With the opening of the 112th congress the new republican majority has started to read the constitution of the United States from the well of the house..... A FIRST IN AMERICAN HISTORY TO REMIND THEM WHOSE HOUSE IT IS...... Sorry when you write TEA party talking points all caps must be used because it is that by golly gee important. So here is the problem; the newly reminded ultra conservative republican majority and their TEA party yippity yipp dogs view the constitution as a religious document ; and just like that other big ol' religious document that all gun own'en, minority hatin' gawd feren' people should use... the bible is on the same level as the constitution seeing as how Jesus himself wrote both with golden ink just for us Americans who are as white as Jesus was ya' know! But anyway...... So here is where the difference between those of us that have a firm foot in reality and our conservative friends who just know that them thunder lizards just simply missed the boat. Those of us on the left feel that the constitution is a living breathing document that is responsive to the world that we live in; much as Madison viewed it, while those on the right feel that the constitution was written in stone and brought down the mountain by a buff George Washington while battling commie-socialist-gawdless-heathen liberals. Simply put we view the constitution differently.
Republican's astound me..... I am in awe of simple ability to conform and repeat a talking point verbatim. They are mesmerizing; in their message discipline, their impassioned outrage is unparalleled and most importantly they are team players. There ability to push even the most outrageous of lies is gob smacking. Their gut wrenching commitment to their party is a splendor to behold and ya know what..... we need to become more like them. Do not confuse what I am talking about here, we as Democrats should not become vile filled contemptible pushers of hate but we must become a more disciplined workforce to promote our viewpoints.
Within the culture of our party we have reviled in our diversity and breadth of viewpoints but the diffusion of our message has hurt us. We are the party of the common man and we promote policies that benefit individuals, families, and everyone as a whole we are the party of voting in a person's self interst. Because the other side is so deft at message presentation they can persuade people to vote AGAINST their self interest. They have become the proverbial salesman that can sale a Catsup Popsicle to an Eskimo wearing white gloves in a snow storm.
Here is a fun game that the Daily Show does and you can do at home. Watch Faux News for half an hour. Count how many times you hear virtually the same thing from different people; have fun with it... turn it into a drinking game. Don't let anyone fool you; politics is marketing, while the world changing and good governing stuff happens once in office the challenge is getting there and that my friends takes grade A, good old fashion, 100%, Tip Top unadulterated marketing..... Something we as a party fail at miserably.
Our strength lies in our ability to speak directly to a plethora of constituent groups, and we usually have a direct line to them with a speaker that is similar to them (ya know that devilish diversity thing). Rather than incorporating a continuous message thread we diffuse it, change it, or abandon it entirely. It is like that game of telephone where you get a line of people and start out with one phrase and it ends entirely different. For the democratic line it starts out as "tax cuts" but ends up as the " the duck quacks" for the republican line "tax cuts" stays "tax cuts". We simply must adopt this message discipline.
Adopting message discipline does not make us republicans my dear friends..... It makes us effective. Repeating a talking point so a clear message is presented across speakers does not make us automatons or brain washed. If we believe in the party and promoting the ideas of the party then we need to act as a team player and present the cogent talking point and then present a personalized supporting message unique to the speaker and or situation; ya know... like a professional/grown up. We hurt the party and the message of promoting the party by failing to help get a strong and unified message out.
Unlike some I believe in the idea of the county party. I believe that the county party can and should serve as an essential organizational structure for the Democratic Party; the problem is that they do not perform as well as they could or should perform. Like many organizations county parties MAY (your county may differ) suffer the same limitation that many volunteer organizations suffer from..... volunteer fatigue/drama.
I believe that the county party should be the nexus of Democratic politics in any given county in Texas. Very early in working with my county party I was advised to view the county like a high school with the leadership of the party like the student council and all of the various constituent groups as cliques. In the end the person advised me that the student government was irrelevant and it was better to rally the cliques to get ideas moving. I patently rejected this idea. We as Democrats should not hold the view that the individual is greater than the group The party structure is not something to bypass or regard as a roadblock. We as must recognize that the party should reflect our ideas and our complexion. It is incumbent upon us to demand that our county party perform effectively and reinforce that conviction by giving of our time, talent and money.
Being part of the structure we must look at ourselves critically and expect ourselves to perform in an efficient and effective manner and implement innovative solutions to challenges that the organization may face. In volunteering to make up the organization we become the organization and the wins and losses are our wins and losses. It is far easier to stay on the sidelines and complain about a party running an election cycle poorly but just like my 7thgrade football coach use to say... don't complain.... do something. If you think something is not performing well get involved; just complaining never solved anything.
From the party perspective an individual's time and talent should be viewed more important than their money. A party may find it easier to view people as a source of revenue rather than a reliable work force but this is short sighted and incredibly ineffective. A person's worth is found in what they can do and not in how much money they can give. A volunteer is more persuadable than a paid operative for a campaign. Now obviously fundraising is important because the world does not run on goodwill and sunshine, I submit that utilizing individual's willingness to serve will produce more in the way of fundraising than palliative pleas for donations.
A county party is a volunteer organization, from the precinct chair to the county chair. Most county parties are staffed by determined volunteers that share a commitment to democratic principles and electing democratic candidates. Along with volunteer organizations come volunteer bullies. These are the friendly faces that we all face in planning meetings who's default setting is NO. They come in all fashions, shapes, sizes and demeanors. Generally their critiques are prefaced by the sentiment that whatever is being proposed has never been done. These agents of sediment can be the biggest impediment to an organization progressing. Rather than serving as a reasoned response they morph into stalwart of refusal; boohooing any idea. While their reasons and rationales for being this way are far more varied than their responses they do far more damage to the organization than they help. There isn't much than can be said about these fine folks but again drawing upon my 7thgrade football season... if you ain't tackling something you are helping the other team.
Now believe it or not that saying people always throw around that is credited to Will Rodgers "I am not a member of any organized party - I am a Democrat" (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Rogers) is NOT something to be proud of. Cleaning to this as a punch line or a dismissive statement to be flung around when something does not get done because of disorganization is not an endearing or cute sentiment; it is counterproductive and again helps the other team.
In the end if any of us have the feeling that a county party is an organization of derision there is something wrong. The party should act as the organization focal point for democratic politics within a county and if it doesn't it should be changed to do so. Just as an individual campaign has a focused organizational structure so too should the party.
In the annuals of the history of the GOP the southern strategy is one of the most conniving and prolific strategies. In short the southern strategy made the cost benefit analysis that the GOP was never going to be able to capture a significant amount of the "Negro" (as used in a 1970 New York Times article) vote. With that in mind the GOP should just write off the African-American vote and utilize the innate hatred of whites towards blacks to the GOP's advantage. This started the GOP's move to be the Mad Lib of political strategy we know and love today. The GOP's Mad Lib has one single line BE AFAID OF _(INSERT GROUP HERE)_. In short this one Mad Lib line is the sum total of the political strategy that the GOP holds. They have used it for every SCARY group out there. The current move to the party of NO is just a continuation of this Mad Lib but don't fear (well, they want you to fear so do fear) this time it is much much deeper, just like a dog bowl. Here in Texas the Southern Strategy has been utilized pretty effectively by out large shouldered Governor in picking on Immigration; see the Mad Lib works for everything. With his large shoulders Perry has warned his fellow Texans that them sneaky brown folk are coming up to get us! or steal our jobs! or take or money! or something something something..... It all gets confusing when we have to be afraid of so many things.
Fear and the GOP go hand in hand just like fleas and dogs (I ain't calling the GOP dogs) they just go together, and when you wash em off they come back. It is hard to think when the GOP has ever tried to wash the fleas (read fear) off but one would hope that there has to be one instance but after thinking about it for a while and washing my dog a couple of times I still can't think of one but I am still optimistic that there is some instance somewhere and now old rusty is flea free, for a while.
With all this in mind (everything except the GOP being dogs because they ain't technically dogs but they do eat their young, puke and eat it (regurgitating talking points), they are know to travel in packs, but thanking fully I have yet to see one scoot across the carpet but I digress.... They are not dogs!!) GOP Mad Libs make the GOP a one trick dog show (still not dogs) they tie the GOP to a very large tree that they can never get away from. Their political rhetoric is simply a theme and variations or a simple series of fire hydrants, each one in a different place but you open it up and you get the same thing.
With this one single strategy the base of the GOP has been trained to certain dog whistles in dealing with its candidates (they ain't dogs either). A candidate must insert special key words that give a nod to the rest of pack that say hey.... Sniff my butt I'm a-ok. These dog whistles can rage from school vouchers to succession the trick is to make them so innocuous to the casual person but when used those who know what to listen for they will perk up and run to the front door scratching to get to the polls.
The easiest ways to counter this strategy is stay away from the tree and know how long the chain is. This is playing out with the T.E.A. Party; they are doing a pretty effective job of running a rut in the ground to let everyone know how long that chain is, all the right has to do is stay away from it but they don't, they climb into the dog house and try to bark louder. While the barking will always be there and like everyone knows at three in the morning a barking dog is so very annoying eventually they do stop. The left will always have to suffer the barking dog and it's hard to persuade the normal folk around us not run over to see the barking dog but everyone knows that them dogs don't hunt..... dogs dogs dogs.... Still not calling the right dogs.
