Before you read another word, have you checked in with your voting friends? Are they registered? Are they prepared to vote their own best interests? Do they know the issues, the people?
If not, please go do that.
Truth is, I'm very concerned about the implications of Citizens United. There are more attack ads, aimed at Democrats, than I am used to seeing. So much money...
I just got done reading "The Authoritarians" on a recommendation found in the comments here at Dkos.
Highly recommended, BTW.
The conclusion I came to, after reading that excellent reference, is we are not going to be able to match the money, and we are not going to be able to match the escalation of lies, two word culture slogans, and fear our political opponents will use to capture the authoritarian followers votes, unless we up our game.
Corporate Politicians have a few things working for them:
They can easily get the votes from all the racists, bigots, and theocrats, who are perfectly happy to buy the product, cast the vote, watch the program, send the letter, and phone a friend when asked, because without that popular media support, they will look exactly like the asses they are, and they want nothing more than getting their pet issue legislated, whatever it is.
They are the 23 percenters, most loyal media consumers there are. Throw up a conservative radio hate stick in just about any part of the nation, and those people will tune in, hear that validation and stay tuned in, because it means more to them than the economics do. Same for print, TV, you name it. About the only place they do not play as well as we do, is the Internet, and unlike the other media forms, the Internet is a two way street, unclear, challenged, and not resonant to the degree they really crave.
The 2 percenters, who are wealthy enough to not worry about the social issues, are happy to shine these people on, secure in their ability to avoid the ramifications, and eager to collect the money squeezed from otherwise ordinary, healthy people, US! who are caught in the middle, just trying to get along.
They will gladly fund any politician willing to court that 23 percent vote!
Where does that leave us?
We need to start supporting the media we have. We need to be those watch the program, mail the letter, cast the vote people, just like they are, and do so not because we believe everything we hear and see, and not because we need the affirmation. Not at all. Compartmentalized thinkers need constant messaging to cope. That's not us.
We need it to build our organization, and to capture the up and coming voters, who may not always know there are other choices out there --that we are out there, and we need their support.
In my town, KPOJ is The Progressive Talk station. It's currently got a 1.0 share, despite having a powerful signal, and great programming. I think there could be some tweaks at the station, but nothing that warrants that low share. There are no less than three conservative hate machines blasting non-stop, and they get a bigger share, and they do so consistently.
Our media is not something we need to make elitist statements with, or ignore because we are smarter than that. (and most of us are) I enjoy mine on the drive home, and I spend a little time feeding back to them, and I will also invest time and money in response to the advertisers and advocacy efforts. Please consider doing the same. It matters.
It matters because there is a non-stop, constant industry pressure to eliminate Progressive and Liberal programming for cost reasons.
Now, they will say it costs to keep both sides on the air, and they will say they can get the numbers just running the conservative material.
The truth is, there are more people like you and me, who can enjoy that programming, who don't hate, and who can think, than there are of them. Remember, 23 percent of us... It's a constant in any media environment. If we don't show up, we don't count, and the material will not be in the media, nicely fulfilling the expectation that "nobody cares".
The other truth is they really do have a cost problem!! The cost is in the Trillions, if people wake up, get engaged, and can stay motivated! That's the Orwellian twist in this thing we need to give more consideration than we often do.
Myself included, given I would much rather read online, and participate online. It's just not going to be good enough, given the dollars that are now part of the process.
There are two ways to invest wealth in GOTV efforts. One is to spend money. That is what they are doing, and it's pretty much a given now, they can spend as much as they think will do the job. We can't really do that to the same degree, because we don't have the backing they do, because we are not about screwing people, and they are.
Think about that.
Then realize the other way is to invest TIME. Real meat-space time, doing things like knocking on doors, calling people, building signs, speaking to the public, infiltrating the church, and most importantly, talking with small business, who needs to hear what we have to say, because the Progressive ideas are most closely aligned to their needs.
Many of them don't know this, because they identify with big corporations, not us, and that means they favor what helps big corporations, because business is all business right? Wrong, and we are the only ones who can challenge that, because the rest of Washington is all big corporate, bought and paid for through Citizens United.
We've got time, and we can vote, and there are more of us than there are of them.
So why (look like we) get our asses kicked?
The simple truth is people are not seeing the fight! They are seeing compromise, ass covering, incompetence, and every other negative thing that is possible to say, because the other party is saying it, and we are not pushing it back anywhere near the level we need to. A whole lot of this is about seeing the progress, the movement, the support, and knowing that you are on a team that is going to go to the mat for it. We need to show that, and if we do, it will check the dollars big. I believe that absolutely.
That is going to matter. There were two notable resolutions noted in the book on Authoritarians. One was they respond well to the rule of law, even to the point of supporting laws that violate their own best interests
(duh)
and the other was they tend to only reach their peak aggression when they gather, become aware of one another, and are not challenged with contrary norms.
Of course the corporate body politic knows this, and has spent a lot of money shouting us down, so they can clear the way for their followers to do what they do best; namely, what they are told.
Looking back, I've seen some compensation for a lot of our gains. Where liberal / progressive ideas grow, checks are put into play to handicap the game, just enough to keep both sides of the story profitable, and non-productive. The people are seeing kind of a fight, but no real, material results.
That isn't to say we didn't get things done. We did, and I'm pleased as hell with those things, but I'm not pleased at the sheer noise level we must endure while appreciating them.
In many ways, coming here to places like Dkos is like a bubble, where I can feel at home, among like minded friends, out of the cold, noisy, brutal discourse found outside...
I don't think we can all afford to do that as much as we would like going forward, because for each nice gain we've had, they've gotten more handicapping done. Rise of the Internet? Clinton signed the Telecommunications act, which consolidated the media. Build a movement, watch the Supreme Court open the money flood gates.
In short, the fight is far from over!! It's just a beginning. We drew a line in the sand with Obama, and now the real question very simply is, "will we hold that line?"
This isn't about getting a particular issue done. This isn't about whether or not we feel good about all those people on that straight Democratic Party ticket. Not about that at all.
It's all about whether or not we are going to push back on the dollars, the noise, the hate, and everything else they have built up for 30 years, and teach them a fucking lesson!
That is what this is about. That's why we all need to get out there and vote, vote the ticket, don't look back, and right after the election, organize to start building even more momentum, and basically never stop.
If Citizens United doesn't make sense to you yet, perhaps it does now. Because that money is there, and because it never, ever sleeps, neither can we!
That's a really tough new reality. I suspect a whole lot of people aren't there yet, thinking that perhaps the nation is smarter than the money, and that people will step up and do the right thing. Heck, on some days, I'm there, just so you know.
Maybe we need to really feel the pain. As ugly as that is, maybe it's going to take a really ugly swing to convince people that the game has been escalated once again, and if we want to take some of it back for the people, we are going to have to work for it.
I'm voting a straight ticket next week, early in Oregon, because I don't want to feel the pain again. And I'm also going to do that because I like what we got done when we got the votes needed to make it happen. Does anyone believe things will get better on their own? With all that money in play now? Seriously?
And then I'm going to spend some of my time finding people who didn't vote, and getting them to vote proper. That's the beauty of vote by mail. It's possible to go and find them, get the work done, and then seal the deal, right then and there, hope you do too, knowing full well that vote isn't as much for you, as it is them!
They respect group norms, they understand strength. Remember when they really started stealing elections through the courts and the machines? What did we have to do? Vote a ticket, and vote early, and vote regularly, and take our friends to vote. We won when we did that. And we started a fight that we need to finish, or we might as well pack it up and go home. I believe that 100 percent too. I know they do that, which means we need to do that, or it's game over.
In this climate of dollars politics, we are only going to get stuff when we push hard, and sustain that. When we do have momentum, we can argue the little things, when we don't, we need to hold together, and teach them that lesson; namely, we don't take shit from regressive clowns.
Well now they've dumped money in to the mix, meaning we just have to do it again, even though we may not like the choices, they've upped the game, forcing our hand, and it's either some serious motivation and solidarity right now, or they will make some very serious gains, and not stop, because the money never rests.
...oh yeah, and remember to say it: REPUBLICANS OUTSOURCE JOBS. From the comments: WITH FOREIGN MONEY IN OUR ELECTIONS.