Oklahoma Democrats Launch Online Drive

(Click here to donate a few dollars to help the Oklahoma Democratic Party.)

The Oklahoma Democratic Party has launched an online fundraising drive and its chairperson, Ivan Holmes, says the party has to “get back to the grassroots” if it wants to win in the 2008 elections.

According to Holmes, in a recent email, “For too long many Democrats have spent their time fighting one another instead of putting aside petty differences to do the work that is needed to elect Democrats. First and foremost, we must remember that we are a family that is over a million strong and together we can win every election in Oklahoma. All families have their disagreements, but only by joining together will the men, women and children of Oklahoma have a chance at a better life with good-paying jobs, access to quality healthcare, and a strong educational system.”

Holmes makes a great point. Democrats have the numbers in Oklahoma (“a million strong”), but too often they get divided over political direction and wedge issues. Perhaps, the most divisive debates are between conservative Democrats, who vote with Republicans on certain wedge issues, and progressive Democrats, who want to directly challenge the growing right-wing political juggernaut in the state. The conservatives might see it as them against the outspoken leftists in the party. The progressives might see it as them against the Dinos, or Democrats in name only.

This argument is impossible to reconcile, but it is always worth the debate. The problem is we cannot let this debate or ongoing dialogue—and it will go on and on—or other arguments divide us. All nationwide indicators show the Democratic Party is on a staggering rise. The party’s major presidential candidates, for example, are raising far more money than their Republican counterparts. Imperial President George Bush’s approval rating is plummeting even in Oklahoma. U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe’s approval ratings are also down. People are going to want a change in 2008.

Meanwhile, the ODP still faces a debt it accrued trying to get Brad Carson elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. Carson lost the race to the goofy Tom Coburn, who has embarrassed Oklahoma for the past three years with his outrageous comments and his weird political stunts. Carson ran as a conservative Democrat to the chagrin of progressives here, but that was in 2004 when Bush still had coattails. The political landscape in 2008 will be considerably different.

The reality is simply this: Democrats united behind their leading candidate in a U.S. Senate race, went into debt to support him, and he lost. There is no shame in that. We should pull together and pay off this debt right now.

The national Democrats—under Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy—are helping to fund the state party here, according to Holmes, who is not taking a salary. In addition, Blue Oklahoma, another local blog I operate, recently received a small grant to pay for its hosting fees from the progressive organization, Blogpac, which is an offshoot of this philosophy. As some of you might have noticed, the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is even running targeted ads on the site now.

All of this means the national Democrats are really making a concerted effort to help us out here in red states, and so we need to network and get busy. The foundation is set so we can show the nation in 2008 that Oklahoma has a viable Democratic Party.

(Click here to donate a few dollars to help the Oklahoma Democratic Party.)