Well ok. Got my very first HR, and the clown that did it failed to state why.
So, the potato-innocence is over. Maybe now I'll just be an ass at times, because there isn't any point in NOT BEING AN ASS, is there?
You know who you are. At least say why, so we can talk about it. Who knows? Maybe it's a good HR, but I'll never know that, will I?
That's the point of the whole thing. With out that piece, all that happens is tensions grow.
Moving on then.
We have a problem as a party and as a movement. The problem is quite simply that too many people are not focusing on the goal, wanting gratification instead. We need to end this, and end it now.
UPDATE: Below the fold.
UPDATE: At this time, the poll is 6/35. Guess what folks? That's enough people on the sidelines to decide elections. That has implications for us going forward, because not only will we have to win those seats back, but we still must build the movement to get the Progressive legislation we all want.
I am STUNNED at the people who argue against doing the work to build the movement. Absolutely floored. Think it through a little. :)
There are way too many people thinking that somehow, their choice of voting, or not, or for somebody else, is going to have a positive impact on the state of things.
Let me just state here, right now for the record:
1. Where we are is not Obama's fault. I hear betrayal, I hear weak, I hear all sorts of things, and most of all, I hear confusion, anger, and the need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW.
2. There is a "WE" in "Yes We Can!", and the WE is all about doing our civics, selling the Progressive ideas to people, so that we elect people that can then bring Obama better options.
If you are going to bitch about how Obama is, you also need to state what your end game is, and what his end game is, or it's just bitching, period.
eg: Obama could have stood up to Lieberman on Health Care.
Really? What if Lieberman had just said "NO"? What exactly would Obama have done in that scenario? It's not like he's a king, able to just tell Congress what to pass. The end game on that isn't good, because a power struggle would only have the potential to marginalize his Presidency. Can you imagine what the GOP would have done with that cluster fuck scenario?
Does the word "Waterloo" come to mind? Thought so.
eg: I'm not voting for those asses because...
What's your end game here? Vote in some other asses for the GOP to gain power? How exactly does that help move things forward? Doesn't that simply increase their ability to say "NO", and be more effective at blocking the agenda?
Think people! Think about the end game scenario on these things. It's important that we all do this, all ask each other these questions because we all lose when we don't.
3. It's the Senate Stupid!!!
All this talk about not voting for Democrats, because of whatever reason, puts the House at risk. Has anyone actually thought that through? Seems to me, Nancy Pelosi got good legislation passed! She actually put reform through the House, and actually has taken the side of the people on multiple things!
How exactly do we benefit by reducing her base of power in the house, or by getting her replaced as Speaker, which the GOP has very high on their priority list?
The end game scenario there isn't good at all.
4. We are dealing with 30 years plus, of bad policy. The fixes to these things will absolutely not happen over night. This means we need to have a few layers in place in our thinking, or we will be manipulated into doing things that result in policy that is not in our best interest.
eg: Blanche Lincoln.
Now, the popular framing on this is a set of false choices. Either don't vote, vote for her, or vote for somebody else.
If you have the layers in your thinking, the number of choices goes up considerably, as do the possible outcomes. Consider putting her "on plan".
So she gets the votes, because we know the GOP is worse. A lot of people can't do that, because they didn't get what they wanted out of her, and want to punish her and the party for allowing it to happen.
Let's do that then, but let's also get something out of it!
Instead of voting in some GOP clown that will only cause us grief, let's vote her in, and then apply some new actions.
Look at what Slinkerwink is doing in Texas! It's a beautiful thing, running great ADs, and building a lot of Progressive awareness, contact info, networking opportunities, and media relationships at the same time.
What if we assigned somebody to do what She is doing to Blanche? After the election, it starts. We start to run the ADs, calling out her bad policy positions, and we start to groom the next challenger. Fund raise constantly, and force her to face the realities of her policy positions.
The beauty of this is, we gain no matter what!!
If she sees that and votes well, then we gain those votes, and we've made a difference, and we've got a bunch of people active in their civics. If that continues, perhaps we don't want to run that challenger because the race would be hard to win.
Isn't that the point of it?
Now, if she ignores that, we escalate those efforts, positioning the challenger, growing the numbers, and making sure the people know there are options. That race will become increasingly winnable, because we've built the case over time for it to be so.
From her perspective, it costs a lot to keep answering for shitty votes.
Finally, Progressives have a story to tell the people, and that story is quite simply that the Progressives are the ONLY MOVEMENT OF SIZE that is on the side of the people on economic matters. That's a GREAT STORY, because the people need to know there is actually somebody out there challenging the status quo, fighting for them.
Instead of doing third party garbage, we simply seek to grow the Democratic party, and we grow the Progressives into a clear majority, thus taking the party, and by extension the politics, back for the people.
No matter what Blanche does, there is an upside for us, and that's good strategy, and a clear option that gets people where they need to be emotionally, and keeps them active with productive options more often than not.
5. We need to come to acceptance on the fact that Progressives are not yet strong enough to challenge the corporate status quo. This is what Health Care taught us.
If we are out there telling people our story, we will grow our numbers. If we are out there giving people things to do, options, we focus their anger into something productive, not some distraction like the Tea Party, which just throws the win to the corporate politicians, who are funding the Tea Party clowns anyway, because they need that win.
6. Because of #5, things are going to take time. Either we are building during that time, or bitching.
Bitching feels really great, but it's otherwise useless. Building on the other hand, gets us closer to where we need to be.
It's time to take the movement to the next level. We need to start evangelizing the movement as something by the people, for the people, and of the people, and framing that against corporate politics.
We need to start selling that to people, one at a time, old school, telling the story, building the numbers, establishing the lines of communication, and focusing that into regular and consistent action.
7. Take back faith, and small business.
Nobody owns faith. And small business is largely aligned with the GOP, because WE ARE NOT TALKING TO THEM. Of all the body politic, the Progressives are most closely aligned with small business. They have the same needs we ordinary people do, and they need somebody in their corner telling them how important and vital they are to our better economic future.
That's us people!! We are it. Nobody else is going to do that, because if it were not for the Progressives, our politics would be all economically "trickle down" corporate, with just variations in how corporate, and on social / foreign policy matters.
Think about that. Think long and hard, then think about what Obama is facing! His options are limited because our size means it's cheaper to tell us no, or use us as a tool than it is for the other bodies in our government.
8. Have you ever wondered why a lot of GOP focus is suddenly on Progressives! It's because we are the only genuine threat to the corporate politics they favor. The rest of the Democrats just differ from them on levels of extremism, and on social matters.
9. I'm proud to be a Progressive minded person. I'm excited that we have a movement that is recognized, and seen as a threat, and that is well aligned with the American people, and I can't wait to tell people about it, and I do EVERY SINGLE DAY.
I tell them about how Health Care went down, I tell them about the corporate vs people politics. I tell them they need new options, jobs, investment in the nation and all those other things, and they listen because standing FOR things is productive and standing AGAINST things, with no solutions at the ready, is not productive.
Most people grok this, and that's our opening to grow the numbers.
10. People gravitate toward strength and clarity. Becoming more Republican like is muddy. Why vote for the wanna be in a pink shirt or skirt, when you can vote for the real deal? Who wants wishy-washy personalities and ideas, when they can stand behind people, who have demonstrated they will go to the mat, if they believe it's the right thing to do?
That's us!! We did that on Health Care, and it's one of the best movement stories we've got, and we need to tell it over and over and over until more people get it, and why it matters.
We are the only force in politics that is actually talking about a future that doesn't involve ongoing attacks and costs and risks piled on the middle class. We are the only ones actually saying "TAX THE RICH", because we are the only ones saying Austerity doesn't have to happen, if we start working our asses off to build our nation out of these deficits.
I don't hear that anywhere else. I don't hear NAFTA is a bad idea from the Democrats. I do hear it from the Progressive Democrats though. Go down the list. That's true most of the time, on most of the important issues.
So, here's what it comes down to. If you need instant gratification, and you see your vote as the only path to that, then that anti-Democratic incumbant vote will get you that gratification, but it will cost you big. It will cost you the progress made to build the party, and it will cost you the size of the movement, because when the blame game starts, and they see the losses, they are going to be able to say WE PROGRESSIVES were at fault, and they would be right!
Who wants that?
I don't.
Vote your party. Straight up ticket to hold the GOP back, and preserve what we worked for. Get your head on straight and realize this is going to take a while. Get active and start leaning hard on our movement alphas to organize and build something in this movement that we can all latch on to, and act on every single month until we see something Progressive actually fucking pass!!
When we've done that, and our President screws us, then it's ok to blame Obama. Until that's been done, we might as well look in the mirror and realize that there is work to do.