Getting involved in the process
By John Amato Sunday Jun 15, 2008 2:30pmWhat Digby says:
The lesson for us is that civic involvement is important even if you feel like you are screaming into the void. Whatever you may think of them personally, people like Cindy Sheehan make a bigger difference than we think --- her encampment at Crawford the summer of 2005 was a turning point in public opinion on the war. People who studied the issues on blogs and elsewhere and took that information into their workplaces and dinner tables also made a difference. Joining advocacy groups, getting out the vote, donating what you can spare --- all of it. That's what creates the political environment in which these people govern our country and they are acutely aware of what's going on out there more than ever before. It matters.
I believe that John McCain will be defeated in November. But we can't take anything for granted. There is no doubt now that there is nothing --- nothing --- that John McCain won't do or say to get elected.
Login or Register to post comments.
To underestimate John McCains chances in november, is to underestimate America's stupidity.
Now would be the time to start "turning public opinion." I know it's a tiny little thing, but I feel like showing up at the crowded gym sporting my super-rad Obama t-shirt makes a statement. The more people who see that kind of support for the forces of good, the more they think it's acceptable to show their support, too.
McCain is like Cheney in that he is facing death and has nothing to lose and this is probably seen as his last shot to do what is still unfulfilled in his life. That makes him desperate and dangerous.
I used to work in a cabinet shop turned cabinet factory and I was the lead production designer. The boys in the shop were typical
southern Illinois/Missouri union carpenters, i.e. redneck nascar dads from hell. I still crack beers with them once and awhile.
I mentioned Obama and they said he hates America, he's a Muslim, he will build a Mosque in the White House, not to mention he is a N___r.
These guys aren't stupid, they just just have the same upbringing I did, except I changed.
These guys ARE America!!!
I'm planning on doing all I can to get Obama elected, But really, I can't see ANYWAY McSame even comes close to Barack.
Flash @ 3:
John McCain is alot of things. I don't think he's Dick Cheney though.
casper46 @ 5:
That's like saying that my colon is me. Those guys aren't America, just one of the more unpleasant parts.
Hmm... I don't know about Cindy Sheehan. It seems to me that her obnoxious tactics actually galvanized support against Progressives.
Eric Hussein Elite Almighty @ 7:
Bullshit. Bull. Shit. What utter and complete stupidity. This is exactly what the Republinazis and the Democrappers want the ignorant, gullible, thoughtless sheeple to believe. There is no such thing as "getting involced in the process" and there is no such thing as "making a difference." That's what every Totalitarian, fascist State wants the gullible, ignorant, stupid masses to think.
Good fucking grief. How much tyranny, how much treason, how many war crime atrocities does it take before some people fucking wake the hell up and realize that NOTHING they or anybody else does, says, or advocates makes a lick of difference?
Parade around in polite little circles, whack each other off and play pretend the fascist terrorist traitors give a fuck what you think, get media coverage showing you parked outside of a terrorist butcher's vacation residence, play paddycake like a bunch of good little boys and girls, and guess what you get. 8 friggen years of Christian terrorism and treason -- and more to come because idiots like this one thinks asking "pretty please" will make the terrorist butchers stop.
Here's a clue: No dictator, despot, terrorist butcher, or traitor ever stopped just because the victims stood up and begged for mercy. Pretending that voting or speaking up makes any difference merely alloows the fascists traitors to continue to do whatever the corporate and Christian hate mongers pay them to do.
Eric Hussein Elite Almighty @ 9:
I totally disagree. At a time when NO ONE was standing up for what was right, she was. The sad truth was that it was a Mom who was the anti-war leader. Not anybody in congress, but a plain-Jane Mom was leading this country in a direction that only be called sane, as opposed to a path of total insanity. She did a lot.
Fredric L. Rice @ 10:
And I thought I was a cynic.
That is because she scared them. If you are scaring them and they are lashing out at you, that is how you know you are on the right track.
There are some people in this country who thrive on stupid. That's where they are most comfortable and they hang out with people just like themselves. They reinforce each others stupidity. Not sure those folks will even listen to the truth, let along believe it. But I don't think that's the majority of Americans.
If and when the media begins reporting on the candidates, what they say, what they said and what each is planning to do, that might help make people see the gigantic difference in the two candidates and the difference each of them will have on our country if they are elected.
marko @ 4:
no offense those are black n white thinkers i've been around guys like that they see it one way that's it unless they respect you your a pussy if i can say that it's a tough guy culture brawn over brains i'm not saying they're stupid either....it's a different culture that's the empowering element some of them want hte division...your correct it's a part of america....personally i believe the world is much more complicated than black n white thinking but some people don't want to think that much.if you do your questioned
You mean there's more to democracy than just voting every few years?
Our victory lies not in getting out the vote for Obama, but keeping the McCain vote at home on election day. Mark my words, apathy will be his achilles heal.
One person can't make a difference, right Justice Kennedy?
Flash @ 12:
Cindy Sheehan almost galvanized us. until FOX took the counterattack to the next level. when non-mommy's and non-wives like Ann Coulter started asserting false motives about Cindy they kind of shot themselves in the foot. all kinds of other, quieter moms and dads and husbands and wives took a good hard look at Cindy, and the people attacking her, and said "wait a minute... who the hell are YOU to say THAT about someone who's so much like ME?"
if Ann had kept her dumb mouth shut and let the white house press secretary put a rug over Cindy's actions, Cindy would have been as irrelevant as every other protestor.
thanks for being a next generation feminist Ann, we couldn't have done it without ya! ;)
This election should be a no-brainer. The country is up sh*t creek without a paddle. Hell, and we have giant boulders lashed to the boat. One man says stay the course and the other says here's a couple of oars and a knife to cut the boulders loose. It shouldn't take a genius to tell which man we need right now.
c_ray_86 @ 18:
your probably right about the achilles heel........but i'll take alittle of both thank you very much
karl @ 16:
my point exactly!!!
these are typical americans who know nothing but what the TV tells them. Nothing.
Of course the world is more complicated, but the vote is so much more uncomplicated. The aforementioned men will chose based on ideals of patriotism, loyalty and self interest that would be termed insane in a normal society.
Our Democracy is so nonfunctional that working men vote for John Wayne wannabes, for God and country, while the same politicians export their jobs, pollute their air, and intentionally divide us.
Off topic but too good not to pass along immediately.
:)
Excellent letter from Evo Morales, president of the Republic of Bolivia, to the EU concerning a recent directive proposed by the EU to govern immigrant labor.
Guardian UK: 42 days? Try 18 months
(The reference to 42 days is the British proposal to allow detention without charge of terrorism suspects for up to 42 days, contrasted to the EU proposal to jail undocumented immigrants for up to 18 months before expelling them.)
I'm wondering what the best way to get involved might be? Lawn signs? T-shirts?
I have a difficult time working for the democratic party or giving money to the party itself because there's so much I don't approve of in the party itself (mainly in Congress: FISA caving, lily-livered approach to ending the U.S. involvement in the civil war in Iraq etc).
So, does anyone have any other tangible suggestions for useful involvement to help Obama get elected and to help those Clinton supporters who are so furious that they're opting for McCain to understand that his record on women's rights would put us right into the Hand Maid's Tale?
This was my Father's Day civic duty.
The essense of Participatory Democracy in one paragraph.
Imagine the people in Iowa sitting around waiting for a levee to be built for them. You probably can't. Who filled the sandbags and erected the wall to keep the water out? The community did.
No one person can fix something so huge as the mess we are in. Every one of us doing what we can, big or small, is what will make it happen.
Wishing things were different never works.
displaced @ 8:
Cindy Sheehan....
Her son Casey was killed by George W. Bush.
Will you be enlisting soon ?
Pari @ 25:
I do have a really nice and subtle Obama sweatshirt and I wear it as often as I can. Several conversations have began due to that shirt.
I talk to people. I ask them if they have made their decision about who they are going to vote for. If they say McCain I ask them why. After I let them tell me their reasoning, I talk to them and tell them why I believe Senator Obama would bring a positive change to their life. They may not agree with me at that moment but it does give them something to think about and they know a little more about Senator Obama than they did.
marko @ 23:
glad i wasn't offensive........i get what you mean i happen to be college graduate but i pass no judgement to those who don't.....i think they believe educated people do pass judgement or they want you to so they can be empowered.....oh and i served in the military...i would like these guys use the n word when your in the military...that guy might save your life...my point is it's hypocritical and not too smart it's a false sense of security people get off being tough and empowered by judging others........people of their own country..i think it's foolish
The Exotic Chico Hussein Escuela @ 28:
no, no, no. Thats just frantic hyperbole. Casey Sheehan was killed by an Iraqi roadside bomb. he wasnt impressed into the military. No one forced him to enlist. he went voluntarily. Agree or diagree with the war, claiming Bush killed Sheehan is like claiming Lee Iacocca kileld my grandparents becasue of a Chrysler defect.
displaced @ 8:
She certainly scare the shit out of the right and they certainly unleashed a smear campaign on her, but as you can plainly see her actions were the begining of the end of widespread support for the war.
Fredric L. Rice @ 10:
How is it that you've managed to avoid putting a bullet through your brain so far?
I mean, really, if it's so fucking hopeless why don't you just cash your chips in and get the fuck out already. I'm sure there are plenty of "sheeple" who'll clean up the mess when you're gone.
Imagine my shock. But isn't the same also true of the other guy, what's his name....?
Fredric L. Rice @ 10:
Gee. I wonder what the country would be like right about now without all those people pretending they could make a difference trying to...a...make a difference?
Al Gore will publicly endorse Senator Obama tonight when they appear together.
Mike @ 34:
i'm going with g.w.bush in the 2000 elections
I heard the news about Gore just now on CNN.
pissed off patricia @ 36:
And the lead story on CNN tomorrow will be Gore says he invented Obama!
The Grand Oil Party will stop at nothing to see their continued windfall profits continue on for as long as they can...
If you want Change, then you have to become involved, whether that is donating to a campaign, phone banking, door to door, or getting involved with public discourse at work/school (trust me....simple conversations at work, school, etc - can have dramatic impacts on people's perceptions), especially with family members.
There will always be those right wingnuts that eat the magic beans they're sold from the right wingnut noise machine (instead of planting them)...that's a lost cause. But for those people that have been on the fence...one conversation, one moment of inspiration can make a difference.
Mike @ 34:
You mean Saddam Barrack Husien?
No wonder you can't remember his name. Barrack Obama has two to three sylables in both his first and second name.
Yellow Elephant Safari @ 39:
funny to some before it became funny to none
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp
I heard Bush let out a little Freudian slip saying this MIGHT be his last trip to Europe as leader. What is King George saying there ? I'm wondering what lengths Americans will go to to preserve the democracy. I just cant see the NEO cons giving up that easily. Wont let a little thing like an election stop them. Add in all Bushholes bullshit power grabs and signing statements and it looks bad. Dont count on the SCOTUS or bootlicker Muckasey doing anything to stop them either. They have gotten away with just about everything so far. Whats gonna stop them now ? I foresee millions of angry Americans storming Washington to drag the assholes out of town and into jail where they belong.
karl @ 42:
Snopes is a good site, Karl. I just found it this morning.
Col Kilgore @ 43:
I saw him make that comment on a c-span tape of his meeting this morning with Brown. Bush said some are speculating that this is my last trip to Great Britain. Then bush said, "we'll see".
Its about time Gore endorses him. Where are they speaking together tonight?
c_ray_86 @ 46:
I didn't catch where they will be. I think Gore has a website. Maybe there is some info there
xoites defends Constitution @ 32:
I think she might have been the weather vane showing the direction the wind was beginning to blow, but I don't see her being the catalyst for it. You don't see people currently protesting in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. waving signs that says "Remember Casey Sheehan" do you? She stepped down from the limelight as soon as the smear campaign got really dirty, and probably even a little too late since the lingering public perception of her is not a favorable one (courtesy of the MSM.)
You can go here to read about the gore endorsement
Bush didn't kill Sheehan. He had an alibi. He was playing golf at the time. The vp was shooting a friend in the face, and setting up Halliburton, in Saudia Arabia.
They volenteer OTHERS, who are looking to survive a bleek future in a severely collapsing economy and rising record homelessness. Only thing is, their fighting for an illegal occupation making record profits for the "haves". That's a fact, that is being constantly being repeated, yet consistantly ignored and allowed to simply continue, on and "million-dollar a min", on.
Republican voters are not going to vote for John McCain. They think he is a liberal.
displaced @ 48:
Standing up for what you believe in often comes at a price. There is no measuring stick that i am aware of that will tell us how many people she affected and at what level. If all she had done was piss people on the right off that would have been something because up until her actions in Texas noone really had. She got to them and they over reacted and in the minds of many the credibility of the right started to crumble.
I do n't want people outside the White House with signs saying, "Remember Casey Sheehan." That belittles the rest of the dead, don't you think?
Besides, if there were a hundred people doing that right now you would never know it. It would not be on tv, but the people who were directly touched and inderectly touched by the actions of sheehan and many others were changed. When you act there is hope. When you don't nothing happens.
Hey, Pissed Off Patricia,
Thanks for answering. I think those are some good, solid tactics. One-on-one often works where screaming rhetoric doesn't.
Pari @ 25:
Here is a small idea.
You can browse the web looking for interesting tidbits of information and read political blogs and post the names and links of good blogs and good information on the blogs you like. There are a lot of blogs out there. Noone can keep track of them all, but if you were to find a few you like and spread their existance around it would help connect people.
Pari @ 53:
If I can help, it's my pleasure.
Anyone who looks down on Cindy Sheehan has their head up their ass. She was the one who turned the tide. It's impossible to imagine the Demoracts winning back the house and senate if she hadn't done what she did. We'd all be living in Karl Rove's thousand year reich without her.
The only thing that even keeps our head above water is that some people aren't afraid to be like Cindy Sheehan.
pissed off patricia @ 55:
Oh, I forgot to add that I have just visited your site. Wow, I was impressed regarding your accomplishments. Good for you.
SeattleJoe @ 56:
I think it is all of us. I can't imagine Cindy being successfull without the support of so many Americans. The Corporate Media could not destroy her mainly because we would not let it.
Who will support Sheehan in her bid to replace Pelosi in the House?
Before We The People can take control of this country we're going to have to take control of one of the political parties, and it isn't the GOP.
I think the real effort is within the Democratic Party, to strengthen the Progressive Populist Agenda and elect more Progressive Populists to office.
And most of that effort starts at the local level.
The word "politics" means "how we govern outselves" .. so "involvement in politics" means involvement in that process.
We now use the word "politics" as synonymous with "partisan politics" - one party, or faction, trying to gain the upper hand, but that's not its original meaning.
Pressuring local officials to do what is right - regardless of party affiliation - is the essence of politics.
And the need for that does not appear ONLY in election years, and certainly not only at the national level.
xoites defends Constitution @ 58:
Of course. That’s the point, that’s what people like her do. They take on the corporate media, or whatever institution is smothering the truth and marginalizing even a hint of dissent, make a spectacle of themselves, and challenge “us” to stand up and fight.
That’s the tide that she turned. I don’t remember if it was a majority, but a huge section of the population was against the war by then, but except for committed “radicala”, there was almost no active opposition to the war, even to the extent of campaigning for Democrats. She mobilized the silent majority.
Just enough.
Flash @ 3:
i certainly agree, being 73 myself i feel hes looking for imortality thru the office of the presidency, and being 73 i can say thru the experiency of old age that john mccain is unfit to lead this country, it would be a grave mistake to elect this man or to allow him to be rammed down our throuts thru a stolen election, i for one wont except his rule!
I'm going to start garage sale shopping seeking out good old durable American made stuff.
This GD bike tire pump I bought broke today trying to top off my tires.
Made in China
Screw it . . . Less is More
Fredric L. Rice @ 10:
your opinion is greatly supported by the aftermath of the 2006 election.
It saddens me to say that.
Ron @ 26:
Amen!
xoites defends Constitution @ 32:
you did all that without calling them a concern troll.
good on you!
Frank1957 @ 51:
they have barr and paul.
pissed off patricia @ 45:
Bush dreams to make millions like his father and Clinton has made as speakers all over the world. He thinks that he will be in demand. Does anyone really would pay to see this failure?
Does he not worry that he could be arrest for war crime, like Rumsfeld was worn the last time he went to Europe and had to run because the Embassy got wind of his arrest !
displaced @ 8:
bollox
digby is not one to talk. She would never come out for impeachment and deleted comments from those that took her to task for being a milktoast! Nor, for that matter, has Amato.
displaced @ 8:
Cindy changed the whole Iraq war narrative. The right then tried to destroy her.
"There is no doubt now that there is nothing — nothing — that John McCain won’t do or say to get elected."
I'm sure that's true. But then It's pretty much true of every single politician I've ever voted for or against except Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul and, unfortunately, Al Gore.
The real concern is that he can poll close enough to Obama that it becomes paulsible for Deibold, ES&E and the regular line up of rogues to electronically tamper with the vote and steal the election. HE only needs to get close enough so that it won't be a landslide, and the thieves will take care of the rest.
Paul @ 74:
Hell, McCain doesn't actually have to get close for the election riggers to operate. The right polls just have to claim he is, and corporate media just need to promote that claim and keep smearing Obama 24/7. If necessary, the 5-4 Bush V. Gore Gang can always step in again to close the deal. The Democrats could again be counted upon to either aid and abet this process from within or standby silently and let it happen.
Login or Register to post comments.