When faced with the Great Depression, and conservatives tried to downplay it, FDR did not just talk about the plight of the dispossesed. He commissioned photographs from the best photographers of the time and then distributed the best of these photos to the newspapers (and destroyed others). And those photographs became the face of the Great Depression and poverty in America.
And that's how you do it. By showing pictures. Take your camera. Find the uninsured. Record their stories. Put them on Youtube. Post them on your blogs. Send the pictures of children dying because of lack of insurance, of suffering patients who were denied coverage. Flood the internet with pictures. One picture is worth a thousand words.
When Otto von Bismarck, the founder of German conservatism, the guy who was so anti-socialist that he closed down the Social Democratic party of Germany, the guy who hated unions decided that it was a good idea to pass the first social security legislation in the world, they called him a Socialist- He didn't try to explain he wasn't a socialist, he didn't say it was not a socialist legislation, that he was not a socialist, or that he would change the proposed legislation. He stood firm and said:
"Call it socialism or whatever you like. It is the same to me."
And that's how you do it. By not apologizing, or compromising when you know you're right, when history, morality and the winds of change is on your side. By standing up for your convictions and saying,
"Call it socialism or whatever you like. It is the same to me." when they call universal health care, single payer, even public option socialism. Labels don't matter, if your convictions are strong enough.
When German neo-Nazis plan demonstrations, German left does not complain about it. They organize and show up, in huge numbers, outnumbering the Nazis to such a degree that Nazis have no room left to walk or demonstrate. No guns, no intimidation. They show up. They call it the "No foot width for the Fascists". When enough people show up, they don't leave an inch for the hate mongers. Numbers are important. Showing up is important. And that's how you do it. By showing up.
Don't leave an inch left for the gun-toting crazies. Don't let them intimidate decent citizens.
When we wanted to get Obama elected, we were proud of our candidate. We were proud of our party. We wore t-hirts that "Hope" written all over them. We had stickers on our cars and windows, we had signs in our yards.
And that's how you do it. Make space for a new sticker on your bumper for "Public Option". Buy a "Universal Health Care" T-shirt. Put a "Make Pre-Existing Conditions History" sign in your yard. Display them proudly.
When candidate Obama was campaigning, he kept telling us that we were the ones were waiting for. And we arrived. We canvassed and phonebanked. We drove voters to the polls, we gave them pretzels when they were waiting in line. We donated. We went to rallies. We voted in online polls. Hey, we even 5 starred Youtube videos.
And that's how you do it.
Talk, convince, knock on doors, organize rallies, make phone calls. Talk to your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues. Talk to your children. This is the fight for their future, for their generation. Explain to people what public option means. They don't know. All they hear is "public" and "option". What a boring name. Tell them what it really is. It's CHOICE. It's real choice.
This is our fight. We didn't sit back and wait for Obama to win the elections. We worked.
Oh and don't forget how history repeats itself:
When progressives wanted to outlaw child labor. Clarence E. Martin, President of the American Bar Association said:
[A] communistic effort to nationalize children, making them primarily responsible to the government instead of to their parents. It strikes at the home. It appears to be a definite positive plan to destroy the Republic and substitute a social democracy.
And guess which state passed the first ban on child labor? Massachussets
And guess how the South reacted?
"Congressman Fritz G. Lanham (TX) brought down the House with his mock psalm:
Consider the Federal agent in the field; he toils not, nor does he spin; and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his populous household was not arrayed with powers like one of these.
Children, obey your agents from Washington, for this is right.
Honor thy father and thy mother, for the Government has created them but a little lower than the Federal agent. Love, honor, and disobey them.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, tell it to thy father and mother and let them do it.
Six days shaft thou do all thy rest, and on the seventh day thy parents shall rest with thee.
Go to the bureau officer, thou sluggard; consider his -ways and be idle.
Toil thou farmer's wife; thou shalt have no servant in thy house, nor let thy children help thee.
And all thy children shall be taught of the Federal agent, and great shall be the peace of thy children. Thy children shall rise up and call the Federal agent blessed." (http://mises.org/resources/2665)
Oh well, we all know how that turned out. Conservatives are playing by the same playbook since the dawn of history. And that's why in the long term they lose. Because CHANGE is inevitable.
- Let pictures talk.
- Don't apologize for your convinctions
- Don't leave an inch to intimidators
- Display your commitment publicly and often
- Talk to anyone who'll listen.
- Don't forget that American history has always been on the side of progress.
And that's how you do it.