Where We Go From Here: Part Two

Here's your choice: give up and let the barbarians burn the country to the ground, or double-down on your participation.

Reject the losers' whine that they can't do anything now that the rethuglicans have the House and 47 seats in the Senate. Congressional Democrats and the president pissed away the power they had with super majorities, so now they're just going to have to do the dirty work of beating the rethuglicans the hard way.
"Bipartisanship" means surrendering to the rethuglicans. "Victory" means beating the rethuglicans into whimpering pools of shit.

Asset:

1. The White House and the Senate. Both diminished, neither as strong as we'd like, but both still in Democratic hands.

Yes, it does seem clear that neither President Obama nor Congressional Democrats listen to anything Democrats, much less liberals, have to say. Even, or maybe especially though we have been right about everything from the beginning, and every mistake they have made, every failure, has come because they ignored our advice.

But maybe blogs and internet petitions are the wrong medium. Maybe the personal touch will get through.

Talk directly to President Obama and the Democratic Senators. If your own state's Senators are rethuglicans, talk directly to the Democratic Leadership - Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin. Or the relevant committee chairs. (Full list here. Click on the name to get that Senator's home page with contact info.)

Talk in person, of course, if you get the chance, but talk by whatever means you can - email, phone, letter. Emails and phone calls get handled by staff, but still get counted. If you want to make a big impression, send a letter. If you want to set the office on its ear, send a hand-written letter.

It doesn't have to be an essay - short is actually better. And it doesn't have to be particularly eloquent, although feel free to exercise your inner Hemingway if you're so inclined. Your own words, rather than your electronic signature on a petition, is what makes it stand out.

Just state simply and clearly what you want and what you expect from them. Rant if you must, but plain demands for specific action on a particular issue work best. (Rant right here in comments; wasting handwritten letters on rants just undermines your later demands.)

I plan to add a sentence or two making clear that I know procedural excuses are bullshit - there is always a way to get it done if you're not squeamish about hard-nosed methods. People care about results, not process.

One issue per letter, even if that means sending a letter every single week. If you send the same issue letter to several people, make it businesslike: address it to one of them and at the bottom, list the other people as "cc."

Follow up as frequently as you can, and keep it specific: "On Nov. 4, 2010, I wrote to you requesting .... It is two weeks later and you have not taken the specific action I requested. To repeat, I insist ...." Ignore the response letters you get - they are boilerplate excuses for not doing anything. Respond only to action, or lack of same.

No, maybe it won't work. But if you don't do it, it definitely won't work.

Tomorrow: What to do with our second asset.