Last week I vented at the democrats.org 'site in hopes that some of these Dems might listen. I share the comment with you here because Bill Clinton's response to Mr. Wallace on Fox sort of shows that for which I was calling. A comeback like Clinton's is a glory to see. In fact, as great to see in a Dem as it's absence is to curse and mourn.
It all started with hearing a tape of President Harry Truman in his "Give 'Em Hell, Harry" mode. This is what Dems need to emulate!!!!! Dems need DESPERATELY to emulate Give 'Em Hell Harry!!!
Progressives are usually fair, up-front, I feel the nicest people. It is the Liberal/Progressive Way. But that doesn't equal weak by any stretch!
Nice people can also be HONEST and ERNEST!!!! And that honesty and ernestness can take the place of and, sometimes, even preclude dependency on strategies and tactics. To be Honest and Ernest are better than such things.
Why are the Renegade Republicans so reliant and dependent on strategies and tactics? Because that's all they've got, honey. They lack honesty and ernestness and warmth and humanity and they totally seek to replace their lacks with these methods and gimmicks and ploys and cons and lies ad infinitum. They literally have no choice.
Now what is so disgusting about today's Democratic Party 'leadership' (Dr. Dean excluded), is that they are trying so hard and unsuccessfully to second-guess and mimic the Renegade Republicans' reliance on strategies and tactics and so on. It is pitiable to watch. When all along the genuine Dems have something more important and healthy by far as THEIR GIFT: The Very Real Progressive Desire To Better The World For Everybody.
Stop mimicking the Republican Rightwing and GET REAL. Be yourselves! Tell the truth (which is what people want to hear), tell it straight (which is what builds trust), and tell it ernestly (which is what makes even the least experienced public speaker a winner).
I do believe that this mimicry is at the core of the DLC's Republican Lite problem. Even the desire to mimic the big corporate money contributions is the same problem of imitating the crooks. (Kurt Vonnegut said it well through a character in one of his novels: "You are what you pretend to be." In my application of this maxim, if the Dems pretend they care about corporate money and so-called clever strategies more than the truth and honest communication, well they BECOME Republican.)
The recent demonizing of duly-elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by leading Democratic Party figures is just an example of this putting more trust in the tactical than in the honest facts of the matter. Dems would have come off better had they hadn't been running defense for UnPresident Bush and spoke to the points Chavez was making, because the majority of Chavez's points should be Democratic Party talking points!!! Instead of Democrats tackling Chavez FOR Bush (what a disgusting sight that is), and raving or whining about Chavez's criticism of Bush, the Dems should have looked like reasonable, honest people weighing the substance of what Chavez said throughout his speech. They should have looked like human beings smart enough to pick through jokes and rhetoric to the main issues. Issues. Issues. Issues. Forget the emotion. That is what Bush and Rove want you to do: They want Dems to look strictly in defense mode and emotional and coming off like jerks! It would have been better to say "When Dems are elected and operate foreign affairs, respect for the U.S. will be restored." Or Dems could have shrugged off the Chavez barbs as a cultural differnce in the mode of expression or be amused by the fervor but deferring a comment until the dust settled. Sheesh. Another opportunity to be competent and authentic has passed and the Dems missed it.
The Dems acted like ostriches, as if totally unaware that Chavez was kidnapped by Bush's agents, as if they are totally unaware that Bush is now funding groups to DESTABILIZE Venezuela's government and society in an effort to oust Chavez and make yet another fascist-empire-building oil grab. Dems who don't treat Chavez's position with understanding of where he's coming from are in essence COMPLICIT in Bush's continued plotting. A disgusting display.
Perhaps now with Bill Clinton's example fresh in their minds, the Dems can have something to inspire them.
P.S. You gotta go see Jet Li's "Fearless"! The main character grew to learn to fight with civility foremost. Neither fighting alone nor civility alone are adequate. We can maintain mere civility, sheep-like in the face of the Corrupt and Cruel, and be destroyed. And fighting alone is not enough as its ultimate expression becomes terrorism itself. But fighting with the self control of civility, not that's class. (At the end of "Fearless" the movie's audience erupted in applause. Wow.)