A reality based assessment of the situation has suggested several things to me:
Trickle down politics does not work. This means that there is no silver bullet in the form a person out there who if only put "in charge" could inspire the unengaged, make the scales fall from the eyes of the willfully deluded, force the corporate controlled press to do its job, and rein in the more egregrious acts of the Rs. Not HoHo, not Obama, not Spitzer. Sure folks like that can help; but we need to quit looking for a saviour.
The press is a lost cause and will be for quite some time. We have very little independent press in this country. Most of the corporate controlled news outlets are really just "infotainment/opinion" outlets. And...it's not going to change fast enough to help us. We can't wait around.
The party has no idea how to make use of the grassroots except to ask us for cash.
We have a major battle coming up - the battle to
Save Social Security. It's really going to be about which side is better at communicating. It seems to me like we have terrific writers and terrific graphic arts folks, we're just not organized and we don't have a plan. We need to realize that it is going to be up to us to fight an all out guerilla war - our institutions are not going to do it for us (although plenty will get on board if we start having success).
Some things a guerilla effort needs:
Slogans and Bumperstickers (mundane but a great way to frame)
Pamphlets available to download, that can and are passed out at church, senior centers, anywhere and everywhere. Some of the most famous Americans were pamphleteers.
Things along the lines of (take with a grain of salt please - I'm just rambling):
Are you a radical? In 19xx Congress enacted the Social Security Act. In the xx years since Social Security was put into place America has become the most successful and wealthy country in the history of the world. But some people want to take the radical step of eliminating Social Security, a step at at time.
Protect Your Kids If You Become Disabled.
The Insurance Plan You Didn't Know You Had - Social Security.
The Plan to Kill Social Security - with plenty of juicy quotes from Grover - and then link Grover to the GOP.
The Fake Social Security Crisis.
Who Benefits When You Gamble?
etc.
A series of model LTEs with frames highlighted. "When writing LTEs on this topic here are words are phrases you are encouraged to use."
A concerted effort to spank any Dem who gets in front of any media outlet and blows it, with letters to the Dem to say just exactly how they blew it with copies to their state Dem party leader and the national party leaders and Move-On. We need to focus attention on our own and weed out the weak sticks or at least get them to shut the hell up. We need to reward anyone who kicks ass.
We need a database to create or consolidate articles, educational materials etc.
We need to educate ourselves and then go hang out in chatrooms and blogs on other topics, and bring the subject up every change we get.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. But I think this has got to be from the ground up. Nothing is going to happen from the top down. Not yet.