dagblog - Comments for "Diluting the Tea Party: The Importance of Supping With a Long Spoon"

It's up at (the accursed)

Anonymous stardust — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:57:58 +0000

In reply to I have read and re-read this

It's up at (the accursed) Huffpo. :~)

I have read and re-read this

SleepinJeezus — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:28:25 +0000

In reply to Diluting the Tea Party: The Importance of Supping With a Long Spoon

I have read and re-read this essay since you first posted it, David. It is an excellent prescription and it truly deserves to go viral. We need to seize the narrative, especially when the predominant one at present offers absolutely no hope for the future, but rather a recipe for the demise of the working class itself.

Your essay was mentioned numerous times in another discussion here on dagblog. I included reference to it myself in some of my comments, such as this:

"Bi-partisanship" is an admirable objective. But it is one which, as we have seen, can easily be corrupted into a wholesale surrender of Progressive principles as we allow the discussion to be framed by others.
A Keynesian response to our economic recession has been all but abandoned in favor of budget cutting "austerity." There is no longer any discussion of actual job creation or reducing unemployment or easing the pain for those millions most adversely affected by the collapse of our financial industry. Nor is there any appetite expressed for holding accountable those who irresponsibly - and even criminally! - participated in the collapse, at great benefit to themselves and the misery of so many others. Indeed, the discussion now is to hold harmless from the effects of this crisis those banksters who had such a key role in creating it in the first place. Incredibly, the only way we will ostensibly "recover" from this crisis is to reestablish the dominance and wealth of the banksters, letting their victims be damned.
In another example, the human rights abuses of an Imperial Presidency are now established as legitimate subjects for policy discussions due to our effort to "not look back, but forward." This misplaced desire to somehow remain "civil" in our politics has created a situation wherein we now have open debates on the TeeVee regarding "How much torture is too much torture?" and "Should ALL U.S. Citizens be protected from targeted assassination authorized in secret by our President?"
Coming out of 2008, we rightly had the Republicans on the ropes for all their abuses of power and the failures of their policies, both foreign and domestic. Yet, our pursuit of "bi-partisan friendliness" invited them to frame the narrative on their past abuses and define the discussion going forward. We never really seized the initiative on promoting "Change You Can Believe In" but instead remained on the defensive in the message wars. We saw how all THAT worked out in 2010, eh?

It's difficult to attain focus on a response when we seem to be under assault from so many directions. But retain focus we must. Everything needs to be distilled to its essence if we are going to prevail in the class war that is launched against us. And it must begin by refusing to be sucked in to promoting the talking points for the other side. Instead, we must forcefully promote our own narrative that offers hope in the face of misery.

Tax cuts for the rich and "austerity" for the rest of us is a pretty indefensible prescription for the future of this country. But it requires leadership willing to stand tall in defense of an alternative to put such draconian ideas behind us and begin re-building upon the greatness of this nation and our working class.

Our side will come out in

Flavius — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:58:00 +0000

In reply to Diluting the Tea Party: The Importance of Supping With a Long Spoon

Our side will come out in 2012. Maybe enough to win

But we can't afford to think so.

Whether it's true or not we've got to act as if winning means getting the votes of at least some people who aren't on our side. And a necessary ingredient is to accept that a lot of decent human being don't want the country to work the way we do: they disagree about gay marriage, health care, charter schools. Not because they're evil, or confused, or have been indoctrinated by Roger Aisles. But because those are positions they've reached.

OBTW we should be thinking that anyway, because it's true.

Of course we don't have to capitulate. Or even trim. But where we can agree with them, do it. As a long time convinced atheist, I'm delighted Obama can sincerely appeal to believers. If that means my taxes are used to teach children things I not only don't believe but are harmful, so be it. There are some battles you don't have to win.

And at a minimum, don't indulge ourselves in insulting the people whom we hope will vote with us. No one has ever gotten a vote by kicking a voter in the shins.

Excellent post, Mr. Coates.

acanuck — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:17:34 +0000

In reply to Diluting the Tea Party: The Importance of Supping With a Long Spoon

Excellent post, Mr. Coates. Dovetails nicely with much of the discussion in the post Progressives and Power (below).

Urgency! A very good and

Resistance — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 03:08:58 +0000

In reply to Diluting the Tea Party: The Importance of Supping With a Long Spoon

Urgency! A very good and timely post.

I especially like the idea "this is the time to replace defense with offense",

A good offense would be? IMHO; Go after their supply lines take away the foes ability to finance a resistance.

STOP the exporting of Jobs, place tariffs and duties on imported foreign goods that are in direct competition with American workers.

When American workers make good wages, we can pay more in taxes, and we can throw off the burden of debt, we can buy our freedom, we can save our own money for retirement, we can pay for the premiums for healthcare, we can even pay taxes to support those less fortunate......We can rid ourselves from indebtedness to the banker class.

We will no longer be indentured slaves, having to pay back our time or money, because our masters sold us to another........How long will it take to pay back China or others, who were given assurances that WE the People would sell ourselves into slavery to pay the debt?

30 As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue; that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Washington%27s_Farewell_Address#30

Make the Republicans pay for the War they wanted, not from our purses; but from theirs......Just because the Democratic leaders gave them the Authorization, doesn’t mean the people doesnt have a right to the purse, to support our needs.

PAY FOR THE WARS, not from cuts to the programs people need but from Taxes raised to support the War, or else don’t go to war.

Now that would be an offensive I'd like to see