A modest proposal: emulate NRA strategy for pursuing Single Payer

[phantom power]

What I mean is this: The NRA has had a very effective strategy, for decades. They're like the Terminator for politicians who support gun control. If a politician, of any party, advocates gun control, the NRA goes after them, and either convinces them to drop gun control or gets them voted out of office. That's what they do. That's all that they do, and they never ever stop. Over the years, that strategy has paid off. Today, very few politicians of either party will touch gun control with a ten foot pole. I guarantee that the recent noises about the AWB will not come to fruition.

My modest proposal is, it would be beneficial to pull off the same strategy for Single Payer. Start with Nelson and Baucus, and take them down. Make it known that opponents of Single Payer will have a Terminator assigned to them with a hyperalloy chassis and a 120 year power supply.

[onehandle]

1. The NRA is supported with millions of gun industry supporting gun fetishists' dollars.

And by the GOP itself in many ways.

That's a lot of "power."

[phantom power]

4. Yes, that is a structural difference...

there is no well-funded industry that opposes the goals of the NRA. There is a well-funded industry -- the insurance industry -- that opposes Single Payer. In a sense, that is why I propose the "terminator" tactic. In order to overcome the lobbying and campaign-finance power of the insurance industry, it would practically be necessary to convince politicians that if they oppose single payer, it will guarantee that they will be strongly challenged in the next election, and the election after that, until the end of time or until they are defeated.

One might also construe that as an argument for why it will never happen. But... it's just a modest proposal.

[T Wolf]

2. The Dems should take lessons from the pukes in terms of tactics. They may "lose" an

election every once in a while, but their agenda proceeds without impediment.

This would argue that Dems are either (1) cowardly and interested more in their own power (not that they actually do anything positive when they get it) or (2) the SAME as the pukes - corporate-owned and only interested in doing their bidding.

[X_Digger]

3. If we can get 4m folks to pay $35 to assure single payer..

then we would have a good base to start from. I like it!

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. Baucus isn't up for reelection until 2014