Progressive Playbook: Trump Edition

Quilombo

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 10, 2016 · 4:42 AM PST

2016/11/10 · 04:42

If we keep running the same plays, we should expect the same outcomes.

We now have a neo-KKK sexual predator as president-elect.

Progressives must take advantage and control the narrative in media and social networks going forward.

To do so, we need to expand the progressive playbook by designing a few new plays while lifting other successful ones from the right-wing playbook.

Here are some quick thoughts on how:

Broken Campaign Promises. Incessantly highlight moves by Trump that break ridiculous campaign promises to working-class whites, such as building a wall and having Mexico pay for it.
Harming Working-Class White People. Frame every move by Trump and Republicans as harming rural working-class whites (highly relevant to rollbacks to social programs and environmental regulations).
Top 1%. Frame every move by Trump and Republicans as protecting the top 1% and his own financial interests to the detriment of working-class whites.
Bankruptcies. Connect Trump’s six historical bankruptcies with his bankrupting of the American government (e.g. in the upcoming Ryan budget).
Putin. Frame Trump’s foreign policy moves as cowering to Putin.
Republican Insiders. Frame Trump’s appointments as cowering to traditional Republication insiders (Trump no political outsider).
Memes. Dominate the meme game by creating images, videos and concepts that take a life of their own, frame the debate and penetrate social and traditional media (think the alt-right).
Regional Messaging. Target messaging to be regional so that it is easier to relate to by relevant constituencies.
Clandestine Online Activity. Foster frustration among conservatives in their forums (higher from of trolling).
Buyer’s Remorse. Immediately and consistently underscore working-class white people’s “buyer’s remorse” with Trump.
Blocking Minority within Majority. Empower Republicans that stand against Trump and work to create a blocking minority within the GOP majority, especially senators that have just won election or are not facing one for 4 years when the next presidential election comes around.
New Progressive Leaders. Position new, younger progressive Democrats as our standard-bearers, building up their national profile (we need new and inspiring leadership, with apologies to Bernie and Hillary supporters).
Progressive Ideas for Working-Class Whites. Repackage progressive ideas and policies for working-class whites.
Vibrant Progressive Online Ecosystem. Create new online websites and forums for progressives where organizing and messaging can take place without censorship (sorry but DailyKos is just not that, in addition to being to saturated with content for its own good) in order to create a more vibrant progressive online ecosystem.

Bottom line: We need to foster distrust, dissatisfaction and dissent among his main supporters, i.e. working-class whites. This is not to say we cease communicating to progressives, women, communities, the LGBT community, etc., but that we need a parallel strategy.

So these are just a few ideas that came to mind.

Now, DailyKos may be useful in advancing some of these, if it can move away from its constant front-page obsession with snark and unfocused randomness.

But we need to take more ownership ourselves, we being this online community, and direct our online activities with reckless abandon and purpose.

We got this!

We started a joke...

Quilombo

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday November 09, 2016 · 3:56 AM PST

2016/11/09 · 03:56

To my fellow Americans that voted for Trump, you are clowns. I know that may sound condescending, and it is, but a spade sometimes needs to be called a spade.

A neo-KKK sexual predator is now president-elect.

Take a moment to think about that.

You failed the most basic test of civics. You have absolutely no idea of the actual problems affecting your life and how to address them. And you believe anything – spectacularly gullible and naive.

Your vote was a dagger that you wielded recklessly and must now live with the consequences.

And in your recklessness, you have harmed working-class families, our brothers and sisters of color, true people of faith, our sons and daughters, among countless many others. My heart goes out to them in these uncertain times. But let us not forget that the white people that carried Trump to the presidency were also harmed, and ultimately the joke will be on them too. If you do not know why this is then let the next four years be a crash course in civics.

In the meantime, I will continue to work to mitigate the irreparable harm you caused with your vote, harm to our economy, to our societal fabric, to our environment, to our international standing.

But harm there will be and I hope you take a moment to reflect on it as it comes your way. At some point you need to look in the mirror and realize your gullibility and naivete are the problem weaponized against all of us.

Republican Primary Delegate Counter Please!

Quilombo

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday January 12, 2012 · 5:20 AM PST

2012/01/12 · 05:20

This is short and sweet.

A suggestion to prolong this wonderful Republican primary and all its glorious in-fighting that not only frames the candidates for the general election but also brings an important narrative to the public domain that segues with the OWS movement: A DELEGATE COUNTER!

From what I understand, the 2012 Republican primary is allocating delegates proportionally these days a la the 2008 Democratic primary. In just looking at delegates, this thing is far from decided. But I could not find a delegate counter easily on-line.

More below...

Quilombo

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday November 05, 2010 · 5:49 AM PDT

2010/11/05 · 05:49

Vile.

Despicable.

Petty.

The behavior of Republicans and the vile nature of the venom being thrown at Obama is beyond anything that I have ever seen or imagined.

Leaving policy and politics aside, as a society, we should be ostracizing all thinly-veiled and blatant racism in this country. We should be calling it out at every turn. It is not about playing the race card. It is about calling a spade a spade. This is much different than an overly-zealous expedition into an extramarital affair a la Clinton. This is crazy.

And, no, just because the Republican party keeps a black man in the house (Michael Steele) does not mean that the Republican party, in general, and countless elected officials, in particular, in addition to an entire TV station (Fox News,) are not racists and bigots. The truth is they are racists. And it is unacceptable.

So, recently as I watch the US political system and social fabric unravel, that scene at the end of A Time to Kill keeps running my mind. More below the fold.

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Progressive Playbook: Trump Edition

We started a joke...

Republican Primary Delegate Counter Please!

Now imagine he's white.