Politics 101

The usual DC cocktail weenie circuit would have everyone believe that Rahm Emmanuel is some kind of kingmaking election genius guru for the Democrats. As usual, they are wrong--so terribly wrong. The title rightfully belongs to the people, of course, but, if one must give credit to one person for Tuesday's smashing success, and the comeback story of the decade, the praise rightfully belongs to Howard Dean.

Dean has been saying what any smart political strategist would say: A national party must have a broad-based infrastructure, from the ground up. He understood that you can’t win elections without a good confluence of money, policy and infrastructure. And he did something about it.

Unfortunately, the DC Dems of the past 30 years or so have focused on only two legs of that three-legged stool, and not noticing that the third is rotting. The policy stayed shored up (although many chipped away at it), and the fundraising stool gets a lot of varnish applied, without understanding that the rot has crept in from the infrastructure leg. The stool doesn't remain standing without the legs working in harmony, you morons. If today we had continued on the battle-ground strategy and letting our platform stand for itself (while throwing a lot of money away), if we didn’t have the netroots, this party would be DOA in this election. We would have lost seats, not gained, no matter how exalted and popular our policies.

And what has focusing on policy gotten us? Policy is the one thing the Dems have had in their favor. A lot of people these days are saying, ooh, the Dems won because they moved to the center. What fucking bullshit. They didn't run anywhere. They've had the right policies, all along. For pity’s sake, over decades, the American public consistently has polled in favor of every single Democratic domestic issue, in overwhelming numbers, and we could not win.

Besides, if the elections were always about policy alone, the Republicans would have withered up and died, long ago. They haven’t had a viable policy platform in 30 years (low taxes, don't change anything and more kablooie are cheap gimmicks to pretend to have policies). They did have a formidable infrastructure and plenty of money. That has been enough to carry them across the finished line with enough wins, but hobbled and bleeding. I’m sorry, but you cannot win elections on policy alone, and no amount of money can make it so.

So if massive public support of policies is not resulting in election victories, you have to examine why. The most obvious answer is the answer: One must do the boring, plodding reality of being a political organization. That means getting and staying organized. That means building a good infrastructure and a fundraising machine.

Money is easy enough to understand in the 50-state strategy: If you have candidates battling a rival party from POTUS all the way down to Main St., USA dogcatcher, you are forcing the other side to pull all their money from the top races and make them spend it across the board–which the Republicans haven’t had to do in the past. This is the first election since I can remember when I’ve seen Republicans having to abandon races in droves. Leaving a Santorum or deWine twisting in the wind? Who would have thought this possible two years ago?!

The 50-state strategy exposed the essential weakness of the GOP operation: They have deep, deep pockets, but those pockets are not infinite. They have limits. And with an antiquated system of relying on fundraisers and direct mail to gin up their cash flow, they can’t do blitzkrieg fund-raising like the Dems can with their netroots accessible for real-time donations, 24/7.

Raising money is easy, though. Seriously. Building an infrastructure is not, but it is probably the most overlooked area by the DC Dem insiders club. They think a national party makes its decisions from the top. That can work, with a dynamic and savvy enough leader (Clinton), but those guys are tough to find, and they tend to burn out. What do you do when they're not around? If you have a good infrastructure in place, it doesn't matter who's at the top. A good infrastructure only gets stronger when you have a Clinton bearing the flag for the party.

So what is a good infrastructure? Technology, of course, but mostly people. Lots and lots of people. Especially people at the local level (Tip O'Neill was right: All politics is local). These people are with the party, election year or not. They're constantly looking for great candidates to run, people who may have never considered the possibility. They know how to look for future winners (the primary requirements being does this person know what's going on, do his positionson issues align with ours, and can he communicate it well?) Then they provide the support that the candidate needs in the form of money, yes, but--more importantly--good staff, especially volunteers. Look, no politician, not even Clinton, can win without an army of supporters. Yeah, overarching political trends and scandals can bring down a campaign. But those aren't things anyone can control, really. The one thing you can control is the candidate and his staff. Really good ones can overcome tough obstacles. In short, campaigns win or lose with their staff. Period.

Another advantage of having this sort of locally-based infrastructure in place is the experience and credibility a "green" candidate and staff get from running a good campaign. The candidate and his staff get the experience of campaigning, and if they win, their time in office gives them a resume to present for their next campaign, higher up the chain. This is called grooming candidates and their staff. After all, great candidates and staff don't materialize out of thin air. They're not born to it, either. The good ones learn from every campaign. And the good ones almost always are terribly ambitious, so they want to move up. So today's dogcatcher is tomorrow's state legislator who is tomorrow's Ag Commissioner who is tomorrow's Senator, who is tomorrow's POTUS. But he or she gets a start when a local party finds and approaches this unsuspecting soul, and the staff gels around him. The Democratic party hasn't done these things in a long, long time.

But enough of the boring wonk crap.

The more important, and troubling, thing about Rahm Emmaneul and Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Beltway morons is that they don't get one more Politics 101 truism: You don’t stab in the back the people who do the heavy lifting for you, like they tend to do to the liberals in the party. Remember: It is the staff that makes or breaks a campaign. And they don't gravitate to a campaign for the hell of it. Not the ones who are going to make a difference.

I’ve said it many times online, but it bears repeating, until these numbskulls get it:

It is not the moderates who turn the wheels of a party. They’re not sure enough of where they stand to commit to the party. If moderates are volunteering for a campaign, the reason is one of two things, or some combination thereof: the cult of personality (the candidate's charisma--hello, Clinton), or concern about a pet issue.

It is the base, for the Dems, the liberals, who make a campaign catch fire, and keep it burning enough to light a fire in other people.

It is the liberals who make that extra phone call, knock on one more door, plug in one more page of data, log in one more donation, drive one more person to the polls. Not the moderates.

It’s the people who care, the people with conviction, starry ideals, and a preternatural faith that we can make a difference. Moderates are too realistic for that.

It is the conviction and enthusiasm of the base that inspires the squishy middle that, hey, maybe we’re onto something. Bored, disinterested, wishy-washy people can’t do that. Americans like winners and people who seem to be onto one. They’ll respond if they think that something’s going on over there. That comes from a fired up base. And the Dem base is liberal, like it or not.

WE are the base. WE are the party. The moderates are just bandwagon jumpers, hanging around only when we’re winning and abandoning us when we aren’t. All they care about is their own fingers and toes. WE care about the party, enough to sacrifice our time and money and energy for it.

Rahm Emmanuel is a fucking moron, and my Madame DeFarge has him duly recorded as a traitor to the people.

So Rahm and Chuck and all the DLC triangulators can just bite me.

UPDATE: Special thanks to Redshift over at FDL for the advice to hammer the meme that Dems won last Tuesday because they "ran to the center." BULLSHIT. All of it bullshit.

Handling Robocalls, Texas Style

Maybe there wasn't much to do with them but put down the phone and wait for that awful your phone is off the hook jangle, but we Texans aren't that forebearing.

Juanita Herownself over at the World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon has this funny clip of a guy who received a Robocall from Dubya himself. I didn't even know Bunnypants did any of the messages himself. Anyway, here's the link for the clip. Listen for the guy's response to our Dolt in Chief.

Link is also in the header.

Fear Is Your Only God

An apt metaphor for the Republicans. They ran that fear train right into the ground, with a band of shrieking harpies in the media to assist them, but give 'em credit: They did it for all it was worth.

Unfortunately, we get to clean up the mess.

Anytime they played the fear card, any time the shrieking harpies muscled their way into my airspace, this song went through my mind:



Preach it, Zack.

Man, I miss Rage Against the Machine. Best band ever, IMHO.

Maybe I'll have time to blog...

Well, I finally made "regular" at the old USPS. This means I get set working hours, set days off, a set workplace, paid holidays, vacation hours credited to me up front, and lots of other bennies that I haven't had for 7 very long years (I was a full-time regular before I transferred to San Antonio). No more getting shuffled to facilities all over the city on the whims of management, no more going to work at 3 a.m. for two weeks, then at 10 a.m. the next few, noon for a while, five a.m. after that, etc. No more working 60 hour weeks for a month, then 30 hour weeks right after it. No more seven-day work weeks. Yes, I've had those.

Downside? I have to go back to working nights, all the way across town, and now I have to figure out transportation for my disabled husband. Oh, and no weekends off, but that's not a big deal. I get premium pay for working Saturday and Sunday night. I like getting two hours' worth of pay without having to work for it. Bonus!

Most of all, it will be good to have some stability in my life again.

I'm really looking forward to that first sheet put before me asking me if I want to work overtime or a holiday.

I'm taking out my big Sharpie and writing NO to working 10 hours, 12 hours, on a scheduled day off or on a holiday.

NO NO NO NO NO NO

They can make me work OT sometimes, but if it becomes a habit, I'm getting the union on their asses. If I'm working OT, it means they don't have enough employees. Right?

Orwell

War is a way of shattering to pieces... materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and... too intelligent.

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.

All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Political chaos is connected with the decay of language... one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.

Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.

The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.

Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war.

The guy wasn't prescient, really. He only looked into the darkest corners of human hearts and society, as it had been for far too long, and had a remarkable gift for expressing what he saw there in words.

But he does nail it, doesn't he?

Are You People Fucking Stupid?

Postal Workers are known violent persons. Our culture does not have the expression going postal just because it sounds cute. We've gone Postal. One of my co-workers was so pissed off AFTER he left work, that he rammed off the road some guy who tried to cut him off, and stabbed the fucker to death.

We don't fuck around over here in the USPS. When we get mad, we like to share the anger, up close and personal. "I'll cancel your stamp, buddy." And so forth. So why do people go out of their way to piss us off?

For fuck's sake, will you morons who think it's "clever" or "funny" to mail bricks or fake anthrax knock it the fuck off?

I'm serious.

If I see powder in any drop off box, HazMat is getting a call. I ain't touching it. And you've just made thousands of people have their letters wait, because you had to be "amusing." Some of those letters are damned important. But no, you had to make a damned point. That's okay. I'll take that point and let the Postal Inspectors sharpen your head with it. If it's not pointy enough already.

As for attaching pre-paid envelopes to bricks (or lawnmower blades, or bowling balls), I have been hurt from those idiotic bricks. You try lifting something you expected to weigh only a few pounds, at most, but instead weighed dozens of pounds...and you were having to lift it without any support of your back with your knees. I don't need my back or knees to dial up the Postal Inspectors, and if anyone thinks I'll be more concerned about my pain than getting even with the fucker who caused it, you don't know the value I place on vengeance. It's more important than my health. I'd get off death's bed to get even with somebody who pissed me off, and I wouldn't die until I saw the fucker flamed. That's how mean I am.

And while we're at it...

If you're dropping off mail at a post office, put your mail in the correct place for it. Parcels go with parcels. Letters go with letters. If you don't know what metered mail is, don't put your mail there (no, Business Reply Mail is NOT metered mail). And FOR FUCK'S SAKE, stop thinking you're getting away with something when you put your first class letter in the Express Mail box. It didn't go Express. It just got thrown into the pile of other mail that's going out. If you're lucky. One of these days, I'm stamping that fucker return to sender, and demanding postage due for Express Mail. Cretins.

And speaking of Postage Due:

I can't speak for all postal employees, but this one is gung-ho about making sure mail has correct postage. Thought I wouldn't notice if you tore off an uncancelled stamp from another envelope and put it on your letter, huh? Psych! I can spot that fraud in a tub of THOUSANDS of letters. I do it every. Single. Day.

Thought you could use one of our Express Mail envelopes and put First Class postage on it with our blessing? Fuck you. You just got it back, and we want our damned $14.01 (or more!) while we're at it, asshole. That, or mail it in something else. Too bad you just lost that stamp you tried to use in the first place. Sucks to be you. Lesson: Buy your own goddamned envelopes, you cheap bastard.

Mm. I feel better now. Time to get a smoke...

Non Sequiturs and Liberals

Liberals are all-powerful, so everything that the government does wrong is their fault. Even though they don't control one branch of government. How does that work? I mean, Liberals can't even prevent a war that they openly oppose, it came anyway, but, somehow, it is now their fault that it is going badly. Of course, never mind that they are not the ones making the decisions about that war, including the waging, funding and equipping of it. No, the very existence of their opposition is enough to fell the mighty American military.

Are our soldiers now so delicate that they would clutch their pearls and swoon if someone asked a simple question? I'd ask anyone claiming that any opposition to the war is a failure to support the troops: Why do you hold our military in such contempt? Because that is what this line of "reason" is asserting. I get the feeling that these troop "supporters" didn't quite get that stuff about sticks and stones breaking bones while words weren't quite in the same league of pain. But then, why do I get the feeling these twits were (and are) on the receiving end of some choice insults?

Anyway, I don't think the American military is so weak that some questions about how things are going over there would make them collapse into a heap of tear-stained petticoats. But then, I've actually served.

This veteran was in a military that knew better. On the homefront, Liberals weren't our enemy. Corrupt politicians and defense contractors were. They still are. It isn't the Liberals who are giving tainted water to soldiers. It isn't the Liberals who didn't provide adequate armored vehicles or body armor to soldiers, requiring families to scrape the money together to buy Kevlar for a son or daughter stationed in Iraq. But it is. Because! Go figure.


Also in the hamper of liberals-as-everybadthingyoucouldimagine:

Liberals are full of hate, yet they're also those peace-loving, cheese-eating appeasers who are too doped up to know who anybody is.

Liberals are just a bunch of intellectuals, but they're the ones destroying the schools, because they want kids to, you know, actually learn something called facts.

Liberals love death, except for people who are already here, which is why they oppose the death penalty and support abortion.

Liberals are selfish, even though they are all for paying more of their very own money to educate people and keep them from starving or being homeless, rather than making the low-lifes work five jobs to pay for it all themselves. They don't even care if they give their money to brown people, as long as it is someone they've agreed to help as part of their evil agenda.



Feel free to add your own non sequiturs.

Guilty Pleasures: Musical (no, not musicals!)

I was trolling through the iTunes store the other day, and... I don't know what came over me. Suddenly, I was buying albums not of my usual thrasher/grunge/scare-the-neighbors rock, but...

Old Elton John albums.

I couldn't stop. First, it was Madman Across the Water. Then Tumbleweed Connection. Then the eponymous first album! Then Goodbye Yellow Brick Road! Then Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player! Then Honky Chateau (that title still makes me laugh)! When I bought 11/17/70, I knew I had gone completely over the edge.

And now I keep listening to all this old stuff, like I did when I was 13. Over. And over. And over. Yes, I used to listen to a lot of Elton John when I was 13. Funny thing is, I still like the same songs I did then...and don't care much for the songs I didn't like then. This is way too weird.

What the hell is wrong with me? It isn't a desire to recapture my youth. Christ, I hated being 13. I'd never go back to that. When I was 13, I couldn't wait to be 40. My mother thought I was nuts when I told her that. She was terrified as the big 4-0 loomed ever closer, and I thought she was crazy for not embracing it. She didn't understand when I told her that I thought 40 was when I, as a woman, could start living for myself, and not other people. You know, kids out of the way, career settled, husband squared away... So now for the good things in life! Right?

I like being in my 40s. But here I am, listening to the music of that smart-ass 13-year-old. Doesn't that just figure?

Maybe I'm premenopausal?