The poster child of it.

Shit - sorry about the length.

Be careful, though. Such an argument is a slippery slope

that leads to
Oh well, never mind...
Oh, really? Aw shit, back to the drawing board...
Hmmm... not a perfect solution...
Might not work...
But what about - ...
Probably won’t make any difference...
Yeah, but - ...
Don’t know if they can do that...
Meh, what’s the use?
We not gonna get them all...
They’ll just use another gun...

and any number of other discouraging words.

Screw that! Folks, it’s a START, dammit! WE’VE GOT TO START SOMEWHERE, DAMMIT!!!

Yes. I’m SHOUTING! And rather unapologetically at that!

I would answer all of the above with the following question:

“So then we do NOTHING????”

I just will not accept delivery of “there’s nothing we can do”. Ain’t doin’ it. Besides, that’s what the bad guys want. That’s what they’re banking on. Quite literally! They’ve spent hundreds of millions over years on perception management, influencing and steering and adjusting our views, opinions, reactions, and responses. Using advertising, talking points packaged for talking-heads-for-hire, wholly-owned public figures and celebrity shills, manufactured “news” and comment, billboards, hate radio, and Oy the Internet.

NO! I refuse. I won’t just do nothing. I won’t quit or give up or concede defeat or simply hand them the win. (That’s their goal: domination and conquest.) I sure won’t keep silent. (That’s what they’re wishing and hoping and strategizing and spending all that money to achieve.)

Beat them.

Or make ‘em defend it.

Make ‘em have to work harder and spend way more money than they’d expected or planned for.

Mess with ‘em, interfere in their plans, frustrate their ambitions, block their progress, ruin their day. And up-end their agenda. Keep getting in the way. Sugar in their gas tank and shortsheet their beds.

Destabilize the enemy. Now happens to be a pretty good time for it.

I think it’s starting to dawn on the GOP that their battle is increasingly uphill. They’re no longer standing on such smug, swaggering, cocky, we’re golden, I’m-gonna-get-away-with-it ground. Evidence is all around us: slumping poll numbers; shaky economy; uncertainty, problems, and chaos everywhere; not getting along with our friends anymore; promises broken or not kept; bad “policy” if you can even call it that - and worse “execution.” Add a so-called “chief executive” who is increasingly out-of-touch, manifestly losing his mind, and whose words and statements are worth nothing because the selfish idiot jerk lies all the time! AND he goes out to play golf while the coastal southeast is getting hit by what is now, literally, a killer hurricane.

AND now there’s lots of attention turning to the onslaught of 2020 Democrats, TOO!
AND not a week goes by that we don’t learn that more GOPers are resigning from both Congress and the Senate which means more seats to defend. And that gets expensive - something they probably didn’t budget for.

This is a CAPITAL idea to start destabilizing the enemy. I used to talk about it here and one time even had that phrase in my sig line.

Seriously. The current is flowing OUR way. It’s ours to exploit. The time is right, again. If we don’t seize it, and exploit it, then we don’t deserve this gift confluence of “downers for donald”. nor do we deserve to win.

Yep. Precisely!

Yep! Absolutely.

Yep! Totally.

You know that old saying: if the shoe fits, wear it.

Yep. Massacre Mitch and/or Mass-Murder Mitch.

Any of those.

Yep. WE can do branding, too.

Ooooooooooooohhh LOVE it-LOVE it-LOVE it!!!

mysteryowl: go get some Indivisible! ASAP!

And they’ll be ready to help you nag, pester, and repeat because it’s necessary!

Seriously! Just yesterday, I attended the first of two monthly Postcard Parties for our Indivisible group. Actually there are three: our twice-a-month events PLUS a new one that some environmentally-minded elders at a nearby senior center recently wanted to set up. Our group now sponsors theirs and we go and help out each time.

And that’s just the Postcard Party approach. That’s where we send postcards on lots of issues. Our group provides everything from the actual postcards to pens and markers of all colors, crayons for the kids, addresses, stamps, and suggested prompts you can copy verbatim OR put your message in your own words. Then we mail ‘em or hand-carry in the case of our Congressman whose district office is just blocks away from where our event is.

We have other gatherings that WE host and we team up with a neighboring Indivisible group on their events - like monthly meetups in the offices of our Senators and Congressmen - their staffers and sometimes the office-holders themselves.

We go to marches and rallies and town halls, sometimes in groups. And every weekend our Research & Writing team gets together to write the upcoming Call to Action email - with five weekday “asks” on the issues plus a list of local events of interest and relevance. Those asks include suggested scripts that are used at all those Postcard Parties for people who want to write their Rep(s).

There’s A LOT happening that you are welcome to check out, and you’re apt to meet some folks who are really plugged in at the local and state level. And the best part is - if you go to some of these things, you start meeting people and making useful connections. You can walk right up to some bigshot’s field rep or personal assistant and introduce yourself and mention your issue or interest.

I did exactly that at Senator Ron Wyden’s Town Hall last week. I had some of our group’s informational business cards and a printout of a recent UK Guardian story about an international grassroots effort to plant a trillion trees to slow the advance of the climate crisis. I handed those to one of Wyden’s deputies and she put them in a folder she had clipped to her clipboard with her own notes.

You’re gonna meet people, maybe make some new friends and fellow activists, share intel and expertise, and learn TONS. And you’ll be with interesting folks who are informed, involved, and give a damn.

And there are THREE big dividends here:

1) You’ll feel like you’re actually DOING SOMETHING,

2) it’ll make you a better, smarter, and more effective activist,

and

3) you WON’T feel alone!!!

Maybe the focus will be local and state: your own people on Capitol Hill and sometimes your own state capitol. But there’s no reason why you can’t write postcards to Pelosi when you’re at one of those Postcard Parties! They might even have her district and DC contact info, or you can easily look it up. I’ve been doing that for months, myself, pushing impeachment. (We actually started targeting Moscow Mitch in our last several Postcard Parties too!) Better yet, you can write to YOUR reps, urging THEM not only to support impeachment but also to pressure HER on it. Nothing wrong with triangulating! And if your rep is one of the “good guys” who’s on impeachment, GREAT! Your postcard to him or her can say “thank you!”

Gotta keep this one!

To borrow from John Dean: There is a cancer on America.

THIS is it. Eating away at Democracy and the sanctity of the vote.

And it must be fought and otherwise resisted as long as it lurks in ANY corner or shadow of our reality.