On The Task of The Moment
There is little in this world that cannot be achieved through a concerted effort.
If you doubt me, let me remind you we are in this situation right now because of a concerted effort.
Some people are still allowing the bitterness of the election affect them. Which does not change the results, does not make any candidate better than any other, does not make any candidate worse than any other — and if your focus is still on how *your* choice of a candidate “really is” better or worse than some other, you are precisely the person I am taking about here.
That is part of the tools used to divide us, the bullshit excuses that work to undermine our ability to realize that we cannot keep dwelling on what was, and remain mired in the neoliberalism of all the candidates that ran this last time.
Yes, all of them.
We need to move to a different paradigm for the purpose of liberty and freedom, and I want you to be focused on that.
If you disagree with me about that, well, fine — you go on and disagree and when you are ready to stop bitching about what we should be doing when we haven’t been in a position to have those fights since Truman was in office, and certainly not when the Red State leadership is just shy of the two thirds needed to pass a constitutional amendment that strips women, people of color, lgbt, disabled, and otherwise “offensive” sorts of any rights.
Oh, yes. That isn’t just possible — if they achieve that goal within the next two years, it is a certainty. Because the money behind those who are rank and file in the states is money that supports the big wealthy companies and people, yes, but also is the funding that has supported anti-abortion, anti-lgbt, and worked to undermine civil rights protections since 1980.
They are more than the religious right — they are the tea party, the gamer gaters, the white nationalists, the anti-feminism/pro-meninism, reddit bating, site trolling sorts that draw *anyone* who hates a group to their shores just like the way they drew lesbian separatists that hate trans women to their side.
And all of them have something they want, and so they will do what we tend to have a hell of a hard time doing — “saying ok, sure, why not, let’s fuck *all* of them over”.
There are “men’s rights activists” that will tell you “no, no, that’s not true”. I swear it. If you think that people couldn’t possibly be a certain way, then you are underestimating human beings — in both their capacity for being really awesome, and also their capacity for being really awful.
That isn’t smart. That’s like thinking that socialism or capitalism or agrarianism is going to solve the worlds problems — utopian and while noble, bereft of serious understanding of human successes and failures.
I happen to be absolutely certain that we can, over the next four years, essentially strip the current Regressive party politicians out of power at the local level and majorly dent (and gain a majority in the senate and close to it in the House).
I also am pretty certain that we can then conduct redistricting in 2021 to benefit us for the next decade, complete the take over of Congress in 2022, and over the next 8 years, maintain that control and make significant changes to the social liberties and economic freedoms of every day people that will have as much if not more impact on the future of the US than the WPA and related efforts from FDR & Truman.
And do so without really worrying about which of the currently seated federal level people is a good candidate for President because if we achieve the other goals, then it won’t matter.
The right has been focused on a constitutional amendment since 1985. The “moderate” republicans that we used to know of in the 1980’s, 1970’s, and even 1990’s are gone — they went independent.
The Republican Party — by platform and by general membership — is currently occupied at the rank and file level by people who are from either the Old Guard of Nixonian Politics (nearly all of whom are old, and in the Federal Senate), Anti-Tax Corporatists of the 80’s, The Religious Right, The Tea Party, or the Alt-Right.
There crossover between those three groups is enormous — we would call it the intersectionality of those three groups is enormous. iDJiT belongs to three of them.
They are, collectively, Anti-American — and by that I mean that the values they espouse are not american ones, and the goals they have are, by and large, illegal or detrimental to the well being of every population but white men with money.
I call them Regressives because they seek to Regress the nation to a point that the gains for minorities over the last 80 years are practically undone.
And among their goals is a constitutional amendment that affects marriage when they talk about it, but goes much, much deeper when they get down to the brass tacks of it.
Right now, the Regressives control 33 Governorships. They need 34.
That is short one. They have 7 chances in 2018 to get that one.
They currently control enough state Legislatures to give it a shot — 34 of them. They only need to increase their hold by about 300 seats overall to make it pretty much a given if they get the governors on board.
That’s how important the next two years are.
They are so close to being able to pass an amendment to the Constitution of the United States without us having even a chance of stopping them that the powers behind the Party are freaking salivating.
A lot of us will believe we can stop such a thing. Just like a lot of us believe that by some magical cpacity to do so that Senate Dems will be able to stop a given nominee of iDJiT‘s from getting through.
Here’s the bad news: there is no chance in hell that they will be able to do that. That is entirely up to Republicans, who have enough votes and the power to kill any sort of effort to stop Gorsuch.
Which they *absolutely* will use, given the way McConnell just treated Warren in the Senate.
They can slow the process down, but they cannot stop it like McConnell did.
There are only 8 Republican seats up for re-election in the Senate in 2018. If we can take all of them, we erase that — but there is another problem…
There are 23 Democratic Senators up for election in 2018. Which means we cannot lose more than 5, even if we win all 8 seats away from the Republicans.
Ok, yeah, I know, I know, what about the other parties. The Green party! Do you know how many elected Green party candidates occupy any legislative office anywhere in the United states right now?
Zero. On top of that, they are the second largest Liberal bloc of registered voters, and they are the 4th largest political party in the US, but they are not present in 6 states and most territories. SO they do not count.
The Libertarians are a conservative wing — Right — and they have more people elected at both federal and state level and are present in all 50 states and are bigger.
So, right now, when it comes to liberal politics, there is only one party that matters: The Democrats.
Which yes, fucking sucks, and that’s why the leadership needs to hear from us and why *you* personally need to freaking be down at the local precinct meeting. Because it makes a difference that you can see once you lift the blinders of cynicism off your face.
ok, ok, so maybe of the few dozen other poitical parties, the greens could grab the other liberal folks and they could all gang up together!
They still wouldn’t equal the Libertarian vote. There are three times more Right side parties than there are left side parties, for one, and membership in left side parties is very low outside of the Dems –but the Dems have more registered voters than the Republicans do.
So the linkage here is Green + Dem, and the effort goes to Dems on only one condition: they have the chance at winning where we need to win.
That’s facts. GO look it up if you must, but understand that I am not saying to be partisan about party, I am saying it because we need to win 8 senate seats without losing any and we need to win 10 governorships without losing any.
Remember the rule of the Hero: they have to fight overwhelming odds. They have to achieve mission:impossible.
This is just mission:improbable; should be a walk in the park for us if we stop bitching about the little shit and get down to making it happen.
Which is really unreasonable of me, I know. I should be more concerned about the quality of the people that we nominate and all that. Well, I would be able to do so *if* there wasn’t around 8 decades of history of Liberals cutting their own balls off everytime shit hits the fan.
Just sayin. This is why I say we need to focus and base our pushes in Human Rights — and specifically human rights like in my line. We have to stop breaking up into our little private bubbles and operate with the default understanding that we are going to do all those things at once, and that we need to be able to discuss how only after we have the power to do that.
So yeah, sorry for being a bitch about it, but right now fighting about how we do something is pretty fucking stupid when what we first have to do is get the power to even do it.
And to get that power, we have to start at the bottom, for a simple reason:
That’s what the bad guys did. That is why the bad guys have that much power. And we can do it — because we can run local candidates on small campaigns really easy. City Council, school board, county leaders, JotPs, and, yes, State legislatures.
We need to own those. And because these are very local and people can see the people running and get to know them, we can do it easily even in Republican zones because, once more…
we are way better at organizing than they are. We are better at being nice and listening to people than they are. And, we give a shit.
They don’t.
So get your ass into the dem Precinct in your area even if you are a die hard Greenie who hates everything about the Democrats.
Please. Because if you don’t, being a Green just means it will be easier to find you when they round up the liberals for concentration camps.
That isn’t that great a reach, either.
Most of this, as well, falls entirely on the shoulders of White People.
Are you white or light skinned? This is your fight. I am light skinned, and I know damn well that this is the time I am needed the most by my brothers, sisters, and siblings.
And I know that even though many, many times I am accused of having privilege that I do not have, and even though many, many times I have been shit on by my Black and Native brothers and sisters and siblings as a mixed person. Almost as many times as I have been shit on by white folks.
Do you know why it is mostly on us? No, it isn’t because of having to make up for centruies of racism. Or centuries of misogyny. Or centuries of anything.
It is because over the next two years, the opposition will do everything in their power to deny everyone else the right to vote and to make it as hard as possible for them to vote.
We have to change the minds of other white people — people who this last time voted for iDJiT or didn’t vote because it was a sure thing or didn’t care to vote because it was already too hard or they didn’t want to be called for Jury Duty or whatever the fuck else they said.
We have to do more than march. More than Protest. We have to make nice with mean as fuck, immoral, unethical nasty ass human rights hating people and bring them over to our side of things.
By any means necessary that doesn’t involve coercion or enacting violence.
When you visit an office, do 3 things:
- Ask for an appointment to sit and speak to the Representative. You will, most often, be directed to a staffer in charge of that area of interest.
- Get the names of everyone you speak to. Take pictures. Ask them how their families are doing — get to know them as people.
- Be clear that you are a constituent. That you are someone they represent, and that the way you are treated will reflect in how all of you in your group will vote.
These are key things because they need to know that you are a voter for them, not someone who is just basically threatening them.
A group of voters is always a very visible and startling sight: especially one that takes names and photos and has written questions, concerns, and points of what they expect. So bring along with you other people in your area — another reason to go to your Precinct meetings, but also reason to join indivisible groups in your area.
The photos, if they ask, are for a “group newsletter”. Because you are a special interest group — the most important one, if not the most moneyed one.
Also, be sure to get any position paper you can from them.
Next up: A Reprise on 20 hours a month, and something less annoying.