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My Political Manifesto: Inspired By the Bionic Woman
My earlier post about Politics, the South, and well - I forget what else - have drained me. I am now drained. I started the post at a feeling of wistful tiredness, moved into righteous anger, transitioned straight into frustration with a stop-over at Lake Dear God I Need Some Fanfic.
And while I can see other's views and I totally get the anger - I still do not think my home is a lost cause peopled by raving lunatics. I believe in a few solid things:
I believe that the Democratic Party's future will be decided soon and it will be decided by us.
I believe that the key to winning is not in diluting our values and compromising our beliefs in order to appeal to more radical and fringe groups. I think that we will benefit by allowing our competitor to go this route of divisiveness.
I believe that the only way we are going to get this message out and to even begin to set the conversation and the tone and to take back our words are if we begin to fight back. I don't think we have. I think there is a view out there that this - what is at stake - is so obvious that anyone should be able to see it. Well, if the playing field was a fair one, perhaps they would. It isn't and we need to acknowledge that and do something about it.
Tearing apart at ourselves is not the way to do something about it. This is what the Conservatives want us to do. We need to take stock, for certain, and realize that we did fail. It is not easy to admit but we did. Excuses and blame and calling it a "values game" and saying that Jesusland wants G. W. is self-defeating, untrue and what they want us to do.
If we concede that this race was lost on values - we give them the next election on a silver platter.
The race was lost because we did not fight back. We let them dictate the conversation and the tone. They challenge our patriotism and we let them. They challenge our decency and we let them. They are organized and work together to set this tone and they have an agenda that has nothing at all to do what the voting public is seeing.
It's not religion, stupid. It is repetition.
I'm not saying that religion does not play a role in how people vote. Of course it does. When a person has a particular faith - that is an important part of who they are and it does shape what they see and how they react. But saying that all people of faith are single issue voters is short-sided and not true.
Also saying this is the first election where a candidate has smiled and talked about being a man of God isn't quite true- well this has been going on for awhile. The fact that it is such an issue now is quite possibly a positive indicator that a Great Big Change is on the horizon.
Y'all remember Nixon?
But when we allow them to over-simplify the issues and make the choice either you vote for God or Not, we lose.
So we either pull our shit together and start putting up a fight cause look here - we need a presence. If the administration is gonna be sending 5 different reps onto the Sunday morning talk show circuit and they are all going to be saying the same thing and we cannot count on our media to challenge or question anything so nebulous as "facts" then we are going to have to respond. We need credibility and a voice and we are not going to get either by insulting half the country.
We are the party of Hope. We need to start acting like it. And grind our enemies under our stylish, yet sanctified by logic, heels. That is what is missing from our Hope. The grinding of the enemies.
We need our own Karl Rove. Only less evil.
And while I can see other's views and I totally get the anger - I still do not think my home is a lost cause peopled by raving lunatics. I believe in a few solid things:
I believe that the Democratic Party's future will be decided soon and it will be decided by us.
I believe that the key to winning is not in diluting our values and compromising our beliefs in order to appeal to more radical and fringe groups. I think that we will benefit by allowing our competitor to go this route of divisiveness.
I believe that the only way we are going to get this message out and to even begin to set the conversation and the tone and to take back our words are if we begin to fight back. I don't think we have. I think there is a view out there that this - what is at stake - is so obvious that anyone should be able to see it. Well, if the playing field was a fair one, perhaps they would. It isn't and we need to acknowledge that and do something about it.
Tearing apart at ourselves is not the way to do something about it. This is what the Conservatives want us to do. We need to take stock, for certain, and realize that we did fail. It is not easy to admit but we did. Excuses and blame and calling it a "values game" and saying that Jesusland wants G. W. is self-defeating, untrue and what they want us to do.
If we concede that this race was lost on values - we give them the next election on a silver platter.
The race was lost because we did not fight back. We let them dictate the conversation and the tone. They challenge our patriotism and we let them. They challenge our decency and we let them. They are organized and work together to set this tone and they have an agenda that has nothing at all to do what the voting public is seeing.
It's not religion, stupid. It is repetition.
I'm not saying that religion does not play a role in how people vote. Of course it does. When a person has a particular faith - that is an important part of who they are and it does shape what they see and how they react. But saying that all people of faith are single issue voters is short-sided and not true.
Also saying this is the first election where a candidate has smiled and talked about being a man of God isn't quite true- well this has been going on for awhile. The fact that it is such an issue now is quite possibly a positive indicator that a Great Big Change is on the horizon.
Y'all remember Nixon?
But when we allow them to over-simplify the issues and make the choice either you vote for God or Not, we lose.
So we either pull our shit together and start putting up a fight cause look here - we need a presence. If the administration is gonna be sending 5 different reps onto the Sunday morning talk show circuit and they are all going to be saying the same thing and we cannot count on our media to challenge or question anything so nebulous as "facts" then we are going to have to respond. We need credibility and a voice and we are not going to get either by insulting half the country.
We are the party of Hope. We need to start acting like it. And grind our enemies under our stylish, yet sanctified by logic, heels. That is what is missing from our Hope. The grinding of the enemies.
We need our own Karl Rove. Only less evil.
Re: Eeek
Remember back in the sixties (well - we were not yet born - but work with me here) when Liberal Brethern would come down South to lend a hand? Cause buddy - help would be nice. It would be a lot nicer than being told I am surrounded by unAmericans and there is no hope for them and by living here - I am a bigot, I am racist, I am sexist, I am a homophobe (of course all of these can be described with the word "bigot" but we need more empty rhetoric and we need someone charismatic saying it. Just a thought). I don't care if he turns around and says "Oh I was speaking generally" - that kind of hate speech is *exactly* what he deplores the Christian Right for - he cannot have it both ways.
I think you are right in that we cannot ignore the Urban Bases -- but I think that if we ignore the Republican Propaganda machine none of this will matter. Taking back rural/suburban/southern America (which we have carried in the past - so don't tell me it can't be done) is dependant on having a larger voice nationally.
And we don't. They do. We don't. People hear what the conservatives want them to hear, anyone who speaks out against it is systematically demonized and destroyed. I think we are shying away from fighting on those terms because it does seem a waste of time and shallow and just stupid. But then it appears we are not responding at all, and people believe the lies. And I don't want us to all turn into Laura Ingrams cause that would be scary and wrong and just plain icky. But we need to respond someway.
Oh and and we really need to hold tight to our underdog status. America loves an underdog. The GOP is picking on Rocky, Rudy and the Bad News Bears right now.