This will be brief. We are winning. Notice I didn't say we won. I said we are winning. Of course, it ain't over til it's over. I won't insult anyone here, on a political, partisan, activist blog by stating the obvious. What I want to do is quickly suggest a couple ways to run up the score.
Call it "Liberal Voter Suppression" if you will. ;)
So there's only one way to win. Have more of our people cast votes than their people. The GOP is trying to manage that by instituting new Jim Crow laws in key swing states. But the we do it will be much easier.
It's called demoralizing the opposition. Instead of disenfranchisement, we do disengagement.
SHAME WORKS
For a few older and/or sane Republicans, this may work nicely. There was a time when the Republican party was respectable. Those days are gone. So shame them into a demoralized position. Perhaps you can even convince them that they must let this abomination die a natural death if they are going to save their party.
Send them this: the 1956 Republican Platform
Here are some highlights.
On its Centennial, the Republican Party again calls to the minds of all Americans the great truth first spoken by Abraham Lincoln: "The legitimate object of Government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do as well for themselves, Government ought not to interfere."
Good times in America have reached a breadth and depth never before known by any nation. Moreover, it is a prosperity of a nation at peace, not at war. We shall continue to encourage the good business and sound employee relationships which have made possible for the first time in our history a productive capacity of more than $400 billion a year. Nearly 67 million people have full-time jobs, with real wages and personal income at record highs.
Under the Republican Administration, as our country has prospered, so have it
The Republican Party believes that the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of the people is as important as their economic health. It will continue to support this conviction with vigorous action.
Republican action created the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as the first new Federal department in 40 years, to raise the continuing consideration of these problems for the first time to the highest council of Government, the President's Cabinet.s people. This is as it should be, for as President Eisenhower said: "Labor is the United States. The men and women, who with their minds, their hearts and hands, create the wealth that is shared in this country—they are America."
The Republican Party supports an immigration policy which is in keeping with the traditions of America in providing a haven for oppressed peoples, and which is based on equality of treatment, freedom from implications of discrimination between racial, nationality and religious groups, and flexible enough to conform to changing needs and conditions. We believe that such a policy serves our self-interest, reflects our responsibility for world leadership and develops maximum cooperation with other nations in resolving problems in this area.
Policies of sound conservation and wise development—originally advanced half a century ago under that preeminent Republican conservation team of President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot and amplified by succeeding Republican Administrations—have been pursued by the Eisenhower Administration. While meeting the essential development needs of the people, this Administration has conserved and safeguarded our natural resources for the greatest good of all, now and in the future.
Our national parks, national forests and wildlife refuges are now more adequately financed, better protected and more extensive than ever before. Long-range improvement programs, such as Mission 66 for the National Parks system, are now under way, and studies are nearing completion for a comparable program for the National Forests. These forward-looking programs will be aggressively continued. We favor full recognition of recreation as an important public use of our national forests and public domain lands.
I don't know about you, but, I've read the entire document and it makes
me sad and I'm not even a Republican. Granted, there's lots in there I don't agree with. But I'm a liberal. So, that's to be expected. But still, the only thing I can think when I read it is, "Jesus. This wasn't a completely fucked up party. What happened?" (Don't answer. I know what happened). Reading it, for a Republican, then returning to today's clap-trap, must be like coming back to a home after a fire. Shock and devastation. Or maybe looking at an old picture of a time when things were really happy in your life before you got hooked on heroin or something. It is a sobering and sad read, even for me.
So send it to them. And ask them, "What happened to your party? It's a terrible thing that happened to your once respectable party. I hope and pray that, for the good of the country, those of you who are decent and reasonable can find a way to take back control of your party from those who really are destroying it, possibly for a very long time. Sometimes you need to break things down in order to build them up right. Maybe a Romney loss will be the beginning of the reasonable wing of your party stopping the more extreme wing from being the public face of the party. They are literally destroying the Republican brand and keeping your party from having even a slim chance of winning elections in the future."
Look, there's a reason they trotted Charlie Crist out at the Democratic Convention. And Laura Clawson's excellent FP article today points that out as well. He speaks to plenty of sane-headed republicans. They are out there. And in addition, I think there are some who have always been Republicans, perhaps since 1956 or earlier, and who really need to be reminded how far things have degenerated. It's like swimming in the ocean. You never think you're far from shore until you look up and WOW! You're really far from shore.
The goal is not to get them to vote for Obama, necessarily, but to stay home. But these people won't stay home unless they have a moral high purpose in doing so. And that moral high purpose is for the "Long-Term Best Interests and Ultimate Survival of Their Party and Conservative Principles".
Remember how awful it felt in 2010 seeing those poll numbers that showed we were about to be creamed? Remember how terrible that felt? We activists fought anyway, but it was hard to do, wasn't it? Regular non-activist Democratic voters just gave up. Didn't vote.
In the coming weeks, Romney's numbers and performance are going to get worse. He cannot hide from debates. He cannot spout platitudes while the President is offering specifics. He cannot hide from the media and he cannot hide from retail politics. He will struggle. We will falter. And his poll numbers are going to get worse. At that point, some of these reasonable Republicans are going to be demoralized and vulnerable. They might even seriously reconsider not voting, especially if they have a noble reason not to.
Our job is to give them that noble reason.
And your know what? The kicker is this: I actually believe, as do many of you, that those Republicans who are not insane owe it to their party and our country to weed out the extremist wing of their party. If America is going to be a great nation into the 21st century, we cannot be arguing about birth control and health care and education and climate change and creationism and living wages for workers. For fuck's sake. And for the record, partisan that I am, if the Democratic party was being run by loonies, to the extent that our decent candidates were unelectable, I'd not vote for the party. I'd let it crash and burn. That's tough for me to say, but I really think I would do that.
MOCKING WORKS
This can take many forms. Twitter's a great place to mock them succinctly and publicly. Yesterday's #DavidGregorysToughQuestions was a beautiful example of how social media can be used to mock and shame those who should know better or be doing better.
But it's more than that. When your asshole wing-nut friend posts something on your facebook feed, don't debate him anymore. Really who cares what he thinks? He's not going to change his mind, anyway. It's debatable whether he has a actual grasp on reality. Literally. Keep in mind: He's LOSING. He will become more shrill over the next few weeks as the prospect of losing becomes more and more an inescapable reality.
So if you must, post a link that proves your point. But mostly, remind him that his candidate, Willard Mitt Romney, and his sidekick Paul Ryan are the losing-est team in politics in decades. Don't be shy about it. Emphasize all the things wrong with the ticket and turn the loss into a "huge national rebuke" of conservative ideology. Try to think of what would get under your skin. Or what would have gotten under yours in those pre-2010 election doldrums.
"Face it, nobody in America likes your candidate, including you." (link to favs/unfavs)
"You are losing. Mitt can't close the deal." (link to polls)
"I'd be typing in all caps too, if my candidate was losing."
"Almost 70% of Republicans didn't want Romney. Better hope they show up and vote, but I wouldn't count on it." (link anybody-but-Mitt primary data)
"While you post here, I signed up 16 new Obama voters today in [state]. Seriously, good luck."
"November 6th is going to be a shock for you. You might try looking at polls other than Rasmussen and watching news other than Fox."
"Face it. The country is overwhelmingly liberal now."
There's more, of course. But the idea is to get under their skin in a way that makes them really worry that they are losing and that they are out of step with the country. Arguing policy with them only strengthens their resolve. But a cocksure opponent is a total mind fuck. Totally demoralizing.
Attitude matters. It's creates zeitgeist. We ought to exploit that. A lot. (Between canvassing and phone banking and registering voters, that is; Activities, which ironically, can increase your confidence and 'tude big time).
So let's run up the score. Remember: Show no mercy and give no quarter. Our lives and the lives of our children literally depend on it.
We're leaving it all on the road, baby.