The frenzied mannerisms of Republicans and their Teabagging cousins rose to new decimal levels over the past few years. The W-years jauntily propelled ignorance as a virtue and science as the vice while surreptitiously putting solid American rights and freedoms on the run with the fear factor and its color-coded synchronicity.
With the election of Barack Obama to the White House, many of us presumed the frenetic outrage that arose from the conservative flanks was based on bigotry. And part of it certainly arose from that foul section of the conservative heart. But, the concerted GOP jackhammers against major components of the Democratic Party belie that assumption on our part. So, while the Teabaggers strutted their AK-47s at Presidential events and Palin placed her bullseyes on Democratic representatives across this nation, the Koch Machine geared up to destroy our public unions and education and our very confidence itself.
It is not Obama whom the Koch Machine aims to destroy. It is the very underpinnings of the Democratic platform and our alliances and social justice which are the targets. Women, labor and working people, our children and their future, and public entities of various stripes and designs are all under attack. Even our religious institutions have been steeple-jacked and sidelined in the concerted effort to drive social justice out of our lexicon and conscience.
Chris Bowers made excellent points today that we need to “go long or go home.” It’s time to think big in our fights that build our power.
We have to start winning elections in ways so that the majority of political observers believe the defeated candidate lost because s/he opposed one or more progressive legislative priorities. Just defeating someone who opposes progressive legislation with someone who supports it is not enough. A wide array of pundits, candidates and political professionals must believe that opposition to progressive policies was the primary reason an elected official was removed from office. That is the only way we are going to start convincing people that opposing progressive legislation is truly bad idea for someone's political career. As such, it's also the only way we're going to start getting progressive legislation passed on a regular basis.
So, while Russell Pearce allies may think recalls and the awakened fighting spirit is nothing more than gnats on the rump of the elephant, people-powered politics cannot be swatted away.
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