Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither

[_Maxine Waters]

How do you explain ANTIFA, black Panthers, Bill Ayers or other violent leftists?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

How do you explain ANTIFA, black Panthers, Bill Ayers or other violent leftists?

I had family over so I wasn't able to finish my thought. That said, they're a natural result of a democracy breaking down.

- Doc

[Guest]

Leftists believe in our institutions, they trust in them, and as a consequence they are in a perpetual state of denial about how precarious their situation is. The Right, on the other hand has always had a deep sense that the government is unfair and is ready and capable of tyranny. Right-wing ideology, politicians, and media has instilled its adherents with a sense of alertness and combative dedication to their beliefs. Whereas American Liberalism (I'm using Leftist and Liberals or Liberalism in the same context with this post because I want to avoid redundancy) has rendered the Left astonishingly, mindbogglingly, infantalized and defenseless when it comes to actually being able to oppose injustice.

True.

And it seems that the Right's expectation - regardless of how irrational - of government being so poised to unleash 'tyranny' upon their particular pet ideologies or beliefs is what primes their contempt for the system and prompts their own readiness to dismiss and abuse it as much as needed to serve their own interests.

This appears to be the case often enough that so many on Right need to vociferously, repeatedly and indignantly declare themselves the only true 'patriots', as if to mask the contradiction from their own consciousness.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

*cont'd*

8) Since I'm a disbeliever in violent revolution because internal political murder is bad and I'm scared shitless of the folks who gain power once a violent revolution succeeds I'll go back to realpolitik as a means to destabalize the Right, build consensus, and to safeguard our democratic instituions. Really quick, though, some might say our country was founded on revolution and something something the blood of patriots something the Tree of Liberty.

I'd suggest, if you want to be honest about history, that it was really a handful of capitalists (or in today's parlance "pro-business" types) AND slave owners who wanted to avoid taxes and obtain power for themselves. They lied to the public about what they were fighting for, got people like me (unconnected to power and poor) to sacrifice their lives for their cause, and when the revolution was won by *cough* patriots, they put themselves into power. You think I'm joking?

They crushed two rebellions against their oppressive regimes (look up the Whiskey and Shay's* rebellions; dudes straight up murdered their own who were just looking for a bit of justice), retained their slaves, denied the votes to all sorts of people (the history behind this is incredibly interesting), and launched genocidal campaigns against other societies (Indians, Spaniards, Mexicans, British Canadians, and others).

So, it's not just Leftists I fear when a violent revolution occurs, I'm fundamentally scared of anyone who uses violence to seize power because history is full of lessons about those people.

* My wife and I hiked through the battlefield where Shay's rebellion took place, and that led me down a Google rabbit hole regarding the events that surrounded it. It was just heartbreaking and blood boilingly unjust what happened to those men.

To the point:

Our republic is not a system which deserves our absolute faith simply because we want a society defined by its stated principles. The Left's failure to actually confront the nature of our system has left it impotent and wholly predicable in a conflict which requires strategy and boldness. The Right gets it. They got Trump elected precisely because they have utter contempt for our system and knows he's the man who'll ensure workarounds at best and its demise at worst.

*one sec*

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

*cont'd*

So, wat do?

9) The first thing we need to do is stop with the balkanization of the American voter. Our politicians need to get away from their own branding, and elevate a sustained identity brand of the American Worker, Inventor, Producer, Protector, and Innovator. Our political center of gravity must be firmly anchored in and around idealism coupled with a practical implementation of policies that champions unity in identity and an espirit de corps which is crucial to gaining the Missing Middle of the electorate.

During Hillary Clinton's campaign I saw a few glimpses of this when she put out ads that outlined a Democratic version of MAGA. I remember being captivated by the marketing and genuinely felt as if it was the perfect platform to win votes.

The Left should be about practical jobs, applicable jobs, necessary jobs all of which result in infrastructure development, the American way of life, and modernity in farming, manufacturing, technology, housing, education, security and trades. This just addresses their governance only, but it's absolutely imperative they shift away from social justice and re-focus on economic justic in the form of private-public sectors working in conjunction to reward the electorate with purpose, productivity, and a sense of accomplishment. Failure to effectively to make themselves the party of the working man, Joe Blow, who needs the affirmation that comes with being useful and genuinely engaged, will leave Leftists vulnerable to GOP strategies.

*one sec*

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

10) So, a good strategy is useless unless you can market these ideas and convince people to trust you with implementing and overseeing them effectively. You have to win elections, and then govern well to avoid being replaced by the Right which doesn't trust you or the government. You have to win hearts and minds.

The first thing the Democrats ought to do is humanize the American Worker archetype, that they're multifaceted and imperfect, but they're fighters who overcome and win against the odds.

How do you do that? Just do what Trump's team did, on the cheap, and microtarget through social media each and every district a day or two before mail-in ballots land in mail boxes. And then do the same again a day or two out from the election. You know those ads that pop up on Facebook and other platforms? You can literally hit a user with, "We're going to rebuild your bridge on 3rd street, two blocks over from where you live, but you have to get us elected so we can do it, Nancy." It's incredibly cheap, highly personalized, and very, very effective.

More importantly, the Democrats ought to remind people, through this microtargeting, that we're them. We're the nurse, the cop, the street maintainer, the doctor, the cashier, the foreman, the pastor, etc. Right now the Left has a serious image problem. The Left is the pink hair manhating feminist, the kneeler, the traffic disrupter, the drug proponent, and the welfare recipient. The vast majority of Liberals are just pawpaw, a fisherman, a pilot, or a golf course manager. We need to win back our narrative, our image, and remind the voter we're people who have a mortgage and want to see everyone prosper so we prosper, too.

What else?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

11) The Left should do Big Things. They should just make it part of their platform that ensures our democracy has a fair shake against people who are gaming it all the time. They should amend the constitution that implements anti-gerrymandering standards, increases or pegs our representation to x-amount of the population per representative, and enshrines some rules for procedure in the House and Senate.

11a) Megaprojects. The Left should embody Big Ideas that betters everyone's lives. They should make it part of their platform they want to put a solar panel on every roof, or create a national floodwater distribution network. Big stuff conceptualized in Liberal think tanks, and embraced as useful by the common man. Things they can point at and say, "See? That, right there, that's what happens when you vote Democrats into office."

*I may or may not continue because it's getting late*

- Doc

[_subgenius]

11) The Left should do Big Things. They should just make it part of their platdorm that ensures our democracy has a fair shake against people who are gaming it all the time. They should amend the constitution that implements anti-gerrymandering standards, increases or pegs our representation to x-amount of the population per representative, and enshrines some rules for procedure in the House and Senate.

It is a myth that gerrymandering is "unfair" - the simple math refutes the idea when applied to geography of voting. For example, every vote you keep in one district is a vote kept from another district...you only need 51% to win - thus the goal of gerrymandering is to win many districts by a relatively narrow margin, and lose the remaining few by a landslide...this results in a more fair and competitive atmosphere than would naturally or arbitrarily be formed (eg Iowa's districts).
Besides, it is logical to assume that gerrymandering must be widespread, but so is the "wasted vote" thus concluding that gerrymandering is not as ubiquitous as the sour-grapes-losers would have you believe.
So, while on the surface it may appear that Gary-Mandering is a bad thing, it might actually be the best way to establish "representative" type of election districts whereas people are equally represented...unless you think California should get the same number of electoral votes as Rhode Island.

11a) Megaprojects. The Left should embody Big Ideas that betters everyone's lives. They should make it part of their platform they want to put a solar panel on every roof, or create a national floodwater distribution network. Big stuff conceptualized in Liberal think tanks, and embraced as useful by the common man. Things they can point at and say, "See? That, right there, that's what happens when you vote Democrats into office."

*I may or may not continue because it's getting late*

- Doc

Pretty sure the solar panel gambit ran its course when the tax credits expired, which is why "big projects" are a hard sell....because they are a BIG sell with a BIG price. And funneling money to Solyndra doesn't help in terms of "platform".
I think your notion is good here, especially about big infrastructure - but those types of projects are difficult to impose at the Federal level without some sort of national motivation (eg getting most every American everywhere to agree and be motivated). Perhaps a better strategy would be to motivate States to impose projects whereas the pieces eventually form a whole...peer pressure is a great American tradition. Government is not, and should not be, about the idea-making business...it should be the enabler, the motivator. The idea that to govern = to lead is degenerative to a society striving for liberty. Good government simply knows when to regulate and when not to regulate.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Yeah, big projects carry a big price tag, for sure. I was thinking mostly of touting projects that just puts Joe to work and has long-term payoffs for American prosperity. So, things like rebuilding a decrepit bridge, or getting water from a wet Southeast to a dry West Texas, or running power lines from a Colorado wind farm to a grid are the kinds of things that can be partnered up with private industry, and then get back our investment through fees or whathaveyou.

Conceptually, the Democrats need to show Joe that they're more serious about him than they are about issues that push division. It's not to say that Democrats don't push social justice, whatever that means these days, but I have a feeling that if a voter in Anaheim receives a mircrotargeted ad through Facebook that says:

The homeless camp along the dry river bed located at 4th and Main is a problem, Nancy. If you vote for us we'll get it cleaned up, but we need you to get us elected so we can do this. Here's the plan to make it happen (link embed), but it won't happen unless you put us into office. Voting November 6th is your chance to make this happen.

The point I'm getting at is my party needs to do a better job of unifying the American electorate instead of their divide and conquer strategy. They're losing. The Republicans have mastered it, and they're winning the conversation because all they have to do is point to our insane and loud psychopaths, which scares the electorate into voting for them.

- Doc

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

12) So we need to flip the script on the Conservatives. They absolutely dominate the public consciousness because we want to govern, or at least win elections, through emotive attacks on the people who see reality happening around them, but have no idea what to do about it. I think we absolutely can win back the Middle, but we have to stop pandering to the extremists and stop sending the message to the Lower and Middle Class they got it good so shut up and let us continue to marginalize you while holding up fringe groups as exemplars of Americana. That's just political suicide.

Here's the thing. Political parties here in the US are assymetrical under the guise of Right and Left. So, what is it that we're really trying to do as Liberals, or Leftists, or Democrats? At the end of the day we need to market ourselves that we're visionaries, competent planners, good executors, and fair in the sense that we want everyone to have a shot at the American dream and everyone is welcome and expected to try.

Most politicians and constituents recognize there is a Middle Ground, but disagree over exactly where it lies. Politicians will also make compromises with those who share some but not all of their agendas to achieve power and advance their cause, leading to a diversity of views within political parties. Democrats need to define what is the Middle Ground, stake it out as an ideological center of gravity, and then market themselves heavily to win the Middle and secure power to amend the constitution to save our democracy and its institutions.

- Doc