If we don't learn something from adversity then we have certainly wasted the moment.
My take away from the tax cut nonsense is this. We cannot keep doing the same things and expect a different result.
My senators will have their staff listen to my rants respectfully and then the Senators will closet themselves and do what they need to do for their true constituents: the wealthy, Wall street, Big Pharma, Insurance, and Energy folks.
So what to do what to do? None of the same things, please. But we might look at something that we are blamed for but never really do: commit some act of socialism! By that I mean use our collective strength as IF WE WERE A UNION! We create our own union. It would be a way we could enjoin the health insurance companies to give us the best they have to offer. We could use our dues for policy pushing and our members for GOTV efforts. We could use our pooled money to buy a place as shareholders. Using that, we could then join in efforts to push for better work policies and better businesses.
One Proxy at a Time: Pursuing Social Change through Shareholder Proposals
And by community organizing we could maximize our assets, according to Wikipedia:
Recent studies have shown, however, that funding for community organizing can produce large returns on investment ($512 in community benefits to $1 of Needmor funding, according to the Needmor Fund Study, $157 to 1 in New Mexico and $89 to 1 in North Carolina according to National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy studies) through legislation and agreements with corporations, among other sources, not including non-fiscal accomplishments.
It might not be dKos that sponsors this type of community and we may have to create a whole new concept of community.
We know, generally speaking, what directions we want the country as a whole to take. We need to do as the conservative movement has done and both look at the macro and the micro. We need strategies for communities starting with schools and then community colleges. We need strategies for judgeships. We need strategies for recruitment of like minded folks as well as recruitment of like minded pols on both the macro and the micro.
Wiki article on community organizing points out what we have been missing, IMO.
We have been activists, however
Activists engage in social protest without a coherent strategy for building power or for making specific social changes.
Get that? We haven't been coherent, we haven't had a strategy, we haven't been building power.
We have mobilized, however
When people "mobilize" they get together to effect a specific social change, but have no long term plan. When the particular campaign that mobilized them is over, these groups dissolve and durable power is not built.
Get that? We have no plan and we have built no power.
ps: Wikipedia is soliciting funds and IMO is worth a few bucks.
I view an effort that might go something like this: We have about 60,000 true die hards on dKos. If we were to buy shares in our own community of about $10 bucks a month that would bring in 600,000 per month. There would be an immediate increase in the employment of our members, simply because we would need: web designer/s, one or more executives who would be ratified by the membership, and one or more office members who would do the day to day heavy lifting of phone calls, administrative work (copying, power points, blogging, newsletters, and some bookkeeping. Like any org. we would need a treasurer. And some of the monies would be invested rather than directly used and as shareholders, the value of our shares would fluctuate with the value of that investing.
We could have several days or weeks maybe, of working out our mission statement and working on what services we would like to eventually provide to our members and what activism we would like to do as a community. We would need to build local chapters so that we could support each other better within our home communities.
It seems to me that we could then invest in "green" or "greatest good" when it comes to investing. Right now, it is particularly difficult to invest wisely IMO. Maybe others have had different experiences?
AARP has done something similar but their model has been suspect in that they haven't always been on the side of their members and they don't seem to have a direct connection with their members.
I also think we could use collective purchasing to get our members a great deal on solar panels or whatever, as part of the fringe benefits.
Because the powers that be are really intent on crushing ANY perceived threat, we might consider having some activism segregated from the major scheme so that we could just disband if we come under attack in that area and just shed that skin and create another (with more purposeful intention of evading the powers than ACORN), but the major work would be untouched because each of these things would have a different charter.
But the major working part, IMO, should look like union benefits (from Union plus):
# LABOR'S COLLECTIVE STRENGTH
You know about your union’s collective bargaining power. We use the same collective negotiating strength of more than 13 million union members to provide you and other union consumers with competitive advantages to enhance your daily living and strengthen your family's future.
How much money can you save annually with Union Plus benefits?
Education payment assistance
# UNION MEMBER PROTECTION & CONSUMER ADVICE
All Union Plus programs are thoroughly researched and continuously monitored by Union Privilege staff and overseen by a volunteer board of top union officials.
The UnionPlus.org Web site also includes free advice to help union members be savvy consumers including:
Union Debt Help Web site
Retirement Planning Web site
Credit Education 101
# FINANCIAL HARDSHIP SUPPORT & PHILANTHROPY
Supporting union members in times of need is critical. That's why we developed the only labor-backed grants (money that does not need to be repaid), disaster relief fund and other special programs designed to give back to the labor community. You benefit from union-focused features and grants that are simply not available elsewhere, including:
Strike benefits
Layoff assistance
Mortgage assistance
Save My Home Hotline
Disability benefits
Health care assistance
Credit & budget counseling
Disaster Relief Fund
In addition, Union Privilege participates in targeted organizing campaigns and makes donations that support working families’ interests - e.g. Habitat for Humanity donations.
# ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
We follow "green" business practices and support emerging partnerships between labor and environmental groups, such as the Blue Green Alliance with the United Steelworkers (USW). Plus, we've added a few incentive programs to help union members go "green" while saving you money.
I am sure that there are some here that are much better than I at finding downsides to this proposal, but I would ask each of the naysayers if they could also include some positive proposition for their comments. I am tired of the insanity and I am sure a lot of others are as well. What paths to sanity do you recommend?