The right brings hysterical draconian rhetoric, in an oppositionalist frenzy against any prospect of popular democratic revolutionary justice and peace, to save the planet.
How should we respond? Should we STFU, to avoid a conflict? Should we cower before the palpable prospect of civil war, brought by the right, to prevent the onset of democracy?
Should we kiss their ass, and try to make up for our impertinent demands, our selfish needs for health care, housing, education and jobs, viable pensions and a sustainable green paradigm?
Should we abjectly submit to the corporate fascist elites, their theocratic tendencies, and their brownshirt terrorism?
Should we turn on each other, in a panic, and fight each other, over the best way to respond to the all out, full court press assault on everything we believe in and have worked all our lives for, over the generations?
And if not, then how best to combat those self-declared enemies, who have sworn to the death to destroy us, by any and all means necessary and available to them, to destroy all prospects for genuine democracy, in "defense" of their own fascistic elitist class privileges?
Whether it ultimately comes down to all out civil war (which, indeed, seems a likely scenario, to at least some degree) or not, I propose that the best response is to mobilize the electorate for an overwhelming, undeniable, unavoidable popular democratic mandate.
That really is the only legitimate basis for legitimate revolutionary change, and our only hope for ultimately prevailing, whatever transpires.
That overwhelming popular democratic mandate will not be achieved by ramping up internal subjective hostility from the left, demonizing Obama and the Democratic Party indiscriminately.
That hard-left approach ends up sounding just like a doppelganger evil twin of the right, serving only the interests of the right, to demoralize the electorate, suppress voter turnout or split the vote.
Indeed, I think most of the elements doing that are not really Democrats at heart, but various other elitist poseur elements seeking to infiltrate, dominate, undermine, and sabotage the purpose of dkos, which is to elect more and better Democrats.
They want to raid and poach from Democratic Party milieus, to recruit to their guaranteed loser "alternative" parties and candidates, or to promote their idiotic electoral boycott line, in hopes of gaining sectarian hegemony for their own particular splinter-group's absolutist idealist dogmatic doctrinaire "program".
A lot of it is also coming from right wing tendencies, like the "Libertarians", and other insidious traitors to everything that democracy and Democrats stand for, trying to weasel into the party and our venues, to sow confusion and diversionary "perspectives" that serve only the right, like the Blue Dogs.
Unfortunately, much of the left is also heavily infiltrated and manipulated by COINTELPRO-style provocateurs from the right, posing falsely as "radical revolutionaries" to promulgate the boycott and splitting lines.
It matters little whether any particular individual advancing such a line is actually a pig, or just a foolish dupe. Either way, they serve the enemy, not democracy.
In case you haven't noticed, such elements are all over dkos, and virtually all other public discussion venues, pumping their right/left spew non-stop, 24/7, desperately trying to falsely pose themselves as a prevailing "public opinion" by drowning out, and trying to silence or drive away anyone else who tries to speak up in a more reasoned manner.
Whether they speak in purported support of Democratic Party aspirations, in terms of hysterical angst-ridden frustrated disappointment, or in vicious extreme right wing memes, the effect is the same.
Should we let the Blue Dogs be the ones who step up to defend the party from the hard left, and to stand up to anyone else frustrated by the lack of motion, the lack of real change, the dwindling of hope? Will they defend us effectively from the Republican onslaught?
I think not. The right must be suppressed, purged from all levers of power in this country, and that needs to start with the Blue Dogs, who's own rabid anti-left, anti-democratic rhetoric will only serve to further discredit the party and thus to feed the boycott and splitting tendencies on the left, and to weaken our resolve in the face of the right wing assault.
The left within the party needs to police it's own ranks, by contending up front with those who seek to drag us away from the goal to their own sectarian advantage,
We must redirect fire toward the real enemy, and away from each other.
The bitter recriminations and biting critique need to focus on the Blue Dogs and Republicans, not on Obama and those loyal but ineffectual Democrats who are presently under siege from both the left and the right, out-flanked and out-numbered by the Blue Dog/Republican cabal, that unholy alliance of the most hostile counter-revoutionary anti-democratic forces.
That doesn't mean no criticism of Obama and Democrats, but it does mean that any such critique must be accompanied by a realistic analysis of the real politik, and a recognition that Obama is really not the main problem, and that the party "leadership" is no more than a reflection of a 30 year legacy of Blue Dog domination of the party, for which low voter turnout is the primary cause.
The Democratic Party, per se, is not the main problem. It's the most viable vehicle for our only, last, best hope for destroying fascism, and introducing democracy for the first time ever in this country, or anywhere else, for that matter.
The Blue Dogs and Republicans are the real problem, and low voter turnout is the cause, and that's where we should be directing our fire, relentlessly, resolutely calling for an end to electoral boycott in this country, and an all-out mobilization of the electorate, to sweep the traitorous pigs from all levers of power from the "top" to the "bottom", down to the local levels.
It needs to be recognized that as long as the Blue Dog/Republican cabal is allowed to hold any power, holding the Democratic Party, Obama, the Congress, and the whole nation hostage, for their own private profit, against the public interest, nothing truly meaningful can be accomplished.
100 million eligibles boycotted the election last time, even with Obama on the ticket, primarily due to disgust with the Blue Dogs, and a perception of "no difference" between the parties.
The right has consistently mobilized virtually it's entire constituency, to barely manage to seize and hold on to power, for decades now.
They have succeeded soley due to low voter turnout, as a direct result of their own substantial multi-faceted suppression of likely Democratic voter turnout.
The right has no reserves to call up, for a final, decisive electoral showdown.
Their only hope is for the usual interim election low voter turnout in 2010, so they can drag out their vicious oppositionalist obstructionism, build up their brownshirt frenzy, and try to make sure that Obama "fails" at every turn.
The 100 million+ non-voters are primarily a huge latent progressive electoral pool.
Unless and until we demonstrate in rhetoric and practice that there is, in fact, a real difference between the parties, by resolutely attacking the Blue Dogs, and assiduously working to purge them from the local, state and national Democratic Party Central Committees, the electorate will have no reason to believe that we are really serious about offering any real hope for any real change.
Only if we clearly, loudly, publicly, and explicitly manifest that attitude and effort, can we hope to see the non-voters step up and join the fray, to help deal the final death blows to monopoly corporate capitalism as we now know it, and it's moribund form, fascism.
I'm not proposing that any left group should abandon their present campaigns, programs, or fundamental analysis and line. I'm not proposing that they decimate whatever energy and resources they own, or to sacrifice their work, to engage in electoral struggle.
What I am proposing is just a slight adjustment in line, in the course of whatever other work they may be doing, to include calling off the electoral boycott they have previously advocated, to urge any constituencies they may have to now step up and seize the power, democratically, electorally, via the Democratic Party, to help to purge the Blue Dogs, and the Republicans, from all levers of power.
You can add whatever further analysis you may feel is appropriate, about the ultimate strategic inadequacy of that, and call it a purely tactical call for electoral direct action, at this time, for 2010 and 2102, to allow for more significant strategic gains in other arenas...or whatever.
But it really needs to be done. Now.
On the other hand, some may recognize that a more substantial change of, or addition to, the practice is called for at this time.
Those who are so inclined should definitely go down to your local Democratic Party headquarters, and bring others in as well, to volunteer to whatever extent that you can. Join the many committees, including the local Central Committee, and become the new leadership of the party, by elbowing out the Blue Dogs, from the bottom to the top, by being the ones who show up, who do the work of the party, day to day, week to week, month to month, and ongoing.
Virtually all Democratic Party headquarters, nation-wide, are starving for active volunteers, and are just waiting for you to step up and fill the vacuum.
Get on the phones and computers there, and go house to house, and speak to every single person in your local and neighboring areas, including the areas presently considered to be hotbeds of conservative, Blue Dog and Republican support...which you may be very surprised to find are not so locked into that as it may seem....not only about "issues", but also, especially, about the real issue, the only real issue that really matters for resolution of any of the other issues, namely democracy, and the urgent need to step up and seize the power, democratically, electorally, for democracy to prevail.
Talk about the need to step up and purge the Blue Dogs, and the Republicans, from all levers of power, democratically, electorally.
Name the enemy. "They", including the Blue Dogs, as well as the rest of the right, are already naming "us", falsely, with vicious slanders, ad hominem insults and slurs, and even explicitly calling for violence against us.
It's time to call them out, publicly, explicitly, as traitors to democracy, traitors to this great nation, traitors to humanity.
No need to exaggerate or spin it, heh. Just tell it like it is!
Democracy is the most fundamental revolutionary concept.
All Power to the People!
Seize the Power!
All Out for 2010 and 2012!