The whole business with the robocalls, and the
Phony Steele sample ballots and all the other dirty tricks that Republicans have pulled over the past six years really got me thinking.
The Republicans treat elections like war. The Democrats treat them like a very intense sporting event.
In other words, while the Democrats will fight like hell to win an election while playing by the rules, the Republicans treat it like war and IGNORE the rules.
Especially since, with rare exceptions, the penalities for fucking with an election are never particularly severe, or are rarely enforced.
At most, somebody will get fined. Or they'll go to a country club prison for a year.
But, more often, they get away with it, and nothing ever happens. Meanwhile, they "win" the election, and Democrats get screwed yet again.
So how do we remedy this problem? By treating elections like a war. Not in the sense that Republicans do, where anything literally goes.
But by creating an intelligence apparatus within the DNC or party infrastructure and actually wargaming elections to anticipate the next GOP attacks.
The Democratic party should invest time and resources in recruiting and training a network of intelligence and counterintelligence party operatives to track and infiltrate GOP operations.
They should also devise procedures to pevent counter-infiltration of Democratic infrastructure, and to develop ways to legally throw wrenches into the GOP dirty tricks machine.
I'm talking about Psy Ops (Psychological operations), red herrings, disinformation, etc.
In fact, the Democrats should recruit some loyal Democratic members or retirees from the psy ops units of our intelligence agencies or the military to coordinate and train these folks.
To give one example of how we could mess with the Republicans: We could make it known, subtly, that we are intent on infiltrating GOP volunteer lists or their GOTV operations.
We can either do this secretly, and really infiltrate them. Or, we can PRETEND we are infiltrating them and sow all kinds of discord in their operations and force them to spend time and money trying to weed the phantom operatives out. Or, we can do a combination of both. We can hint we are infiltrating their operations in some states, while secretly doing it in others.
The key is, keeping them off balanace and paranoid.
Another suggestion I have is for the DNC or the State parties to actually war game an election. Set up a mock election with candidates, party committees, volunteers, etc. On BOTH sides.
And charge the folks playing the GOP candidate, or the party, to use every trick they can think of to steal the election.
Because its a self-containd, voluntary exercise, it will help reveal flaws in our strategy, flaws in our GOTV operations, and help us spot the creative ways the GOP might attack us next time.
It will also, of course, allow us to develop countermeasures or have procedures in place to deal with these issues when they arise in a real election.
I know this may sound crazy to some of you, but I really think the Democrats need to fundamentally change they way they look at elections.
Finally, I wanted to write and publish these ideas BEFORE the results of this election are known. I think the Democrats should adopt these and other creative strategies whether we sweep into power tonight or not.
What do all of you think? And what ideas do you have?
UPDATE You think I'm kidding about the GOP? Think again. And here is another example.
As someone said on the comments below, the Democrats need to stop carrying a knife to a gunfight.
JEEBUS! It's never ending! Now, Firedog Lake reports that Lauara Ingraham asked her listeners to flood trhe Democratic voter protection hotline with crank calls to screw up their ability to respond.