I have spent the last several days thinking about what happens now. How do we change the seemingly unchangeable? How do you motivate Americans to vote in any election if you cannot engage them in this one? If people will not make a stand against the worst failure of an administration and president in the history of our country, will they ever?
I honestly don't know. I have a very good friend who has given up. Burned his voter card and vowed never to vote again. It is hard not to give up when faced with such an apparently stunning defeat. Some have advocated leaving the country. I thought about it. But my country is worth fighting for. I think the ideals I stand for are the same as the majority of Americans, we just failed to get our message out. We allowed the other side to define us and degrade us and lie.
I will fight ever day between now and the next election to change that. Give up? Not fucking likely.
Several ideas are rolling around in my head right now. I will post them as I work them out and can present them in a clear and definitive way. Here are some of the things we can do right now to enact change:
1. Donate money to Blackboxvoting.org They are one of the best organized and prepared to take on the obvious irregularities that are now coming out about this flawed election. They have filed the largest Freedom of Information request ever to get down to the bottom of the error, mistakes, fraud and theft that happened in hundreds if not thousands of precincts across this country.
Donate here:
Blackboxvoting.org You can donate by credit card, paypal or even send them a check or cash via snail mail (Randi Rhodes asked every one of her 4 million listeners to send in a buck). Anything will help if you want to send a check or cash send it to:
330 sw 43rd St. Suite K
PMB 547
Renton, WA 98055
One of the things we can do which will affect conservatives and benefit our own mental health is
STOP READING WATCHING AND LISTENING TO THEIR LIES. If there is one thing they do better than us, and I have to give it up to them, it is lie and lie and lie some more. Through there control of the media (radio, television, newspapers, websites and books). It serves absolutely no purpose. Their lies are intended to defeat and demoralize us and paint us in the most unflattering light possible. Our presence and engagement of them gives them the power to re-define what we say, take us out of context and lie to their audiences about us. We also give them power by providing them an audience which in turn gives them money from advertisers. Do you want to know what the most boring conversation in the world is? Two or more conservatives who agree with each other. Even they can't stand that level of monotony and intellectual absence.
I know firsthand that not posting on their websites, not calling into their radio programs dries them up. People tune in or turn on to witness the train wreck of conflict. There is no audience without excitement. There is no excitement without conflict and there is no conflict without us.
If your paper is conservative, cancel it. If you have cable, cancel it. If you post on a conservative website, stop. If you get your news online, do it only from non-mainstream media (there is no liberal mainstream media-another conservative lie). Get your news from liberal websites and direct feeds, then research the story more. Be like a good investigative reporter, get two or more sources before you believe anything. If you listen to a conservative radio show, don't do it anymore. We are powerful and they know it. They are nothing without us. Let's reduce them to the squawking, hateful morons they are by not allowing them to engage us.
If you can't bear to be without cable (there are still good shows out there-The Daily Show-Bill Maher-Keith Olberman) don't watch any of the "news" channels. They have all failed us miserably and we should not support them in any way shape or form. Call your cable company and ask if you can have Fox, the most biased propogandist network ever, taken off your lineup.
I know the temptation is great to engage these lying, hateful, cowards who say incredibly horrible things about us, but don't.
We need to build up our own media networks. Air America Radio is off to a great start despite the incredibly wrong predictions by the right wing liars. If you can afford it, subscribe to satellite radio and tell them you are getting it specifically for the left wing shows.
AAR is going to grow as satellite radio decimates traditional radio over the next decade. We also need to push our local radio stations to carry progressive shows. We need to get people who can afford it to buy radio stations in conservative areas and put out our message out there.
Conservatives made a concerted effort several decades ago to dominate the media and thereby control the thinking of Americans. They have succeeded. We have come a long way in a short period of time and I know we can beat them but we need to focus our attention, money and power to succeed.
I believe we can. I know we must.