How to rebrand?

How can Dems rebrand?

To begin with, it ought to be a requirement that every Dem include in every publication a picture of the candidate holding a gun or a fishing pole. Also, another requirement should be a photo of agriculture; show the candidate literally out standing in a field. Take every opportunity to identify and connect with hunters, anglers and farmers.

I saw a letter to the editor yesterday that highlighted an issue the Dems ought to jump all over. C'mon Roark, call a press conference and gripe about lack of access to public land. Dan Pfeiffer of Veradale, Wash. wrote:

We decided to hunt a section of public land that was entirely surrounded by private property near Fairfield. After some research, I found a landowner willing to give us written permission to cross his property.

Upon arrival,we were confronted by a different landowner who owned the majority of the surrounding acreage. After opining on how his grazing allotment on state land somehow preempted other public uses, he then showed us an air horn and threatened to drive around the property disrupting our hunt (a violation of Idaho law).

While I might understand a wealthy landowner not wanting to allow public access to his own property, I was shocked at the audacity of someone trying to impose that elitist attitude on public land.

Dems are natural allies with hunters and anglers, just as Republicans are the allies of ranchers and the extraction industries, constituencies that conflict with use of public lands.

Re-branding, again.

I had a post arguing this same point a while back, but it's worth revisiting.

Bubblehead recently called out Bryan Fischer, again, and as an aside took a swipe at DailyKos.

the Idaho Democratic Party just invited Daily Kos guy Markus "Screw Them" Zuniga to speak at their big yearly dinner. Not quite the best way to show independent Idaho voters that the Idaho Democratic Party isn't just the party of the Angry Left.

As I, Chris and Sisyphus commented to Bubblehead, Kos's site may have some wingnuts leave posts on it, but he and his front page writers cannot fairly be called wingnuts. Left leaning, okay, progressive, sure, but not lefty wing nuts. But I digress.

What I really want to say is that I am almost unable to conceive how the Id Dem Party can show independent voters that it just isn't the party of the angry left. I believe that, even though about a third of the electorate self-identify as independant, true independents are pretty scarce. The bogus independents vote R in election after election. Just look at the results. So most of those independents are Republicans and beyond reaching or convincing.

And please, don't make the tired argument that Idaho Dems don't put up good candidates, and hat if they did they'd get more votes. Larry Grant is a moderate Dem and a good candidate by any standard. Even more to the point, check out the race for State Controller. Donna Jones, with her GED and her experience as director of a realtors group, beat out Jackie Twilegar, with her MA in finance and her years of experience in the financial field. And it's not a highly political job, so political opinions are of minor effect in the job. Jones got voted in, solely, obviously, because she's an R. True independents would have voted for Twilegar. So, there aren't that many independents to reach out to.

Idaho Dems simply are not of the hard left persuasion. Certainly no Dem that runs for office is left of moderate. In most cases, Idaho Dem values are in line with what people in Idaho want. Gun ownership, fine. Death penalty, fine. Fiscal responsibility, check. Middle-class tax relief, check. Granted, Dem values vary from what the hard right want, but no so much from moderate Rs.

My point is that Idahoans just aren't paying attention to who they're voting for. They just assume R=good, D=bad. Idaho Dems need some re-branding campaign to get people to take a look, and until such time virtually nothing they do will influence Idaho voters.

Update: DFO at Huckleberries Online started a thread to discuss whether "most Idaho Independents really are straight-ticket Republicans who don't want to admit it."