Waking up the Democratic Party to the brutal reality of the Republican Party
If one thing has become abundantly clear in the last 6 years is that the Republican’s are playing for keeps.
One of the things I think is most agonizing for progressives, Democrats and left-leaning people of all flavors is the fact that while the Democratic party has the people on their side on nearly every major political issue of our time, they continually squander this advantage with strategic incompetence in the political arena.
If one thing has become abundantly clear in the last 6 years is that the Republican’s are playing for keeps. And by for keeps, I don’t just mean winning.
The Republican vision, in their true, spiteful, hate-filled filthy little heart-of-hearts is an America where it is both legal and right to march Democrats and Progressives off to reeducation camps, march them right out of the country, or to simply kill them.
This Republican Party is NOT the party of Eisenhower or Lincoln . . . and it is damned past time America realized that. This is the party of Jesse Helms and Hate. This is now without question the party of the American Ian Paisley – i.e. the Republican Party says "No Surrender" and will not go quietly or ever compromise with progressives.
Just like Ian Paisley screeched his hate and hostility against Catholics and motivated his followers to murder Catholics in the streets of Northern Ireland, the American Republican Party envisions and in some cases encourages the murders of those that they disagree with politically, and like Nixon and Ehrlichman in days past, they certainly wish for the day when it is legal to do so.
Doctors providing legal care to fragile young women have been murdered for their actions and in some cases, their words. It goes without saying that Democratic politicians cannot travel safely in small planes. A certain blonde harpy from Hades advocates the murder of a moderate Nixon appointed Supreme Court justice whose only crime appears to have been his powerful judicial intellect. I don't even want to try and count how many gay men and lesbian women have been murdered, because 1 is too many and it's a whole lot more than that.
Do you think for a minute that given the opportunity they would not KILL all of us if they could? We all know that it is only cowardice that keeps them in line.
So, apologists and fools amongst us: what is our defense against these people? We treat them like partners in government for 6 years while they OPENLY plan our political demise? We play the game by 20 year old rules hoping for the few remaining decent Republicans to take control and guide the opposition back to the edge of sanity? We hope that those bible camps and mega-churches have some function of faith instead of training the Republican Party's StormTroopers of the Future?
Ultimately that seems to be the Democrat’s only political strategy – HOPE.
We hope they will see reason. We HOPE calmer voices will prevail. We continue to HOPE that a compromise can reached. We hope, like Neville Chamberlain, that by tossing them some bones we can appease the wild beasts and they maybe won’t invade Poland if we just ask them nicely?
For nearly 20 years I have writhed in agony. I cannot possibly be the only person with the intellect to grasp what they intend for people like me. I cannot possibly be alone in this – alone in my conviction that to protect our future, to protect my children and their children we (Democrats, progressives, lovers of justice and liberty) --
We absolutely must fight the Republicans with their own tactics and weapons.
We progressives must learn to play for keeps. We must learn to fight the right fights, but also to fight them the right way. I have felt so alone on this for so long.
I have wandered seeking redemption – I looked to people like Ralph Nader and Howard Dean because I saw one thing in them that I had not seen in so many others before them – the STOMACH to fight the Right.
I know yada yada, Ralph is bad, Howard’s eccentric – but my god people –at least they FIGHT! And quite frankly – Ralph as annoying as he is – is absolutely 100% correct in his critique of the "two-party" system.
I don’t want Ralph leading my party, but I agree with him that the Democrats are not drawing the battle lines sufficiently or aggressively enough. When Howard yelled, my heart JUMPED, because for just a moment, I had a glimpse of a kindred spirit – a progressive with the good sense to fight them and not only that, to fight them their way -- HARD and passionately.
Yes, I know, (the whiners start whining now) . . . the Republican Party cheats and steals. Yeah. No shit. You need doctoral dissertation to prove that? I’ll give you 3 hints that should tell any human being alive with ½ a brain that Republicans’ cheat any chance they can:
- Richard Nixon and CREEP.
- The number of Nixon administration officials currently in the Bush administration
- A man with a ~ 25% approval rating is president of our nation.
How can you be surprised that they cheat?
So what! Yes, they Cheat! So what! They Steal, prolifically. So darn what! They play mean and nasty. Quit whining. We know what to do with bullies who cheat and steal.
- Cheat and steal better then they do, or at least as much as they do.
- Catch them cheating and humiliate them in front of the world.
- Play politics to win, not to make some superflous point about bipartisanship.
- Remember that a Republican is an enemy of a Free America. They do not believe in Democracy and every stinking one of them should be treated an enemy of our nation and a traitor as long as they hold our troops and our constitution hostage.
I’ll say it again it case some of the trolls missed my damned point: they would kill us if they could get away with it and only their cowardice and fear of retribution or punishment is stopping them.
So, while our leadership plays at figuring out the next daft move, and the "blogosphere" ponders and pontificates, I’ll give you a quick solution so you don’t have to waste too much time fiddling whilst things burn.
- New Motto: NO QUARTER. Don’t give them an inch. They can’t be ‘compromised’ with. Stop trying. Start fighting the right fights.
- New Plan of Attack: beat them to death with their own policies. Every time they do something America hates (Iraq, SCHIP, burning the constitution) call them on it. Get in their face: ask them why they hate babies, especially American babies, so much. Ask them why they hate freedom and justice so much.
- Quit whining about Fox news after ½ the country tunes in to watch Fox. If you really don’t like it don’t watch it. Your ratings allow it to exist. Don’t watch football Sunday afternoon just because of the swooshy graphics and then blog about how dang terrible the Fox News Channel is on Sunday evening.
- Put together policies and actions that make sense and win votes. We’re not going to get very far fighting every single fight just because it’s morally right. Seize the day – the people want the Iraq war over and they want it over now. Bush’s vetoes put him in the hot seat – not congress – but that only lasts for one or two news cycles. Whoever suggested we continually bludgeon him with the withdrawal issue was wise indeed. On SCHIP, you find your goddamned 20 republicans in the house and ask them this: "when your party holds 25% of the seats in this chamber, do you want to be one of that 25% or do you want to be back home looking for a job in this craptastic economy? Cause if you don’t vote for SCHIP we’re going to make sure you go home permanently." And then LEAN ON those bastards. Threaten them like Daley in Chicago or Tammany Hall. And MEAN IT.
- Quit trying to rely on those few remaining sane Republicans to sort things out. Their aren’t enough of them and they are so marginalized anyway – it took Lincoln Chafee losing an election to realize that he had kissed up long enough.
- QUIT with the dang consultants already. I’ll give you a hint: if they work in D.C. and call themselves a consultant they have one objective with their consulting: keeping themselves employed. That’s it. They don’t care if you win or lose, because to them, they’ll have a job either way. There ain’t a one of them bright enough to win an election. Consult with the people you represent. I’ll give you a hint: they want you to fight.
I’m right about this. There is no question. When the Republican party holds 20 seats in the Senate, in my mind, that’s going to be 20 too many. I want every congressperson, every aide, every consultant, every pontificator and pundit to think about this:
What I’m saying may sound harsh. It may sound ugly, unkind, and impolitic. It might even be revolutionary. But is there anyone amongst us who truly doubts that the Republicans are not actively working right now with the vision of their own "permanent majority" in their heads. No matter how ugly, it is still true.
This is what the "permanent majority" means to the Republicans: the elimination of the opposing party. Completely. Totally. Not one Senator left.
Blue states and Red States no more. A one party system, with the trolls and toads in charge. That is the Republican vision for America – a 1000 year Reich of Republican Utopia led by people who want us progressives dead.
Not on my damn watch. I may only be one person, but that’s not the America I’m leaving to my kids.