Saving America, Take Two

[filkertom]

Let's try this again.

What do you recommend doing, locally or nationally or however, to help put the country back on track? The one restriction is, no violence. The idea is to save the country, to be the Good Guys, to Do The Right Things. No violent revolution, no assassinations, no terrorism, nothing worse than a pie in the face (which has been done, so that won't necessarily help much).

Have at.

Comments

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

Does it count to suggest that progressive people start embracing the Second Amendment, in the hopes that doing so will _prevent_ violence, under the "An armed society is a polite society" theory?

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

My thoughts: The keyboard is mightier than the gun. Ideas and knowledge trump hate and fear. Teach people, and they'll teach others. Create a meme, and live it.

We have to awaken the sleeping giant of the majority of people in our country. We have to show them what has happened to this country. We have to teach them what to do to run the darkness off. We have to use the same swarming tactics of the 'dark side' to return the light to this country. Start at the grassroots, at the city, county, and school boards. Learn what the dark ones did- how they recruited their armies of voters and activated takeover groups, and counteract them. Use hope, not fear. Swarm the school boards- throw the bums out. Swarm the city, county and state legislatures- throw the bums out. Swarm the federal government- throw the bums out. Expose anyone who lies, cheats, or steals. Take it to the very top. Use the laws we have before we lose them. Use the laws to remove them. Punish them severely. Remove them from power, humiliate them everywhere they go, take back our country. We're better than the morons who have flown this great country into the ground. Let's prove that. It's going to take decades to recover from what has happened in the past five years. We need to get started sooner, rather than later.

I regret that due to a problem with my jaw and with my finances, I won't get to see you at MidSouth Con next weekend. Have fun! Should you find yourself in Little Rock for whatever reason, let me know. I'll put you up.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

Stop conceding.

Stop letting the Republicans frame the debate. Stop letting them push their twisted, bigoted agenda as 'mainstream values', and start actually making /stands/ for the right things.

The Democrats have been bending over backwards, trying to appeal to 'moderate conservatives' who think they're scum, will always think they're scum, and have been losing elections because everyone knows they have no spine and are willing to compromise core progressive principles for the off chance of getting one soccer mom to switch sides.

Stop it. These are not "minor social issues". There is nothing radical about wanting and expecting for every person living here to have the full rights and responsibilities of being a citizen of the United States. There is nothing radical about using science instead of Rapture-wishing ideology. There is nothing radical about expecting rich people to obey the same rules as poor people. It's time to stop letting conservatives define us, and start setting the course of debate ourselves.

I guess I mean stop voting for for wishy-washy mealy-mouths who we think have 'the best chance' to win in the Democratic party, and start supporting people who aren't afraid to stand up for their principles and tell you exactly what they mean. Or organize a third party that actually /works/...although that has its own difficulties with the way laws hedge the bets against third parties.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Or at least stop supporting people who want to curtail it. We lost a lot of votes because people are afraid that The Man is going to take their guns away. It's been a very successful wedge issue. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the Republicans showed their true colors, confiscating guns in NO without any declaration of Martial Law. That's valuable truth for anybody not afraid to go after the "God, guns, and guts" voters.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Talk to people. One of my regular hangouts is the local truckstop. Most of the people I talk to there listen to a lot of talk radio, and they are influenced by it. Some have swallowed the arguments hook, line, and sinker, but most have some doubts about them. Especially right now when the president and congress are so unpopular. Talk about the issues that are important to you and the solutions that you think would work. Don't even mention party affiliation until you've established a fair amount of rapport. Just talk about the things that matter to you and the solutions you think would work. Be part of the spreading ink blot.

Long Post Warning

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the following presumes the subject has mental capacities capable of actually carrying it out...

1) Read

Learn how to think & learn how to awaken your own awareness. DO NOT PROCEED to other steps in public until you can perform them on yourself!

2) Research. And THINK.

BOTH sides of an issue & all the various flavors.

For instance - has anyone ever noticed that you DON'T see rabbis or stars of Davids amongst all the religious symbols being thrown around at Pro-Life rallies? I had - so I asked about it. My boss was a synagogue Elder & replied that basically Judaic tradition held that life began when the child breathed its first breath. (IIRC, because Adam began life when God breathed it into him.) Till the it was a potential life and thus valuable but its value did not exceed that of an actual life (namely the mother's.)
How come the people who wrote the first half of the Bible have come up with a solution (apparently centuries ago) that no one else is really paying attention to? Except perhaps the Muslims. You don't see many of them in those lines either. (Mental note - will have to ask someone about that.)

2) Debate (POLITELY!)

Don't just attack, be able to defend. Coherently. And POLITELY. For example -

I remember one time I de-railed the members of such a line. I apparently worked about 5 doors down from a clinic. Every so often we'd get a bunch of Catholic Pro-Life mommies protesting at the entrance to our parking lot. One week they got particlarly strident & started blocking the entrance. Now, I am pro-choice. and Wiccan. quiet but openly on both.

I went up to them & asked them politely to please stay out of the entranceway & could they please tone done on the religious side of their rhetoric? They blinked & fell back on their "We have every right to protest, it's a first amendment right to free speech!" routine. I politely & completely agreed with them & indicated that I was not trying to obstruct either of their rights to speak or to freely assemble. However, I felt slightly threatened in MY right to freely practice MY faith by all of the Catholic emphasis of their protest. (also a first amendment right) I re-iterated that I had no problem with their being there & presenting their views, just that I was uncomfortable with their trying to impose their faith on me. (yeah, they were doing the "I'll pray for your eternally damned souls" bit.)

This stopped their "mental programming" in mid run. I had not attacked their view nor their rights, I had just asked them to acknowledge my own. I made them think because I short-circuited the logic paths.

And yes. it worked. They were much more polite about their protests. The crosses & crucifixes & prayers got way toned down. ESPECIALLY since I made a point of waving cheerfully every time to them as I drove into the parking lot if they were there. This made their minds twitch & they consequently "behaved". and after a while they stopped coming to that particular clinic. I don't take full credit for that - IIRC, School let out for the summer about then as well. But I don't remember them coming back as full force that september.

Short-circuiting the rhetoric programming WORKS. Just be fair & acknowledge when YOUR rhetoric/logic get short-circuited as well. (yes, that can and WILL happen.) Making people think makes them LEARN.

4) Vote. be a concerned (and educated) citizen.

Maintain the laws we've got & get rid of the ones we don't need & work for the ones we do need. As Heinlein said - there may not be someone or something you want to vote FOR, but there is always someone or something you can vote against.

above all, think. And I cannot, CANNOT stress this enough - be polite. Really. Honestly.

The Corporation

[mannoftalent.livejournal.com]

Just saw a fascinating documentary- The Corporation. Basically it shows how the Corporation has developed and how its behavior fits the model of pyschopathy. The current administration is emblematic of this.

One way to fight them is to not support them.

www.thecorporation.com has a links page with a list of campaigns that help fight the power of corporate America.

Deny the bastards our money.

Barring that I'm all for the withhold your income taxes protest idea.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

The (Democrat run) State and Municipal governments have also been confiscating guns down there, too. There's plenty of blame to go around.

[jacob-day.livejournal.com]

The problem with anti-Bush tactics is that they do nothing but call attention to Bush.

What the country needs is people paying attention to another candidate. Give some other moron enough press, and the masses will start to vote for him instead.

Walk Out

[realtegan.livejournal.com]

Last night I imagined that all the people who object to King George went on a one day strike. Every single person who hates the way our country is slowly falling into fascism left work for one day and marched in the streets.

If the wimps in Congress can't censure the guy, maybe the people of the United States could do so instead. I just don't know how the word could be spread. Who could call for a such a strike and be listened to?

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Print up postcards with 50-word rational arguments and tape them above the urinals at every rest stop you visit.

Re: Walk Out

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

This is probably the best idea I've heard so far...

[james-rayner.livejournal.com]

Are you SURE Throwing pies wouldnt help? I mean, Come on. It hasnt been tried RECENTLY! *Attempts to invoke some humor here*

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

It isn't going to happen.

Put it this way, they ahve all the money and the power, things are the way they are because they can get away with it. Even if Bush is removed, and his entire cadre with him, it still won't mae that much differance.

Why? Because what produced them is this cuture of greed and corruption at the highest levels of society. The rich no longer care, they don't pretend to feel like they have to help thier fellow man. I.e. Noblise oblige is dead.

It's not just America that's derailed... for a larger part so is the whole of western civilisation. [more or less]. There are more similarities between the rich of Europe and America, then there are between the rich and poor of your country.

To do as you suppose, would require changeing a large part of global society. It would require that we, as people not just of one nation but globally, finally say enough is enough and stand up to the bullies and greedy sadists that exploit the poor.

and that won't happen. Because we're only human, and co-operation on that scale isn't in our nature.

So this culture of exploitation will just carry on parasitising off the body of society... never quite killing it, but bleeding the majority of people weak, leaving them easy to manipulate.

unless of course, something happens to weaken socity's ability to support the burden, in which case it's entirly possible that their rapacious demands overrach supply and it all comes down like a house of cards.

[incidently, now do you see why I suggested revolution... think of it as surgery. Not that I think that has high chance of success either, but some is better than none.]

The only other option is simper, and who knows how well it'd work.

Opt out.

Walk away from the sickness, refuse to take part any more. With-hold taxes if you think you can get away with it...
encourage others to do the same, tell them why you are doing it. Brodcast your message of non-co-operation widely.

Starve out the cancer of civilisation.

Re: Walk Out

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

If that were to happen, Bush would probably call martial law (to keep the services running and suspend the Constitution - yes, the Constitution does have that provision for its own suspension), and then we're all fucked....

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

'fraid I'm just going to have to echo Lakoff here, and say that progressives and liberals need to regain control of the natinoal agenda. We need to invest more time and money in long-term work spreading our memes; we need more liberal voices getting more airtime and being as entertaining and commonsensical as conservatives.

Honestly, the future of the Democratic Party isn't in our Hillary Clintons and our Howard Deans. It's in our Jon Stewarts and Al Frankens. We need to get liberals to be as proud and loud as conservatives and stop just sitting there allowing themselves to be vilified.

It'd honestly help if the REAL Republicans continue what they're doing now -- standing up to Bush and his oil-baron and religious-maniac cronies. We need more moderate conservatives, financial conservatives, and liberal clergy to take a stand and make it clear that the neocons don't have a monopoly on either God or maintaining the status quo.

Re: The Corporation

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

And which gas/oil company does not whore for King George the Turd?

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

I've pretty much run out of ideas. After the latest round of watching the so-called opposition party get dragged, kicking and screaming to a position of actual opposition, I can no longer fool myself into thinking that voting will change anything. Yes, I'll always vote Democrat, because King Log is better than King Stork. But I no longer expect results. The next majority Congress will have enough Liebermans to keep the conservative agenda rolling unabated.

I haven't quite decided that the wisest course for an individual is that of the cynical mule Benjamin in "Animal Farm"--who did nothing, confided his opinions only to a trusted few, and who lived. But I'm getting there.

Yesterday, we had a protest march in my college town. About 2,000 people. I was there, dutifully chanting "hey-hey, ho-ho", waving a flag upside down as a sign of national distress, and listening to earnest liberals recite lists of horrors committed by King George. After that, everyone went home, and I put in some extra time at work and then went to spend time with my family and hold my one-year-old and hope that America will be a place to be proud of when she's old enough to know. What good did we get out of the protest? I haven't got a clue.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

I agree in general with what you're saying, but why lump Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean together? They're about as far apart as two prominent Democrats can be on the issue of Iraq. And Dean has never been shy about taking a stand or speaking his mind.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Right now, I think the focus should be on November. Do everything you can to spread the message that we can't trust the Republicans with control of Congress. Find a candidate in a swing district or state that you can support, and contribute what you can afford to. If you can volunteer, great. Take every opportunity you can find to speak up. Pass around links to stories that help make the case.

And in the short term, call both your senators and ask what their position is on the Feingold censure resolution. Whatever the answer, make it clear that you strongly support it, and want all Democratic office holders to be stronger in their criticism of the administration and the Congressional leadership.

Spread the word, far and wide: This fall, get out and vote, and vote Democratic. It's important.

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

They're about as far apart as two prominent Democrats can be on the issue of Iraq.

And that's why -- they represent the sweep of the current Democratic Party, thus my intended meaning of "all Democratic politicians." The problem is not going to be solvable by politicians. You can't capture a king with a king. We need pundits and preachers, the rooks and bishops of the political chessboard, who can start advancing progressive ideas.

[ericcoleman]

Go after the money.

I am on the AFA mailing list (know thine enemy and all). We need to use their tactics.

Someone like Move On needs to go after the right wing broadcasters.

Monitor their programs, make lists of their advertisers.

Then call them and tell them that we will not do business with them because they support the Hannitys and the Limbaughs.

Re: Walk Out

[realtegan.livejournal.com]

I don't think he would, but then... I've always been a bit of an optimist. If it was clear ahead of time that it would be a one-day walkout, and Bush tried to declare martial law, I would expect a revolution to happen.

Re: The Corporation

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

Citgo. They're a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Get to know your neighbors, even - perhaps especially - if they don't share your politics. Find common ground based on the little stuff, and as you do, let them know (in a nonconfrontive, nonpreachy way) where you stand on the big stuff. Be who you are, non-confrontively and without shame. Offer them help when they need it, with no strings attached.

Expand that from your neighborhood to your community. Join in activities that help spread good will: Help build a house with Habitat for Humanity. Join a support group for families of troops stationed in Iraq.

I'm convinced that one thing causing the current cultural divide is that too many people know and hang out only with people just like them. That makes it far too easy to demonize the Others, from both sides. When we know, care about and work together with people who are not like ourselves, we forge human bonds that can be good for all of us. And we make it harder for them to hate People Like Us.