A Party to the War Crime: Talking Points and Action Items

For all of our anger, disgust and collective kvetching over our party's unceremonious surrender on the issue of meaningful benchmarks, timetables and redeployment, we, too, seem to be lacking something meaningful: a plan to respond.

To be sure, blog rants -- as impassioned and entertaining as they might be -- aren't a response; they're an outlet.

Those of you who know me know that I live my life in the world of message management, marketing, advertising and public relations.  I invent brands for a living, and I've diaried often about the fall of the Republican brand and the Democrats' perpetual inability to muster one.  

But we here in the netroots do have a brand, and it centers around action, creativity, mass assembly and unpoliticized truth.  With that as our starting point, please allow me to offer some talking points to get us singing a common tune, and one participation-required action plan to get the song heard.

If I was the Brand Manager for the netroots (that would be some gig!), I'd create our three primary talking points as follows:

1. Democrats are a Party to the Crime

Here's the cold, hard truth:

Funding the war today is even more egregious than authorizing it was 4+ years ago. Why?  Because now, very simply, we have the benefit of history.

Nevermind that we made a single, symbolic attempt at legislatively ending this war.  Nevermind that we don't have the votes to override a presidential veto.  True as those things are, they are hollow excuses for poor inter-party planning, inexperienced leadership, and a gross absence of creative problem-solving.

Frankly, those Democrats who still, to this day, have a hard time explaining their authorization vote will have a harder time explaining a "Yes" on this latest display of lemming-like collapse.

2. You Can Put Lipstick on a Pig...

But yeah, it's still a pig.

We'll hear a lot in the coming weeks about the lipstick (the minimum wage bill, assuming the White House doesn't find a way to get us to cave on that too), and undoubtedly, that's the right shade of lipstick for the entire country, regardless of your current income.  But it's an empty "win" when viewed against the landscape of a stubborn, collosal blunder like Iraq.

Between the good (minimum wage bill) and the bad (no-strongs-attached funding for Iraq), there will undoubtedly be a lot of ugly in this bill, too: pork.  Much of it will be Democratic pork.  And there is no shade of lipstick that can beautify reckless spending that wouldn't survive either house on its own.

3. You've Lost Our Trust

By sometime tonight, I guarantee that a big handful of our party leaders will be saying things like...

It's not over yet.

We will continue to fight to end this war.

This is a temporary funding bill.

In fact, Harry Reid has already given us his version of "Hey, it's better than nothing!"

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said that a funding measure with benchmarks still is "a lot more than the president ever expected he'd have to agree to."

Sorry, but you'll pardon us if that feels like Deja Vu all over again.  This was your chance to do the people's work, or at least pretend to.  Swing and a miss, as Keith Olbermann said.

Democrats are staking their political careers on a series of plausible assumptions:

A. The surge will continue to fail

B. Republicans will be forced to move to the good side of this argument just in time to avoid an electoral smackdown in '08

C. Sometime, very late this year, a veto-proof majority of Congress will be ready to grab its one collective testicle and finally end this war

They -- both Democrats and Republicans -- will be counting on our short memories and our better-late-than-never optimism to trump the cowardice that's exploding all over Capitol Hill today.  It won't work on me; will it work on you?

My personal opinion is that it's time for us to get organized and get loud.  As if we needed an occasion, it seems to me that Memorial weekend is the perfect time to do that.

So early tomorrow morning, I'll be posting a diary titled, The 435-District Pushback. The diary will contain a pledge to not financially support OR vote for any Democrat who votes "Yes" on the funding bill.  I'll ask you to note your Congressional District in the comments, with the goal, albeit lofty, to secure participation from all 435 districts.  When that diary is dead, I'll print it out in its entirety and mail it to all 281 Democrats in the House and Senate with your comments intact. Certain media outlets will also get a copy.

I'll do something in Thursday's diary I've never done.  I'll ask for your recommendation to allow for greatest participation. Because that's how we get the song heard.

Let's get loud, shall we?

•  Tip Jar

  ...for some action.

  by Rippe on Wed May 23, 2007 at 02:04:55 PM PDT

•  RIppe, I like your thinking --

  and I'm sorry to see that (at this point) response to your post is low.

  I'm in Indiana -- Baron Hill's IN-09, to be precise.   Regrettably, there seem to be few Indiana folks here at dKos.

  I'm disabled and largely homebound, so my contribution to Hill's campaign was to research and gather bits of news that I would send to a local newspaper person.  In at least four instances, my work led to articles and/or essays slamming Hill's opponent, thus casting Hill in a good light.  I was, in effect, doing freelance 'oppo research'.

  Right now, my disgust at Hill and his staff knows no bounds.  Just prior to the cave-in vote, I had been in correspondence with Hill's Legislative Aide for Iraq.  When I would ask about Blue Dog Hill's stance, I would receive GOP talking points.

  The only things I have to contribute is time and my skills.  I will gladly contribute them to the goal of getting war-ending votes from ALL of Indiana's Congressmen -- particularly Hill.

  I'll suggest that those of us who have Blue Dogs begin digging into their polictical and financial connections, and digging into how continuing the war might be funneling military funds into their districts.  Hill's IN-09, for example, will receive $100 million for a National Guard training center at Muscatatuck, another $70 million for the Camp Atterbury part of a 'training triangle' for Iraq-bound Guardspeople.  The Muscatatuck funding runs through 2012 -- so why would Hill kill the goose that lays the golden egg?

  Here's one tiny contribuiton to re-framing the debate, based on my conviction that the Blue Dogs need to learn that acting like Republicans won't work any more.  The term 'Blue Dogs' is derived from 'Yellow Dogs', as in 'Some folks would vote for a yellow dog if it was registered Democrat.'  Around here, 'yellow dog' would be pronounced as one word: 'Yalladawg', as in 'That Yalladawg who voted Bush a blank check has American blood on his hands.'  'Yalladawg' lends itself to adjectives like cowardly, craven, slinking, boot-licking, lickspittle, whimpering . . . you get the picture.

  And then the question:  How to raise up non-Blue Dog Dems in Blue Dog districts?  Can we draft John Mellencamp for Indiana?

  Sorry this is so rambling.  I'm so mad I can't see straight.

  by CroneWit on Wed May 23, 2007 at 03:57:11 PM PDT

•  Bravo.

  Democrats are now party to War Crimes.

  Before, they might have been fooled (personally, I find this fails the simplest of credibility tests, but apparently this is disputable) -- but now there is no cloak of ignorance.

  Awhile ago I asked:  Are you with the LAW, or with the LAW-BREAKERS?

  The Democratic Party os with the LAW-BREAKERS.

  by Yellow Canary on Wed May 23, 2007 at 04:34:03 PM PDT

  •  Forget the Dems

    If this vote goes through as planned, I have concluded that it's time to forget the Democrats once and for all.  I have had enough of working for progressives in a party that is ultimately not a party, that has no real principles, that has no real soul.  This capitulation to Bush was pre-programmed from day one, when (wink, wink) the Dems announced that under no circumstances would they not fund this war, er, the troops.

    What is happening, and they know it, is that they are funding a major escalation of troops in Iraq and perhaps the first stage of a war on Iran. It is nothing short of shameful.

    I am done. I will never again vote for any Democrat for any office, never again fund any organization that is basing its hopes on the Democrats to do the right thing.  It was bad enough when they failed to block this fascism as a minority party, but now in the majority they still don't have a clue or the courage--or either.

    It is time to look to a party with some principles instead of pouring energy and money into this empty, heartless, dysfunctional, impotent, ineffective shell.

    Forget the Dems.

    by arkady on Wed May 23, 2007 at 11:13:30 PM PDT

•  Vow to never again say "benchmark." Unless

  you rent bus bench signage space for anti-war ad.
    Silent Memorial protests (at military cemetaries?) With signs like "No Mas, No Mas."  
    No general in White House. Civilian control.
    Defense Dept. NOT War Czar.
     Smells like a skunk. Turns its back like a skunk. Must be a skunk. Sink the skunks.
    Vow not to kill for Exxon-Mobil, BP, ConocoPhilips
    Defund  Private/Stealth  Army.
    Cease the Occupation.
   Millions for defense - no cents for oil theft.
    Blood for Oil?

  by Neon Mama on Thu May 24, 2007 at 04:08:19 AM PDT

•  Excellent idea, I look forward to your post

  by hideinplainsight on Thu May 24, 2007 at 05:25:13 AM PDT