Leavinng emotion to the right wing = losing elections

[eridani]

http://www.alternet.org/story/145898/where%27s_the_sane%2C_liberal_anger_have_progressives_abandoned_emotion_to_the_right

There is an astonishing lack of anger among liberals, progressives and radicals who have abandoned emotion to the right. Our role model continues to be not FDR, still less Malcolm X, but our "bipartisan" and apparently tone-deaf President Obama. In this second or third year of a devastating depression, not just recession, that has inflicted an epidemic of suffering on the lower half of the American nation, Obama is very busy being fluent and civil while being essentially untouched by the rage felt by so many of us. Our world, as we have known it, is being annihilated, and nobody in power shows signs of giving a damn.

The real anger is all on the right, kidnapped – or authentically voiced – by the all-white Tea Partiers, Palinites, Oath Keepers and "armed and dangerous" patriot groups, some but not all of whom are native-fascistic but also include pissed-off libertarians and the disappointed and dispossessed at the bottom of the pile.

Look at the mess. Evictions – I'm a child of Great Depression furniture-thrown-on-the-street – are skyrocketing. Mortgage holders are in a feeding frenzy on their hapless fellow citizens. Michelle Obama lectures us on obesity while one in eight Americans (and one in four children) are on federal food stamps. The human toll of long term, more-or-less permanent unemployment is yet to be counted as millions of Americans are pushed out of the middle class and become the "new poor" queueing up at food banks for the first time in their lives.

Those who do vent and get angry are put down as crackpots, which they sometimes are. But the so-called left seems to have joined the mainstream (and even the radical) media in under- or mis- or never-reporting what's actually happening in the lives of so many of us. Like Obama, Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic party establishment we've forfeited real gut language in favour of policy abstractions, the "issues" syndrome, that so easily hide an open wound. Joe Stack, who rammed his Piper Cherokee into the IRS building in Austin, Texas, murdering an IRS worker and injuring many, was one maladjusted injustice collector. But his online 3000-word suicide note, a long-repressed scream of protest, has the virtue of unminced words we are never likely to hear from anyone in Washington or a state capitol. "When the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die."

[ixion]

1. responding with emotion to an emotionally-charged talking-point = futile

it's much better to simply shut the argument down by calling it what it is: ridiculous, ludicrous and with no basis whatsoever in fact -- and then move on.

[eridani]

2. Above it all = not giving a shit about what is happening to people n/t

[ixion]

4. excuse me?

Above it all? Are you out of your mind? How can you make such a wild accusation?

Ironic, given the content of your post.

I'm not talking about "keeping the powder dry" or keeping important topics "off-the-table", I'm talking about using real logic to counter ridiculous emotive rhetorical statements, designed with no other purpose in mind than to illicit an emotional response.

Responding emotionally is playing right into their hand. But, hey, knock yourself out.

[Echo In Light]

9. (steps in)...I'm familiar enough w/ixion's posts to say that's not what was intended

[ixion]

12. Thanks, Echo In Light

Much appreciated. :hi:

[Echo In Light]

16. No prob

:thumbsup:

[elocs]

3. I believe that last summer Democrats abdicated the healthcare town hall meetings to the teabaggers.

My own city had a rally for those who supported healthcare reform last summer and it was as quiet and polite as a church social. From their point of view the right is mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore and they come out in strong numbers and display their displeasure.

[ixion]

5. This is precisely the problem...

when faced with ridiculous emotional rhetoric, the dem leadership consistently tucks tail and runs for the bunkers. Every freakin' time.

And when it's so easy to diffuse these arguments with a chuckle and some sound logic.

[elocs]

6. I certainly would have liked to see some real passion last summer

at my city's pro healthcare reform rally. Damn, it was in a city park on a beautiful summer's evening and not in a church or library. (Although not all churches are the same. I have been at a Pentecostal church service where they were loud, vocal, and celebratory about their faith and beliefs.)

I want to see some real and heartfelt public passion from Democrats concerning the things they believe are important. Certainly we could wield a sword of truth compared to the teabaggers who can only seem to parrot the vitriolic slogans and lies they are fed from their talking heads.

[eridani]

7. You need passion as well as logic n/t

[ixion]

14. Logic in-and-of-itself is dispassionate in nature, however

there certainly can be a Passion for Truth, for example, driving the logic.

The first rule of an argument is that whoever says "f" you first loses.

Responding to a purely cathartic statement with same-in-kind leads to exactly that.

[depakid]

15. It would be a good to read up on the cognitive science

Guys like Lakok and Westen have written a lot about why reason alone isn't enough- nor is ridicule enough (though you're absolutely right- it helps- whereas Obama's constant enabling and legitimizing sets us all back every single time he does it).

You don't really need to go to into the research to see how it works, though- the Greeks and Romans knew about how the art of rhetoric worked, even putting the principles into canons and setting out divisions:

Ethos (credibility)

Pathos (emotion) and

Logos (reason).

Effective political rhetoric requires all three- but of these three, pathos has been confirmed time and again as the most important element in late 20th and 21st Century politics.

[Bluenorthwest]

13. Democrats held large Town Halls in their districts

It was the President who abdicated the town halls. My rep had to face a frothy crowd with zero clear policy from the President, no answers for those who did support reform, no signal from DC that leadership would stand up for real reform, public option, medicare for all, these were the questions that had to be glossed over, as the administration left the elected Democrats dangling without support.
That is what happened. My Rep's office got fucking shot at, with guns. He did not abdicate, he stood, and he spoke as clearly as the mealy mouthed Beltway crowd would permit. And they shot at his office windows for the favor.

[DainBramaged]

8. We as a party were castrated long ago (tough shit pc police)

and we continue to think sticking our pinkies out while drinking tea is preferable to downing a shot.

[OHdem10]

10. "We are not like them" continues to be a losing proposition, but

who cares???

Elections are won on emotions....just watch the GOP
take over in the next two elections.

The Democrats are not emotional because they do not
have a belief system. One philosophy which binds them
all together and a belief system worth fighting for???

It is difficult to get all worked up over a laundry list
of policies.

[eridani]

18. I wish I could remember the last time I heard a Dem defend the public good--

--in exactly those terms.

[KharmaTrain]

11. And It's The GOOP's Latest Road To Ruin...

Emotion with no plan of action leads to futility. The teabaggers know what they don't like or want...but they have no clue as to what it takes to get what they want nor how it would affect their lives. Yep, cut taxes and then what happens when one's house catches fire or the roads go to hell? They're plenty angry but with no clue other than to recite talking points that feel good but have little substance.

The GOOP is starting to realize they've unleashed an animal they aren't able to control that is about to devour them. Their corrupt party is in no position to follow through on the rhetoric...just to try to use the emotion to win elections and even that isn't happening. The GOOP is about to face some brutal primaries...and then they're in a lose/lose situation. If the "establishment" candidate like a Crist win, it's sure to piss the teabaggers who will either vote third party or stay home. If the baggers win, they'll nominate someone who is virtually unelectable to independents and moderates...who will stay home. Either way, it's not a pretty picture, no matter how much the corporate media tries to spin it.

[BeFree]

17. Kick

OP says:
There is an astonishing lack of anger among liberals, progressives and radicals who have abandoned emotion to the right. Our role model continues to be not FDR, still less Malcolm X, but our "bipartisan" and apparently tone-deaf President Obama. In this second or third year of a devastating depression, not just recession, that has inflicted an epidemic of suffering on the lower half of the American nation, Obama is very busy being fluent and civil while being essentially untouched by the rage felt by so many of us. Our world, as we have known it, is being annihilated, and nobody in power shows signs of giving a damn.
____________________________

Liberals are usually known to be soft-spoken. Listeners; not blowhards.

Populists get out there and ring bells, beat on pots and pans, hold rallies.
--------------

Over the last 10 years the left has been beat upon, called enemies of America and blamed for anything that went wrong. And we pretty much just tried to shove it under the rug and lay low.

Time for us to rise up. Time for us to pull back the rug, affirm our correctness, unite together and take back our country from the anti-Americans who have shoved themselves onto the stage.

First we have to unite. Put aside our petty differences and as one get rid of the bushie republicans once and for all. The bushie republicans created our country's problems and all we've done so far is to let them off the hook for all their bad actions.

We need the bushies to be brought to justice.

[eridani]

19. I posted the OP to a listserv of state Dem leaders and got the following from Eastern WA

This falls elections will be the most unpredictable in a very long time. At the state level, Democratic incumbents will be challenged about repealing I-960 from many fronts. While the facts are on our side---that it is not the overall amount of state and local taxation (37th out of 50 states) that is causing pain, but the regressive nature of our tax system---just explaining the facts will not be enough. (Not that we've been very good at doing so.) We have to tell a story that is emotionally appealing to folks who are very frightened. We have the best role model, and you mentioned him, FDR. We need to update that story to include a green economy, and sustainable ag. To tell a story about a Washington where we cooperate to restore local economies, where communities and families are once again strong, and where no one need fear being left in need. It is not Wall Street investment, banks, and large corporations that will build this new Washington and America, it is us.

As a corollary to this, last night I attended the visit of the Washington Bus to Spokane. It drew a great crowd of about forty 20- and 30- somethings. I was the only old fart Dem party official who showed up. Andy Billig, who's running for 3rd LD (and no old fart) was also there. The energy was awesome, and I met several new young PCOs. Sadly though, when we had a discussion about branding and I mentioned that the Democratic Party was the party of the working class, the young folks in the discussion all disagreed, the GOP is the party of working people they thought. The Dems are the party of the educated elite. We've allowed the definition of working class to become shopping at Wal-Mart and watching FOX News, not union membership and support for our party, because the party has not delivered for these folks. We have a lot of work to do.