So when do we engage in the war being waged against us?

[Cyrano]

The war didn't start with Trump. The Republican Party is a fascist and criminal organization that has spent decades getting to where they are today.

"Election laws? Fuck that." And we do nothing.

"Truth? Fuck it." And we do nothing.

"Stop gun massacres? Fuck that." And we do nothing.

"America is meant for white supremacy? You fucking bet." And we do nothing.

"Total abortion ban? Yeah, you fucking bet." And we do nothing.

Yes, we try. We march and demonstrate, We bring up forever law suits. We point out the hypocrisy and evil. But mostly, we try to play by the "rules." When will we understand that, for Republicans, there are no "rules" except for the ones they make up, change, and change again.

Knives to a gunfight doesn't begin to cover it. They've been taking a huge dump on democracy and our freedoms and we've been angered, we've objected, and we've done everything we think we can do. Everything but accept the fact that they are out to own America and fight them accordingly.

Let's get this straight. The Republicans are the equivalent of the American Nazi Party. Would everyone please wake the fuck up and recognize that they are playing for keeps. And that's exactly what we must do. And the clock is ticking. It's past time to take the gloves off. And please don't ask me to be more specific. All I'll say is that today's Republican Party is the deadly enemy of democracy and freedom. And if we don't stand up to defend our values, who will?

[luv2fly]

1. Please share what you think we should all do

Contacting our Representatives is often useless, for they either give us lip service or they ignore us.

Protests generally are useless, and while they might make us feel good at the moment and lead us to believe that we are actually doing something, legislators don't really care.

So please, what do you think we should all be doing that we're not?

[Mad_Machine76]

19. +1

This is what keeps getting asked but not answered definitively. We are in a hole that has been created over the course of several years and now we're behind the proverbial eight-ball and don't have tons of power. We have some but we can only leverage so much.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

2. Let's all write sternly worded letters, or something.

[samsingh]

3. We are in a war and fighting with one arm tied behind our backs

[Treefrog]

4. Well, I remember when tfg was elected there were many passionate threads about safety pins.

Also turning magazines around in the grocery store.

Meanwhile, the women in Afghanistan face bullets and clubs.

[Heartstrings]

5. That's what's frustrating about the "we go high" crowd.

“High” hasn’t gotten us much, if anything. From here on the ground I feel abandoned. Can’t help it, that’s how I feel….

Do I profess to know exactly “what” to do from here? No, but I’ve worked my ass off campaigning, canvassing, post-carding, telephoning for our dem candidates…..and now? It’s in their hands now that they’ve been elected and I hear “crickets”.

Maybe there’s some undercurrent going on that I’m not privy to, but it sure doesn’t seem like it from my end.

[Bettie]

32. I'm in the same place

I am active in our county party, we do all the things to get people elected...but then....nothing.

It isn't as if anyone actually listens to us lowly humans without wads of cash to throw at the various Super PACs.

[hurple]

6. I think

We should hit them hard and heavy with a leaflet campaign. And if that doesn't work, we can try a strongly worded letter.

[hamsterjill]

7. K&R

Mostly what we can do is to expect the Democrats we worked to elect to do their jobs. No, it’s not my job to tell them how. They campaigned telling us all the things they were going to get done. I voted for them. Ball is in their court.

Dems must get creative and learn to battle (and you are absolutely right when you describe this as a war) Republicans the way Republicans battle Dems. That’s distasteful to several DU’ers and they’ll be letting me know soon I’m sure. I could care less if it’s distasteful. Because it is reality. We can pat ourselves on the backs for being “the good guys” and “going high” and continue to lose ground, or we can wake up and learn how to stand toe-to-toe with a bully who wants to destroy us.

[Irish_Dem]

8. I think Dems are stunned by recent events, and just coming out of denial.

Yes we knew were were getting screwed over, but not the extent of the war tactics and depravity.
And the fact we are at war, total outright war waged by ruthless sociopaths.

Some of us had an awareness before, but the majority of Dems are beginning to see it now in all its horrifying glory.

When a political party starts killing its own base, and letting thousands of Americans die, it is an eye opener.
And openly try to overthrow the US government and stop a legal election.

I think the major question right now, is what is our strategy?
It has to be carefully thought out. We are up against sociopaths with no shame, no rules.
They would kill most of America if it helped them.

[MineralMan]

9. Maybe you could give us some examples of what you're doing.

Perhaps we need some ideas that have proven to work for you.

[Cyrano]

11. Sorry, Mineral Man. I don't know how to save the world.

But I do know that everyone who believes in freedom must unite, act in concert and meet the enemy on their own terms. And while we're at it, we've got to get as ruthless as they are.

[MineralMan]

12. Then, I encourage you to do just that.

Let us know what works for you. Maybe we'll follow your lead.

[LanternWaste]

34. Ten bucks says you fail to see the irony in your having expressed that...

[0rganism]

10. Always easier to destroy and say "fuck it" than to build up and care for the commons

Like many in this thread, to me it's a question of how. As in, 'How are we supposed to "engage" in the war against "fuck it"?'

[NCDem47]

13. We're scared of blowback by the electorate

Dems “overreach” and we pay for it dearly. Republicans do it and them seem to be rewarded with more power. Infuriating!

[CrackityJones75]

15. Because they also covet free labor.

And make no mistake they would love to see the return to slavery.

[CrackityJones75]

17. Bwahahahaha!

Enjoy your stay.

[BlueTsunami2018]

18. It's incredibly frustrating.

Whenever I suggest we should be as cutthroat and ruthless as they are I get pushback about morals and ethics and not “wanting to be them”.

Why don’t we want to win? That’s my question. Because that’s all that matters at the end of the day. And they’re about to win it all because they don’t give a damn about what’s “right”.

You can’t play a game when the other side doesn’t abide by the rules and expect to win. The Constitution is merely a gentleman’s agreement that only works if both sides honor it. The GQP has no honor, no ethical constraints, no integrity and no shame. They just do whatever it takes to win.

As long as we handcuff ourselves over some imaginary moral high ground, we’re never going to get what we want. Time is almost up.

[Mad_Machine76]

21. What does that mean, exactly though?

Be cutthroat. How? Fistfights? Illegal arrests? Become authoritarian? Could you better explain some specific strategies?

[BlueTsunami2018]

24. It means respond in kind and play the same way.

Whether that means lying, cheating or being nakedly hypocritical. They let nothing stop them, we shouldn’t either.

I’ll take a nasty win over an honorable loss any day. If it takes the worst kind of backstabbing, arm twisting and ratfucking to secure voting rights, healthcare or whatever we’re looking for, so be it.

[hamsterjill]

30. +1000

We can worry about reinstituting our morals once we have some basics rights back on solid ground. Until then, we have no choice but to get down in the mud with the enemy.

I am certain there is some dirt some where that could be dig up on Joe Manchin. Like I always say…what would Mitch do if the tables were turned.

[Caliman73]

23. What are your concrete proposals to, "be as cutthroat and ruthless as they are"?

Give some examples of what the Democratic Party should engage in to win, because that is all that matters.

Should we lie?

Should we gerrymander districts to our favor?

Should we stir up violent mobs to attack right wing politicians?


I am just wondering what it is that Democrats should actually do. Then after that, explain to us all how democracy and a civil society will function. After we cheat, lie, break all the rules of the "gentleman's agreement" that is the Constitution.

Do we go back and follow what we just threw out as worthless?

Do we make a new Constitution that permanently bans Republicans?

How does society look to you after we become just like Republicans (except you know, for the side of good, right)?

[Bettie]

36. OK, I'll play

We don't need to lie, but we can spin the truth to make it look worse for them.

Gerrymandering? If they can do it, we should do it so hard that they beg for a national law against it.

Violent mobs? No. People who follow and harass/heckle them continually? Yes.

We should also have a specific message that is repeated by every Democrat who appears in any capacity on media of all kinds.

Go back to Howard Dean's 50 state strategy and work it hard.

Those are a few things that I, as one lowly not-rich person, would like to see, but no one in the national version of the party gives a single fuck what ordinary people think or want.

[Kaleva]

33. Can you specify the reasons you refuse to be as cutthroat and ruthless as they?

[Kaleva]

38. Someone who is cutthroat and ruthless is one who is willing to lose their freedom or life.

Even those who believe in peaceful means were willing to sacrifice much. People like Malcom X, MLK, Gandhi , Nelson Mandela, and John Lewis for example. Even Cindy Sheehan gave up her marriage, friends and job to fight for what she believed was right.

My guess is that if you really believed in what you posted, being cutthroat and ruthless, you'd being doing that now and telling us what you have done or are doing.

[GoodRaisin]

20. Well, you are right, but we do need some suggestions that are actionable. Lies

are killing us. We need to push back on the lies as vigorously as they are being delivered. Fox News broadcasts propaganda 24-7 which is all lies and we can't stop it. Fox lies don't end on cable news. I was watching a local channel's 11 pm news the other day and they were repeating Fox News lies to our community by showing the actual Fox News segment in their local forecast. And yeah, it was a Sinclair station. Ignorance is killing us. Half the American public don't pay attention to what is happening at all and don't bother to vote. They don't read or have any source of news other than what they hear said at work and then they come home and watch Netflix all night.

And, of course, social media is full of lies.

The war we are losing is informational. "Taking the gloves off" means taking actions that reverse the informational war. Take action against the attacks from Fox News, Sinclair, and other such forms of propaganda. Expose the Republican Party as "The American Fascist Party". We rarely hear the term "Fascist" used in the media, yet we are attacked as "socialists" all day long every day from the right. How about we start calling them fascists (what they are) instead of conservatives or republicans? That would be a "glove removing" change for example. Another thing we do is concede that the first amendment gives Fox News a lying license. Start trying to change that would be taking off the gloves, or at least creating our own truth channel to offset the lying channel, instead of being satisfied to rely on the likes of Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd to get out the truth, which they don't, or CNN, which has gone full Fox over Afghanistan to succesfully bring down our Democratic president's approval rating by 10+ points.

[Mad_Machine76]

22. What can we do

that we have control over? We can yell at the media all day long but unless we have our own outlets, we can't control jack over at CNN or Fox News or NYT

[GoodRaisin]

39. Did you read my post?

Just wondering...

[lame54]

25. Are we meeting at your place?

[90-percent]

26. elect Alan Grayson to the Senate

He took republics on aggressively and used FACTS to make them all look like the stupid nazi's that they are. he was a "Congressman with guts" to such an extent that that was his actual campaign slogan used in his campaign. He takes the gloves off!

He can give them hell just by being truthful and showing them the elephant in the room in an unavoidable way.

-90% Jimmy

[Mad_Machine76]

27. What happened to him

anyway?

[MineralMan]

40. He lost elections.

[treestar]

28. We have to persuade enough people to our way of thinking

and it has to be a supermajority, since the Constitution allows rural areas more power. We can't just rely on the elected officials to do that.

[FreepFryer]

29. "And we do nothing" - perhaps watch a little less Star Trek

Last edited Fri Sep 10, 2021, 09:06 AM - Edit history (1)

Picard destroyed his little ships in rage, as Ahab did his rowboat.

for the victor, the aim will be the preservation of democracy, not the destruction of their enemy.

[traitorsgalore]

31. Don't forget Covid, it's germ warfare waged against us by repuke domestic terrorists

[Kaleva]

35. Who is stopping you?

[WarGamer]

37. I think people tend to ignore all the progress.

And focus on the negative.

What would a black man from 1979 think if he woke up in 2021? A gay couple from 1982? An aspiring female Physicist from 1967?

This Country is literally unrecognizable compared to 50 years ago.

We've made MASSIVE and considerable progress.

Keep it up but don't forget the successes.

[Mysterian]

41. Hate radio and hate tv got us here

We need to understand the power of the airwaves and get left-wing flamethrowers on the air and on tv.