Reply #30: the issues [View All]

[Two Americas]

The right wing has declared all-out war on the working people, for the benefit of the few, the most powerful and wealthy 1% of the population.

We are asking the Democrats to be as focused and determined in protecting the other 99% of the people from the ravages of the right wing and their wealthy and powerful sponsors and clients. That is not too much to ask, and yes we absolutely can demand and get full party-line compliance on that fundamental life-and-death battle.

FR and Fox watchers are nothing to worry about. They make a lot of noise. They are not the enemy, they are mosquitoes that could and should be effortlessly brushed away without any thought or attention at all. Fox wants us to believe that we should be worried about that fringe or that they represent a significant portion of the population, but that, just like everything else on Fox, is a lie. Being "against" the lie, but still accepting it as meaningful is the way in which the right wing propaganda steers and controls us. Turn it off and ignore it. If you believe they are important and powerful and react to them as though they were, then they will be. Ignore them and the game is over and they lose all power. Their only source of power is in getting liberals to pay attention to them and react to their "ideas" as though they were anything to take seriously.

This has nothing to do with me being personally "happy." It is about what must be done and can be done, for the benefit of millions. There is nothing in it for me personally.

You say that you "just don't believe that this kind of rhetoric or tactical approach will have more than a marginal effect." I know from decades of direct personal experience that this is not true - the exact opposite os true. I give talks to blue collar people, to rural people, to poor people all over the country and say exactly what I am saying here - people who never see any liberal activists, who don't count, who are invisible, but who are the majority of the people in the country. It gets a tremendously positive response, because the have-nots well know the score. It is the most powerful and effective message of any. I talked to a group of Limbaugh listeners just tonight. They are not on the least oppositional or hostile to what I am saying. The only people who are hostile and argumentative are the "progressives" and liberals who control the discussion within the activist community and the party. I could never convince those people to support modern liberalism, and I refuse to engage in partisan bickering or
So, yes, it is true, with people here and with many activists off line, who are relatively upscale and successful with status and a stake in the system as it is, "this kind of rhetoric or tactical approach" falls on deaf ears. But that is only 10% of the population or so. The rest of the people are desperate to hear this message. There is another 10% on the right who won't listen either. But the 80% outside of those two groups? They are starved for this message and extremely anxious to hear it and alert and supportive and enthusiastic when they do hear it.

It is much easier for me to convert a Republican voting Fox watching person to socialism than it is to persuade most upscale and educated liberals and party activists to anything even vaguely or remotely left wing. The general public is moving dramatically to the Left. The party and the activists are fighting a rear guard action against that and are promoting a "progressive" version of Reaganomics and the right wing authoritarian model.


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