What, if anything, do you believe Little People like us, can do to pressure Obama to remain true to progressives Democratic values, right now? When I say “Little People,” I mean all of us who ’only’ have several dozen to thousands of readers, or dollars, or connections- in contrast with those of the big Playahs, who have millions of those things.

let me know when you find out

of civil disobedience…like the sit-in at his campaign offices. Unfortunately, I don’t think it would accomplish anything other than having protestors hauled off shouting something about FISA and Fascists. And based on the Bushista model of campaign rallies, they would be hauled off. Or they’d be taken as a security threat and handled by the secret service detail.
I love Freeway Blogger, but I don’t think the campaign would give a rat’s ass. An actual billboard campaign would get some notice and at least keep people talking about the issues at hand.

You know who has really stuck it to the powers that be, consistently and vocally? Code Pink. Perhaps there should be a Code Puma.

PUMA should be kept separate from FISA because the two things are completely different.

Stand down, and let someone else be the nominee.

The ship for voting for Obama has sailed.

And speaking of the Little People, it seems to me that Obama is attempting to get rid of all of them. In Iowa, his campaign has taken over local Dem offices, to make them focus on his race, not the down ticket ones.

The assimilation continues.

Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!

Iowa Independent:

At least 20 employees of the Iowa Democratic Party have been demoted or fired and a coordinated state-wide campaign was essentially disbanded, replaced by a focus on the presidential bid of Sen. Barack Obama.
Details are sketchy, but the changes could have an impact on November’s legislative races, with field staff that was previously working for down-ticket races now being placed on the payroll of Obama’s presidential campaign and working almost entirely on its behalf.

Plenty of room under the bus! As I said, back in May, and caught so much shit for: Gleischaltung.

NOTE It would be interesting to know the gender breakdown for the firings. Just saying.

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

I think sit-ins, demonstrations, ads, etc., would be useful to the extent they can embarrass him with the SCLM. That’s his real base, the people he most wants to love him. If you have the power to make him look bad in their eyes, you might get somewhere.

Personally, I’ve always thought it would make sense to organize a demonstration* the weekend before the convention starts in Denver. I had suggested one protesting the media’s misogyny, but FISA, UHC, or something else would do. So long as the issue is big enough to attract a large number of folks, I think it would be worth doing. The number one thing the Dems don’t want is someone pissing all over their party. If you schedule something and they know lots of people will be coming or might be coming if they’re pissed off enough, the Dems and Obama are more likely to want to do everything they can to limit the damage which could translate into better policy positions.

FWIW, I firmly believe that politicians care most about is their own electoral success. If you aren’t willing to put that in danger, you’ve got nothing. If you aren’t willing to do things that might make it harder for Obama to win in November - whether that’s withholding your money,** threatening to withhold your vote, protesting, demonstrating, etc. - then you’re powerless. He’s going to listen to those who have power over him*** and that ain’t going to be you. That’s politics.

* for all the fun blogging is and how important it can be, nothing will move politicians as well as a lot of people in the street. If people hate the FISA bill as much as they claim, then all these internet powerhouses should be using the internet to organize demonstrations. That might get us somewhere.

** withholding money, even if it’s a small amount, seems to me to be critical. The DNC is all about money this year. They think Obama and his bipartisan ways are going to take them to the fundraising promised land. Getting HIS supporters to withhold money is critical to pressuring him.

*** of course, the time to really pressue Obama was when the only alternative wasn’t McCain. Because that’s now going to be the answer to everything “what’re you going to do, vote McCain?” Having gotten so many to look past the fact he ran to the right of the other leading Democrats in the primaries on domestic issues, he now only has to be to the left of McCain.

In catching up on my blog reading I read a post - I wish I could remember where - that suggested perhaps one reason for Obama’s change on FISA was Tom Daschle. Not just because Tom Daschle is a spineless tool who never met a GOP demand he wouldn’t give into, but because he was Minority Leader when the spying started and might be compromised. I’d write it off as a conspiracy theory except so many conspiracy theories have turned out to be true, it does make me wonder whether the telcos are really who the Dems are trying to protect.

I can see a “die in” for universal health care.

Or the Constitution, for that matter.

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Iowa isn’t a very big state and I can’t help but wonder what effect this reorg will have there. If Obama screwed over your nice neighbor Kathy Democrat are you going to still work/support/vote for him? For a man who seems to always be dodging arrogance accusations, it seems kind of risky to piss off entire state party structures.

Here. Daschle would have been briefed on warrantless surveillance, whether in the minority or in the majority, if he was party leader.

So, BDBlue, I don’t think you’re being foily at all.

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

I think it has to be something that will move a lot of people. FISA ain’t it, IMO, mostly because most people don’t understand how it affects them personally because everything is secret, something that will continue to be true if this dreaded bill is passed. A coincidence I’m sure.

But people are scared to death about the economy and a lot of that is tied to health-care worries. If there were a planned series of demonstrations, you might get people to come. I say series because sometimes these things need to build. You might get only a few thousand the first one, but it could grow. I hedge only because I think a lot of folks have given up on anyone in D.C. or elsewhere listening to them. The poorer the people are, the more I think that’s true. If you beat people down enough, they start opting out. Far from decrying cynicism, I think Obama and the Democratic leadership depend on it. God knows the Dems have fostered enough of it over the years by repeatedly proving there was no principle on which they would not compromise.

As for the Constitution, I believe we need to look at it from a longer term perspective. What I’d like to see develop is a summit where folks from across the political spectrum who all agree on the basic civil liberties stuff get together and develop a multi-pronged plan through lobbying, protesting, litigation, election politics. I think the Strange Bed Fellows movement could be a start. This has gone so far that, IMO, we need something like a Civil Rights movement for all Americans, one that looks to harness every means of protest in a coordinated way over a period of time. Right now, everyone is simply reacting to the latest outrage when what we need is a long-term plan. The ACLU can’t do it alone. Calling your Congressman on an individual vote can’t do it alone. They didn’t dismantle the Constitution in a day, we’re not going to instantaneously put it back together again, especially when so many in D.C. in both parties continue to participate in its shredding.

that’s it.

He sucks on the economy, on rights…on everything. Let him go play with the other Lieberdems til we mount real liberals to get rid of all of them.

and protest him at every single stop, like they did to Kerry with the giant flip-flop.

I thought about this in response to cd’s other excellent post about forming a cooperative. One of the things we need to be doing is getting ready with our own shock doctrine. That is putting in place a movement that proposes answers to social problems for the coming disaster. I don’t care who wins in November, things are going to get much worse before they get better. Planning for that needs to start with softening the impact on the most vulnerable, but I think it also needs to include having solutions out there ready to go and starting to build the groundwork for getting those solutions passed.

My own proposal is to start a movement that would amend the Constitution in this simple way:

A person is defined solely as a human being. The definition of person does not include any corporate or other fictitious entity.

Simple, direct, to the point. When the coming economic downturn happens people are not going to be feeling very friendly towards Wall Street is my guess. That can be used and leveraged for this and other causes.

What made the New Deal happen was terrible economic times combined with a party with a plan. The GOP had no real plan, so the Dems got theirs. Same thing with the neo-cons in the last few years. There was a vaccuum due to tragedy and they stepped into it.

Who is going to be ready to step in with solutions for the next disaster?

… “it” needs to go viral. A phrase, or a slogan, that has a strong visual and is also easy to incorporate in writing. I don’t think Code Pink succeeds especially, in that regard, beyond their name.

Since the way to bring pressure on Obama is to take either money or votes away from him, I’d suggest it needs to resonate with those who are already disaffected — and conventional wisdom says those people don’t exist, or are racist. They do, and they’re not, so that’s going to take creative thinking and real contact with people on the ground, because this year, nobody knows anything.

I agree with BDBlue that health care is the issue — that’s got people scared. Including me.

I wonder if Act-Up is a precedent? “Silence = Death” meets the criteria I talked about above. “It” wouldn’t be that, but it would need to be that powerful.

Also, and based on the PB 2.0 discussion, I’d say beyond parties (i.e., not PUMA). Parties exist as our instruments, and if they fail in that purpose they must change or die. Parties aren’t families.

Another idea is would be a modern day Chartist movement. An actual, physical chart, moved from town to town. People could add their medical bills to it ;-)

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Isn’t it a bit abstract?

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

…the only other “else” is threatening to bring him the kind of bad PR that is enough to cost him votes.

You can’t really threaten him by protesting his stance on issues or talking about issues that only progressives care about. For example, FISA isn’t a well understood issue or a hot button issue with the general public but there are other issues that are. So if you want FISA or UHC or any number of progressive values you have to find a hot button issue or issues to exploit.

IOW, the “else” is that you threaten to generate enough heat on a hot button issue that you know he’s on the wrong side of in the general public’s mind and that the MSM will pick up and hammer him on in the news cycle. You make it clear that if he doesn’t want to deal with the heat you’re going to bring on that hot button issue then he must support a progressive agenda and/or adhere to true democratic values. Any “else” has to be backed up by a severe cost.

Denver as the jumpoff?

I got people there.

But the DNC is already ahead of us. Bush style.

Security is gonna be tighter than a mutha.

And it distracted from my main point, which was that as awful as an economic collapse will be, there will be opportunities there to push a progressive agenda and it would be folly not to prepare for it by having proposals ready. I landed on the Amendment because I believe a lot would change in this country in terms of politics and commerce (and especially the intersection of the two) if corporations and other entities didn’t enjoy so many of the fundamental rights humans enjoy. And it seemed like something that could only be passed in the wake of a horrible economic downturn, as opposed to - say - the collapse of a single sector like healthcare. But, it doesn’t really matter what the issue is. My main point is that things are likely to get bad and being prepared includes not only growing your own garden, but also laying the groundwork for enacting and implementing progressive policies.

Sen Obama max Q.

Simple answer: Do not vote for Obama.

Excepting feeble Democrat-Ick leadership in the House and Senate, the expected solid Democratic majorities should be able to achieve similar legislative results and override vetoes with or without Pelosi’s and Reid’s sock puppet.

Given the past and recent words and actions of Obama, his confidants, and too many congressional Democrats (Blue Amerika Cabal), it seems to be more likely that this and certain other things may only be attainable without Obama and with a rebuke to our Blue miscreants — achieve universal healthcare, reverse the FISA immunity capitulation, work toward election reform, truly support the troops, pursue censure and impeachment, improve class action fairness, etc.

Believing that Obama is merely playing his political cards correctly on FISA immunity is delusional. Dodd, Feingold, Kucinich, and a handful of others have been the leaders on these types of issues, and they would beg to differ. I doubt that Obama will bring up or support a filibuster of the FISA bill. I doubt that Obama will do anything on the floor of the Senate other than not appear for the vote (aside: out of loyalty and duty, I am afraid H.R.C. will be compelled by party unity to do the same — watch the Obamaniacs use her as the misdirection, as well as excuse his absence as not affecting the outcome).

Leopards don’t change their spots. Pumas know that the unintended consequences of blind allegiance are usually disastrous. The Constitution and We, the People, have been thrown under the bus.

… but the case needs to be made.

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

typically give to presidential candidates or go work for them.

Hitting local and state party orgs might be far far more effective at this point.

Sonya on rumors about Clinton/Obama negotiations.

He voted with Frist? How did we miss that during the primary? Wow, he really is a fan of mob rule.

That’s the dynamic Obama and the SCLM set up and a lot of Democrats and so-called progressives went along with.

But you didn’t miss anything on Schiavo. Obama didn’t vote for the Schiavo thing, according to the link he missed the vote and now regrets it.

it struck me as perfectly concrete and an excellent idea, and yes, right now is just the right time to start on it.

the best thing I can think of is to pay attention to down ballot races and elect progressive women

I agree with the idea, totally, but I think concrete benefits have to be shown. That’s what’s abstract right now.

NOTE In fact, Hipparchia, I remember expressing the hope that you would post on this very topic. Did I miss it?

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

i have internet add. the more research i do, the more research i find to do, and this topic particularly has me in a tizzy. but because it’s you who asked, i’ll buckle down and get back to work on it.

…for sit-ins at some of his appearances and campaign offices to be useful. Anyhow, if we are the real small d democrats that’s the wrong first question to ask. The first question of small d democrats is always how to move the people, changing the mind of the Brown Prince. For us it should be about breaking the Big Media embargo of your message that he ain’t really all that, and getting it through to the peeps. So drama and trauma are necessary, provoking an arrest or ten or twenty is good, if it can get coverage —- even if we have to generate a good deal of the coverage ourselves. Doesn’t have to be an appearance. Could be a campaign office.

A hunger strike, demanding he commit to a firm withdrawal date would have lots of impact, if the striker were say, a surviving relative of a deceased Afghan or Iraqi vet.

There used to be a bunch that called themselves “billionaires for bush or gore” in 2000, and just “billionaires for bush” in 2004. I note that Google is blocking their site as malware right now, and I will probably have to turn my security off to get to it. They used to haunt all kinds of Republican (and in 2000, Democratic) events in costume as greedy billionaires in character celebrating their tax breaks, the war policies, etc. You need a billionaires for Obama (& McCain) to shadow Democratic fundraisers and tell everybody that no matter who wins, they win.

But he is a weak candidate to begin with, because of his classic DLC run-to-the-right strategy. He will try to get mileage out of ignoring or even denouncing protests to his left if there are only a few. There will have to be a crescendo of them, or some really alignments of the political stars to move him leftward.

Bruce Dixon
www.blackagendareport.com

Which is dormant.

I can see a “Creative Class for Obama” thing. Ponies; lattes. Don’t think I could join it, though; I couldn’t hack the goatee.

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

influence of big money, which would also work for Obama.

For healthcare, maybe a mob of people in hospital gowns looking deathly ill outside all Obama’s fundraisers and events? with those drip wheelie things too… : >

Having rejected the first offer, mandates, it seems only fair to counter with single payer.

Feingold— Progressive Patriots

I used a thing at ActBlue in 06 to help out a bunch of candidates — i spread out one (notbig at all—i figured it would cover telephone costs for a week or something or xeroxing or toner, etc) donation to candidates i picked and they split my donation equally to just those people (Burner, Massa, Sestak, Hodes, McNerney, etc) — can’t find it now tho — http://www.actblue.com/

which he didn’t show up for and is the only thing he says he regrets — http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpoli…

sorry about that— i see all who either didn’t show or showed up to support them as equal in allowing that horror.

I think the internet has made folks believe that technology can replace the old ways and it can’t. It can make it easier to organize and publicize, but Facebook and blogs are not a substitute for in-person political protest. It’s understandable that folks would think screaming about something should matter whether on-line or in person, but few people listen to screamers who aren’t standing in their driveways or sitting in their offices.

I’d join in a minute.

At health-care themed events we could arrive & depart vial limo, and be insurance company stockholders and Big Pharma execs drinking champagne, boastin’, roastin’, toastin’ & coastin’, celebrating the fact that no matter who wins, we win. Privatized medical care for everybody. Almost.

Bruce Dixon
www.blackagendareport.com

when you’re arriving, and I can put at least 4 of you up at my place. I’m about an hour’s drive outside of Denver.

I’m one of those who will not vote for either Obama or McCain. Here’s my reasoning.

As an ex-pat, I vote by absentee ballot in a state that doesn’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell of going Democratic, so my vote isn’t the one that could put Obama in the White House in any event. By not voting, my goal is to depress his popular vote. Given the choice this year, I prefer that whichever candidate wins the electoral college do so while losing the popular vote, thereby weakening his claim of “political capital”. I have zero faith that either presumptive candidate has the ability to spend that capital wisely.

On exerting pressure:

I read an article recently (it might have been here) that posited that we are now living in a world dominated by trans-national states, trans-national corporations and the trans-national capital class. How can public pressure on politicians effect change if they “serve at the pleasure of the trans-nationals”?

So maybe what needs to happen is taking on specific industries directly. For instance, for health care. It might work to establish a national directory with a toll free number where people can call and register their dissatisfaction with an insurer, whether it’s refusal of coverage due to a pre-existing condition, refusal of payment for medically prescribed treatment, termination of policy during or after an illness; real stories of real people. Then, using an Amnesty International approach, make life hell for the insurers by bombarding them with letters demanding explanations, showing up at board meetings, holding demonstrations both at corporate headquarters and at retail sales outlets, wall-papering the media with press releases that put a human face on the problems effecting local communities as a result of pay-to-play health care.

Meanwhile, using the same noisemaker tactics, go after every federal and state politician, regardless of party affiliation. Publicly demonstrate at every campaign or constituency office with hand-made signs that scream things like “400,000 Americans died last year because they couldn’t get health insurance… what are you going to do about it”.

And while you’re at it, educate John Q. Public about how the rest of the world lives. Put out inexpensive fliers that simply and directly show how other countries provide universal health care for a lot less money than limited care costs in the U.S. Be sure to include the comparisons on live births and life expectancy. Canvas neighborhoods. Distribute them in shopping malls, farmer’s markets, fairs and festivals. Hold coffee parties.

In short, if your not spending time and money promoting a candidate, use all the same techniques to promote an issue. Then, vote for whichever candidates support YOU. And make it clear to any candidate that doesn’t, that you will not be supporting him or her. Make it personal.

Yeah, it’s a big job. It involves a lot of donkey work, and moving away from the computer long enough to engage in real, honest-to-god face-to-face communication. But 76% of the American public claim they want universal health care. If there is any chance of re-invigorating a commitment to the common good, this is the time; this is the issue.

Soapbox relinquished.

According to Politico today, Hillary Clinton and her supporters are now a policy force of historic proportions. We have more power through her than either we or the A-listers do through the hearing-impaired presumptive nominee. Does this mean we’re now A-list and they’re B?

Clinton wields powerful e-mail list

…The survival of Clinton’s online operation highlights her induction into a small but growing new club of presidential losers who have used the Internet to maintain some of their national profile and power…

It’s Clinton, however, who is the most imposing new member of the legacy candidate club. Aside from her e-mail list, she has direct access to even more supporters on social networks that didn’t exist in 2004. She has more than 158,000 “supporters” on Facebook and more than 191,000 “friends” on MySpace…

Online “supporters” aren’t, of course, guaranteed to back Clinton on policy initiatives next year…[but] “They have a leg up in terms of grass-roots organizing…”

Media coverage for protest events is a good thing, but how do we keep the SCLM from hijacking the coverage and spinning it to the detriment of not just Obama but down-ticket Democrats? The media luvs them some John “Tingly” McCain.

Not to be too milquetoast about it, but what happens after the convention? Continue applying pressure and risk losing more than the presidential race?

Perhaps issue-driven actions of some sort that target any and all candidates, as the issues provide easily identifiable messages and rallying points for a larger audience. Or is that too centrist? ;-)

You cannot move any politician if you aren’t willing to criticize them and criticizing them necessarily means putting their election chances at risk because others might pick up on the criticism as well. You have to decide if it’s more important to you to elect a candidate and have no leverage or put that at risk to try to get leverage. If you aren’t willing to risk the candidate’s election, IMO, then you have no leverage over that candidate. You can try issue advocacy but eventually you’re going to have to try to get politicians to agree and part of that is carrots (look at all the supporters you’ll get) but another part of that is sticks (look at how many supporters you’ll lose). The second part, again, will inevitably put elections at risk.

In Oct. 2002, which was just before the vote in congress to authorize bush’s invasion of Iraq, Michael Moore entertained the thought that we all write to our elected representatives, and give them this choice: “if you vote to authorize force, I will never vote for you again.” I’m in NY and I thought it was a good idea, so I wrote to both senators and my congressman. I batted zero. Clinton, Schumer and McHugh all voted yes. The bastards. My gesture, it was like pissing into the wind. since that vote in 2002, there hasn’t been a word of contrition from any of them and they haven’t gotten my vote. In March, I protested with my family in NYC. They handled us like cattle. The worldwide protest was not effective. People like Obama or Howard Dean who, at the time, weren’t on the political hot seat and were capable of accurately denouncing the war, they did. Now not so much. Question to progressives: did T. Roosevelt, FDR, LBJ or any of the other presidents who are considered to have been Progressive push their agendas in advance of their elections? I don’t know the answer but is it possible that Obama won’t sell us out if he wins? That’s the only hope, that he’s faking being a centrist but he’s a progressive and pacific in disguise. If he’s not then there is no “or else” except to secede from the union, move to another country, or start a revolution. There is no demand we can make once they get the power.

one proposal: send your obama $$ to feingold instead and let the obama campaign know.

so, on single-payer, maybe send your obama $$ to kucinich or conyers? and send a note to the obama campaign saying why you’re redirecting your donation.