A repost/expansion on the fall of Madison's Republic

[calimary]

11. Oh man - thanks, hifiguy!

I'm bookmarking this for later study. You put a LOT of time and thought into this. Which is the kind of thing we need here at DU and elsewhere around the liberal/progressive universe. Gonna print myself a copy.

ESPECIALLY the list of "Both parties support it."

NO FREAKIN' WONDER VOTERS ARE CONFUSED!!!!! NO WONDER they just sneer that "both parties the SAAAAAAAAAME..." NO WONDER!!! We have to make this point. WE have to do it. Waiting on the Debbie Wasserman-Schultzes of the world won't make it. I don't think they fully get it.

I think it's just disgraceful how many of them ran away from President Obama. SHAME on them! Maybe they felt they had to because they, and frankly too many others, failed utterly at promoting the accomplishments this President has achieved - even in the face of such colossal, and colossally stupid-selfish-racist-shortsighted-Sore-Loserman opposition. Fuck it! We have the damn frickin' republi-CONS taking care of that department just fine thankyouverymuch. The Dems do not, should not, and must not - ever - join in on that! NOT EVER!!!

Everybody who claimed there was something wrong with the ACA but that they'd fix it did NOTHING but buy into the damn framing the bad guys have been aggressively pushing for several years now. WHERE has the vigorous pushback been? I am sick of hearing my Dems coughing up versions of "well, okay..." or "I guess you're right" or "well, I can see your point..." FUCK THAT! FUCK THAT SHIT!!! STAND FOR SOMETHING, DAMMIT! Don't just throw the game before you've barely started playing!!!

NO WONDER too much of the electorate finds so little difference between the two parties. OUR side doesn't give anybody anything much to sink their teeth into! Too many of ours are the kind that offer "we're not quite as bad as they are." I have seen it written that if people have a choice between CON and "CON-lite," if they're even slightly predisposed toward slanting "right" instead of left, THEY'RE GONNA GO WITH THE REAL THING, RATHER THAN THE MILQUETOAST KINDA-SORTA VERSION!!!!! And in the meantime, our side winds up NOT winning over anybody from that side, AND alienating and pissing off those who loyally turn out and support them - and WOULD vote if they weren't so dispirited for having been almost perpetually ignored.

No wonder Barack Obama had people running away from him. Too many gave into the enemy framing, and willingly went over to THEIR playing field, with THEIR rules and THEIR ball and THEIR uniforms and played THEIR game using THEIR framing and messaging. Responding to the way THEY laid out an issue. THAT SHOULD BE FLATLY REJECTED!!!!!! Whatever they say and how-ever they say it should be FLATLY AND VIGOROUSLY REJECTED!!!!!!!! We shouldn't even be using their terminology (their framing). WE decide what it's called. WE decide how OUR issues are spoken about and framed!!!

When Alex Sink ran in Florida awhile back, saying "we can fix Obamacare" in her hopes of countering the opponent (who wound up winning, btw) who said "Obamacare baaaaaad," she presented NOTHING to get excited about. Because she stood for nothing decisive! And she lost. FUCK that "we can fix it" shit. TOTALLY WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!! Hey, forgive me please, I'm sorry to shout. But, know what? If we were discussing this in person at some activists' meeting, my voice would DEFINITELY be RAISED!!!!!

But Alex Sink and all the other flimsy flatulent jellyfish candidates supposedly representing our side should have responded, and forcefully - even in-yer-face:

"Hey! Wait just a minute! What you call "Obamacare", the Affordable Care Act, is FREAKIN' FANTASTIC!!!! It's THE BEST! BEST IDEA since Social Security because it actually HELPS PEOPLE!!! (it should be said with volume and FEELING) I'm DAMN PROUD that X million people who had no choice but to run up exorbitant medical bills because they had to go to the emergency room, or let their health problems go untreated til too late when the costs were sky-high - have been HELPED! And get affordable health care! So they can finally go to the doctor - after YEARS of neglect! So they can keep their kid on their insurance while their kid is trying to get through school or get on his feet. Or when they have catastrophic health insurance bills and their coverage is cut off while the bills just keep coming. Or they can't GET insurance to begin with because they have a preexisting condition. Or ONE job layoff followed by a catastrophic illness or accident could leave them out on the street forcryingoutloud!!!! (ticking off all the good things people like about the ACA) So the rest of us taxpayers don't have to cough up higher insurance rates because the uninsured wind up in emergency rooms which is the costliest health care there is! (woo and exploit their selfishness - which is CONSIDERABLE) I mean - where is our compassion in this country? Are we really so heartless? So cruel? So mean-spirited? Should we really be so selfish and cold-hearted as to turn our backs on our fellow Americans in real need? When we've started finding solutions HERE, NOW? (a phrase that's actually started surfacing, provoking guilt - hope it starts catching on further - we need to pound this over and over again until we drop!!!) What you call "Obamacare" means that ordeal is OVER! And I'm DAMN PROUD of that!!! (voice raised, dammit - we need to start making some NOISE here) Because it means Americans don't have to go through that baloney or injustice or rip-off anymore! Especially those who really and truly need the help! And they don't have to be in their hospital beds and fighting with their insurance companies! I guess YOU'RE okay with that, 'eh? (you cut straight to their "hearts" - that is, if they had one - but any way you slice it, these assholes are, at their essence, totally heartless) You don't want to help people, do you? That's what it's about - YOU DON'T WANT TO HELP PEOPLE. YOU DON'T WANT TO FOLLOW THE COMMAND OF JESUS HIMSELF TO LOOK AFTER WHAT HE CALLED "THE LEAST OF MY BRETHREN'!" (thus turning the uncomfortable heat back on them)

Sorry to vent on, so long. Yoiks... But dammit, I yearn to see this approach in the political mix! I'm even trying to help come up with stuff for our supposed leading lights to say, if they're so bereft of ideas! SO frustrating.

Howard Dean and George Lakoff. We need 'em both, and we need 'em NOW.