How to Fight Back - It's as Easy as A, B, C...

[demwing]

A. Let's cut off the DNC, and give $$$ directly to a list of only our most progressive candidates.

B. Let's double down - organize a rally in DC to promote a very simple 5 point plan:

1. 1. Fix HCR AND Medicare by opening Medicare to ALL Americans. Call it "Americare"
   
2. 2. End illegal war, redeploy those military troops into a "Domestic Corp of Engineers" to build roads, fix bridges, reinforce dams, build a national, public transportation infrastructure, refurbish our schools, etc...
   
3. 3. End Corporate person-hood.
   
4. 4. REAL equal protection - end DADT and Gay Marriage Bans
   
5. 5. Open the previously mentioned "Domestic Corp of Engineers" to everyone, regardless of age, gender, or orientation. Hire 12 million civilians in the first two years, reducing unemployment to pre-recession levels, putting earned money in the pockets of those who will spend it in the community, creating demand for supplies and services, thus creating new jobs in the private sector as well.
   

C. Pledge to Obama that if he fights-REALLY FIGHTS-for this 5 point plan, he'll get our support in 2012. If he doesn't, he won't.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. We could quibble about details, but I think your general scheme

is a very good one.

[demwing]

14. Thanks, but let's quible about deatils now

so we can get busy.

What details would you alter? As Ross Perot once quipped "I'm all ears"

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Well, I see some difficulty in transitioning the military

into a WPA. I agree that our military is much larger than necessary for any purpose other than supporting an empire, but some real problems present themselves in the process of disbanding it.

How about universal education, k-16 for any who have the desire & ability?

Anyway, let me just repost something of mine from last summer:

Left? I’ll tell you what &*^%$# Left is.

Universal health care--that’s on the Left.

Left is when workers share in the benefits of their own increased productivity.

Left is when we have a draft that ensures that the kids of the rich die in equal numbers with the poor in our wars.

Left is when the government regulates the excesses of the rich and extends a helping hand to those at the lower margins of society, guaranteeing a chance at a decent life for all, rather than clamping down on the poor and helping the rich.

Left is when civil rights are extended to human beings, and corporations are not classified as specially privileged, immortal persons.

Left is when wholesale murder via corporate “cost-benefit analysis” is punished equally with retail murder committed in a gas station holdup.

Left is when the education system seeks to transmit wisdom and humane values, not just minimal job skills for the next generation of worker ants.

Left hasn't been seen in these parts in decades. I miss it.

[demwing]

19. I don't want to disband the military-just redeploy

imagine 125,000 uniformed troops with American flags on their shoulders building schools and hopsitals around the world, instead of dropping bombs and scaring the shit out of the everyone. That's only 25% of all the soldiers we have deployed worldwide.

I really like your education idea. Someone else mentioned ending taxcuts for the wealthiest.

I don't want to turn this into a wishlist, but maybe 5 simple points is too simple?

[Jackpine Radical]

20. I think 5 is about right.

You want a list that's short enough for people to keep in mind when they go into the polling booth. More than that & you probably overload & confuse them. It would be an interesting research program to discover the optimally effective number and style of "bullet points" for a campaign.

[napi21]

2. I don't think NOW is a good time to do that. The lame duck doesn't last very long nd then there's

the holidays. It's a good idea, but it needs to wait at least until the spring. Winter is bad for people to get anywhere and DC weather is very unpredictable. By the spring we wll have a uch better feel for how these new Pubs are going to operate. MAYBE we will even find new things to add to that list!

[socialist_n_TN]

3. Oh, we KNOW how they're going to operate...........

but Spring might be better. Or the swearing in ceremony for the new Congress in January.

[demwing]

10. What a kick off that would be

Can you imagine 150,000 people in protest WHILE congress is sworn in?

[Jackpine Radical]

21. Fox would no doubt report it

as "dozens of crazed anarchists…"

[madmax]

4. I like it - what's your opinion for the timing?

Spring would be good imo.

Lame duck season over.

Dust settles.

Surely they'll give us more ammunition. We can count on that.

I like it very much, want to get the hell off my ass and into the street and DO SOMETHING!

[demwing]

9. I may be quick on the draw, but why wait?

The Republicans wouldn't wait for us? Why offer them the same luxury?
If we wait, they may build momentum, and firm up support.

Still, I'm open to discussion...

[madmax]

12. wrong place - please delete

[GeorgeGist]

5. Easy but probably a waste of time ...

better to focus attention on destroying the Corporation. Especially if you work on the inside.

[TBF]

7. Sure, because incremental change is working SO well for us. nt

[mstinamotorcity]

6. No lets take

their fucking money!!!!!

[demwing]

8. Sorry for the double bullet #s

I meant to create an unordered list, not an ordered, and its too damn late to fix it...

[demwing]

11. I think that even the Tea Baggers might support Medicare for All, if we sell it like that.

not that I give a fuck what they think. I just like it from a marketing standpoint.

What say you?

[AlabamaLibrul]

15. They'd only support Medicare for All if you got your government hands out of it. n/t

[madmax]

13. We need to get more people involved...

Give a shout out to the DU Activist Corp? We need more people, and we need to this before the lame duck session ends, right?

[demwing]

16. The Senate may be embracing bipartisanship right now

But I'm wondering what Pelosi thinks. I'm writing her today...

[the redcoat]

17. 6 point plan. No tax cuts for the rich nt