I am pretty new here, but this is what it is.
We, the progressive Democrats, have never before been as strong and organized. In this Presidential race we have the tools and the sizable base to fight back against the Republican attack machine. Not only should we defend our candidate, we will need to fight back as well.
Barack Obama is our nominee. He would like for Democrats and Republicans to come together to unite this country.
He is unable and unwilling to say certain things, but we can. We have the power and responsibility to respond to all smears and inane Republican talking points. And we should do it with vigor. This is our way of changing and challenging the news.
We can learn a lesson from Hillary Clinton. We need to fight. For too long Republicans have dominated the negative attacks. They have had the monopoly on ridiculous stories and we need to take that away from them. We can not allow these to defeat our Democratic candidate. This time we are obliged to fight back. We can not allow the Republican attack machine to drive the narrative of this campaign. Character assassination is a despicable thing and that is NOT what I am advocating, but if you do not think that it is coming towards our candidate you are mistaken. What we need to do is tell the truth and demonstrate the facts hopefully in a moral way. If we HAVE to do more we will.
Nothing seems to make him more mad than throwing his quotes back in his face. I think that if we keep poking John McCain, we might be able to elicit a response.
If you have previously supported Senator Clinton and are disillusioned by the fact that Senator Obama will get the nomination, I understand your hesitance to immediately support the Democratic candidate. Given time most will realize that this election is about a never ending war in Iraq, tax breaks for the rich, and health care for those who cannot afford it. It is also about nominating new justices to the Supreme Court. Some of, if not all of the oldest Supreme Court justices are the most liberal and progressive. They are the ones who will be retiring soon. If they are replaced with more conservative justices we will see Roe vs. Wade overturned. I hope we will see the forest and not just the trees. We are in for a long summer.
Again, you and I need to be prepared to fight back against every attack. We need to react very strongly when lies and exaggerations are leveled at our candidate. And, as appalling as it is we will need to levy our own assaults on the Republican candidate. We can no longer afford to bring a knife to a gunfight. Our candidate can and should stay above the fray, we need do the dirty work.
The most striking lesson that we have learned over this primary season is that Democrats DO NOT need to be afraid of the Republican agenda anymore. Their brand is damaged.
WE can affect the discussion. WE can verify truth and debunk lies. WE can fight back.
Dear Tennessee Republicans, you want to attack Michelle Obama for her statements about America. We will attack Cindy McCain for her stealing drugs from a charity. The thing is...we don't even need to go there, we have plenty on John McCain.
You and I can help to drive the narrative of this election if they throw dirt, we'll throw mud. Our candidate can distance himself from us because we are not a part of his campaign. However, we can be as nasty and as hard as they are if not more so.
So this is a call to arms.
I will not get pushed around and told lies by these people ever again, nor should you. President Bush, his administration, John McCain, and a lot of Republicans have tried to bully us into submission for too long. I'm not going to take it any longer.
And neither should you. We are going to defend our candidate by all means possible. We are going to tell the truth about our opponent. We have many tools. We can be smarter, we can be more powerful as a united group than anything they can say or do. This is only my very humble attempt to begin the work that we need to do. There is a lot more to be done. I will not stop and you should not either. We will tell them about John McCain. They will respond. We should tell them...Yes. We. Can!