You Have 8 Months

[matcom]

You have had 3 years.

Did you do it? Did you make any progress? Or, sigh, did you decide it wasn't worth it. Don't want to make waves. Too contentious you reasoned. Some things are better left alone. Will cause more problems than it's worth. Won't make any difference, they don't want to know the truth. No point.

Let me tell you a little story. It isn't difficult. Yes, I thought at first it would be hell; angry emails in response, vociferous phone calls, the dreaded silent treatment. NONE of that happened. Sure, things were quiet at first but then the dialogue sprouted like a spring tulip. It was reserved at first. Small questions were asked and answered without much retort. Then phone calls were initiated with the sole purpose of discussing the days barrage of email news stories. Answers were provided calmly, succinctly and without bias.

Facts are weapons that cannot be defended against. They cannot be 'spun'. They are vast and at our fingertips. They permeate the mind faster than the flash of a naked breast on prime time TV. Facts have a strange way of inciting questions and thought. Thoughts become education and morph into actions.

My father and mother have been recipients of a barrage of facts since January 2000. Quietly they began receiving the facts of this misAsministration via email almost daily. Yes, I was selective at first, not wanting to 'rock the boat' too fast too soon. Then out of the blue, the request came for followup information. I was amazed. A retired intelligence officer and staunch Republican Bush supporter, my father began to read. I didn't even have to plead with him. There it was in his email inbox. The truth. Sure, he could have simply deleted everything but he didn't. He probably couldn't. PNAC was in his subject line. LIES read another. LIHOP (in different terminology) followed. PAGE 51 OF THE PATRIOT ACT was divulged. Curiousness got the better of him. He read. He learned.

The metamorphosis has been nothing short of stunning. Better than any super hero transforming from a mild-mannered citizen into a supernatural entity. You think it cannot happen? Think again. I have seen it with my own eyes. You just have to believe.

The point of all this? You too, can do this. I have converted 2 misguided patriotic Americans. They have in turn, converted others. Yes, the numbers are small but they are significant.

I challenge each of you to do the same. Try it.

You Have 8 Months.

[blondeatlast]

1. Not bad for a fellow Lounge Lizard, guy!

I pledge to try, although nearly everyone I have any degree of closeness to is on MY side. But if I find one who isn't, LOOK OUT.

I've garnered a huge supply of references thanls to those handy blue DU links, too.

I love those damn things, I really do.

Nice work again, Matcom. But please don't stop spreading the wacko news. I really can't possibly have your job, so post away...

[matcom]

2. i will never stop posting wacko news

no worries :)

thanks.

[matcom]

3. kick

:kick:

[qanda]

4. Excellent Matcom!

Most of my family and friends are already against the Bush* regime, but I remind them as often as possible about how evil this administration is. Sometimes they roll their eyes, sometimes they talk about me being radical, but they cannot disagree with the facts.

Now, I have a new challenge. I just found out that my father, who has not really been a part of my life, is a "conservative". Well, I have his email address and if you would be so kind to post some of the material you sent to your dad, I will surely forward it to my father.

[matcom]

5. scroll through GD and LBN any given day

send him the 'credible', 'factual' stories.

send him PNAC's website
send him page 51 of the PNAC doctrine where they state they need a 'Pearl Harbor' event
send him the stories where Bush wants to classify McDonald worker's as manufacturers
send him each and every story where Bush lied to get into Iraq
send him each and every story where Bush is trying to stop the 9/11 commission

etc...
etc...
etc...

GOOD LUCK!

[matcom]

6. kick

too damn many nader threads

[underpants]

7. Agreed-here is my strategery

I am of course going to volunteer with the Va Dems but I also am planning on doing a little "freelance" myself. Part of the "Don't let the media vote for you" (ON EDIT- RWers hate the media) display will be an up to date depiction of the polls tracked here:
http://www.pollkatz.homestead.com/

I think the first thing you have to do in "hostile territory" (which the 'burbs around here are) is to let people know that it is okay NOT to support W. I think the Dem primaries have really gotten that ball rolling and the difference in our little Super Bowl party this year from even last year let alone two years ago was vast- This year myself and my wife hosted 6 friends over:Two CPA's, one bona fide NASCAR dad" (no kids) who hunts and fishes but thinks the NRA is too radical, a working stiff (my best friend since age 12) at a water treatment plant, and a real estate appraiser who was shocked that I said that I doubted WMD were in Iraq even NEAR what W was saying, he now calls me all the time to see what I know (thanks DU). Anyway the discussion (I just let them gather steam and not direct it) was not only about W's headshaking decisions but about the Dem candidates (I said I was STILL supporting Moseley Braun :bounce: ). Last year there was little discussion of W or even the war, they all thought it was a no brainer which I informed them it wasn't. The fact that this middle of the road non-politicos in Virginia would even have such a discussion was qutie amazing. My wife and I think that we can get at least 4 votes out of that group alone.

Okay I have to start collecting the headlines and reports to not only be negative towards W but to support the Dem nominee. I am planning on leaving the AWOL thing out instead focusing on W's failed business ("He never found oil in TEXAS!!!) while be featured prominently, also his Feb.2000 move to the ranch, the special tax break he got on his $1.5 Million house in a gated community near Houston (he paid ~$587 in property tax). The point is to illustrate that he is manufactured and not the person they think he is. Also to show that (if it is Kerry) that he doesn't pretend to be something (cowboy) that he is not and that they both come from the same background. People vote with their wallets AND on the person.

AS far as policies I am going to compile a thick handout of the actual positions and the actual legislation that differed from W's spun message. An executive summary to start with supporting documentation only from the NYT, WaPost, and even things I have found in the RW hometown Richmond Times-Dispatch ADN FOx-I will show that the "liberal media" and the "fair and balanced" network can only spin the truth so much. This ties in with the media thing stated above.

I plan on hitting the two new upscale malls that is the new town square in these two 'burbs.

I expect there to be some really nasty things slung at me by the RW kool-aid drinkers but hey what am I going to tell my kids I did?

[matcom]

9. ROCK ON JEFF!!

excellent! see if you can get some others to go with you. you will have a BLAST

:thumbsup:

[underpants]

12. Here's my math on this

100 people. I need to at least plant the seed of doubt in 100 people's minds. Only a 20% doubt will be amplified as they sit around and talk up politics with their friends adn family, which they will.

If they have the packet of material I give them and say "Hey you might want to look into this" to a friend or two and then they tell two people..........

That is why the packet has to be put together correctly (I will run it through DU to get opinions and other sources) it will not TELL them what they should think but point them in directions and let them find out for themselves and feel that THEY made the decision not "the guy at the mall" (me) and NOT the media.

All I need is a couple hundred "Yeah but...."s and "Did you know"s from that 100 people.

[underpants]

14. I'll add that one point that MUST be made is on STEMCELL RESEARCH

No not graphic pictures but on relating to people who have cancer, alzheimers, parkinsons, heart disease, etc. histories in their families.....who doesn't?

Allow them to see how stem cells are actually created (not late term abortions for the vast majority of the time) which will trigger the "Oh really I never heard that...what other lines are they feeding me?" response and then show them how horrible W's decision really was and what the long term consequences will be. Micheal J. Fox made this point very strongly before W's triangulated base securing decision about how politically he couldn't imagine turning away that many people based only on faith issues.

ON EDIT-lead them through this also to the manipulation of science as outlined in the letter from the scientists this week. Hearing the word manipulation as many times as possible obviously will trigger thoughts of the war and WMD and people don't like feeling they have been manipulated (read: LIED to).

[matcom]

15. yup

use terms such as 'misleading', 'less than truthful', etc...

LIE may turn some people off and they might stop reading. plant the seed. see what blossoms

[Scottie72]

23. Great job....

I can attest there is a lot of work to be done here in VA. I think that the DEMs have a chance to win this state. VA elected a DEM govenor two years ago. I would love to see the DEM nominee take this state!

[Toots]

8. I have made it an iron-clad rule of mine to keep politics out of

my business. I have never brought up politics to any of my vendors or customers. It isn't "Prudent". I don't want to run the risk of alienating a customer or future customer. Since Bush* has been in office my business has suffered quite a bit. Last year alone I lost six major accounts because they went out of business. K-Mart being the biggest but several more quite close in size. So far in only a month and a half two of my accounts have had to close their doors and one filed for bankruptcy leaving me holding the bag for over seven grand. If things continue I won't have a business to worry about so lately I have made a few casual remarks here and there about the current economic climate. To my surprise to a person everyone has expressed even more concern than myself. Bush* has very few supporter among the people I have spoken to lately and these people are business owners and not just laborers. My spirits get lifted every day but I refuse to get to optimistic. My business depends upon this election. Even one more year like last year and I'm done. We need the Adults to get back in charge and straighten out the mess we are in.

[underpants]

10. Two things that shouldn't be dicussed in the workplace:politics &religion

I agree with you it can hurt your business relationships and even in friendships I try not to be the guy always talking about politics. If they ask or say something I can offer more information on I do.

Just this week I had two people at work volunteer the following:

One of our IT guys is straight out of the hip-hop nation, he walked into my office and said,"Your bretheren is NOT going to win in November...he is going down in flames". The "bretheren" part comes from our running joke about "THE MAN" (he is black I am white) I informed him that W was NOT my bretheren. He sat in my office for about 5 minutes and as he discussed things (he was in the Army too) I added this and that and he was quite amazed by a lot of it. He agreed that an honorable discharge doesn't mean squat.

AS I was about to leave Friday afternoon I popped into the long time IT guy's office (we BS about all kinds of things) just to say,"Have a good weekend". He is a 50 year old who was at the tail end of Vietnam age and actually got a draft number but was never drafted, he is of the mid-70's generation. He knows where I stand politically and the first thing he said to me was,"W is in BIG trouble". We then talked for a few minutes about how W has nothing to show as accomplishments and that everyone he knew was saying the same. When I told him that it looked like W was going to try to ride the gay amendment thing he rolled his eyes, both of us agreed that it won't sell with most people and that everyone's first reaction will be~"Uh don't we have more important things to take care of???"

It was reassuring to hear two people from very different "groups" say almost exactly the same thing.

[ursacorwin]

11. the business class is actually one of our strongest allies

and the group we need to "convert" in the next 8mo the most. lots of the "little" people here can only give in dean sized amounts, and even those of us who can give the max are hardly a match to big corporate interests. but the small business owners have both a voice in the party, and a voice in the community. if we spead the word at the community level, i think most of us will perceive that there is a lot more fear of four more years than support. for purely financial, "selfish" reasons.

bush isn't just bad for the "standard" liberal classes and causes. he threatens everyone who makes less than the top 1% income bracket. everyone.

[underpants]

13. Right about the 1% and business people decide based on RESULTS

Black and white. Yes or no.

W&Co. have painted everything with so much black and white that they left no gray area, no wiggle room.

Did what you said happen?
What are your results?
Were you right?

Simple questions to ask on every issue with simple answers. W sold himself as a straight shooter ( :eyes: ) and if tries to explain away everything people are going to roll their eyes and tune out after the first sentence. When you run a bumpersticker campaign you better have bumpersticker answers.

[matcom]

22. we are a 50/50 nation

let's change some minds

[matcom]

16. i know its Sunday but

:kick:

[WilliamPitt]

17. Kick for daddy matcom

[matcom]

18. LOL

:thumbsup:

[Sophree]

19. I've converted at least one.

And, boy did I create a monster! The converted are always the most fanatical, I guess. :-)

I've also been registering young people to vote at my store. I keep voter registration forms behind the counter and whenever a youngster starts to bitch about political stuff I ask them if they're registered to vote. I have them fill it out and I give them a stamp.

It's easy!

[matcom]

20. ROCK ON SISTER!!

:bounce:

you are doing GREAT THINGS! Keep it up. We got a LONG way to go!

:thumbsup:

[Sophree]

21. Thanks!

I know, and I will. We can do it, I KNOW we can!!!

[diamond14]

28. I keep Virginia Voter Registration forms in my briefcase....

often over lunch or on the MetroTrains, I run into a Virginian who isn't registered and doesn't know how to do it, and might not make that little efforts, so I hand them the form...and now I'm adding an addressed envelope with a stamp to go along...so they can drop it in the mail right away....just a tiny expense, but well worth getting a few more votes for Kerry...


extra bonus for small but critical efforts by individuals...

you can download the Virginia Voter Registration form right off the State of Virginia web page, under the Virginia Elections Commissioner section....so it's no big effort to register your friends, neighbors, lunch partners, EVERYONE....

[Sophree]

24. Monday kick

:kick:

[laylah]

25. Kickin' It! n/t

[proud patriot]

26. My yard is now attracting people, neighbors, vets

I've been invited to a neighborhood party ,
I've been invited to join the local Dem club,
I've been thanked for my courage .

I live on a main Thuroughfare in a big suburb of SF.
litteraly thousands of people drive by my house everyday.

Since the day of the first bombs dropping on Iraq
My yard has been covered with "Patriotic Dissent"
My Garden Arch has a huge Yellow ribbon .

Signs in the yard read
1."Support Our Troops"
2."Bring Them Home Now"
3."Impeach Bush"

I respectfully bring old glory in every night and
on rainy days .

But the Culpepper Minuteman Flies everyday

[diamond14]

27. yesterday, converted a recently-returned American soldier....

at the gym...you can always tell who the soldiers are, and I live close to the pentagon....

first I thanked him for his service....then, bush* came on the TV right in front of us while we were working out (the shrub has been on TV a LOT lately)....

then, I mentioned a little about the missing WMD and how concerned I was about that...and I got the WHAM...'what does it matter?, we're in there now and we have to stay and help the Iraqi people'....so I knew he was somewhat concerned about that....

so in small steps...we finally got to talking about bush* preemptive KILL EM ALL perpetual WAR policy...I was very careful to let the soldier know that WE THE PEOPLE are working very hard for the soldiers...that WE fought back bush* cuts in combat pay...that WE fought back bush* cuts in VA medical care...the WE made our Congress force bush* to send Kevlar vests to OUR soldiers...and that all the protestors are VETERANS, and Veterans families and Military active service families, and even ACTIVE service off-duty...

throughout the whole hour work-out...the conversation was short remarks...throughout...and the soldier was returning the conversation, he told me what a mess it is....that he wasn't really out near Iraqi citizens, that some soldiers KNOW...and finally, as he walked out, I said 'bye' and he said 'we need to vote him out in November'.......and I thanked him again for his service....

[Ilsa]

30. Nice work!!!

:toast: :yourock:

[Ilsa]

29. I've been working on one. She's still afraid of the "terra-ists".

I've talked to her about hte Patriot Act, rights eroding, the economy, outsourcing of jobs. I've talked to her about benefits for the poor AND disabled crumbling away while our taxes go up to support an immoral war. I don't know if I"ve made any headway. She still arms herself with potassium iodide (I think that's it) in case of an attack on a nuclear facility.

Most of my family is so so so so over W. No more work to be done there.

You are right, Matcom. We have to convert the masses, one at a time, through personal testimony, just like the right-wingers do it.

[LunaC]

31. Please join the Whispering Campaign

The Whispering Campaign is an opportunity to become ACTIVELY involved in waking up the American public without drawing attention to yourself. It is a game of Political "Gossip" where the story of our Government's deception and betrayal gets passed from one villager to another until the jungle drums of discontent, rage and fury become a never-ending cacophony in the background that the media can't ignore. Anyone can play. The rules are simple: make ten copies of the link below and leave it in a public place where someone else will find it and read it. Ideal locations for maximum exposure include book stores, copy shops, libraries and train stations. Buses, taxis, laundromats, and check-out lines at the grocery store. Hair salons, rest rooms, gas stations and convenience stores. Anywhere you happen to be will work just fine. Do this every week from now until November. Start the "buzz" that ends the Bush Administration......there's no excuse NOT to!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=976762