Congress and the Long Haul (let's talk strategery)

I have a number of bumps on my forehead today, after having spent a substantial portion of yesterday banging my skull against my desk, said banging being accompanied by a growling, monotone rant:

“Landrieu…” *wham*

“Akaka…” *wham*

“Inouye…” *wham*

“ANWR drilling…” *wham wham wham*

Lather, rinse, repeat.

It is going to take me a while to get over the fact that the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve got cashiered because of three Democratic Senators, but then again, it has been a long five years with much blood and tears under the bridge, and my coping skills are now formidable. It is time to talk about the future of Congress.

First of all, a discussion must be started about exactly who and what we are dealing with. Say what you will about the GOP majority and their allies in the White House, and there is much to say, but one thing cannot be denied: These folks have mastered the art of distraction and implementation.

Consider the last month or so. Bush and his congressional allies jumped up and started waving their arms and shouting, “Look over here! We’re going to privatize Social Security! Look, we’re gonna do it! Here it comes! You can’t stop us!” The Democrats and their activist allies got all gamed up to fight the SS privatization push, and effectively beat the idea to death.

Here’s the thing: I believe Bush and his crew knew their SS plan was DOA weeks ago, but kept pushing it to distract their opponents from a bunch of other stuff that got rammed through as if it were on greased skids. While everyone was running around shouting about Social Security, the boys in the back room managed to pass: a) A Bankruptcy Bill that was basically a huge kiss on the lips to credit card companies; b) A Gun Manufacturers Shield Law that bars anyone from suing gun manufacturers for liability in shootings; and c) The ANWR Drilling Fiasco Act, which I already discussed here.

Smooth, sly, and very effective.

During the Cold War, the U.S. military based all of their strategies on the bedrock concept of the two-war theory, i.e. everything they planned for had to encompass the ability to fight two separate, theater-wide wars in two separate places. Congressional Democrats could learn a thing or two from this idea. They cannot merely be prepared to fight one piece of nutso legislation at a time, because clearly the GOP majority has the capability and intent to put forth a multi-pronged legislative agenda. This will be difficult, akin to the problem of having only ten fingers when there are fifteen holes in the dike, but it has to be done.

One way to combat this multi-pronged assault is to approach the entire issue from the perspective of the 2006 midterm elections. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is already preparing for this, and has warned Senate Republicans that votes they cast this week against initiatives intended to help America's communities would come back to haunt them during the 2006 campaign. "Senators are defined by their voting record," said DSCC Executive Director J.B. Poersch. "Senators who vote against priorities like protecting Social Security benefits, making our neighborhoods safer, or providing veterans' health care can rest assured that they will pay a price come election time. We guarantee it."

In other words, when you screw veterans, national security and the environment with your publicly-recorded vote, prepare to be in a commercial next year that runs your reputation through a meat grinder.

The ball is already in play on this. Some specific examples:

Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against $2.8 billion for veterans health care and $2.8 billion for deficit reduction. That’s a commercial.

Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Talent and Thomas Voted against restoring $14 billion to Medicaid and establishing a bipartisan Medicaid commission. That’s a commercial.

Republicans Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Kyl, Lott, Santorum and Thomas voted against $855 million for Homeland Security grants for first responder programs, port security grants and border patrol agents. That’s a commercial.

Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas (funny how the same names keep coming up) voted against restoring $1.9 billion in cuts to the Community Development Block Grant Program. That’s a commercial.

Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against $7.46 billion for the Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act and deficit reduction. Commercial.

Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against $4.75 billion for education and $4.75 billion for deficit reduction. Commercial.

Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Talent and Thomas voted against restoring $5.4 billion to education program cuts and increasing the maximum Pell Grant award to $4,500. Commercial.

Republicans put the bricks to farmers: Allen, Burns, Chafee, DeWine, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against restoring $2.8 billion to agriculture programs. Midwest commercial.

Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Talent and Thomas voted against a resolution supporting $1 billion for family planning programs, such as teen pregnancy prevention. Moral values hypocrisy commercial.

Republicans Allen, Burns, Chafee, DeWine, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against refusing to establish any appropriations bill that allows funds to be provided for "prepackaged news stories" that do not have a disclaimer stating "Paid for by the United States Government" running throughout the presentation. Commercial.

Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against a reserve fund that would provide $71.3 billion for special education programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Commercial.

You get the idea. There is plenty of grist for the mill, and the loyal opposition needs to take the lead with the DSCC to let the GOP majority know that they are going to become famous in a bad way come election time because of these votes. Give them pause when the next votes come along.

More:

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/18/11719/9579

a letter from James Carville regarding the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Likely a number of DUers got the same form letter. I am only able to contribute to a few organizations per year; I think that this is likely to be one of them.

Carville is advocating that the democratic party organize a resistence to the Bush administration now, in 2005, rather than waiting for more GOP "dirty tricks, distortions, and outrageous campaign ads even as we target George W. Bush's cronies in the Senate -- Senators who wholeheartedly share his ultra-right wing vision for America ..."

What do others think of the DSCC?

needs to go straight into the trash can. No exceptions.

If you want to contribute to good Dems, contribute first and foremost (in no particular order) to Democracy for America and the DNC AND individual campaigns you believe in. I would advise that until it becomes crystal clear that the DSCC and any other group is NOT under the thrall of DLC-type consultants or anyone else who does NOT have our best interests at heart.

I think it's incredibly important to figure out precisely who and where our enemies are, and I would hope I need not remind you that not all of them have R after their names.

by Democratic leadership .

After watching the Move-On event Wednesday with
Senators .

It seems to me our part in the "Strategy" is to back
up keeping our Judiciary Free and Independent.

The line may be further back then I like , but the line
is clear and unanimous with our Courts .

we have to be able to bridge the gap and reach across
to LIBERAL REPUBLICANS, words I'm forcing myself to type .

We must help to show , the power grab , help Americans
see that Balance of Power is a good thing for both
parties . Protecting the rights of the Minority
is an American value . I believe it's up to us to
help HEAL America by getting back to the Constitution .
We need to put the Country before partisan politics .

Americans are Hungry for it . No one likes a BULLY.

all of us must read Lakoff IMHO .

Let's face it, you can hardly turn on the TV during election time and not see a commercial. That's a lot of clutter to cut through. You need to use commercials to reinforce other messages.

You can still target elected officials though. If someone from (pick a state) votes against "education" work with teacher and parent groups from that same state to get the message out. A message is always going to be more credible coming from a neighbour than from a TV commercial.

Have you read 'The Tipping Point'? It's a business book, but its principles can be applied to any message.


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316346624/qid=1111167195/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/104-2419039-1586345?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

To keep the focus on this? This is the crux of the matter and still a power, though one of the few, we dems hold, the ability to hold an all out "feet to the fire" accounting. And what are your feelings on DFA, regarding this?

Representatives has. I would like to see it changed into a more parlaimentary form of government, with the major political parties represented according to their ideologies. We could then elect the representatives we want within our party and they would actually go to Washington.

This way there would be representatives from the extreme left through the moderate centrists to the extreme right. Coalitions would have to be formed by the party leaders to make a majority to pass a law and only in this way would the true will of the people be known, not just the will of a majority party.

As far as the Senate is concerned, I think there should also be a more equitable number elected according to population. This way a state like Wyoming can't trump a state like California in the Senate votes. I know there are those that say they should have the same say. I don't think so.

I think the more populous and prosperous states should have a bigger say in how the greater share of taxes they pay are spent. There is a reason states like Wyoming aren't very populated and only pay a small share of the tax burden, for this reason they should have less say on how it should be spent. I think with a more equitable distribution of Congress you will see more tax dollars going for progressive domestic programs and less on war and the exploitation of other nations by the USA.

This is going to be something you young people are going to have to work on for yourselves and your children. We old people don't have that much fight left in us anymore and what we did fight for and gain in the last fifty years is being destroyed by this government. It's too bad that we didn't change this ourselves, that we didn't foresee that single party rule could actually become a possiblity.

Last year, MoveOn, Americans Coming Together, etc. had a ton of good advertisements. Many were devastating. The problem is that they were all over the board and did not have a consistent theme - some were on Iraq, some were on the deficit, some were on the environment, etc. etc.

On the opposite side, Republicans, & their surrogates, started their attacks as soon as Kerry clinched the nomination. And, everything was a variation on the one theme of "Kerry being a flip-flopper who can't be trusted to protect the country." Even if Rove didn't direct the message (which he did), it was easy enough for mid level and low level Republicans to pick up on the one theme and fire off a LTTE or talk about that one thing around the office water cooler.

Meanwhile, the Democrats had 100 things to talk about and no one consistent theme - the DU inspired "Two Faces of George" would have been great if it came 9 months earlier instead of in October.

And, we need to concentrate on removing vulnerable Republicans first.

That's why even on something as simple as, should the energy ever be harnessed, a LTTE group from within DU needs to consider the most effective manner in approaching the media. Recently, we did a few little experiments, and found that DU can make a difference when we approach an issue from the correct position. We can make a significant difference.

I think that an important factor is that we need to not fall for the lies of the right wing extremists. A number of people have voiced their opinion in terms of feeling depressed about the future. People have expressed feelings of powerlessness.

They have been lied to.

The truth is that this country has far too often told far too many lies to its citizens. Those who believe they are powerless are believing the lie. They are not powerless; you are not powerless; and I simply refuse to even entertain the notion that I am powerless. "Get that weak shit outta here," as my nephews say.

We need to re-examine what power means. There are a few really positive threads on here in the past 24 hours. Focus on power. Focus on life. The goal is the quality of our lives, and that obviously relates to the quality of others' lives. It means avoiding distractions and stumbling blocks the enemy places in front of us.

>>
A number of people have voiced their opinion in terms of feeling depressed about the future. People have expressed feelings of powerlessness.
>>

I can't even get people to write letters to the editor. I have begged, pleaded, and can't get anyone to submit something.

I see this terrible complacency all around me -- 'Things will swing the other way. It's not really that bad. etc.,etc.'

I feel things will get MUCH worse before they get better.

Sorry, but I do.

It is great to see the people at DU trying to do things. But it sure is frustrating and depressing trying to wake people up.

I'm not one that is going to confront a Freeper type in public & tear them a new one like so many here on DU seem to enjoy doing...

My only method is through slow convincing, sowing seeds of doubt in their minds about the Republicans & their intentions... some of that is letters to the editors, or, a quick comment in passing, other times it is emailing articles to people, and pre-election, I was getting good articles from the NY Times (Krugman on Tuesday & Fridays) or via truthout.org links and leaving them in the men's room at work. Just small things, but I hoped to plant seeds of doubt in one person at a time.

Democracy isn't easy, but you also have to think long term. The Republicans starting building their infrastructure in the 1970s and it didn't really peak until it got * (s)elected and then with the Iraq invasion. They are good at being patient and thinking long-term.

I honestly think the reason those fundies have 10+ kids each is to slowly breed liberals out of existence, or at least into an insignificant minority over a span of generations...if they keep having 10+ kids each, what will our population look like in another 30 years? If the Fundie Right Wingers are 18-20% of America now, will it be 28-30% in 30 years and 48-50% in 60?

We're only starting to fight back now, and it's not going to happen overnight. You just have to be patient and keep plugging away where you can.