Like so many of us here, we've been licking the wounds of Tuesday. I've decided to vent a little here. Not a rant, but just a list of what I want to see happen.
We really do need some changes. Go over the jump to see some of the ones I would make.
At the DNC:
New leadership. Tim Kaine was like a non-entity. For all the news I watch on television and the on web and all the reading I do, I felt like I either never saw him, except in the last few weeks. It’s long past time to bring back Howard Dean. He knows how to fight, he knows how to articulate a vision, and he proved he knows how to run a political party.
The Senate:
In the Senate, we need new leadership. I am thrilled beyond belief and greatly relieved that the people of Nevada sent Harry Reid back to DC, but the time for him to step down as Majority Leader is now. In fact, I believe his term is up. We need someone loud and unafraid to stand up to the most selfish, most backward, most evil group of politicians this country has ever produced.
Chuck Schumer is the person for the job. He helped engineer the Democratic takeover of the Senate from the GOP a few years ago. Some people say he’s too close to Wall Street, but remember, that’s part of his state. To us in New York City, the financial industry is incredibly important. Yes, it needs to be carefully watched and regulated, but it also needs to be able to properly function and to make money.
As leader, Schumer would be all over television. Yes, the man has never met a press conference he didn’t love. But we need that. Think of how many interviews Senator Asshole Turtle from Kentucky has been in as compared to Mr. Reid.
The House:
In the House, we need a leadership change there too. I love Nancy Pelosi, but if she follows tradition, she should be stepping down from her leadership position. We need someone who won’t be afraid to tell John Boehner to go burn in the tanning machine. Andrew Weiner or Debbie Wasserman-Schultz would be awesome in the role of Minority Leader.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
In the White House, I am thrilled to see David Plouffe back. The person there who needs to change the most is none other than the President himself. We’ve all read enough diaries here about him need to drop the bi-partisan crap and the compromise idiocy. It just isn’t going to happen. It didn’t happen the GOP was the minority in the House and an even smaller minority in the Senate, it isn’t going to start now. I don’t know who can convince him of what he needs to do. Maybe Hillary Clinton should be Chief of Staff?
He needs to go into campaign mode, immediately and it can’t stop until he leaves office, I hope on January 20, 2017. If he doesn’t, he risks leaving on a date four years earlier.
He needs a more boisterous press secretary. Robert Gibbs is good, but we need loud. Quiet snark and sarcasm don’t cut it. We need someone familiar with government operation and the media. Stick Lawrence O’Donnell behind that podium everyday at 2:00pm and we won’t see any prisoners left behind.
All of the above:
They need a master wordsmith. I don’t mean a good speech writer, but an advertising person. We’d all pay for a chance to punch Frank Luntz in the face, but the asshole knows exactly what words will push the right buttons. I cannot believe that there isn’t a Democrat out in the world who can’t outdo the GOP on that. Things need to be kept simple.
An example of this: The health care reform act. It=s official name is the American Health Care Affordability Act... I think. Why wasn=t it just called the "Medicare Expansion Act?" Oh sure, I know it really doesn’t expand Medicare as we know it. So we should have just changed the definition to include tax credits to buy insurance for those under 65. Everyone loves Medicare, and poof, the tenor of the bill changes. Instead the administration picked some long name that I can=t even get straight and that no one uses...and even Dems say Obamacare.
Money.
Boatloads of money. Last night there was a diary suggesting that 20 million Democrats need to contribute $20 a month for the next two years, raising almost $10 billion. Crazy? Not at all. If the right put on over 100,000 commercials for this election, we need to be able to put on 500,000 in 2012. We need to try and get the DISCLOSE Act passed, but we also need to play the same game as the GOP. Where were our multimillionaires? I’m thrilled that George Soros gave a million dollars to Media Matters, but I’d rather see him and other Democratic billionaires match what the Koch Brothers are doing. (By the way, if you don’t think the Chuckie and David won’t each chip in half a billion or so each to buy the 2012 vote....well, you know.)
Protests.
Again, time to take a page from the enemy. Whether they be small, local things that just get covered in a local paper or a couple hundred thousand on the Mall, it’s all about making noise, lots and lots of noise.
I always wondered, where were the protests on our side during the health care insanity. Why did we let the tea party loons have the stage all the time?
Conclusions:
I purposely didn't deal with specific pieces of legislation here, because that should be a no brainer. We've all read here and heard from Rachel Maddow how much the 111th Cong. and the White House accomplished, but all of that is nothing when the great voting masses think you've done nothing or have destroyed their lives or some other bullshit.
The campaign that begins now is not just for the 113th Congress. It isn’t just for the White House. It’s for the future of the country. It’s for the 98% of Americans who make less than $250,000 a year. In fact, it’s even for the 2% who make more than that, because if we lose everything to the right wing lunatics, a day of reckoning will arrive and even the Koch Brothers will have trouble making $250K a year, not to mention our freedoms will be gone as well.