I fear we are lost; playing "their" game, using their words or conversely becoming voiceless individuals unable to speak out.
Who are "they"? What do we call them? We know who they are though they have different labels. Many are the ultra-wealthy, some are activists, some religious fundamentalists and some are angry authoritarian narcissists reveling in their manipulation - while others are just clueless. They are our brothers, our aunts and our old friends. Many of them have limited depth of knowledge about the groups and ideals they purport to represent.
The news and blogs most often end up making me feel impotent and angry. These last weeks I've been absorbed in watching the Egyptian struggle for freedom all the while drifting away from our own ongoing struggle for the same ideals. I am confident I am not alone in my frustration. Though retired I am no longer physically able to go out and put one foot in front of the other all day every day. But I can do something of great value. Having spent my working years with the needy and elderly I see myself as more than useful though I can't identify that unique niche in which I personally can make a difference. I must do something more than signing petitions, pondering solutions and pulling my head out of the sand every day.
They are pitting us against each other and I want to know where there is a big-picture strategy? With bottomless funds and "think" tank plans such as the Koch brothers we too might pull off a successful counterattack. How do we bury those who seek to destroy us and spread "negative" "truth"? There must be a way.
Robert Reich states there exists
...three aspects of the Republican strategy - a federal budget battle to shrink government, focused on programs the vast middle class depends on; state efforts to undermine public employees, whom the middle class depends on; and a Supreme Court dedicated to bending the Constitution to enlarge and entrench the political power of the wealthy - fit perfectly together. They pit average working Americans against one another, distract attention from the almost unprecedented concentration of wealth and power at the top, and conceal Republican plans to further enlarge and entrench that wealth and power. What is the Democratic strategy to counter this and reclaim America for the rest of us? Robert Reich
In between watching the Middle East news and the pundits who were repeating Republican Talking Points repeatedly I noticed the irony. We are reinforcing lies such as the words "entitlements" and "public employees" and we must turn it around. Pundits rerun Glen Beck and Sarah Palin and Michele Bachman again and again. There must be a strategy to replace this reinforcement of negative press?
George Lakoff describes
Democrats help conservatives when they function as policy wonks — talking policy without communicating the moral values behind the policies. They help conservatives when they neglect to remind us that pensions are deferred payments for work done. "Benefits" are pay for work, not a handout. Pensions and benefits are arranged by contract. If there is not enough money for them, it is because the contracted funds have been taken by conservative officials and given to wealthy people and corporations instead of to the people who have earned them.
Democrats help conservatives when they use conservative words like "entitlements" instead of "earnings" and speak of government as providing "services" instead of "necessities."George Lakoff
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