Eschew obfuscation

I know there are a lot of very intelligent people who post at DU and, to be sure, some of the problems facing this nation now are very serious. I wonder, though, if all of the issues we need to deal with are actually "complicated"?

I know it's sometimes thought necessary, or at least appropriate, to quote Machiavelli, to speak of the "nuances" of a situation and to criticize those calling for an obvious remedy for "playing checkers" when the game is chess.

And, Lord knows, I am painfully aware that we have just (barely) survived eight years of an administration that was incapable of both nuance and chess.

That said, some of the calls for patience and planning and consolidating our allies and managing the message seem to be coming from the same folks who urged us to "keep our powder dry" for most of W's criminal tenure. At some point, damn it, we have to draw a line, dig in and fight like hell for whatever it is we truly believe in.

The public option health care plan, the card check proposal and repeal of the DOMA sure as hell seem to me to be at the core of what being a liberal, being a Democrat, being a decent human being are all about. If you don't support these---you belong to WHAT party?

Let's put it all on the table. Let's fight like hell, but know going in that, win or lose, we are on the side of the angels. Some times, that is enough. If it's not, screw "half a loaf" and screw "dry powder"! Better a principled loss than a half-assed compromise "win".

Making something that should be straight forward and not that tough to understand complex allows people to hide the truth of their actions in the complexity.

It has the same effect as secrecy, in that it hides the actions from most people.

Many times saying, or even building a highly complex system, is just to hide the theft fraud or abuse in that system.


If you make an observation that it is not that complicated, people want this, people with lots of money don't want it. That is the two sides, who do you support?

You get, its not that simple, and falling back on 'baffle them with BS'.

There is absolutely no fucking reason why anybody should be talking about keeping OUR powder dry on DU, because we are the BASE. We do not compromise, we stand up and fight for what we believe. If one of our politicians has to compromise, they will. That's what happens when we don't fight hard enough. But for us, the progressive base, to be standing around talking compromise while the republican base pushes our candidates to the right hard just makes us seem weak. How do people expect our politicians to act in that scenario???

too many DUers act as if we can somehow dictate what the politicians do, but in fact it is the politicians who must decide when to compromise, when to keep their powder dry, when to accept bribes, and when to lead. All we can do is decide how to allocate our resources in making our voices heard and when to push hard on the issues that matter to us.