Talking The Talk

[phantom power]

I don't think a GOP comeback is a tremendous long shot. And this is one major reason why. Even the Democrats are steeped in GOP framing, which has been sadly evident in the HRC process from day one.

If progressives want to change politics in this country they are going to have to do it not just in institutional terms, but in rhetorical and ideological terms as well. It's not like we haven't talked about this before. Until the 2008 presidential campaign, it was one of the primary issues we talked about -- changing the terms of the debate, educating the people, giving voters something to believe in and care about. But for some reason, on the progressive side all we seem to care about these days is poll numbers and institutional reform.

I think those things are important, but they aren't the whole story. If the Republicans make a comeback -- a big "if," in the short term -- they will do it because they have spent the last thirty years indoctrinating the American people into a certain way of thinking. It doesn't give them a permanent hold on power,obviously, because at some point their bad ideas have consequences. But unless somebody explains why those bad ideas were the reason for the bad consequences, they can manipulate the electorate into believing that the problem wasn't the ideas but the implementation. Since the people are comfortable with those ideas --- and nobody's offering a real alternative --- when a crisis hits they naturally gravitate to the ideology they have internalized without even knowing it.

I'm not sure why we lost that thread on the progressive side. Part of it was that Obama ran a very clever campaign that sort of sounded like it was a new way forward, but it was more about symbolism and process than new ideas. And symbolism won't help you when the shit is raining down. But it's time we activists started thinking about it again. It's a long term project that needs to be undertaken once and for all and I would guess that unless we do it, the Republicans will always be able to recover smartly from their defeats and the reform agenda will never get off the ground.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/talking-talk-by-digby-somerby-had-good.html

[OHdem10]

1. "If the GOP make a comeback...........they have spent the last 30 years

indoctrinating the American People into a certain way of thinking."

Examples: You should see Young Republicans booklist of required
reading. This puts them in a position to argue intellectually
and smartly the Conservative position.

Republicans know and understand what is Republican.

On our side, even here at DU , we do not even seem to
recognize and argue a progressive position. Each person
has their own thoughts. Therefore, we have ended up with
a HCR that could be arguably be classified as Moderate Republican.
Chris Wallace, Fox News stated that--if the Senate Bill
had been presented to Republicans early on before they decided
to stop any bill--that Senate Bill would have had Republican
support. The GOP is the party of big business and the
Senate Bill gives preference to Insurance Comapanies over
the Middle Class. The numbers of Democrats who just accept
this tells me we as Progressives/Liberals have no core principles.

[Winterblues]

2. Republicans know and understand what is Republican.

LIE as much and as often as possible..Say you want Small Government and then when "elected" put in place the largest Government in our History. Say you want to cut spending and then go on the biggest spending spree in our History. In eight short years Republicans managed to put more Debt on America than all other Administrations combined...LIARS that is what is Republican.