 and the White House in 2000 and 2004. V. O Key’s classic 1948 book, “Southern Politics” calls North Carolina a “Progressive Plutocracy.” It looks like the “Main Street Democrats” are harking back to those days. I wish them well. We need more Democrats in power, however that comes about.
I always vote and always vote Democrat. The alternative is unacceptable!
The national Democratic social agenda is a key aspect of how I vote. Will “Main Street Democrats” ignore equitable voting right legislation, ignore LGBT rights, run from national Democrats (like, for instance, President Obama), pretend that there are sufficient gun laws to regulate the huge number of “legally owned” weapons in this state, sometimes owned by right-wing militias and other extremists who put the whole population in harm’s way? I appreciate that ANY successful political party should find “common-sense” (and increasingly misused term) solutions that bring more business and jobs to NC, but what happens to the folks who have come to rely on the Democratic party for something like a voice in the political process?
Most of the comments are fine, but to large extent, the “center”, along with the business community, has a history of avoiding the social issues that many Democrats and Independents want action on.
I see nothing about restoring voting rights, nothing about health insurance (or health care) for the poor, nothing about a woman’s “right to choose”, and a lot of other issues that are divisive to the center. The question is why? These issues are central to democracy, strong communities and economic well being (the latter being very difficult without adequate health care), and personal choice about one’s health. To characterize them as divisive social concerns, as this article seems to do, mis-understands what motivates a large part of the electorate.
I might have to vote for the type of Democrat described above, but not with much enthusiasm, and would probably not support him/her financially in their campaign. I think that is not exactly a recipe for success.
I totally agree with Ms. Munn’s well stated response. The ‘Chamber of Commerce Way’ will only benefit those who already have.
Those issues didn’t come up with centrist Democrats in control for decades. Amendment 1 and others didn’t come up. Of course, the Republicans have made it easier to talk about these social issues, but you cannot win the majority through liberal candidates (almost all Democrats are progressive…they’re Democrats). But you can win with moderate ones who can finesse the issues. Control the agenda and you control the debate. Don’t control the agenda, there is no debate.
Yes, and republican affiliates own the media, own the air-waves and own the electronic voting machines; if democrats invested their time and efforts wisely by insuring ‘paper trails’ at the ballot box republican majorities every where would be seen for what they truly are – a fraud on the people.
This should be mandatory.