About fifteen years ago I was listening to NPR and heard a speech from a woman in Pittsburgh who had done something really special for elementary education. (I'm sorry to not remember her name.) She said something that really resonated with me; I was just coming out of what had been a good political run using what was essentially her principles, and she clarified my thoughts. Over the years her concepts have worked in to my mind as this:
There are five tools to use in politics. To succeed you need at least two of them, and you need to understand which tools your opponent is using. The tools are:
- Violence. If I were talking with Hannah Arendt I would have an excllent discussion, but for here and now the less said the better.
- Knowledge. Know what you're talking about, and always tell the truth, even if it hurts. You are building respect.
- Morality. Always say and do the right thing.
- Popular Support. The more people behind you, the better your chances to succeed. This does not mean a majority, but it does include the dedication of the supporters you have.
- Money. The more money you have, the better you will be able to get your message out.
Take any issue, any political strategy, and analyze which tools are and should be used. Generally speaking a Progressive's natural tool is Morality, and the natural companion of Morality is Knowledge. Our natural enemy is Money.
Extend unemplyment? Say that letting people starve is not only evil, it's bad for the economy. It's bad for society. It hurts everyone. Combining knowldge and morality builds popular support, and lessens the need for money.
Tax cuts? This one infuriates me. It is not tax cuts for the middle class and/or tax cuts for the rich, it is tax cuts, and then additional tax cuts for the rich. Not "the rich need tax cuts because they make jobs", it's "give the rich more than they deserve and they will have more money to move your job to China". Confront a lie with the truth, and point out the moral issue in visceral terms.
Every now and then I hear someone say "we need to learn from the Republicans". We can learn nothing from Republicans! Look at their tools - we dont have anything like their money. Their idea of knowedge is "the sun rises in the north, so tax cuts for the rich will pave the streets with gold!" Their idea of morality is "God said to vote Republican and donate to my church and He will screw the colored people!" Their idea of popular support is to form a coalition of the greedy and the bigoted, and when that turns out to be only 20% they strap on guns and yell as loud as they can and pound their shoes on the table. They use money to spread lies and negate knowledge and morality. To "learn from them" we would have to sacrifice the tools we have for tools we can never acquire and never be able to use.
Sorry, no concluding paragraph. Hopefully the responses will give me and us more to talk about.