What if....
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Submitted by Truth Partisan on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 8:52am
you want to influence Obama, and the current Democratic leadership, on the things they stand for, on what they say publicly. What if you want to make them better liberals? What if you want them to stand up for liberal values and ideals?
What's the best thing to do?
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I might muzzle Biden
Thanks Joe, we of Small Town America salute you!:
Well, at least we're not racist. That's something!
No elitism here, folks. Move along.
Il n'y a rien à voir
"They’re just not used to somebody who’s really well educated."
Well, they're bitter. And understandably so!
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
I got nothing but useless pain in the ass old lady ranting
I'm reduced to yelling at party calls asking for money time or help. I try to explain I quit.
Friday a nice lady called to invite me to the local Dem interfaith breakfast.
My head exploded yet again. [I don't know how many times I can do that and still pick up the pieces after. Anybody know what the warranty covers? Don't tell my health insurance company I even asked--use it and lose it but you better pay the bill.]
I started yelling [after reassuring her it wasn't personal] that I wanted religion out of government and government out of religion, and if I wanted elections stolen and faith-based politics I would have become a Republican long ago.
Whether she trained as a corporate customer-service feather unruffler--I don't know, but she mournfully and sympathetically murmured: "I know, but...blah-blah-Roe-blah-blah-V-blah-blah-Wade." What she didn't say was, "Come--just bring who you are."
Now I'm regretting I didn't go and see what interfering I could offer their interfaith. Where do the faithless, or those who choose not to wear a sacred heart on their sleeve, get seated; or do I have to stand outside and only be allowed to look through the drive-up window where I can pass them ca$h?
It's wishful thinking and worthless hoping that Obama and the Dem leaders hear my yelling, sputtering...silence.
I love this:
Don't take it out on the phone-bots. We're better than that.
They're either lowly-paid professional drones, or earnest volunteers trying to get a "Democrat" elected.
After 05/31, I cut a $5 bill in half, and sent it to the DNC NON-anonymously -- with my DNC "Membership Card", and a contrib form with my name and address mail-merged in. (And I let the DNC pay the postage.)
And fast-forward - I've never gotten so little mail or phone pestering in an election season. (Two pieces from Barry, probably from my presence on Hillary's lists. No phone calls. No DNC mail. 1 piece from the DSCC.)
Best $5 I ever pissed away.
Oh, Joe...
... people just love being told how small-minded they are. Riiiiight.
How to influence them? They are determined to see what they want to see, it seems to me. I am really tired of being told that I don't know the real reasons that I don't want to vote for this candidate. (Joe? I'm a mathematician. I'm not scared of smart people.)
Gah. I got nothin'.
1/2 of the $5?
Was the membership card cut in two also or were you just surrendering it?
Effective protest.
I included the "DNC Membership card" for the drama, and left it intact so there'd be no mystery who I was and that I was an old friend. I included that mailing slip they always send along with your name and address, again, for effective identification.
I toyed with making an even bigger statement - enclosing half of a $100 bill instead of a 5 - but I decided they weren't worth it, and there were still things I supported which needed it.
I also wrote a very short, 2-sentence note to make it clear that I was specifically responding to the RBC stunt of 05/31.
Between 05/31 and Denver, I thought that people who went so far as to officially re-register and "leave" the party were being drama queens. After all, why give up the right to influence primaries and nominations, right?
Then that Potemkin roll call at the Convention happened. That wasn't just MI and FL getting fucked. There's literally no point in sticking around.
Not just undereducated but you probably deserve it
being dumb and all and not appreciating smart people who diss you...
Wouldn't this get you beaten up in Joe's old neighborhood? (not saying that's right.)
I dunno whaleshaman
I think every time you say something in response to a Dem request by phone it gets sort of noticed...even professional callers notice after a while.
She didn't seem surprised...[and TonyRz]
more resigned, as if she'd heard it a lot before. None of them, pro or local, do anymore. I asked one caller if my POV was new and she confirmed she was hearing it regularly.
TonyRz: As far as taking it out on her, I reassured her first that my anger wasn't personally directed at her. But thanks for reminding me to be careful to speak about my anger not just dump it on someone. [Unless that someone is Senior Fellow of The Mighty Corrente Building. ;-) ]
Going off on tele-bots isn't cool
(although it's understandable, since other ways of making one's opinion heard are limited).
But expressing one's dissatisfaction and the reasons for it, even to the telemarketers is worth it because eventually the message gets through in the aggregate. If nothing else, it causes the campaign/hired talkers to change the stock script, and drives down their yield rates.
I changed my reg to Unaffiliated right after the RBC meeting, and copied Dean, so the DNC would get my message close in time with the event. (it's like training dogs; if you wait too long until after the infraction, it just confuses the animal). My reasoning: Dems were panting crazy to win over Independents at the time, I might as well be part of the group they were pandering to than the one they were trying to maul into submission.
But to each his/her own.
What about writing to people?
Like Obama?
Other downticket Dems?
People who advertise on Dem sites?
Letters to the editor?
Get our POV out
I think it's important to keep talking, writing, communicating about our POV, if for no other reason, to keep pushing back against the other narratives that are out there trying to become the Received Wisdom About Why Obama's Not Doing As Well As Hoped.
[snicker, I said hope!]
But I have little confidence that anything will change the DNC's or Obama's mind. As I said before, they seem determined to derive their own conclusions, and not to hear from actual longtime Democratic voters why they are actually in pain this time around. That's what the D leadership has always done in the past I don't know how many electoral cycles. This one seems no different.
As my son reminded me that I always say, you can't change people. I think the thing to do is to get different people in. I'm now starting to strategize on getting the Democratic Party back by infiltration from the ground up. (I refuse to let them take my party away from me without a fight!)
Joe's statement and the permeation of that view
Clearly Biden made an extremely elitist argument that doesn't help Dems at all. But we see the same mindset in PB2.0 amongst Obama supporters, even at Corrente. No names, but there are some who spare no expense to put down others (without really addressing the arguments at hand, mind you) in the guise of "adding complexity". Others don't much care to hear other people's reasoning because they are just wrong, end of story.
No, I don't point to specific people as a personal vendetta, but only to point out how off putting perceptions of our infallibility can be. They are counterproductive to the liberal--NOT "progressive"--cause. They are also dangerous views to possess in the political sphere. When you believe in your own infallibility, even when you do something wrong, there will be no corrective measures that can be taken since you are right and others are wrong and that's the end of it.