AM 1090 Forum report

Randi Rhodes mentioned one of my postcards on stage--if I had known she was going to do that, I would have printed a lot more of them!

http://waliberals.org/report-on-am1090-forum-jim-mcdermotts-comments/2012/07/21/

Much of the forum related to the issue of how to convince progressives to support Obama when it’s clear to most progressives that Obama has been a big disappointment. Almost unanimously the panelists said we need to make sure Obama wins, with the main reason being two words: the Supreme Court. But several panelists — especially Norman Goldman, Sam Seder, and Ron Reagan –also emphasized the corruption of the Democratic leadership and the sellouts of Obama.

What I found most interesting was Norman Goldman’s two strategies for fixing the Democratic Party: (1) infiltrate it and take it over precinct-by-precinct, the way the Tea Party took over the GOP, and (2) force the Dems to do the right thing by withholding votes and being willing to lose an election or two. The latter approach (which I call the nuclear option) seems to be, effectively, what happened in 2010, when many disgusted voters sat out the election, and what is happening now with the Occupy Movement, who have given up on electoral politics and the Democratic Party.