Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I'm free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn't, I can, and my children will.
General rant to our candidates
Submitted by suttdenn on Mon, 07/31/2006 - 11:51am.
Folks,
Please drop the “voice of reason” tactic from your campaigns. There is a time to be polite, and there is a time to start the conversation with, “You Son-of-Bitch!” For our candidates this has got to happen soon. Mr Milquetoast, has got to finally standup and start to RUN! Find the passion! Get indignant!!! If the incumbent’s performance doesn’t just make you want to spit, sit down and shut up.
Notice the ‘voice’ in one recent newsletter. Sure this is targeted to the choir, but who do you think is the tinder in this fire? If we don’t have fire-in-the-belly, who does?
“This Congress will have worked the fewest days in 60 years and raised the most campaign money in history,” Jim said. “As a result, this ‘special-interest’ Congress has ignored the issues Americans care about most, such as education, health care, jobs and wages.”
Wouldn’t this be stronger, and more apt to move a swing voter (or even a Big “D” voter) if it were worded more like this:
“Mike Simpson’s Congress has worked the fewest number of days of any Congress in the past 60 years! While Mr. Simpson ignored our vital issues, like education, health care, jobs and wages; he was gallivanting around the country eating steak and lobster, picking up cold hard cash from the Fat Cats that want to buy a piece of him. And Mike was For Sale!”
If the choir doesn’t have the rhythm, the congregation isn’t going to give it to them. Like a Country Western singer says, you gotta “sell it!” Make it personal. You’re not running against the Congress or the Legislature, you’re running against THAT Son-of-a-Bitch! And they are Sons-a-Bitches!
Notice how this line: “Congress says 'no' to minimum wage, 'yes' to their own raise,” could become: “Simpson said no to raising OUR minimum wage, while he raised HIS salary! He raised his salary seven times over the past 9 years! He raised his salary by $31,600 a year during that period. – Mine hasn’t, how about yours?”
Make it a bare-knuckle fight between you and him. Stick up for your (our) values by holding your opponent accountable for his transgressions. If you don’t convict your opponent of being a scoundrel and a whore, then you’re constituents are hearing you say that he’s not really that bad. And that all you really wanted was just your turn at the trough.
I apologize for picking on Jim Hansen here, but his newsletter was recent an it was a good example of the case of “politeness” that we’ve caught, and we’ve got to spit it out!
We all have to act like there is no tomorrow, like God himself sent us to clean out the Republicans, (er, I mean, the money-changers.) If you don’t act like it matters, why should we – or the voters? Kick over the spittoon, break the dishes, let the devil clean it up. This year don't be the "nice" opponent, be a Son of a Bitch yourself! And if we eat bitter herbs in November don’t let anyone say they had even one arrow left to notch, or one argument left to let fly.
Our opposition are not reasonable, competent people. They are the ones that have either intentionally designed and created the current mess our world is in, or they were just too simple to manage it properly. Their misfeasance or their malfeasance, either one makes you the right choice!
suttdenn@hotmail.com
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The problem is
The problem is that most mainstream Democratic candidates, particularly in Idaho, don't want to rock the boat. They've gotten to where they are by playing ball with the party power structure, and they hope to get elected without having to change too much about how "things get done" in politics.
In order to put up a real fight, you have to be willing to say "fuck you" to the backroom politcal mavens and power brokers who constantly try to steer the party, and really stand up for something. The minute you do that, you become an outcast and a pariah, and your support dries up like the Mojave in August.
You won't see strong candidates in Idaho, or the national Democratic Party, until you can shake loose the entrenched interests and power brokers that are dragging it down.
In other words, the party's candidate selection process is specifically designed to only allow candidates who are malleable, reliably bland, and willing to toe the party line 100% to get anywhere.
Thanks for this
It's very good advice, and I plan to share it with my candidate.
Ian, it's interesting you mention Jim Hansen. Although he has a deep background with the party, he's not exactly running this campaign by the Dem textbook, what with his $100 max on donations.
That said, I love this rewrite of his newsletter item. I agree it's better, and I agree it's time that we need to kick ass and name names.
Actually, if you reread my
Actually, if you reread my comment, I didn't mention *any* candidate by name, and if I were going to, Jim wouldn't be on my list. I've got a lot of respect for the work that he's done.
Edit: yeah, I'm not the original poster - I just made a comment.
compromise
I think we need to differentiate between Republican candidates we can't work with, Republican candidates we can work with, dyed-in-the-wool Republican voters, and Republican voters who can be convinced.
Republican candidates we can work with, and Republican voters who can be convinced, aren't going to work with us better because we call them names, particularly if it's *&(*&#(*%^ Republican. What we need to do is point out to them, look, these guys who call themselves Republicans aren't really Republicans by your definition, and we want to work with you to get rid of them.
Organization
That would require organization, and an organization that isn't just in politics to win, but is there to make Idaho a more centrist, more balanced state where everyone can live in peace and harmony....
Unfortunately with what we have right now it's more about partisan politics and marginalization. Dominance over betterment.
And you'd have to do it all with little to no funding.
Compromises aren't enough
Obviously, there's little room for 'Mr. Nice Guy' around here. As serephin is wont to say, 43sb is about sharpening sticks and poking wingnuts with 'em.
But beyond our confines, there is a *NEED* for being vocal. Call it pugilistic, call it abrasive, call it anything you want. But we're the reddest damn state in the US, and that won't change with us all being paragons of passivity. When a wingnut sounds off, moderates *NEED* to hear the occasional 'OH, HELL NO YOU DIDN'T' to validate their discomfort. They need to hear LOUD opposition to confirm: that sinking feeling they've got isn't just indigestion.
Exhibit A: count how often you hear GLARINGLY WRONGHEADED B***S*** about liberals being repeated by friends, relatives or coworkers. Then count the number of hours per day that people in Idaho can inflict anti-Liberal rants upon themselves, whether from the Twin Falls newspaper or talk radio. All of these jerks presume only the worst motives to our ideology-- we don't stand a chance unless we fight back.
The next time you're talking with a self-described moderate Republican, ask them to recant or apologize for Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin or Scooter Libby. Ask what they're doing to prove they're interested in bipartisanship. Defy them to give an example where they've stood up for something unpopular because they BELIEVE that America's freedoms include protecting the right to hold an unpopular idea. Be their friend in exactly the same manner as they're YOUR friend. Then, point out that your liberal friends are routinely horrified by the intolerance and bigotry of the Republican party. The pandering. The cravenness. The demonizing of the weakest in our society.
When I shout out in frustration, it is because we're up against some of the most unChristian unAmerican beliefs we've ever seen, and (what's worse) the remarks we're mortified by are coming out of OUR OWN NEIGHBORS.
From talking with my older relatives in Germany, I learned a long time ago that a blasé stroll down life's easy path is where all the Germans got to where they were by 1945. Nobody jarred them with a 'like HELL you say' to force them to wake up and stagger back from whatever muck these vile, regressive ideas fester out from.
I tend to be polite, especially to people I respect. So, in many ways, I agree with your remark. But we should be equally willing to use mockery, criticism, ridicule, contempt and anything else that'll monkey-wrench the wingnuts' noise machine. Disagreeable Republican ideas need to be mocked or disproven or they gain the appearance of truth. And that is where we are today. Rather than bite your tongue or try politeness, often it is more effective to mock a bad idea. And when you're arguing with people that are unconvincable, an insult might make them look foolish enough that they hesitate to spout that happy horseshit again. Each such wingnut silenced is another nail in the coffin of the Vast Righwing Noise Machine.
That being said, I'm thrilled you're still visiting 43sb, S. It'd been too long. Heck, we'll never agree on this aspect completely, but it doesn't diminish my respect for you one bit.