YES! – the Supreme Court/Citizen's United really has handed over our democracy to the highest bidders.
92%
NO! – Money is speech - my friends.
8%
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Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
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the real end of the progressive movement is when we lose faith in our democracy. Cynicsm is the worst enemy we have, not Republicans. The outcome of the WI recall was a disappointment, but democracy still won because the recall took place at all:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/azizpoonawalla/2012/06/wisconsin-recall-aft...
You know I know Thom's and Bernie's mottos are 'despair is not an option' but I gotta tell you I am feeling pretty despaired now....the USA is in full-blown crisis now......and I do NOT see any real hope for a real way out of this corporate fascist state we have become. Someone....please talk me down.
Clueless Democrats, Liberals and Progressives wag their heads on que, chanting "Woe is we" -- as they get repeatedly routed by overwhelming political attacks. And it's only gonna get worse.
Dispite a sea-change in political campaign finance, The Left's only reaction is to keep on trying to compete in a financial war they can not possibly win. Even with the Internet harvesting small contributions, they can not possibly match the resources and impact of humungous big-money "investments."
The Left MUST: (1) change the terms of engagement by attacking or neutralizing Citizens United. (2) limit (eliminate) big-money influence in government. (3) make big-money a political liability, (4) use their limited resources (more than enough to get their message out) to "tell it like it is" -- skipping the expensive reactive media messages, (increasingly hated by voters). And (5) the Left has to quit wasting precious resources talking to itself, and reacting defensively rather than attacking innovatively and aggressively. And (6) we must understand and pre-emptively outflank opposition attacks, rather than passively wondering "How can they do that?" after Shock-and-Awe attacks.
We MUST learn to communicate with the critical middle 15%, which controls election results, first listening and learning their needs. And if that's "shifting to the Right" (it ain't), Sobeit. None of my overwhelming solicitation requests hints at any positive program or message -- it's all "They are attacking us unfairly; Send Money." OH YEAH, ... FOR WHAT? More of the same loosing tactics?
With no Strategic Goals or perceptive Organization Management, so far none of this has happened. We lost media-access decades ago. Citizens United is almost 3-years old, alive and well, essentially unchalenged. My In-Box is filled daily with appeals from dozens of worthy causes -- far exceeding my resources. The math just does not add-up. We do well on the ground and GOTV; howver, Campaign Tactics must be revised to meet the new realities, or the battle is lost.
And for those reasons, I'm very pessamistic, about "The Left" figuring it out this time.
(Note: This year's political finance-realities, would be a great Economics thesis research for someone with access to the macro-data. I'd love to read the report.)
Agreed, but of course that is what "they" would want us to feel: defeated and hopeless. The effort in Wisconsin was stellar; it is hard to see campaigns, including all the grassroots backing, having to be even stronger than that in order to have a chance to win. One slight reason for hope is that a recall is inherently a more difficult hill to climb.
I come from the "election fraud" camp. I'm a computer professional who has studied the issue of machine voting and counting for about 8 years now, and I can assure you that there are many opportunities for tampering in the counting and tabulating process using the kinds of vote systems we do now. Many of them could be pulled off with just a handful of people "in the know". As a practical matter our elections are based upon trust in the election officials and trust in the vendors they hire. While I can't prove that there has been tampering, neither can the winners prove they have won. I see no reason to believe that people who would spend tens of millions of dollars to win an election, and who would resort to disgusting dirty tricks like robo-calling people telling them that recall signers need not vote, would refrain from tampering with the machines (or just traditional ballot tampering) to get some insurance on their investment.
We should trust only if we can verify the results. The money might just be a smokescreen for outright theft of the election. They've certainly got the media convinced that it was the money alone that did it.
Having lived in texas most of my life I understand your despair. Surely we will never give in to the republicons; but if we give in to despair we certainly lose any chance we have for ourselves and for generations to come.
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