The battle isn't over. The battle has not even begun. On Janurary 20th, 2009, the battle begins as humanity gets one last chance to save democracy, civilization, and what's left of the environment. This window of opportunity will last, at most, 2 years. More realistically, we will get a few months.
What should we do? What reforms should we make? Dicuss in this thread.
My opinion, after the jump.
Our priorities:
Lowering Expectations: point out the massive, unprecedented disasters we are in the middle of, and how they can only be solved if Obama takes massive unprecedented actions.
Keep volunteering and donating: if we relax now, our movement will melt away. Contact your local democratic party, or an NGO working on the important issues, and get volunteering. Make it part of your lifestyle.
End the conservative media bias: Liberals need a media strategy. It seems that we've been focusing everything on a few blowhards like Rush Limbaugh, while republicans have been working on influencing the rank and file media workers, who actually can be influenced. We need to do what they do. Keep saying "conservative-bias media" and target people who actually want to be considered balanced, and people who can actually be influenced.
Keep the GOP divided and backward: increase the divides: isolationst VS neocon, theocon VS wallstreet, Palinista VS electability and so on.
Put the important issues first: Everybody has their pet causes, and their opinions on what's important, so this will be the controversial part. In my opinion:
- Voting reform. National holiday, early voting, pen and paper ballots, same day registration, severe penalties for voter suppression. Maybe give people a tax rebate check when they show up to vote. If people can't vote, we'll see a Republican Congress and Senate in 2010 and President Palin in 2012.
- Campaign finance reform - give advantage to smaller donors. Not sure how to do this. If small donors are buried in corporate cash, we'll see a Republican Congress and Senate in 2010 and President Palin in 2012.
- Education. Not just for kids - everybody needs to learn the scientific method, rational thinking, and in general how to figure out the difference between truth and lies. Have free adult-education courses that include this among stuff people want to learn. Do whatever it takes, and step on any and all toes necessary, to improve the education system to first-world status. If people don't learn how to figure out the difference between truth and lies, we'll see a Republican Congress and Senate in 2010 and President Palin in 2012.
- Energy. Without energy, nothing happens. If we don't fix energy, there's no end to the disasterthat is the economy, the climate, the empire, and there's no way to prevent the coming shortages of food, water and resources in general running out. Remember that the number one energy source is efficiency. If Americans used oil at the rate Europeans do, the USA would not import a single drop of oil. Don't dismiss anything with the label "nuclear" on it - there's a new generation of nuke technology out there and we need to research every lead we've got. If don't fix the economy and empire FAST, we'll see a Republican Congress and Senate in 2010 and President Palin in 2012.
- Last, but most important, we need to tax the rich ASAP. The right will reorganize faster than expected (100% of them discovering the existence of the debt within one second of the inauguration), and Obama's approval ratings will drop, simply because our problems need miracles and Obama can't actually walk on water. We need to do the tough stuff NOW, while it's still possible. If we hesitate for any reason, we'll have a worse-than useless bankrupt government to run, and then we'll see a Republican Congress and Senate in 2010 and President Palin in 2012.
Okay, your turn: