I'm about to open a can of worms and dump them all over the table....
This morning as I perused the DKOS recommended list, I ran across this.
"Anybody Else Here Tired of Hearing How Bad the Republicans Are?"
Since there were over 500 replies, and knowing how comments can get lost in such numbers, I thought I would reply here. Please follow me below if you care to know what I think....
My answer to the question "Anybody Else Here Tired of Hearing How Bad the Republicans Are?" is both, yes, AND no.
Let me take on the "no" first...
Every morning as I read the news and the diaries here I am alarmed and saddened by what the Theocratic Teapublicans are doing. There are some days the news is so upsetting that I nearly get panic attacks...literally. They just take my breath away. The depth of stupidity and cruelty, greed and hate are just amazing to me. How anyone can live with that much venom, that much evil in their hearts and minds astounds me.
And I WANT to know what they are doing. For too long they were ignored, even though many of us (and yes I was one) who warned people of their intentions...the depth of their desire for complete control of our nation and the world. They were often dismissed as the fringe of the GOP.... and we ignored them to our own detriment.
Now...let me tell you about my "yes"....
I AM tried of hearing every day about what they are doing WITHOUT a clear path on what to do about it OTHER than voting them out. While that IS important, it cannot be our only option, can it?
Here is an example of what I mean... in another diary,
"Kansas Holds Hearing on Medicaid Expansion: "We've Never Seen Anything Like It"
"Jeff Glendening, Americans for Prosperity’s state director, said the organization has concerns about the costs once the state must begin chipping in after 2016.
“The extreme cost when you’re providing coverage to able-bodied Kansans – we just can’t afford it. We’ve got financial problems right now, and expanding Obamacare is not something we should be doing,” Glendening said."
A comment by
niemann was THE PERFECT response....
"And who caused those financial problems, idiot? Which party has been in control of Kansas for the last several years? Which party's economic policy and ideology has Kansas been putting into practice to the letter for the last several years?
I thought conservative economic theory was supposed to lead to prosperity. So you're admitting now that it doesn't? That it leads to financial problems instead? You're admitting that it is wrong and a failure when put into actual practice?"
But no one asked Jeff Glendening those questions.
We should have folks following these guys around with recorders and get into the interviews to ask these questions...butt into live interviews....get the questions ASKED.... never mind if they don't answer...get the questions out in the minds of the public....
I am not a political expert, but it would seem to me we should be discussing tactics to expose the stupid as well as registering voters and promoting candidates. Voting shouldn't be the only arrow we have in our quiver. Some how we need new ideas to get the word out about the stupid, the greed, the corruption...
And most of all, we need to band together BETTER. There are too many agendas and pet projects. Too much infighting. And when you examine them all, they boil down to basic HUMAN rights... Not "just" LGBTQ, nor "just" women's rights", nor "just" rights for people of color, or the poor, or the middle class. If we are, all of us together, the 99%, then we out number the rich and powerful...why do we hesitate to use our power? "What power?" you ask.....
The power of the almighty dollar is all they understand.
Boycotts and strikes. Stop buying anything new but the very necessities of life. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, UP Cycle.....Buy ONLY from local business. Yes, it will be uncomfortable and inconvenient. It will be dangerous and costly. We might have to give up on our luxuries...our lattes and our smartphones (people really did communicate effectively before cell phones...even before phones period)....Some of us, possibly all of us, will suffer some kind of stress from loss...but standing together we can support one another and help one another. Share what we have...care for those who need it. Barter with one another...
How about a tax revolt? The Theocratic Teapublicans think it is cool to shut down the government, and yet THEY still get paid. What if WE shut down the government through a tax revolt? See how they like it if they don't get paid.... As of 2013 23% of the population in the US self identified as Democrats. That's 73,347,000 people! How many of us can they put in jail? And that is JUST the Democrats.... How many of the other parties are there who would join us?
We will gain nothing unless we are willing to put ourselves and our families on the line. We cannot beat back the remaking of our nation into something we don't believe in by talking it to death. Democracy is work...HARD work. DIRTY work...And as we have seen in other nations when the US has tried to "bring democracy to the people" it usually fails....why? Because no one can hand it out. The People must want it, fight for it, and maintain it.
DKOS was founded to find and support BETTER Democrats. Okay...but how about just BETTER politicians? BETTER servants of the People?
Many of us, myself included, are dissatisfied with the two party system and with the Democrats who are not all that progressive. Why are we not advocating and supporting the many parties that already exist? Why don't we make common cause with them and bring them into our big tent? Or join theirs? There are over 30 political parties in the United States.
Okay....I've opened up the can of worms.... I suspect there will be those who will blast me, and that's alright... they're just scared. I cannot blame them. I am too. But fear is no way to live. That is the stock and trade of the Theocratic Teapublicans. They WANT us afraid...afraid to act. Afraid to stand up to them. But we must be brave and face our fears....
To paraphrase Frank Herbert........
We must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. We will face our fear. We will permit it to pass over us and through us. And when it has gone past we will turn to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only we will remain.