So I'm looking on ideas on how we can get started.
I haven't heard too much about our actions on this board, just more and more of our complaints. This comes from those on Obama's court as supporters and those who are disenchanted with him. We seem to have thought---voting for him was all we needed to do, to get things done. It, unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you look at it), is not the case. As far as action goes, we say we campaigned for Obama (and that's all well and good) but expect
HIM to be able to deliver for us.
I think we can all agree that based on the division of power we have in this nation---Obama doesn't have carte blanche to initiate any and all policies. He can suggest, and he can veto some measures but he can't write one and in the next breath create it--not if we want it to be long standing anyway. For those of us who believe in God---that's God's ability. Obama is not a messiah, second coming, or a King for that matter. He's just a man, who does have a high role but has to respect the rules as laid out by our forefathers.
I think we can also agree there is a lot of misinformation out there on the President. From the Right wing freaks we had things like Obama is putting granny's on death panels, he's going to take away your guns, he's Black (well that's half right *_*)...and so on and so forth. On the Left we have things like Obama is going to make it worse for the LGBT community, he's going to take away medicare/medicaid--like the Repig he is, he's at fault for the amount of Black men in prison. :eyes:
This fiscal proposal, I think is as good as the progressive one and actually embraces a great deal of their measures.
All of the above being said what are we going to do to help his agenda and hopefully break the cycle we have in place. I strongly believe that the Congress we have in place is dangerous for us and definitely for any progressive agenda. And as such we have to finagle and make "negotiations" and "concessions" we don't want to in regards to the budget. Even if these suggestions by the President are not even world sweeping these little changes are important.
How do we go about making sure the American public is educated in order to support this? After watching bits of MSNBC after the speech...there is something I came to realize. Well I always realized. These cable news service make are a disservice to the President, and I mean to a good President, a liberal President. A progressive one.
When it comes to right wing talking points which helps the Right wing fool---they are the most lovely. When I heard Chuck Todd and this other silver haired guy and ditzy Tamron--letting scum-bangs get away with mundane things that she should have been able to catch and dismiss. Let's just say I realize we have more negatives against us than positives and I realize more and more if the Media is against the people themselves the President, even if he's good, is not going to get that recognition.
I remember during the death panel fiasco---Obama had asked us (on his website) to create info groups to get the message out. And I remember some on DU mocking it. Saying, well what's that going to do --- there's no single payer or dismissing it for some other reason. I don't know how many people on DU even went through the whole info group meeting. I believe I knew only one person at the time who had one, if I remember correctly and it was
stevenlesser. I did a small one for my family.
When the budget proposal was going down, how many people were going out to family and talking to members to get them politically active over the budget drama. I don't even think that was discussed on this board. Instead it was focused on Wisconsin and some of the other states.
And don't get me wrong I respect that attention Wisconsin and so many other states got---but I think this is where we have to see the stand point of the President who has a lot on his table. While the budget talks snuck up on some of us, and I think we have to be honest---the budget battle was rather short for us unlike the battle for health care---since there was no other political thing to talk about in the media. But the budget cam on silently and maybe if we got together and did something we could have changed a lot on the compromises, the negotiations brought on.
I regret I wasn't as actively supportive as I could have been during the death panels. I won't deny the President went around and from townhall to townhall promoting the PO and other measures. But there was so much bad blood and negativity from so many people---and people who didn't get their way became disinterested---that the entire thing turned negative.
That is to say. What if it's not only the political hats we put in congress doing some of the talking. We come to DU for info. Maybe we should think about creation a donation pool to spread out information.
This is the idea. We want the info about Obama's agenda out there. We want it to be successful. And if it's not 100% we want to get more of what we want into it. Why don't we figure out a way to organize.
Maybe I should propose this to Obama instead now.
Anyway we do it like the way Obama organized to be president. We want to get the positive word out about the changes we want in place. We want to negotiate for medicare. We want to increase taxes on the rich and so on and so forth. We want all these things.
1. One of us or a few of us work together and create a small letter detailing this. We distribute it as a letter or a flyer.
2. We hold our own townhalls. (A sort of Citizens town halls) Talking about this and getting our neighbors and maybe even ourselves educated on the topic.
3. For those who have Democratic reps we get them to have townhalls. Some states have cooler reps than others---I don't expect much from Rangel (if I were in the States). So I can respect that.
4. Is it only NYC that has access to public tv? Who lives in NYC--you guys know MNN? <---Public tv where we can rent a spot and have a show.
5. Youtube vids on the topic for those of us who have youtube channels. Which reminds me I have to get mine up and running. I'll invite all you over when I get my video out. My batteries are charging. ^_^
6. Maybe get on local news channels, I've seen stevenlesser on Fox and other stations laying out the facts (but he's media). Write articles for blogs. Sending the info to the bloggers to talk more about this in their news. Rather than be negative or positive--but objectively laying out the pros and cons for this budget deal in comparison to Ryan's.
7. I think this is where WE have to take charge and control the discourse a bit.
8. Always a POLITE telephone or letter to your congressman, governor, mayor will be instrumental.
9. Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Get the info out there. (I'll attempt to translate this into French and Creole on my facebook, maybe Youtube). People like my mum are better with French/Creole than English even if they are citizens. Spanish speakers, Russian, Chinese---do what you do. My Korean isn't that good. But I know there are Thai speakers on here.
I think Obama has only so much he can do. And a few polls here and there is one thing. These polls are one thing. But when the congressmen/Senators are not hearing it in their district---they could give two shits about it. I think we need to get that. To be honest there's a lot of things we, as liberals need to get.
1. Obama is NOT to blame for all the things that happened like Gitmo, Bush tax cuts for the rich being extended.
2. Obama CAN NOT just make things not happen; especially when that something may have 80% positive benefits for us versus 0% benefits for EVERYONE.
3. We NEED to take charge of the discourse.
4. Voting is NOT OUR ONLY obligation or the way we change things fundamentally.
5. We CAN change things---with a bit of effort.
I realize this is long but I hope we can get this started. DU can you create a section for mobilizing and we can deploy people by State and District. I'm real serious about this.
I think Dems have gotten a sort of bad rap as lazy voters of sorts---while Teabaggers and Repubs have mom groups and stuff where they get together and discuss this stuff. Youtube has a bunch of these meet-ups they have or news interviews of these people and how they got started.
We can complain on a forum. But as people have said about Obama. Action is better than words. We need to show a bit of our own. We need to use our civics ability and be heard. A forum is unfortunately not it. Not if we want the words to be spoken nationally or the actions to be expressed nationally.
*Maybe if we do this and we help in this battle and come out victorious---we can change the other stuff. What do you guys say?
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