Brothers and sisters, hear me out. Strategy conference: But not all pretty

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Guys, my psychic wounds have clotted over a little bit by now, and since the hemmorhaging has slowed, I've had a little time to reassess. I've been kicking around a few ideas and would love your thoughts. Some of them, I'm fairly certain, might seem a little distasteful. But as they say on NPR - "All Things Considered." At this point, what could it hurt to consider some of these, at least?

Here goes:

I usually move from the "Recognizing Problem" phase directly to the "So What Do We DO About It?" phase.

The problem seems (at least to me) to be - the republi-CONS win because they cheat. Sooooooooo... perhaps the lesson, at least for now, is that the only way to win IS to cheat. If we continue to play by the rules, we WILL continue to lose. They don't, and they keep winning. We cannot afford to continue losing. Little by little, as we keep losing, we are approaching that golden number in the Senate in which filibusters will no longer be effective - there'll just be a clean majority that WILL, by then, be insurmountable. So maybe we have to jumpstart winning again by cheating a little, ourselves? Just a thought.

There will undoubtedly be many here, less Macchiavellian and more unshakably, unmovingly principled than I. I'd bet money on it. And please don't misunderstand, I admire anyone here who can stick to the straight and narrow. They are obviously of higher morals and more capital character than I, and I'll be first in line to say so, quite sincerely. We must take the high road, they say. If we stoop to their level, we become like them (read: EVIL), and betray our very nature, and that which makes us Democrats. And, frankly, they're correct. I honor this purity of heart and of spirit.

But that's what we've been doing all along, and it hasn't gotten us anywhere. We are not in a position to influence or set the national agenda, to make it clear that YES, the good guys DO win in the end, YES, crime really and truly does NOT pay, and YES, truth will always win out. Except perhaps none of the authors of these maxims ever met kkkarl rove. We will be shoved over into a corner with our nobility and our calls for truth and taking the high road, while the winners continue to win by cheating and then laugh at us, and use their muscle to shove us farther and farther back.

The time to declare the true righteous agenda - that crime does NOT pay and that the bad guys do NOT win, can only be AFTER WE HAVE WON. And we have to win on THEIR playing field, at least for the time being, as they do their utmost to consolidate and grow their power.

So... What If We...

1) sent a few of those among us who are knowledgeable about computer programming to seek jobs with Diebold and ES&S, and other such companies that seem to be at the heart of the sinister manipulations that have so far stayed under the radar? Now would be the time, or as soon as they're hiring, whenever that is - in order to become entrenched in the system and attain a little seniority by the time 2008 rolls around. Perhaps one or more of these "moles" could find their way into the actual programming of the voting machines, or other inner workings that could then be "rectified" however you define that - either by counter-programming the mechanisms that are designed to switch votes from "D" to "R" - or perhaps slipping a few in that would cause switching to go the other way?

2) infiltrate the enemy at lower levels, to start. Like a Trojan Horse.
a) I even thought of reregistering as a republi-CON, just to enhance the possibility that MY vote (coming from within enemy territory) will NOT be thrown out. This could lead to quite a bit of fun in the mind-games department. If it became public knowledge that all registered republi-CONS may not be kosher, the enemy might then find it more discouraging to fall back on the old scheme of simply throwing out votes they know are coming from Democrats. If we're sheep in wolves clothing, how will they tell? How do they know which vote, supposedly of THEIR OWN, can really be trusted? Do they then have to throw out blocks of republi-CON votes, too? It might short-circuit one of their offensives. This might cut off one of their arms, so to speak. Yes, they might then have to think up other strategies (not that WE wouldn't, also).
b) I even have fantasies about one or more of us rising within the enemy ranks as a true spy for the Good Guys, sneaking us back whatever intel can be gleaned from meetings, memos, strategy sessions, and so forth.

You are more than welcome to go ahead and flame me. I probably deserve it for a post like this. I know there are people here who would never consider stooping to such subterfuge. But while we're all reassessing and examining our consciences (and yes, amazing as it may seem I DO have one, myself), well, then, bring it on. Let's REALLY, SERIOUSLY, RUTHLESSLY reassess.

We fought with truth. We fought with the moral high ground on our side. We fought with the facts. And it didn't help. For WHATEVER reason, we've now been set back even farther. And we don't have the media as a watchdog to buttress any of our efforts to get the truth, the moral high ground OR the facts out to the general public. I might well be brainstorming my way to OTHER ideas if we did. It seems to me we can't give up, we HAVE TO keep fighting. But it's a question of HOW some of us do it. There's the above-board stuff, and there's the under-the-radar stuff. I think we might need to consider some stealth, and some sneak attacks. We have to out-think and out-strategize kkkarl rove - who is now the KING OF THE HILL, and the one whose success and techniques LEGIONS of republi-CON strategists will now be striving to clone for themselves. His way wins, so everybody's gonna pile on and do it his way. Well... perhaps we take a page or two from his kind of playbook, and add a few extras of our own, and do our own "shock and awe."

Besides, they expect us, because of who and what we are, to be patsies, anyway. You must admit, we've been pretty predictable. Wouldn't it be nice (not to mention satisfying and effective) to throw 'em off a little, here and there, and pull a few tricks they did NOT expect, because they're rawther uncharacteristic of us "nice-guys-who-finish-last"?

Anyway, go ahead and flame me if you like. I think many of us are still dealing with LOTS of anger (I certainly speak for myself there). I'm sure there will be some folks here who'll find this, and me, disgusting for even bring it up. Oh well, somebody has to, and when I was a reporter, it always seemed to fall to me to ask the tough questions nobody else wanted to ask but that everybody wanted the answers to. Perhaps you can still try to forgive me anyway.

But seriously, I'd like to hear your take on this.

Thanks MUCH. You guys here on DU are just about the ONLY parts of the last four years that have kept me sane, other than my husband and kids and friends of like-mind. And I love you all dearly, even if, after this post, you no longer love me. I just think we all deserve to WIN, dammit!

Hugs, anyway!

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