working the GUCKERT angle does not equal HOMOPHOBIA

nashville_brook

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Tue Feb-22-05 05:07 PM
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working the GUCKERT angle does not equal HOMOPHOBIA

"Political movements arise from the spadework of intellectuals, not politicians."
-- David Brock, Blinded By The Right

One of the things I love David Brock's Blinded By The Right is that it illustrates step-by-step how the Neo-Cons and the right wing usurped old-school radical rabble-rousing techniques to win the war against, well, old-school rabble-rousing liberals. They conducted an insurrection with Gingrich bringing up the rear in 94, and have not much changed their strategy since then.

Basically their strategy is this: we are at WAR with the Democrats and anything less than all-out warfare on ALL FRONTS will not be tolerated. They went after us in the media by launching personal attacks; they have defunded our institutions; and now they are emptying our communities of our young adults so that they may steal oil from the rest of the world. They have won on all fronts.

And yet here we are, day after day, digging and pecking -- fighting for every last morsel of political capital we can throw into the pot latch. We have may irons in the fire. The election fraud front is going strong and has the distinction of introducing us to a class of statesman who will fight with us. I'm talking about Conyers et al here. We have the elevation of Barbara Boxer as a freedom fighter with her elegant refusal to let Condi Rice get away with soiling the Senate chambers with lies and innuendo. We have a diverse and vibrant anti-war movement and finally we have a real Democrat in the DNC.

Slowly but surely we are making progress.

Then, along comes Guckert.

Amid our confusion that this story received no ink upon first glance, and the FIGHT to get it in the evening news, now we must toil with our identity as progressives vis a vis Guckert's homosexuality, because like it or not there are progressives gays who feel prickly about using Guckert as an issue, AND you have to expect that the Rovian response to this battle is going to be an all-out war on our gay-cred. "Well, well, well -- what do we have here? Homophobia on the LEFT?"

Friends and neighbors, don't let this deter you. It is an illusion. A straw man. We are not homophobic. We have the RESPONSIBILITY to our party and our causes (war, poverty, judicial appointments) to follow this story and unveil the machinations behind the Velvet Curtain. There is political capital sitting on the table and the only ethical thing to do is to pick it up and walk away with it.

I wrote the piece on Guckert's ball-shaving, chest waxing and wrestling called: Guckert/Gannon and understanding REPUBLICAN GAY-ness. You can find it here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x107970

See also a more serious deconstruction here:
Question of GAY SEX surrounding White House reveal who we have become.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x330564

It's humor. Irony. I had to affect a voice of shock that I can only imagine from knowing weird "normal" people in my family. I don't care if you shave your balls or your head or your dog. I don't care if you wrassle or square dance or participate in animal sacrifice to get your freak on. BUT, I'm guessing most "normal" people do. Most "normal" people who supposedly voted for Bush. Most "normal" people who look at your piercings and tattoos as a sign of the devil. Or worse, sexual! Most normal people who are being lead by the nose to destroying Social Security and the Bill of Rights.

We are a tribe and we are fighting the same devils. As such we should be keenly aware of our potential for accruing political capital. This is called TACTICAL STRATEGY. In Rules For Radicals, Saul Alinsky outlined 13 Rules of Power Tactics for outsider political action:

RULE NUMBER ONE
Power is not only what you have, but what your enemy thinks you have.
Guckert is not a pawn to us. He is at least a Bishop or Rook. He know's everything about the Velvet Mafia and they are running from him as if some big cockroach somewhere just yelled, "RAID." They no longer control him and they have no idea what he'll do next.

RULE NUMBER TWO
Never go outside the experience of your people.
I think we are much more comfortable talking these issues than your basic Southern Baptist. Ball-shaving, chest waxing -- whatever. I can talk about and not lose my balance.

RULE NUMBER THREE
Whenever possible go outside the experience of the enemy.
See above.

RULE NUMBER FOUR
Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.
Well, well, well. Seems like this rule was tailor-made for the Guckert scandal. This one little controversy PROVES they can't live up to their standard of reporting, or of personal conduct. Extra points.

RULE NUMBER FIVE
Ridicule is your most potent weapon.
Indeedy-do. When the Clinton scandal broke, remember the meme of the day was that political discourse was to become the domain of late night television -- that only the Jay Lenos and David Lettermans of the world possessed the ability to speak openly of blowjobs and spoo-stains. And ridicule they did; night after night for like three years. They had independent panels and spent millions of dollars on this ridicule. Guckert provides the means to keep this pot boiling -- take it off the heat at your own peril.

RULE NUMBER SIX
A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
See above, again. What's more fun than ridiculing Republicans and having it STICK. Here's an illustration:
img src="

See how good that feels to see this dumb-ass holding a sign that ironically impugns his own message. Ah, that's good!

(i'm going to save you some of the padding and skip ahead thru the rules now)

RULE NUMBER EIGHT
Keep the pressure on.

RULE NUMBER NINE
The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
Examine this in action on US -- the threat of being labeled homophobes is, I"M SURE keeping people out of this discussion. Everyone knows that the Dems and left wing have supported the gay community thru thick and thin. We have paid heavily for it in some cases. It'd be nice if some gay-folk would get behind this and reveal as much as they know about the Velvet Mafia -- like this guy:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/19/204254/937
Padraig Pearse's piece on DailyKOS entitled Gay Facts and fantasies in Propagannon Research
The Republicans are shaking in their cowboy boots on this one, folks -- make no mistake. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

RULE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Pick a target; freeze it; personalize it; polarize it.
The Velvet Mafia goes all the way up to Rove. The connections are there plain as day.

We will not let go of the Guckert/Gannon story until this whole mess is unraveled. If you are uncomfortable with that, there's lots of other places we can use your help. Just know that are purpose is not to trade in stereotypes and Ann Coulter-esque hate mongering. We have fought the gay battles right along side of ya'll for YEARS. Don't reject the most potent weapon in our arsenal. We are not criticizing "being gay." We are using TACTICS AGAINST OUR COMMON ENEMY.