25

[ewagner]

Actually it's 24 + 1.

24 Democratic Senators stood up for the principles of the party and they were joined by one "other".

I'm angry at the other Democratic Senators who abandoned the wishes of their base and voted for cloture. In fact, I'm furious and believe the time for angry emails and nasty letters is over. For these people there must be a price extracted for their disloyalty. How and when the price will be extracted will take some careful thought in order to keep from turning even a single seat over to the Republicans, but it must be done.

But we need to "multi-task" here too. We can't let ourselves get consumed with revenge and retribution and forget that the other part of our task is to build on what we already have. And what do we have?

We have a base of 25 Senators.

We need to protect and nurture that 25. And we need to work to expand it to at least 51. We need the LTTEs, emails, faxes and phone calls to keep going to reinforce the positions of our base and we need to keep them safe from the Republican attacks that will most surely be coming. We need to bombard the media with support for the positions of our 25 and keep reminding the media that those 25 represent what even the media's polls say the majority of Americans want.

And finally, we have to recognize that the internet....the web...the blogosphere.. IS THE WAVE of the future and has more power than we ever imagined. We can change things.

We can change things by becoming 25+1 on every keyboard in the forum.

This is going to be a long battle. Are you up for it?

[rodeodance]

1. yes, and time to move onto bread & butter issue of Health care (lack of)

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. Fat chance --

* is about to roll out his "health care agenda" which will, no doubt, cost more and do less than advertised, enrich the medical establishment (insurance companies, big pharma, etc., not doctors) and bulldoze it through as people say "better a bad plan, which can be fixed later, than no plan at all".

And everyone who suggests a better plan will be dismissed as negativists, who have no faith in the American people.

Just watch.

[MoJoWorkin]

2. I also subtract from this list anyone who voted FOR the Iraq war ---

What is left is my core of honorable and worthy Democrats.

[LynneSin]

3. Wrong recognition - so absolutely wrong

Maybe we need to realize that we're just a small scope of the democratic party. Sure, we made a very gallant effort and got 24 democratic senators to vote for the filibuster. But what about the other 90% of the democratic party that personally has better things to do then to spend their time online reading blogs and making phone calls all the time.

Consider this - two years ago I swore that Howard Dean was going to be our next president of the United States. Every website I visited, every online poll, every blogspot swore he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I was excited because I was part of this great online movement with whom I considered to be the most popular guy running in the primaries.

Hell the guy barely made it into third place.

You want to do democratic nuturing get offline and get involved locally. Start reaching out to the people who either don't have internet access OR just can't be bothered with what is happening online.

Because we will continue to be 24+1 forever until we reach out across the great divide to the rest of the democratic party and get them involved!

[Stuckinthebush]

5. Excellent observation, Lynne

I, like Lynne, was the same about Dean. I thought he was going to sweep the thing because of the excitement on the internet. Upon talking to my Democratic friends who use the internet to look at CNN.com or order books on Amazon, their response was, "Yes, but isn't he a little unstable?" Clearly, the message from the media had gotten to them. They are great liberals, but very uninformed. I believe that many of our brethren are uniformed. They have lives, kids, mortgages, soccer practice....they rely on me and a few other of their "over the top" liberal friends to give them the scoop. Then they digest my information while feeding off the misinformation of CNN, the networks, and the Wall Street Journal.

I may be jaded this morning, but I believe it isn't working. I believe that we are screaming ourselves hoarse while the mindless masses go strolling by. We must build from the bottom up. Get out there in the real world and shake people awake on a daily basis. We have too much against us...the media especially.

My wife and I shake our head in amazement when we continue to see "W" stickers on cars. She screams, "Don't they get it! Are they not paying attention!" No, they aren't and no, the majority of our Democratic friends aren't either. All the blogging in the world won't change that I'm afraid, only rock bottom will.

[LynneSin]

6. That was fricking brilliant

I wish I could have expressed myself as well as you just did but if I could recommend your reply I would.

We fail because we, the online community, think we are the only people in the democratic party. We are the minority and we need to reach out and unite with the rest of the world and start pulling them into our direction

[marions ghost]

9. this picture you describe of uninformed liberals

resonates with my experience, too. True it is the fault of the media, but how do we overcome that? More action-oriented types are not going to do the individual research we do in order to understand the issues. Because we are dissatisfied with the media, we are compelled to process it for ourselves in a very dynamic way. But your average consumers, even the liberal ones, want it packaged in sound bites and quickly digestible. They don't even realize that there's a whole world of information that never sees the light of day on television.

So how do we 'get out there in the real world,' assuming we know where the real world is? Pass out flyers with web addresses on them at kids soccer matches? Hold political theme parties in our living rooms? Bring speakers to local clubs and events?

[Stuckinthebush]

I don't know

I'm just being honest, but remember, my feelings are colored by yesterday's disappointment.

My fear is that fliers and such are easily dismissed as being from extremist crazies.

The one best way to do this is to combine resources and own the talking heads.

We desperately need a network. The drones listen to television and give anything that is uttered from the boob tube some extra level of validity. Well, by damn, we need the tube.

The question is, "How in the hell do we do that?"

[Stuckinthebush]

11. I don't know

I'm just being honest, but remember, my feelings are colored by yesterday's disappointment.

My fear is that fliers and such are easily dismissed as being from extremist crazies.

The one best way to do this is to combine resources and own the talking heads.

We desperately need a network. The drones listen to television and give anything that is uttered from the boob tube some extra level of validity. Well, by damn, we need the tube.

The question is, "How in the hell do we do that?"


(Why does the board double post sometimes? Maddening!)

[Salviati]

12. A good way to get through to some people...

My dad brought this up while I was visiting home, and it seems like a good way to break the stranglehold that the media has on some peoples thought processes. Everyone is an "expert" in one or two things, they've got some area that they know a heck of a lot about. The question to ask them is when the media reports on this issue, do they do a good job, or do they just gloss over the surface, and botch the details badly? Usually, when you know a lot about the subject being reported on, you can see how bad a job the media does, and it really affects your trust in them reporting on things that you aren't an expert on.

I think the key to getting through to people is a two pronged attack. 1) undermine their trust in in the corporate media. 2) build up their trust in your presentation of the facts, as well as instructing them in finding this stuff out for themselves when (or if) the fire has been lit under them.

[IronLionZion]

4. Did you notice that Biden and Bayh were amongst the 25?

Just asking if you noticed, that's all. :shrug: Nurture...

[Strong Atheist]

7. Yep. Agree with everything said here. Count me in! nt.

[DemonFighterLives]

8. I was kinda out of the loop yesterday

What excuse do the go along/get along dems. have for not standing up?

Where is the loyalty of the dems. to their own party? I hate this blank check stuff for dubnuts.