Guys - Downing Street Minutes - Throw your congresscritter a life-saver...

[calimary]

STRATEGY SESSION: for when you call your Congressperson/Senator, who may have voted for the IWR, and, having done so, may be too fearful or ashamed to admit he or she made a mistake... MAYBE all they're looking for is a graceful way out...

(See this thread: "The Other Bomb Drops" http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1825941# )

Please consider planting this seed.

Please hear me out -

ALL they have to say is TEN WORDS: "Because I TRUSTED my president. And he LIED to me."

Two little sentences. Five words per sentence. That's ALL any of them have to say, if they voted for the IWR, if they bought into the fear and loathing and ghost stories being told by bush and his friends to scare people after 9/11, if they thought they were really trying to do what was correct for our country and to be patriotic and to "support our president" and give him every benefit of every doubt. They were being pressured BIGTIME to do this because of the climate at the time - straight after 9/11 - a climate of extreme fear that these lice exploited to achieve the goals they wanted. This is really not that complicated, and it's a very clear-cut and simple way to save face as well - which is important when you consider that vanity and shame may be what's really preventing any of this from moving forward at all. ALL THE DEMOCRATS AND ANYONE ELSE WHO FELL FOR IT HAVE TO SAY IS - "Because I TRUSTED my president. And he LIED to me."

It has the added benefit of being THE TRUTH. For a change.

Really. Could I be so bold as to ask people here on DU - when you call your reps, assuming they voted for the IWR or somehow otherwise enabled all this (or they know, do business with, or try to work with those who did), would you at least consider offering those ten words to their staffers? Offer it as a way out. Offer it as a face-saving statement for when these questions come up. YES, let's be frank here, it's passing the buck. It's an excuse. But it happens to be a legitimate excuse - since it's exactly what happened, AND it's passing the buck to the exact place where the buck is supposed to stop: at the Oval Office.

Perhaps you're represented by someone who really is trying to do good things, but has no face-saving way to step back into the light, and no way around the horrifying shame it means they have to face, in admitting they made such a stupid, grievous, negligent, thoughtless, impulsive, fear-motivated mortal sin of a mistake.

NOBODY likes to admit they've been had. NOBODY likes to admit they were suckered. NOBODY likes to face the fact that they've been played - played for patsies. NOBODY wants that for themselves. It takes bigger men and women than we've got representing us just now - to admit that freely and confess that openly. It's just a suspicion of mine, but it's bolstered by the reactions I've gotten from staffers of various congresspeople and senators (including but not limited to my own) when I present that ten-word solution. They react as though they've never thought of that before, and "...when you stop to think about it, hey - you know something? That actually makes sense. Hmmm... Gee. I never thought of it that way, but it's, well, it's - true... Gee, when you put it THAT way..."

I suspect strongly that if the proper, face-saving, and deftly-worded mea culpa is presented to them, like a talking point, SOME OF 'EM might actually use it, or start getting their minds around it, and maybe actually entertaining the thought. Maybe this might be enough to push some of the wavering ones over - those whose consciences have started to bother them over what's happened, and who would LOVE a face-saving way out, something to say that will tell the truth, explain where they were at that time and what they were trying IN GOOD FAITH to do ('cause - remember back then, when the big drumbeat was that "we HAVE TO support OUR PRESIDENT!!!!!"). And if such a way out, that also happens to be THE TRUTH, is presented to them, it just might be the key domino that starts the whole row falling. It's a tool to use to start getting them out of trouble, and absolving them of some of the blame and the guilt and the shame.

Truly, nobody can be faulted for trying to play along with a pResident who, at the time, many of them didn't have a lot of reasons to distrust. It was still fairly early in the game. We'd just been attacked. We were out-of-our-minds with emotion and fear and anger and outrage and wanting to lash out against somebody, anybody, and make somebody pay. We were in raw-emotion mode, when there hadn't been time enough to gain any perspective, and there was nothing but pure reactive-mode, non-rational, instinct stuff all over the place back then. SOMEBODY HAD TO DO SOMETHING. So this was what was presented to them, and it was presented to them in such a way that it sounded so legit. They were exploited and they gave this schmuck the benefit of the doubt without realizing at the time that he didn't deserve it. They were railroaded. Now, what they need to do is STATE CLEARLY THAT THEY WERE RAILROADED.

I think there are some who would do the proper thing now if only they had one last little nudge: of a really good and useful tool that's being plopped in their lap like a lifeline. For those who might stammer - "Good Lord, I don't even know what to say... I wouldn't even know what to say..." - YOU can say: "HERE! HERE'S what you can say. HERE'S something to say! It explains the state you were in at the time you made these decisions, and why you did so, and it's the truth. It's what happened with EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD who decided to support this war, even those with misgivings about it, who felt our hand was forced and that, well, we HAD to do something, and these are tough times and as Americans, we HAVE TO support our pResident. If he thinks that's what we have to do, then we have to get behind him and trust him.

So they can say - "Well, we trusted him alright. He gave us every reason to trust him. We believed sincerely that it was our patriotic duty to do so, and he and all his pals told us this. We did it his way. We gave him the benefit of the doubt. And he led us down the garden path. All those reasons were lies. So yes, we fell for it. And it was a lie. And we were screwed." So what they get to say, basically, is that the real offender here is NOT themselves, but the guy who LIED THEM INTO THIS. It allows them to put the blame where it's supposed to be. On bush.

TEN WORDS. All it takes. TEN WORDS.

I'm just trying to think strategically here. Face-saving is EVERYTHING with some people. Yes, it's expedient. Yes, it's not the purest motivation. But if it works, and it helps guide even a few people back into the light, what's the harm? What have we got to lose? It might be JUST the key to push a few of the waverers over, and out of the Dark Side. If only they had the words to say...

Just a thought, anyway...

[calimary]

1. And I'm gonna kick this one...

[POAS]

2. I wish it were 100% true

those ten words, "because I trusted my president and he lied to me", but the sad fact is that some (perhaps many) didn't believe the President and voted anyway to cover their political butts.

Never-the-less, if they need cover now to speak "truth to power" then this works as well as anything. Speaking truth shouldn't need a CYA policy, IMHO, however.

[calimary]

3. You couldn't be more correct. Speaking truth SHOULDN'T need a CYA

policy. You couldn't be more correct.

Sadly, in this case, I think for at least some of the many invertebrates on Capitol Hill, that's exactly the case. I'm sorry that's the case, but I'm afraid it IS what we're dealing with.

But really, think about it. If what some of 'em DO, truly, genuinely need now IS cover to speak "truth to power," then what could it hurt to equip them with something they could actually use? To offer them a little help?

In our sparring classes at karate school, our EXTREMELY WISE and attuned sensei often has talked about fighting strategy and how, sometimes, it is MOST astute and shrewd to present the opponent with a face-saving way out. So that, in effect, their "delicate ego" isn't impugned. Because otherwise you just aggravate something bad and amp it way up, way out of control. I think, with some people there, that this may be exactly what's happening. Hell, it's not even just confined merely to Capitol Hill, either. How many people do you know or have you come across, who could use this TEN-WORD EXPLANATION?

Think of it this way - We, as Americans, have always believed in, and trusted our president. Because presidents were trustworthy - leaders elevated to the highest job in the land because of their great talents, skills, merits, and character. They got there because they were the best Americans for the job. And we looked up to them. The president was always someone you trusted and respected. Even the office of president, itself, was a disembodied entity you respected. So there's this aura of the presidency that includes respect and trust, and it's ingrained with our strained rice cereal we're served when we're teething, as babies. You're SUPPPOSED TO FEEL THAT WAY about America's president. That these people were applying that long-held and long-cherished bedrock-faith American standard to this schmuck - is A LOT MORE his fault than theirs. They were trying to do what good Americans do - trust their president. That they were placing their trust in a lying, scheming jackal was bUSH'S fault - for exploiting that sincere purity of trust.

[POAS]

4. I totally agree Cali, and I hope you

didn't get the idea that I'm against the idea behind those ten words.

Your statement above brings to mind another of my pet peaves. The all too often heard phrase "The whole world thought Saddam had WMD. They all had the same intelligence we did."

That is meant by "Bush, Inc." as some sort of a defense for their having gotten it wrong on WMD when in fact, if correctly interpreted, it is an indictment of them and the process they used to go to war. Because, as the DSM points out, the intelligence was cooked to fit the plan by "Bush, Inc." they effectively rigged the game.

[calimary]

5. Too true, POAS! Of COURSE "the whole world thought Saddam had WMD.

They all had the same intelligence we did." Of course that happened. Because that same "we" (that is - the bushies) GAVE THE WHOLE WORLD THAT PARTICULAR CHERRY-PICKED, FIXED-AROUND-THE-POLICY intelligence!!!

Sorry - I am NOT yelling at you! Funny... that's what I wind up saying to every congressional staffer (and every switchboard operator for CNN or MSNBC or the Washington Post or other outlet inviting viewer/listener/reader comments) whose office I call to complain about this stuff.

:D

[ClassWarrior]

6. Use G. Lakoff's formulation - not "lied," but...

..."Because I TRUSTED my president. And he BETRAYED my trust."

NGU.

[calimary]

8. That's another EXCELLENT one.

I like them both.

bush certainly and utterly and completely betrayed our trust.

But I also think it's important to continue invoking the "L" word. Too much time and effort have been wasted dancing around the obvious - "prevaricating president," "the president may have misspoken..." "he misrepresented the case for war" and alot of other just plain ol' chickenshit - beating around the bush (as it were) to do anything and everything to avoid the use of the word "lie." Or "liar." Or "he lied." Or "he's been lying..." I think it's high time we call it what it is. It's a lie. Everything he's told us is a lie. He's a liar. That has to be reinforced - "sort of catapult the propaganda," to quote the liar-in-chief.

But you're quite correct to add in "Because I TRUSTED my president. And he BETRAYED my trust."

Another excellent ten-word set. EXCELLENT thinking, as usual, CW! Add it to the arsenal, I'd say!

Cheers!

[POAS]

10. In my next email to my Rep. I'm going to add

"The President betrayed the trust of the American people as evidenced by the 'Downing Street Memo'. It is time to hold him accountable for that betrayal."

[calimary]

13. This point needs to be made over and over and over and over and

over and over and over... "Betrayal" and "betrayed" are SUPERB words to start tarring and feathering him with. We need to decoupage these words, and all derivations of "Liar" onto him as though they were a second skin. The concept of "liar" and "betrayal" have to become synonymous with bush. That only comes from repetition. As this clown said, himself, "kind of catapult the propaganda."

Keep it going!

[SpiralHawk]

11. He BETRAYED the trust of all Americans

He lied to us. He betrayed us. He send our sons and daughters off to a far away foriegn land to fight for Republican oil and munitions profits. And he called that FREEDOM.

[calimary]

12. Yes and yes again! I'm gonna call it the "Ten-Word Tonic."

At least for now.

It's a meme we have to push over and over and over. Like georgie-poo said, himself, it's important to repeat this stuff again and again, to "kind of catapult the propaganda." Hey, if he can do it about lies, we can CERTAINLY do it about truth. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so, I think.

[converted_democrat]

7. I think this is smart!!! Kick!

[calimary]

9. Thanks!

:)