"Well, what are YOU doing to stop Bush besides whining?"

I get that a lot here, whenever I mention that somebody, anybody should rise up and stop these crazies who are planning on violently conquering the globe. Stop them? Well go ahead hot shot, stop them. Go ahead, raise hell brother, good luck.

I'll admit it openly, I don't have a clue how to stop them. I do know this, writing congressmen is a waste of time, as is voting. Protesting in the streets, also a waste of time. Having meetings? Why bother?

What am I doing? I'm doing nothing. If I do the above, I'm really doing nothing.

Am I whining? Yes, many here are. It does no good, and neither does anything else.

And if you merely suggest, "maybe somebody ought to stop these people", you get instantly challenged to show your plan and called a jerk and a whiner for even suggesting that we do our constitutional duty and remove tyranny.

Its like an instant shoot down, "Well, what are YOU doing?"

Show me. SHOW ME WHAT TO DO. In the meantime, they are robbing us blind and murdering thousands while we all sit around challenging each other to come up with a plan.

Its pitiful, and I'm pitiful, and I'll be called dirty names now, like defeatist, manic depressive, paranoid, delusional and the worst of all, whiny.

Just look at us as a society. Our whole world is about to explode and we can't figure out how to stop this small group of crazies when we outnumber them by the millions.

I suggest that we are all avoiding what must be done because the thought of it scares us more than terrorism.

I'll take the heat now, cause I really have no clue what to do.

I've been called a lot of things, and I'm used to being called dirty names just for expressing frustration and anxiety. But I think the question is a valid one still. What are YOU doing to stop Bush besides whining? I wish I had an answer.

But I'm sure I'll get told to write my congressman, write my senator, write the local rags, go walking, (one of my faves) and the least effective comeback of all, wait till November and we'll vote the jerks out.

It's that simple. If you want to do something volunteer to help get a democratic representative elected in your district in 2006.

The fact that you see 'wait till November and we'll vote the jerks out' and writing your congress people as ineffective tells me that you don't understand the situation. If you want to help there are things to be done but it looks like whining is your preferred course of action.

Here are my state's races:

Alabama 2006 Congressional Races

I live in District 6.

Don't beat up on us for our occasional bouts of hopelessness and whining.

Everyone gets down sometimes and with good reason.

We haven't given up.

It hasn't n the past few years and I don't see any signs of change anytime soon when the inmate is counting the votes.

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Anytime we have to deal with a problem of gigantic proportions, it can be effectively
addressed by breaking it down into smaller sets and subsets and attempt to fix them
on a piece-by-piece basic.

Bu$h is a big problem, but there are smaller problems related to his regime that we should try to tackle individually or by group-effort. When you get a lot of people working for the same general causes or ideas, we can be realistic and expect some wins (as well as some losses).

What have I done this year to challenge his class strangle-hold on America?

I went out in my workplace and made the effort to organize a union. Sure, there are Democrats who are against the union work-environment, but by and large, an effort to organize a union will send shock waves back into the right direction, towards the Repugs and their strangle-hold on our economy. When workers begin to organize for their political rights, that will create a virtual earthquake under their perceived rock-solid foothold on economic activity which works only at the expense of the worker class.

I've given up trying to change the world. I do what I can to change my part of it.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the recyclers unloading my truck full of fallen branches, etc. A couple of guys were unloading a huge truck of similar debris. They were rather obviously "illegal" immigrants probably working for peanuts. After I finished, I gave them a hand. "Buenas dias." "Gracias" "Por nada" "Bienvenidos". A few smiles.

Didn't change the world, stop Bush, end the war, end racism and xenophobia. No big deal. But, I figure it helped.

I don't know Spanish, but have been learning some just to be friendlier and like you say, end racism and xenophobia. Its a little thing, and I applaud you.

But we need to do something about Bush.

....go see them. Let them put a face to the letters and calls their office receives. Next, I'd suggest speaking to people one-on-one at work, at the gym, at neighborhood meetings, on and on the list goes.

The more involved you are in the community the more you can influence what goes on in your immediate area and in Washington. When your involved in the community you can always structure your comments/arguments back to what is going on in Washington DC.

No it's not going to be easy and it definitely won't be quick - but then our forefathers didn't have things easy either.

Hope this helps.

I'm one of those very rare humans who can't leave the house at all, so meeting people and going to talk to people is out, although I get that suggestion a lot.

One person is useless, but millions can make things happen.

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I bought a hybrid, I have my signs, I go to every fucking protest, I sign every fucking petition, I write letters, I call the fucks, I support my local candidates, I rent rickshaws and drive through the streets with my bullhorn, "Bushitler is a serial killer." I come to DU daily. I share information, I buy books, music and see movies that support various confrontations against the mother fuckers, I listen to AAR, I go to anticoncerts. I visit the whitehouse with signs, "come out you crawford coward you're surrounded." I am a member of various opposition groups. I share the message daily with someone. BUT IT AIN'T DOING DIDLY! just feeds my anger to keep fighting.

:rofl:

the OP wasn't even talking to you... There are VERY few in here doing 1/4 of what you just described for a variety of excuses. My excuse for no hybrid is that I'm way too broke to get a late model vehicle of any type. Sadly, I overcame the problem by driving my big hungry beast less then 15 miles every week on average. In fact, if we all just worked about 1/4 as hard toward our shared goals, as you just described, we wouldn't even be in this gigantic pile of chimp-crap in the first place. What I wanna see on this thread is someone posting their reasons for not donating to worthy causes, volunteering their time and rebuilding the environment. Maybe, like some Alabama red-neck they'll say it doesn't need doing is the reason they are not doing what it takes to fix this damn country.

I buy the extra large jars of vaseline and assume the position

into an activist at a primay level. Information + personal context.

America must find its voice, or Corporate Media will speak for "us".

but EVERY chance I get, I try to get the message out to the uninformed. It constantly amazes me how few people know whats really going on. We live in a land of sheeples and ostriches with their heads stuck in the Iraqi sand. I am not overbearing, because their little brains can be overloaded quickly :sarcasm: but just a line or two can get them to thinking. If they ask questions, all the better. If they spew fauxfacts, I can hit them with real facts. I try to stay as informed as I can so that I will be ready with an insightful answer.

We are deeply "hard wired" to respond to and be shaped by what personal contact models.

IMO, not much else will happen without roots in prosaic concrete experience, i.e. more people in personal action and inter-action in ordinary life. Paolo Freire (South American Education Reformer) called it "praxis".

It's a culture of compromise and selfishness that is pervasive in the nation today. People cry "we're a middle classed nation" as the ranks of the poor grew and the prisons filled with them, they echoed "drugs are bad!" and blindly followed along as death rates climbed by 7 times with coke and a similar climb with heroin due to our policies. They cashed in on the stock market and pushed for the same laws that we're now feeling the effects of today. Corporate domination and consolidation was the price of that raging success in the markets, and the laws we passed to enable it. What we see today is simply the results of the work we've done as a nation over recent decades, if it wasn't for that today wouldn't even be possible.

What am I doing? Trying best I can to kill off some of the partisan hate where I can, get people to look at what's actually going on in the nation. People on all sides have screwed up, at least some on all sides thought they were doing the right thing. The way I see it most of this partisan crap is simple distraction to keep us at each others throats while the players in this game rob us blind and consolidate their power. We hate them, they hate us, and few are watching the big picture. We've been played or betrayed by at least parts of both sides.

We need to stop answering every little distraction that's thrown at us and start educating people about what's really going on out there. My main areas are the drug war and media consolidation, pick yours and learn about it then spread the knowledge. You don't even have to leave the home for that, just visit some new places online and talk to some new people if that's what suits you. Just make people think, give them reason to examine their beliefs and understanding of the world around them. Much of it isn't what it seems.

americans will take action.

but it is too late, even then.

america is dead

different.

...to say nothing of those that remain maimed and psychologically scarred as a result of that conflict in Vietnam.

Don't you remember the Pentagon Papers, the Enemies' List, the Watergate break-in?? The cops knocking heads, the Don't Trust Anyone Over 30??

Same shit, different asshole.....

breaking laws and making new laws without citizen approval.

Remember the Saturday Night Massacre????
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/102173-2.htm
Nixon Forces Firing of Cox; Richardson, Ruckelshaus Quit
President Abolishes Prosecutor's Office; FBI Seals Records

The full chronology of events:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/chronology.htm#1970

Charles Colson was compiling enemies lists, GOP stooges were breaking into Democratic offices and psychiatrist offices digging up dirt; The AG ended up in jail; Nixon resigned to escape impeachment.

Look back at June 2004. This administration had a majority approving of it's performance. We have come a long way in the struggle during that short period of time. It's just that most of us monitor the political tide on a daily basis and when you're that close to it you just don't get an accurate perspective.

I think of it this way. If this group of evil asshats still had the support it once enjoyed, think of all the batshit crazy moves they would have made. Think of the things we never saw !

I hate to say it but money talks. Donate to your democrat's campaign. Or even better, help raise money for the dems by organizing fundraisers.

have to donate to any new dem that wants to run, clean out the house and senate, and get these assholes out now, a paper ballot would be nice.

because you just HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD! DU do-nothing cry-babies afraid to even post their own OP is the problem, not trolls! TROLLS ARE ANOTHER JOKE AND EXCUSE TO SIT ON OUR ASSES IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER AND DO NOTHING UNTIL NOVEMBER, THEN CRY "SEE? I TOLD YOU SO! CHEATED AGAIN!! WE CAN'T WIN!!!"

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he wants us to sing "The Crow Anthem"

" YOU CAN'T WIN YOU CAN'T BREAK EVEN "
" AND YOU CAN'T GET OUTTA THE GAME "
" PEOPLE KEEP SAYIN' "
" THINGS ARE GONNA CHANGE BUT THEY LOOK JUST LIKE "
" THEY'RE STAYIN' THE SAME "
" YOU GET IN WAY OVER YOUR HEAD "
" AND YOU ONLY GOT YOURSELF TO BLAME "
" YOU CAN'T WIN CHILD "
" YOU CAN'T WIN CHILD "
" YOU CAN'T BREAK EVEN "
" YOU CAN'T GET OUTTA THE GAME "
" YOU CAN'T WIN THE WORLD KEEPS MOVIN' "
" AND YOU'RE STANDIN' FAR BEHIND "
" PEOPLE KEEP SAYIN' "
" THINGS'LL GET BETTER "
" JUST TO EASE YOUR STATE OF MIND "
" SO YOU LEAN BACK "
" AND YOU SMOKE THAT SMOKE "
" AND YOU DRINK YOUR GLASS OF WINE "
" SAYIN' YOU CAN'T WIN CHILD "
" YOU CAN'T BREAK EVEN "
" AND YOU CAN'T GET OUTTA THE GAME "

Just surrender Dorothy now, because you cannot win.

Philosoraptor, I haven't always appreciated your posts but this one spoke volumes. Seems to me this is something that has rolled around in your head for a while, you've givent a lot of thought to this topic. Wnat to know what I think was the most important part of this post? This:

Show me. SHOW ME WHAT TO DO. In the meantime, they are robbing us blind and murdering thousands while we all sit around challenging each other to come up with a plan.

First, you are correct in that our discussion here, especially the more useless parts, are doing nothing to stop the horrors you cite. This also frustrates me.

Second was the "show me what to do" part. In the time between election 2000 and election 2002 I read at DU, a lot. It was smaller and seemed more serious, it was packed with really informative posts, both OPs and subsequent commentary full of facts, links, quote, etc. I read and read, like crazy. Learned so much! I was inspired to get involved and jumped in on election day 2002. I have worked on teh effort for full time ever since. In that space of time I went from clueless volunteer to Congressional district chair, it was like the Evelyn Wood speed-course in local and state politics. :-)

Anyway, I feel very qualified to answer your inquiry and shared my background so you'd understand why I felt that way.

From where I sit today, in a 14 county Cong. district, much of it rural and 12 of them having gone red in 04, I see plainly that our potential strength lies in our county organizations. Many are incredibly weak or even non-existent. It's quite sad really. Oddly, even the counties that have zero party activity respond well to contact from the District. I get lots of notes and checks from those counties when I aend out a mailing. After having grown membership for my local county party before district involvement I knew all about how to do it. I went to each county party, or at least the chair if there was no party, and went through how to build the lcoal party. Raised money for the district and funded memebership drives via mailing for many counties. Lo and behold they actually got money and memebers and volunteers! the Gospel according to Julie, as far as these 14 counties are concerned, is this: Build and strengthen the county parties and we will make ourselves gerrymander-proof. If we can build a "chain" of sorts, each precinct being a link of it, and make each link of it strong, they can't be weakened no matter how they are joined.

Find your county party. Go to their meetings. Get involved. Work the fundraisers, recruit dues paying members and volunteers and then gain some visibility in your community. If there has been a lack of Dem candidates in your ara, I assure you a strong local party will remedy that. Here's an example;

Prior to 04 our county party was invisible and very small. After some serious membership drive efforts (aside from mailings we signed up new members at events and the primary/caucus for 04--we signed 72 new members in 6 hours that day!!!), fundraising efforts and smart marketing, we made huge electoral gains (won the city for the first time in living memory!) and established a permanent store-front office. While we still didn't win the county we made a huge mark, everyone knew we were there. Even in our little burg we turned out 1500 protesters when Bush came to town! What do you know, two years later for mid-terms we have five viable county commision candidates, a superb state house candidate and we actually have a primary for the state Senate seat! In 04 we had one county commission candidate and that was it. Incredible what a good reputation for the local party can do in regard to candidate recruitment.

So anyway, I would be glad to continue the conversation via PM with you if you would like any particulars in regard to getting things done. So glad you asked though I apologize for the verbose response. It is my passion after all.

Cheers :toast:--Julie

Lots of good practical ideas. And I'm glad you and others have understood my frustration at just getting a cohesive plan and following it through.

Check your inbox. :toast:

Screw those who ask what you've been doing. Just do what you can.

I remember when DUers were part of the 10% minority who opposed Bush. In those days, all our actions seemed futile. Tides have turned since then. I think DUers had a hand in turning the tide. None of us took action in the same fashion, but all of our actions combined will eventually bring down the state. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be able to keep going.

I have tried to use the talents I have to resist the Bush regime. Here's a link to my latest project.

http://media.putfile.com/A-Pict-Song

you down. And let's not forget the maggot M$M.

I co-founded a group of U.S. citizens here in Rome. We participate in protests, marches, sit-ins, even organized a couple of our own, screened over 20 documentaries in our film series, have monthly meetings, have written 6 letters to our ambassador, organized a talk with journalist Dave Lindorff, another with Vietnam vet Michael Uhl, a presentation on New Orleans with someone who volunteered there, a debate with the Italian journalists responsible for the RAI News 24 Fallujah video, collected photos for ControlArms, put out a weekly bulletin with news and "take action" items, made a "sneak appearance" ;) on the Today Show when they were here, handed out flyers on military spending on April 15, and tomorrow we'll join our Italian partners in peace at a protest as Italy votes to renew missions in Iraq and Afhganistan.

The most important thing to note is I have NO EXPERIENCE, meaning anyone can do it!

Organize organize organize.

Steph

This and others are the answers America is begging for. I applaud your efforts immensely.