The Far Left needs to get a fucking clue: stop whining and sniping and ORGANIZE ...

[99th_Monkey]

The Far Left needs to remember what FDR said: "ya ... well make me do it" ... Obama's whole campaign was based on this theme, though couched in different language, such as "yes WE can", "this campaign's about YOU", "OUR REAL WORK starts after the election", etc. In other words, it is now incumbent on every far left Liberal to ORGANIZE OUR WAY OUT OF THIS POST-BUSH HELLHOLE. I don't think Obama's bluffing. I think HE KNOWS his history, and KNOWS he needs the far left now more than ever -- just as FDR did in his time -- to be putting our money and energy where our mouths are.

ANYONE -- Far Left or not -- who thought that electing Obama was going to somehow automatically "fix" everything, without continuing grass-roots efforts to create the change we need, was simply not paying attention.

So PLEASE, all you Far Left whiners, please STFU about Obama's cabinet picks and start organizing around the issues we all care about: whether it's affordable health care for all, or getting US troops out of Iraq, or a sensible "bail out" stimulus package for workers, the middle/under classes, etc. YES WE CAN ... let's make him do it.


****************POST FROM DIGBY************************************

I was reading through the comment section of a few posts this morning (something I rarely can bring myself to do anymore) and I realized that I need to remind people of something that's very important for successful governance:

FDR was, of course, a consummate political leader. In one situation, a group came to him urging specific actions in support of a cause in which they deeply believed. He replied: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

He understood that a President does not rule by fiat and unilateral commands to a nation. He must build the political support that makes his decisions acceptable to our countrymen. He read the public opinion polls not to define who he was but to determine where the country was – and then to strategize how he could move the country to the objectives he thought had to be carried out.

If Obama wants to govern as liberally as the political circumstances allow, then we need to work to make sure that the political circumstances include a strong liberal base. Mindlessly cheerleading out of a misplaced sense of loyalty will not help him. As Roosevelt understood, politics are interlocking interests and constituencies that have to be brought to bear to achieve certain goals.

In the current political world, I believe that Obama and the Democrats need a strong left wing that is out there agitating in order that we can continue to build popular support and also give them a political excuse to do things that the political establishment finds too liberal. Being cheerleaders all the time, however enjoyable that is, is not going to help them. Leaving them out there with no left wing cripples them.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/making-him-do-it-by-digby-i-was-reading.html

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Hmmm...

:popcorn:

[Zombie2]

2. Ahhh...

:boring:

[99th_Monkey]

7. sweet dreams

sorry if I disrupted your slumber.
:sarcasm:

[Iggo]

33. "Disrupted"...?

Interesting...

[BuyingThyme]

3. E T E R N A L V I G I L A N C E .

:APPLAUSE:

[Occam Bandage]

32. It's like the entire post went over your head. nt

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Starry Messenger]

4. I think this is good advice for everyone of all political persuasions.

I rec'd!

edit: darn typo

[99th_Monkey]

5. thanks for the rec.

Hopefully we'll start seeing what participatory democracy looks like very soon. :hi:

[mrreowwr_kittty]

6. I heart digby. nt

[Indiana_Dem]

8. Yes, and the remnant of our Obama group is having a post-election meeting

to see what we can do in our won community for change....even though every Dem candidate in the lineup lost except for our congressman.

[jwirr]

9. Okay, I have said this several times hoping someone who knows

how to use the internet and a group like ours to do that would come forward. I am a much better supporter than a leader and I do not know how to use the internet for this purpose - I am more the age of the people who knew FDR. So where do we start.

Form specific interest groups? Many are already formed in the topic forums.

Write petitions and get signers? I do that whenever I see one on here or other Democratic sites.

Have an alert button on this site that would call all DUers that a petition was ready to sign? Or a letter had been composed that should go to each of our legislators and newspapers - with easy access emails & addresses & telephone numbers. Some of our bloggers are very good and it would help if they could freelance their articles to papers & magazines.

What else do we need to do - am I even on the right track?

[BuyingThyme]

11. First, find a convenient way to write or call your Rep and Senators.

Then buy a big drum and join the parade.

[rhett o rick]

48. IMHO writing congress-critters has little effect. You have no leverage. If they are incumbent

Democrats, you will not be able to defeat them in a primary and they know it. We must get progressive in the pipeline at the local levels and support them as they work their way up.

[eridani]

13. As for me, I'm working on getting as many of the congresscritters of our state--

--th sign on to HRO 676. Clean elections is something you can fight for at the state level.

[OhioBlue]

15. Do you have a local group of Obama supporters / volunteers?

If so, keep in contact with them, have house meetings, discuss where we go from here and what you want to see change in your community and strategize how you all can get there. Also, yes, write letters to your local Congress Reps, Senators and State and local elected officials, as well as letters to the editor on issues in your local paper. mybarackobama.com has a tool if you're interested in hosting a house party. Sign up on there and invite friends and neighbors to a house meeting.

Those are some ideas.

[99th_Monkey]

25. here's some information that addresses your question, posted by Triana below

The TOOLS are on Obama's site...

Take the SURVEY:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/pesurvpage1


SIGN UP to host a "Change is Coming" Meeting - get involved locally:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGxXxs

[99th_Monkey]

28. Yet more information from sandnsea below: MoveOn.Org seems like a great choice

sandnsea Sun Nov-30-08 07:34 PM
Response to Original message
24. Moveon Voices of Change Campaign

http://moveon.org /

First step, put a face to the changes we want.

[KakistocracyHater]

38. petitions don't work, the last 8 yrs

have hammered that into my worldview. Lobbyists & meeting with the Reps & Senators REGULARLY seems to be the only way that works, otherwise they CAN ignore you, me, & the hundreds of thousands that marched for the past 8 years.

I look at it somewhat like family, those distant cousins you rarely see or communicate with are probably not very prominent in your decision-making, unlike a spouse.

[jwirr]

59. Petitions did not work in the last 8 years because nothing worked under

the bushie administration.

[qwlauren35]

60. The biggest change we hope for is that the last 8 years are OVER!

I agree that Internet petitions don't work that well, but I think it's because they don't go far enough. The people who sign the petitions are never called on again. There's no follow up. If the names were painstakingly put into a database and contacted in order to find similar minded activists... or donors, then those petitions would pack much more of a punch.

A petition also has to end up somewhere, with a hard-hitting spokesperson. Those of us who see the petitions go by often don't see where it will go, or WHEN IT WILL BE PRESENTED.

I think that in the Obama Age, petitions can be resurrected as powerful grass-roots tools. But someone will have to do the work, both data entry and follow-up, that gives them power.

[scarletwoman]

10. Thank you, great post. Some of us have been saying this all along -- get Obama elected, then

GET ORGANIZED AND KEEP AGITATING! Elections don't change things, MOVEMENTS change things.

sw

[Fire1]

62. One of the first movements better be JOBS, BABY, JOBS!!!

And NO bullsh&t stimulous package that's only going to buy gas and pay bills. Then, THE HOUSING MARKET!!! MBS are now WORTHLESS, so MOVE ON to salvage what's left of 'middle' America.

[Dragonfli]

12. K&R - Now That's The Spirit!

The work is just beginning for meaningful change that does not leave the working poor, the middle class and the impoverished out!

They have the money, the lobbyists, republicans and the DLC but we have the numbers.
The people we care about are the majority, let's not forget that and be silent now.

[mistertrickster]

14. Damn right. And that means real organizing, not street protests.

M. L. King only used street protest to force negotiations.

They are not an end in themselves.

[99th_Monkey]

17. I'm so grateful JFK was at the helm when MLK was organizing forcefully.

because he set the tone early-on, of meeting civil rights protests with intelligence & compassion;
and I think the main reason Johnson pushed the civil rights bills on thru is out of a sense of guilt
or maybe respect for JFK's ghost.

[tomp]

16. first of all, stop fucking calling me a whiner and stop calling me the far left.

the far left are socialists and communists, particularly those who advocate the overthrow of the capitalist order. to call anyone who complains about obama the far left is the sign of a right wing propagandist. shoe fit? then stop.

second, what do you expect the left to do, organize to have obama denounce and disown colin powell and to redo all his appointments. if that's what you're suggesting, it's you who is clueless. those appointments mean something and they are a done deal. obama didn't even think about representing progressives.

get this, and get it good: my complaints here about obama's right wingedness are not aimed at obama, they are aimed at you and all the "anti-whiners" who are ready to let obama off the hook and go back to the stinking political status quo as long as the pres has a d after his name. liberals and progressives and leftists were all active during 2000-2008, especially after 2006. and what did we get? we got pelosi, reid, clinton, biden, emanuel, and obama.

there's been plenty of "left" activity on obama's behalf. he owes us. and now folks like you are demanding we do extra credit if we want a passing grade. is obama going to be everyone's president, including the "left"? doesn't look like it. this is an exact replay of post 2006 elections. the progressive base did the heavy lifting and the right got the spoils. enough. sell that shit down the road somewhere.

still waiting for change.

[99th_Monkey]

19. If I'm not organizing FOR something, besides Utopian fantasies, I'm just dead weight

and I'm saying this to MYSELF as much as anyone. I need to heed my own advice
here, since I'm not personally very active right now, except in very indirect ways.

I'm not calling "anyone who complains about obama" the Far Left. please. The post
doesn't read that way at all. I mean, come on... Fox and the KKK complain about
Obama plenty, but they're not so "far left" last time I checked.

Sorry the "whiner" thing upsets you so much ... maybe "complainers" would have been
a nicer choice of words. :shrug: Whichever shoe fits best, suit yourself. At least
I didn't call you a "right wing propagandist". :rofl:

peace out dude.

[Common Sense Party]

30. "still waiting for change" ... How many days 'til inauguration?

You demand change before the man even takes the oath of office. We're all waiting.

[Two Americas]

58. it has been over 40 years

Still waiting.

[Triana]

18. The TOOLS are on Obama's site...

Take the SURVEY:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/pesurvpage1


SIGN UP to host a "Change is Coming" Meeting - get involved locally:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGxXxs


Change doesn't come from Washington. Change comes TO Washington. It's not gonna get up there by itself, ya know.

[99th_Monkey]

21. hey, thanks. cool links

wish I'd put that in my OP. *bookmarked*

[Bjorn Against]

20. The left is actually quite well organized.

Have you ever seen the DLC organize rallies the size of some of the protests the left has organized? The left has all kinds of non-profits, alternative media, and a group of extremely passionate and committed activists. The only thing the left is missing is money, they have the organizers but don't have the resources to get their message to the public and the corporate media refuses to give any airtime.

[99th_Monkey]

22. Thank you for pointing this out. I agree.

I wasn't really accusing the left itself of being "unorganized": I was trying to address
DU posters denigrating and complaining about Obama being a "sell-out" before he's even
in office, to suggest that we are the one's we've been waiting for, not Obama.

[Bjorn Against]

27. I just wrote an OP that you might find thought provoking...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4564416&mesg_id=4564416

[kevinds13]

23. Rationality

from the OP, something I haven't seen frequently on DU for a week or two.

Thanks for the post.

[99th_Monkey]

26. ;-)

[sandnsea]

24. Moveon Voices of Change Campaign

http://moveon.org/

First step, put a face to the changes we want.

[Radical Activist]

29. This is what Obama asked us to do during the campaign.

Obama is a left wing movement organizer by background. He knows the importance of grass roots pressure.

[99th_Monkey]

31. Exactly. His campaign was "basic training" for the real battles that lay ahead. ~nt~

[amitta]

34. can we do both?

I can multitask.

[Armstead]

35. BINGO!

Some of us have been working for years in our own spheres to bring about change.

That does not preclude having the right to "whine", bitch, complain or -- a term I prefer -- raise constructive criticism when warranted.

[99th_Monkey]

39. No argument here.

There's certainly no shortage of issues to be organizing around, thanx to 8 years of * ...

and, now that I think about it, maybe "whining" is necessarily intertwined with organizing for
change somehow.

thanks for your succinct and pithy contribution to the thread. :hi:

[cooolandrew]

36. Yes, it's all about rasing awareness on the issues when we are fighting a right leaning media it's >

a continual 24/7 job that will take the same effort it took everyone to get him elected. Good post. K&R.

[Window]

40. K/R.

:kick:

[RepublicanElephant]

41. BRAVO!!!!

i hope amy goodman reads this thread.

[Life Long Dem]

42. There's no far left or base being lost.

I have an opinion too.

[blindpig]

43. Who, where is this 'Far Left'?

Seems to me it is an epitaph for anyone to the left of Pinochet in this place.

There was a real, organized left in this country at one time but it was smashed by the government. Apparently what the left needs is some commie organizers. They know how to get shit done.

[Two Americas]

44. epithet?

Epitaph works, too.

[EFerrari]

50. LOL! Yes, they both work.

[Two Americas]

52. quite an experience

It is quite the adventure to have people in your own party draw and quarter you. I think this time they are going for the kill lol.

I was in San Francisco in 1980 when Reagan won, and the assault on the Left - discredited, shut out, marginalized, blamed - seems worse to me this time than it did then. How can that be?

[EFerrari]

53. It's never worked very well for the Democrats to do this.

Maybe the leadership will learn that at some point as well as we have. :(

[Two Americas]

56. that is right

It won't work, and the reason it won't work is because the political Left is not merely an ideology, but rather it represents the best interests of and the only voice for the working people, and the prosperity and stability of any society is dependent upon the well-being and freedom of the working people. Sooner or later, ignoring this or putting it off will come back to bite us in the rear.

[blindpig]

54. geez, the Dictionary Police

:hi:

[Two Americas]

55. yeah

We are in a post-literacy world now, to go along with post-partisanship.

"Center" - politicasl ideas between the Nixon adminstration and the extreme right wing.

"Leftists" - lunatics who should be ignored.

"Democracy" - the selection of an autocratic leader, a new management team.

"Discussion" - smearing and slandering dissidents.

"America" - plantation for the wealthy and powerful few to run for their benefit.

"Right wing" - poor people who go to church and own guns.

"Post-partisan" - what you have once the last remnants of the political Left have been eradicated.

[MadHound]

45. Gee, we did, we organized and got behind Obama

What, you don't think we deserve our piece of the pie for that? That we have to do extra credit work to get a seat at the table?

[Two Americas]

57. it'll drive you crazy

Before the election, all activism, dollars, time and thought must be channeled into the campaign, from the unions to Moveon.org. We are told that this is the best path to achieve what we want, and there is no need for anything outside of those parameters - in fact, anything that is not harnessed to the campaign is seen as destructive, somehow. After the election, we are told "you didn't expect an election to do anything, did you? How silly. Obama never claimed to be anything but a centrist. What were you thinking? We need to work outside of those parameters." That will go on for a while, with limited success and outright opposition from the party, and then it will be time to get back in line and "work within the system" again.

[Hannah Bell]

64. for the next election, lol.

works the same for the small-time wingers, too.

they were sure bush would outlaw abortion.

didn't.

[glitch]

46. Other politicians have said the same thing -- they want to do something but they really need the

groundswell of popular opinion to actually get it passed.

And bringing something up that can't get passed is not helpful, sometimes it is actually harmful because it gets the opposite of what you want done codified.

Good post, K & R.

edit: except for calling dissent "whining" which I consider simplistic and overdone.

[Two Americas]

65. that is why we must all be very quiet

Since a groundswell of popular opinion is needed for anything to happen, it is very important that none of us ever say anything that is at odds with "reality" - with the way things currently are - because if we spoke out, public opinion could change. If public opinion changed, the Democratic politicians night actually have to do something, Since we are loyal to them, we do not want to inconvenience them in any way.

Shhhhhh! Keep your opinions to yourself. Bringing something up that can't get passed is not helpful, sometimes it is actually harmful because it gets the opposite of what you want done codified. The people are asleep and we don't want to wake them.

So, apparently we are to believe that the best way to get what you want is to ask for the opposite, or say nothing at all.

[glitch]

66. Well, that is not what I was saying, unless you are attempting irony by distillng to black/white? nt

[Two Americas]

67. the latter

Too subtle, maybe.

[rhett o rick]

47. I totally agree of course, but as one poster mentioned below, we need some specific recommendations.

Another poster suggested getting a list of your congress-critters. We are so way beyond that, and although I support that, I also think it has little effect. We need a specific progressive organization like Moveon.org but more progressive. We need to try to get control of local Democratic Party organizations. I go to my local meeting and find them painful. The people are very nice but not interested in breaking with the status quo.
Please give us your recommendations.

[99th_Monkey]

61. Here's a couple of links posted by others on this string. Hope it's helpful ;-)

POSTED BY Triana:

The TOOLS are on Obama's site...

Take the SURVEY:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/pesurvpage1


SIGN UP to host a "Change is Coming" Meeting - get involved locally:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGxXxs

POSTED BY sandnsea:

Moveon Voices of Change Campaign...

http://moveon.org /

First step, put a face to the changes we want.

You mentioned MoveOn, and it looks like they're all over this, with a new
campaign to keep us Lefties on Obama's radar by organizing at grassroots.

[rhett o rick]

68. Thank you. Very helpful. nm

[EFerrari]

49. No, thanks.

[apocalypsehow]

51. Why go to all that trouble when banging around on a keyboard all day is so much more fun?

:shrug:

( :crazy: )

[Solano]

63. Good motivational thread

Recommended.