Considering how knee-jerk reactionary the Republican party is to anything that the Democrats suggest, why don't we fight for more drastic goals? This will keep them busy and off balance, rushing from one hot-button issue to the other. The more distracted we can keep them, the less time they'll spend blocking things that are actually important.
Besides, if you want the Moon, ask for the Earth. When they 'compromise,' then you can 'settle' for the Moon. If they don't compromise, we've lost nothing - except to stand up for what we believe in.
Some suggested red meat flags for the GOP:
• Equal rights for all human beings. This includes gay, straight, transgender, illegal immigrants, native Americans, the mentally ill - every human being within the United States.
• Voting rights and assisted voting programs. I'm horrified by the recent attempts of the Republican party to keep the poor and minorities from voting. We need GOTV volunteers in all areas, not just for national elections. We need a voting registration drive to get everybody registered and able to vote. We need to form another agency like ACORN that will organize nationwide. And you know what would really rile up the GOP? Buses to gather voters who don't have vehicles to get them to the polls.
• Federal assistance programs should be expanded, not cut for the sake of austerity. Let's fight to get Medicaid and Medicare for all, even through the protests of the right-wing governors. We need more food programs like SNAP. We need either federal money or state money for CHiP.
• Expedited immigration reform. We need to make this process faster and easier for all immigrants that want to become citizens of the United States.
• Buy American. Rick Perry recently vetoed a bill that would have required the government of Texas to buy American products. Apparently a certain group of Republicans think that buying overseas products is important. Thanks, Rick! We should enact tariffs on overseas products that could be bought here in the US. We should have tariffs for all companies that outsource their labor overseas.
• Stop the tax dodges, stop the subsidies. This is a no-brainer. We eed to reform the tax code, make it impossible to dodge taxes with an overseas bank account, and stop subsidizing companies that make an obscene profit.
Any more red meat flags? Throw them out there. Let's take advantage of the enraged, fatigued GOP and split their efforts. You can't fight a war on two fronts - and the GOP is trying to fight a war on five or six. Give them forty or fifty fronts to fight, and they'll break.