The Heavy Lift 2.0 - A Manifesto For A New Type of Progressive Operative

Firstly I don’t fashion myself to be anyone of renown status, pedigree or accolades to be writing about politics the way I do.  I’m an ordinary, ‘awake’ person that does what you all do - Go to Work, Love my Family, have fun, go on vacation, etc. I, however, also pay attention and am intellectually curious about my country. Most say they don’t have anytime for politics, and to be sure, many may think they don’t for all sorts of reasons . . . but I’m telling you right now:

THAT attitude is precisely why we have the problems and the functional, frustrating inertia in government right now.

Then and Now and the Persistent Political Inertia

I lean Left.  I vote for Democrats most of the time and I voted for Barack Obama twice. I’m call myself a Progressive for most of my views. I celebrated the demise of Romney and Triumph of Barack Obama and the Democrats(for the most part) last year November. That said . . . The Left, The Democrats need to buck the hell up . . . and now!

When I wrote the first article called ‘Heavy Lift’ back in 2011, I was hoping that Democrats would have seriously undertook the sort of societal and historical re-branding of themselves, washing away decades of GOP-slung ‘ideological mud’, that covered how the public saw Democrats and what they stood for.  I was hoping that the word ‘Liberal’ would have been aggressively ‘taken back’ from the Republican ‘irradiation’ it has suffered over the decades, that mutated it into a political and cultural ‘epithet’ that it has been and still is. I also felt that Barack Obama, himself a product of ‘Liberals Playing on the Republican-defined field of Politics’, had the intellectual heft and smarts to lead the party toward a renaissance of perception.  I was hoping the effort would be buoyed by a fact-backed, ‘proudness’ of policy results and beneficiaries, that if used as the bedrock, of a now-constant, ‘50 State Strategy’, would have carved out Blue and Purple enclaves in decades-long, once-solidly Red States.

Why?

Our Liberal policies WORK!  The Data is undeniable. They benefit the poor(which comprise the majority in many Red States), the Middle Class and even the Upper Middle class.  The Rich actually do much better under OUR stewardship historically than they’ve done under the Republicans . . . but a small-minded sort of entitlement-drunk, self-imbued sense of royalty leads them to support the avarice-drenched ideologies of the Neo-Conservative.  The saying . . .

“If you want to live like a (proverbial) Republican, Vote Democratic!”

. . . has been proven to be true, decade after decade, administration after administration.

We did nothing to stop the latest GOP rise and now, for example, the filibuster is so common place folks forget that it is STILL NOT supposed to be the norm.  The country is virtually stagnant and can’t even perform the most BASIC functions of government, and we masochistically inflict damage on our own economy.  Plus all sorts of other ugliness and incredulous ineptitude we haven’t seen in multiple generations of this country’s founding.  Now we have these Sequester cuts, looming government shutdowns, debt ceiling debacles and Lord knows what else. It is all absolutely maddening and frustrating to those of us actually paying attention and not so overworked or desperate, due to the economy.  Seeing the simplicity of what must be done to fix our problems but ‘can’t get done’ due to strict, automatic, Republican Obstruction, has made me want to scream hard into a pillow.

There was a specific time however that we could have stopped the GOP societal ‘anti-matter’ machine cold: During the years leading up to Barack Obama’s election the first time and during his first term prior to the 2010 midterms. As usual, however, we ‘slept’ or we lacked the foresight or organization to see this opportunity.  The President was out there willing to take them on and remind the country what we JUST went through.  He was told to 'stand down' because some of our more conservative democrats were too, I want to say, stupid to actually run on their accomplishments and policies that, even then, were VERY POPULAR.  Instead these Democrats ran with 'republican masks' on . . . and these Blue Dogs were STILL routed because if folks want a Republican they'll vote for the real skull fuckers instead of a Democrat 'playing' Republican.

Worse?: We did not back our President up when he wanted to take the fight to them, expose the insanity that was/is the present day GOP. We pilloried him for negotiating with the victorious GOP . . .  like he had a choice!  They just WON the Mid-Terms!  We also forgot that Obama snuck-in a backdoor stimulus as well as part of the deal which included unemployment insurance extension and the 2% SS holiday, among other things . . . but I digress . . . right? This thing went downhill in 2010 after that because we lost the house.

Although the nascent lethargy of the recovery and Obamacare served as convenient foils for the GOP in 2010, there has been a larger plan at work for the Republicans:

The census and the massive national redistricting that comes with it, not to mention the opportunity to execute gerrymandering artistry that benefits mostly Republicans.

A similar thing happened in 2000 as well, as the GOP retook the House and Senate until 2006. Democrats NEVER seem to have a game plan for political moves when the census comes around, but Republicans always do. That is why they won in 2010; they had a scheme that was years in the making, of which a big part was making sure their governors were 'in place' from before. The Obamacare and the Stimulus fights among others now turned out, to me, to be ruses to divert attention from this plan for chiseled-in permanence.  It's been so effective that no matter HOW a state like Ohio or PA votes collectively, the HUGE MAJORITY of the delegation that state sends to congress will be Republicans from 'safe', Republican districts redrawn for maximum efficacy - an increase or enlarging of GOP districts and the elimination or shrinking of Democratic ones. Why can't the Democrats be this proactive and offensive with respect to the GOP the way the GOP do to them? They start their engines years before the census is due and know exactly how they want to cut things up.  We are ALWAYS 'reacting' to what they do!

Frankly I'm tired of this!
 
I'm sick of trying play football on the 'Republican Sod' that they've ‘sneaked in’ and 'waterlogged' at Night while folks are 'sleeping', so to speak. I was hoping the Democrats would get wiser but frankly . . . we're political SLACKERS!

So What Do We Do . . .?

The Democratic Party needs to change its ideological structure to combat and forever insulate the USA from the present threat to the very idea of this country and the viable political and financial future of this country:

The modern day GOP and all it's 'spin offs', acolytes and corporate Sith Lords.

The 'proud' equivocation, that is going on nowadays, of known social, economical and even historical myths, with that of easily-reproducible providence of FACT in the aforementioned areas and others . . . CANNOT be allowed to remain mainstreamed for much more!  The mentality and ethos of the Tea Party and its effect on the once, world-class, sometimes delicate, but always positively evolving intellectual critical mass of the United States . . . is the equivalent of super concentrated lye or sulfuric acid hatefully splashed onto the skin of a newborn baby! My description and choice of metaphor may come off as a little dramatic . . . but it reflects the incredulity, anger and frustration seeing such blatant ignorance and frankly LIES be given such deference and even legitimization as a viable point of view in our society, ESPECIALLY within our so-called News Media.  The uninhibited, farcical and AstroTurf-fed rise of this type of political movement has made my head hurt and spin.  I'm reeling at the fact that these folks may actually perpetrate what might turn out to be an INVALIDATION of the once-'no-brainer' pursuit of getting an education!  For example, even our Media is towing the line: The President is called too 'professorial', by folks like Chris Matthews(whom I like) for his vocabulary use and dexterity with phrasing and metaphor. Wow. When I was growing up folks in this country ADMIRED THAT QUALITY! Now it's a potential political liability? After eight years of Bush and his embarrassing 'Bushisms' like 'Nucular' for 'Nuclear' . . . people want MORE of that!?

Unbelievable.

We need to take the GOP on because, in addition to the aforementioned societal deterioration, like I said in my 2011 post, the GOP has had decades of an unhindered ‘head start’ in defining 'Who They Are' and subtly and overtly ‘intimating’ 'Who We Are'.  We have work to do . . . more heavy lifting to do.  The focus should be on four main areas, right away and for the long term: Citizens United(funding), Political Tactics, Media/Press Strategies and Voting.

Citizens United has Changed the Game

Yes it has. 

Many of you were all bent out of shape when in 2012 the President had to go back on his word to not allow money from SuperPAC’s to aid in his re-election.  Feingold and other Liberal Stalwarts were vociferous and livid in their condemnation. One question: 

What good does it do if you stand strong on your ‘tactical principles’, feeling ‘good’ . . . but then lose the ability to change the way the game is played for the next two generations?  

The Biblical Story about Daniel in the Lion’s Den, if actually true, was an anomaly . . . because we know that the majority of the Christians thrown to lions back in Rome’s heyday ended up gruesomely and painfully in the lions’ stomachs, without having elicited any change in the ruling body’s attitude towards their religion.  The only ones 'happy' were the Lions.  Maybe a different tactic might have sufficed that wouldn’t have cost so much in blood? The same analogy applies to the present state of campaign finance:

Sure we can hold firm and fight a valiant fight against the principle of ‘No superPACS!’ . . . but get mauled so badly, and lose so dismally that we forfeit the White House, Senate and House for the next three to four cycles.

That would mean the country being at the mercy of these Troglodytes and Yahoo's, as they destroy the social civilization and decency of the 20th century to revisit pre-Reconstruction America in terms of rights and economic policy. Ahhm . . . did folks NOT hear what Justice Scalia said about the Civil Rights Act? Hint fucking Hint! What’s more valuable?  Your tactical principles or the future of the country?

No Brainer . . . right?

We can, however, play the game as it is now but JUST a little differently still.  We can be as forceful as we want and still fund-raise like mad:

The Key to this is finding altruistic, patriotic oligarchs, that are keen on the cause, to back us up . . . but NO crafting of our message to suit them though.  They need to give because they want to give and should NOT expect any favors because they did!

For the Corporate Democrats that may be worried about this new, arguably-populist bent, there’s

a place for you too . . . as simple ‘collectors of the funds’.  We don’t need you ‘creating policy’ or writing bills anymore.  You’ve proven that you can’t do so without letting the often narrow, short-sighted preferences of the prospective donor, inform the content of what you produce in that vein. 

No more of that.

 
We need to go back to our roots. In fact, if we do so we greatly expand our Grassroots force. We might actually be able to partner with, not co-opt, OWS and they not see us as hypocrites, as they see us now. We could use their energy and their tenacity. So Corporate Democrats if you're in office, keep your post, but your modus operandi MUST change.  You WILL support the New Initiative, and you'll be given latitude to preserve your reputation and/or brand . . . But your policies you champion and their targets NEED to be that of the Middle Class, or lower classes.  The Wealthy will benefit once the lower classes are taken care of.  You do not need to supplicate or prostrate yourself to them any longer. If we come together indivisible and motivated like this, billionaires, Fat Cats who KNOW the deal will STILL fund you . . . the only thing is they need to be made to understand they are simply SUPPORTING the cause, not funding to DIRECT or BUILD THE 'CONTENT' of the 'Cause'.

That's a distinction that needs to be made.

Let me repeat: 

We do not modify our 'ideological product' or 'tactical timbre' to attract some Fat Cat.  The Fat Cat 'buys what we are selling' 'As Is' with no alterations . . . just let us work on saving the country.  The financial backers of the Democratic party need to be ‘believers’ in the New Direction and need to be comfortable in a simple ‘cheer leading role’.  They may have some 'say' if their contributions are proven insightful enough, but if these oligarchs insist on diluting what must be done or halting certain things altogether, we need to gently but strongly bid them ‘Exit Stage Left’.

To be honest, I mention money because it will take tons of money invested over years and years to change the negative or 'un-serious' perception of the Liberal and the Democratic Party that the conservative movement has inseminated into the subconscious womb of the society's collective intellect and popular culture.  That's just a fact and that's a reality of our modern times.  We were 'sleeping' while They burnt the 'night oil', Every Night, for Decades, so to speak.  Time to wake up and catch up. We need to play the game for now and win, so we gain power to change and outlaw it after.  We don’t win, or can’t match the ‘firepower’, and money is needed for this, . . . the status quot remains.

You Feingold folks?  We've noted your objections and we agree with you. Now quit bitching and get to work. Accept this reality please?

Be Proactive in Policy Creation and Political Tactics

To deal with the GOP and their Interests we need to adopt a sort of political prolepsis. Craft a ‘solution’ to a ‘problem’ the Republicans haven’t ‘caused’ yet, but are likely to ‘try’ based on the party track record and history, regardless of what they say on the campaign trail or rhetorically.  Make THEM cry ‘foul!’ for a change.  RAM your policy proposals THROUGH any and all state legislatures as well as at the Federal level, THE MOMENT you gain power.  Don’t campaign on it, just keep in the ‘back pocket’ until you win . . . just like the GOP do. Here's an issue that should be near and dear to our hearts: 

Unions have declined from 33% to now barely above 11% of the total working population.

Enshrine the 'Right to Organize and Collectively Bargain' into States’ Constitutions and pass that  law and apply it to federal agencies and state agencies, wherever you have the Governorships or a veto-proof majority.  Make any reversal almost impossible to achieve logistically and politically.  Sell it to the Public as ‘protecting workers and the common man’ . . . because it frankly IS!  Like I said: 

WE have volumes of facts on our side.

Have the same approach when it comes to Tax Policy and and Financial Regulatory endeavors.  We WON the 2012 election on the policies and approaches most of our base and the public agree with.  Stop being afraid of the banks: they almost destroyed the entire country much less the world with their near-sighted greed! Use the approach I just mentioned to quickly do it.  You DO NOT want to give them a chance to mount a campaign against it. (Please see what these Large Corporations ‘influence’ did to Dodd-Frank and the AHCA(“ObamaCare”)). One more thing: 

The Code Word for ‘Come Lobby Me Please?’ is when Congress or the Senate says they’re holding a ‘committee’ on a piece of legislation.  Avoid those.  

If the GOP can have organizations like ALEC covertly writing legislation, remarkably ‘ready’ for passage, ‘touching all bases of present, requisite industry standard’ . . . then so can we.  Let’s be honest about something here. There is NOTHING really THAT new about any piece of legislation or amendment we would intend to pass, that has not already been thoroughly vetted and aired out.  Many of these endeavors are entombed in the volumes upon volumes of progressive legislation that has died at the hands of Republican filibusters over the past five (5) years.  Resurrect them, recombine, get some ‘uninterested’ scholarly help from Universities, to tweak for more current content and application and keep it moving.  Also: Try to keep the meetings with outside professionals such as College Experts/Professors and 'Top Minds in a Field' secret, because the Press is now fully owned by Conservatives, Republican-Friendly Individuals and Corporations.

Craft a Press/Media Strategy and Philosophy

I’ve gone on and on in previous posts about how the Press has abandoned and actually made themselves unworthy of the sacred protections afforded to them in our constitution.  I wrote about this in an extended way when Scott Walker unbelievably survived the recall challenge to him.  If you’ll permit me I’m going to reproduce an excerpt of what I said below . . .

“But with the Press totally beholden and 'looking forward' to these ad dollars for their fourth quarter projections . . . we're in trouble.

The media conglomerates can't take huge sums of money to promote these politically-facile lies, but then aggressively do objective fact-checking during their news shows and news reports . . . (which is what is required, if the public is to be woken up to the pure evil the GOP are perpetrating on this country, the IDEA of this country, the constitution and it's spirit . . .!)  That would tantamount to them criticizing any other 'sponsor' to the point of hurting their 'sales' . . .  and still taking their money.

That doesn't make much 'business sense' to 'hurt' your 'sponsors' with anything your network does.

So frustrating, false-equivalencies abound . . . and 'editorial decisions' to NOT cover certain stories that counter the ‘thrust’ of the ads they taking money to air . . . or to deliberately NOT confront personalities from the ideological party that they are taking money from, when they lie or grossly misrepresent the reality of things, easily verifiable things . . . (I’ve taken sometimes less than five minutes on my smartphone to find volumes of concrete fact to dispute the claims of many a Republican or Mitt Romney have made on various news shows or on Meet The Press . . . and in each instance the Reporter simply ‘moves on’ to the next question.)

The Media Corporations protect their 'bottom line' like all good corporations do or should do.

So when you examine the reality, the present, media, business model . . . we're in serious trouble.

The Fourth Estate has been taken over, property auctioned, the fields are burning . . . and all the former residents are in shackles . . . Being whipped to ribbons under pain of professional death . . . should they 'disobey'!

We need to fight . . . but the media consumption habits and culture of the public need to change.

We still trust subliminally too much what we see on The Tube.  The GOP has been flagrantly and cynically manipulating this, with much effect, for years.  We have been imbibing their 'toxins' and 'carcinogens', that ‘infirm’ the Masses with Lab-crafted definitions and associations of themselves and their political opponents, the Democrats or Liberals, all that time.  They’ve been released into the 'Societal Ventilation System' slowly and controlled over the decades; the gusts and thermals permeating through and saturating our Literary Archetypes, Cultural Mores and 'Productions' such as Movies, TV Sitcoms, Reality Shows, Commercials, Magazines and Novels . . .!  Now we're so 'sick' the world is watching in horror and incredulity at how we conduct ourselves . . . but we don’t realize that we are in fact almost fatally ill, in terms of our Democracy.

These aforementioned conditions, that strident denial, has led us to where we are now:  If Tuesday’s results were a harbinger of anything . . . it seems we've gleefully given them permission to plow us under.”

For those of you that know me, i'm a 'Stuck Record' when it comes to this point but this is serious, deliberate and urgent business. When on a media platform with the Press ‘shake things up’.  Challenge your interviewer when and if they try to gloss over or make-tame something of political importance.  Absolve the interviewer by saying something to the effect like:

“I know you’re following a script given to you by your producer or president, to elicit a particular sound bite that is ‘loop-worthy’ for your ‘recaps’ later . . . but if you folks really want to be of use to the public, stop looking for the vituperative snippet . . .”

Or something of that sort.

If you happen to be across from, or sharing the ‘stage’ with a conservative, who is ultimately going to be regurgitating Talking Points, THEN is when you ESPECIALLY need to rock the boat. Take it to them.  Throw them off their game and force them to answer the questions in way that the decades of the status quot have shielded them from.  Do not let the host or interviewer shut you down easily . . . or ‘tie-up the conversational message in a neat bow’ when you finally give in. This means, don't allow a summarizing of Your Point of View during the encounter, that in any way, mutes or de-fangs the 'edginess', the perspective 'bite' of your 'delivery' or substance you delivered; interrupt the closing statement if you must.

We must always be looking to take a rhetorical, paradigmatic, perspective-relevant ‘bat’ to, what I like to call, the ‘preferred narrative’ of the moment.  We need to be aggressive with it too and ALWAYS have set of Facts well-bulleted and handy about the topic being discussed or that you plan to raise WITH citations.

Now what is the ‘preferred narrative’?

This is the bent/slant that the Press has decided to take on candidate, story, political race, hot button issue, or event, in order to maximize the amount of ‘buzz’ or ratings or web site hits, to justify charging a certain price to advertisers.  It’s about how many ‘eyeballs’ can they ‘guarantee’ to ‘interact’ with on their various media platforms, that an ad or ‘paid message’ may then be placed on. In short, it's the Entertainment Model and its a cancer to the very idea of objective news gathering and dissemination.

I'm not sure about you but how many times have you watched a speech by the President or by another Democrat but the news reporting on it is 'alien' to you?:

"What the hell are they TALKING ABOUT!??  That is NOT WHAT HE SAID!"

. . . is what I've yelled at my TV so many times, especially during election campaign season.  The 'Preferred Narrative' is also used to keep the 'drama quotient' up during a campaign season. This was in play big time during the 2012 cycle: 

Polls and the surreal swings this way and that.

Say the President has enjoyed a few weeks of good press; speeches well-received, some good, hard-hitting ads are having the desired effect in the populace, in that poll numbers start to swing by a consistent but significant margin and Romney appears as stiff and fake as ever, 'eating his foot' in giant gulps, etc. Myself and others start thinking that folks had really started to see Romney for the opportunistic faker, sociopathic corporatist and wealth-worshiper that he is . . . but not so fast.

The Media Corporations must 'Do What They Do' . . . and here is the 'rub':

If public opinion goes too far in the president’s direction this contest will not be a contest, it will be a blowout . . . and the Press ‘couldn’t have that!’.  

That would mean less ratings, which means the less likely the campaigns are to spend money with them running ads, much less the regular advertisers.  Besides, they’ve already given the shareholders all these rosy projections as to what sort of revenue they expected to have and the profit margins to be enjoyed this fourth quarter. So . . . ‘suddenly’ plenty of ‘non-stories’ popped up about the president. One particular line of 'conversation/concern' was ‘if the president might possibly be damaging his brand by being so aggressive’.  Everywhere you turned, some host, guest or columnist was talking or writing about the new aggressive stance of the Obama campaign and quoting polls showing that the public did not like negative campaigns.  There was talk of his tactic ‘backfiring’, turning off voters. Slowly but surely Obama’s numbers started to inch BACK down towards Romney, making it a ‘horse race’ once again.

Another instance was the reality that the Press COMPLETELY dismissed the easily and instantaneously verifiable FACT that Romney LIED his ass OFF during the first debate . . . and went with:

“Consensus: Romney WINS First Debate!”

. . . or some other ridiculous gerund of that point.  Suffice to say, the race REALLY became tightened after the first debate.  The Public, it seemed, started to see Romney as an actual viable candidate.  Suddenly NO ONE in the Press was asking for Romney’s Tax Returns and NO ONE DARED ask him or his operatives any serious questions about his infamous 47% comments . . .

“The Horse Race MUST BE preserved.”

We need to be keen to the artificiality in the Press about What Is Important, and be vituperative, if we must, to be heard and remembered.  Being 'remembered' is very key to this offensive; make every appearance you make 'count'.  Learn to predict when a story breaks just how the press will spin it, learn to predict what stories they will ignore or just ‘mention’ before quickly getting back to their minutia 'Du Jour . . . and counter it, bring it up.  ALWAYS be aggressive in destroying the ‘preferred narrative’ of the moment.  Give David Gregory a ‘hard time’.  Say something so bombastic but utterly true about the other side, that it will be THE loop of the week.  Every Liberal remembers Alan Grayson’s now famous ‘Die Quickly’ soliloquy on the congressional floor during the heart of the healthcare battle in 2009 and 2010.

THAT’S the ticket!  They’ll book you, give you airtime for that - it’s like catnip to the Press.  

Be 'Remembered.'

Lastly . . . always, and I can’t stress this enough, make sure that what you say and how you phrase it is 100% TRUE . . . because the Press will come after you to ‘take you down’ in retribution for ‘stoppering’ the ‘ass’ with which they were going to intellectually ‘defecate’ on the minds of the public with their swill-swimming ‘turd’ of a ‘preferred narrative’.

Vote Always and Often

Some might say ‘Duh!?’ . . . but not so fast.  Look at this:

We have no national network or political cooperation at all levels of government(city, state and federal) like the GOP and we aren't together as a party on many issues either.

From the local school board election to the candidates for President, they are all are doing their part, in concert with each other, towards a larger goal FOR the country.  They literally TALK to each other about what each group or person is doing, giving cues to the next 'operative' up the line, as to when 'their turn' is. I'm serious about this: Why were Koch dollars being funneled into a NC School Board election?  It's twisted, horrible, bigoted, and regressive, but it is a COHESIVE AGENDA THAT ALL LEVELS ARE AWARE OF AND WORK UNWAVERING TOWARDS, 24/7, Election Season or NOT!

And their people ALWAYS show up to vote.

Our Status Quot is this:

Democrats just seem to just 'exist', we seem to only be able to focus on ‘governing’ ALONE, but not able to 'chew gum at the same time' by prosecuting an overarching program and vision for the country . . .  no aggressive PUSH for it! Folks are allowed to freely 'coalesce' under the 'Big Tent'; 'part-time', ‘seasonal', 'full time but with strict by the minute hours' . . . Folks feel 'no pressure' to 'preserve or strengthen' what they've won in prior generations. We sit back, scoff, feeling 'safe' that 'certain things' 'Won't happen . . . They can't!'. We spend a LOT of time energy just getting 'bodies' to the polls when we need them, in whatever reactionary, GOP-catalyzed, counter to the ‘shots’ taken, at some 'sacred cow', we weren't really watching, if you're honest, that we allowed to roam from 'meadow to meadow', so to speak. Lately we've had a mixed bag in protecting our 'bovines', but we've lost too many already, to the slaughter . . . Koch and the Others are gorging on 'steak' if you look at it.

We should have been and NEED TO be changing the ideological culture within the party to one that does not accept or forgive voting abstinence(a so called ‘Right’) . . . so much so, it should have been in our popular culture, it should have been in our sub conscious.

Case in point: 

ALL of our 'base' groups have DISMAL turnout records:

 
Blacks and other ‘so-called minorities’

Young People

The Poor

The Middle Class Educated Voter

The Union Members

Single Women

. . . All drop off precipitously in especially the mid-terms.  We are so damned laissez-faire about everything . . .  we only get perennially activated every four years! That is not going to work against an 'enemy' that never sleeps . . .  Shit: They're fucking Mordor, guys! Can't we see that?

Say what you want about the GOP they keep their base engaged!

 
Not us.  Instead, the whole of Obama's presidency we've just been whining and complaining about 'Hey!  They never said they'd do that!?  And that it is not fair or honorable . . .!' They don’t give a fuck about fairness and honor . . . but we KNOW this right?? And . . .Yes they DID ‘tell you what they were going to do’ . . .

They've been BLARING THEIR AGENDA FOR YEARS, EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK!

Like I said in 'Heavy Lift', it's been in our popular culture, literature, caricatures, movies, music, magazines . . . Etc.  The GOP have been defining themselves . . . AND US for decades!

Now many of my liberal friends are actually taking to heart a GOP-benefiting tactic, that basically amounts to a ‘Pox on Both Your Houses!’.  Some who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 expected this stridently-liberal approach to governing, a la Dennis Kucinich or Bernie Sanders.  News Flash: 

He never WAS a ‘Liberal’ in that vein folks.  

Did you folks NOT hear him wax all nostalgic over the Republican Abraham Lincoln as described in Doris Kearns-Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals”?  What did you expect?  You also should note too that Obama won over the 'War Hero' McCain PRECISELY because he didn’t ‘come off’ as the ‘Flaming Liberal’ . . . but many of you were expecting that from him once he got into office.  You wanted 'payback' for how the GOP rode roughshod over us during the last administration. If you’re frustrated and all angry, that is YOUR fault for not truly listening to the man when he was campaigning.  Yes he was the only palatable alternative to McCain . . . but 'The Way He Is', no matter how much us Liberals may hate it, is a recipe for being able to appeal to Middle of America . . . who have much better voting records than ANY of us here on the Left.

They ALWAYS show up.

The ONLY way to get a ‘true liberal’ is for the party establishment to not worry so much anymore about creating a 'buzz' to get you coming out anymore, it is to worry about You choosing Them over another candidate say a Third Party candidate.  We need to guarantee turn-out NO MATTER WHO is running and spend the energy crafting and selling ideas, versus the easily-stymied, and frankly, expensive ground operation.  We outnumber the Conservatives on the registered voter rolls, and if we can only shift all that get out the vote energy and money to crafting messages and sound policy, voter intimidation won’t be an issue anymore.

 
Once the 'ideological habit' of always turning out has been cast granite-like around the ethos of the party, ONLY THEN would the Party NO CHOICE BUT to concentrate on you the Liberal and what you want to see much more than they do now, rather than sort of take your support for granted IF you even show up like they do now(If you show up will you really vote for a Republican?)!  The Liberal, once he becomes a guaranteed participant, will see the establishment rush to placate and assure you more than they do presently, due to our sheer numbers.  We’ll rival the Middle of the country folks or Reagan Democrats for voting influence.

THEN is when you can possibly run someone like Bernie Sanders and credibly hope to get them to the White House.

Liberals this will take TIME to get to that point. I know that in this Fast Food culture of our times, people don't have the patience or understanding anymore that these matters and tactics WILL NOT be effective, in the face of premature expectancy fury. I'm talking to the younger generation, the twenty somethings who simply have no concept of an endeavor, politically, that takes decades to really work. They have no real comprehension of the nuances of the government system we have and how fast or slowly it can and does 'turn'. A much overused quote from old Kung-Fu flicks about a Grasshopper having Patience is apropos right now.

Patience when it's in the thralls of a 'Pas de Deux' with Diligence is true virtue and a 'weapon' that will pay dividends exponentially later and constantly. Ask the GOP.

However, from this moment on and in the meantime, if we’re serious, we can no longer tolerate, voting apathy, abstinence, or pious, symbolic third party vote, UNTIL the Voting Paradigm I described that we should aspire to has elevated all our The Base Groups and becomes more sophisticated, nimble. THEN is when we can ‘teach a lesson to recalcitrant, reluctant Democrats’ by defecting to another political party(like the Green or Communist).  Even if none of the choices ‘get your juices going - make a Choice!  Always!

For Now That’s It 

. . . and that is all I have as main items . . . for now.  There are many minor things we can do in the interim but I can’t stress enough:

Stop being the proverbial ‘Herd of Cats’.

Sometimes you can learn from your enemy.  You’d be a fool to not soak up knowledge and ideas wherever you may find them . . . no matter how onerous the ‘vessel’ containing them may be.  The GOP are no doubt disgusting, unpatriotic, value avarice as a virtue, bigoted, Taliban-like . . . pick your ‘political adjective’ . . . but . . .

They stick together.

We need to do the same . . . especially on the Big Issues of the day and in the future. Our Nature assures that we will have internal squabbles and fights, because Progressives are independent thinkers by reflex, hence the cat-like division we exhibit periodically. Let's fight hard and love hard . . . but when something threatens the very fabric of this country we love, like this present Storm of what was/still is a Sex Act . . . we need to Put Down and Wrap Up the 'sandwiches of internal discontent' we might be munching on, put them in the Fridge for Later . . . and Fall In! Call a Truce on Drones, Anger over Chained CPI, Not jailing the Banksters or the lack of the Public Option, etc, and look at the various talents each person or group has, and deploy them towards our New Agenda and towards defending the very IDEA of this country.

It's War.

We don't do this and we’ll find ourselves at a loss, again, with the zoo animals running the zoo, and the zoo-keepers massacred or huddled for protection, hiding somewhere . . . or being eaten . . . with everyone in this country at the mercy of These Beasts.

(c) Dike Matthew 3/15/13