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The problem with big marches is they get no media coverage. The last huge one in DC was covered by c-span, and that's about it. There were 3 to 5 hundred thousand people there last fall but did you even know it happened?
Here's my idea. I think we could turn out many more people like this and get much more media coverage.
IMPEACHMENT! SETTING THE TERMS OF DEBATE
Our country has a few major problems. One party dominates all three branches of government and controls the mass media, particularly broadcast TV networks, cable TV networks, radio news, and the print media giants. The bush administration has moved far toward the totalitarian and militaristic as they pushed their corporatist agenda and have turned large corporate media into a propaganda arm of the Republicans. This makes problems hard to address because it makes problems hard to discuss in a public forum. There is no accountability in government or from the media.
Problems could be addressed if the base got organized enough to use the means at our disposal. We need to put out our own ubiquitous message --because that's the problem. Big Media is ubiquitous and we need to be also. We showed we could do it, to a great extent, in the Alito fight, but the nature of the battle had strict expiration of action dates. That was an organic grassroots driven fight that sprung up, moved and took hold. We need to organize and do long term planning to more effectively use the means at our disposal.
We need an organized sustained national campaign to create a national debate with the Repubs. We must make sure we set the terms of the debate. We don't need to win an issue; we need to exert an insistent and omnipresent voice that requires a national political and media response. And we need to do that for about six months, through the mid-term elections and longer. Any effective grassroots campaign on the left at this point needs to help get back majorities in the Congress. So we need to define essentially, the issue(s) of the election. I believe that issue is most broadly defined as accountability. Congress has failed to hold the executive accountable. So we have to hold congress accountable.
Imagine if we all backed one unified message and we all used the same theme flyer/poster, the same call-in talk radio "point," the same freeway blog, the same bumper sticker, the same on-the-streets campaign, the same "issue"? And we did it in a well thought out, sustained, and organized way?
There is one 500lb gorilla in the living room and that is Impeachment. If you think bush stole the election, or if you think bush LIHOPed MIHOPed or just plain blew 9/11 and lied about it, or if you think bush let a lot of black people drown while he vacationed, or if you believe bush lied us into a war, or if you believe bush and his cronies are a bunch of thieving scalawags, or if you believe the prescription drug bill was a pay to play deal, (also known as bribery and extortion to further corporatism) if you believe bush needs to be impeached for many more reasons, crimes and lies, you are probably in favor of Impeachment, you are probably on board.
Impeachment is the perfect issue because we can tie almost any other issue to Impeachment. Impeachment comes down to accountability which is what we as citizens have to demand. We have to hold our elected Representatives accountable. Impeachment is the only appropriate constitutional remedy to gross criminal activity by a president. We need to stand up for the rule of law, for the Constitution, for accountability, for Impeachment.
We certainly won't get bush impeached and convicted because it takes a, what, 3/4 vote of the Senate to convict and uphold the Impeachment from the house? So it’s a great issue because it has a great shelf life and it encompasses current and future issues that arise. Of course, in a just US, the Repubs would impeach, but politically they can’t do it. So it’s our moral fulcrum and lever on The Repo Congress. It just highlights the morals vacuum inherent in the Repubs.
The fact is, that even the opportunity to impeach in the house is at least a year away. In order to impeach in the house, we will need to win enough mid-term seats to take back the House, which is why now is the time to consider a fight that will really start about 3 months from now.
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An Impeachment campaign should also help train, educate and encourage citizen activism and the shouldering of civic responsibility by citizen. This will help going into the mid terms. The campaign should also continue to plan ahead toward organizing action on the ground via the net.
TACTICS
I am very interested in the challenge of turning interaction on the Internet into action on the ground.
So what tools do the left have at its disposal to control the debate (Impeach!) and to help the Dems get back the legislature?
Well, we have the Internet, the call-in shows, (anybody check out the right wing activists on all the call-in shows about Coretta Scott King’s funeral? They were on the lefty shows in force) LTTE, telephone, bumper stickers, freeway blogging, postering/flyering, demonstrations, lobbying, celebrity leftists on TV and in print,
Another resource is lots of various civic organizations, as well as associations, such as environmental, civil rights, educational, political groups, interest groups, etc.
PLAN
Phase 1 A week or 10 days before the planned March on DC, at the end of April, we launch a media buzz: A sustained and organized effort to put Impeachment out there through LTTE, Radio, Hard Copy Blogging and the Internet.
The message is IMPEACH!
We do that for a couple of weeks.
Phase 2 Move to electronic lobbying campaign primarily directed at Republicans in Congress and the larger media. We do an Alito here, but we primarily target our own Republicans and our targeted Republicans based on the mid term elections map. We raise a stink about accountability and IMPEACHMENT! We use our peoples media to shout CALL/WRITE your Representative and demand Impeachment, demand accountability from your Rep. (This is the point the Alito campaign got to when the cloture vote rendered it moot.)
Phase 3 This starts sometime soon after spring graduation. This is the mobilization phase:
NATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY DAY(s) or NAD(s) -- 3 days of Democracy
It would take about a minimum of 25,000 people participating nationwide to pull off my idea, but the more the better. While that’s a formidable number, its small compared to the # that have shown up at marches, for instance. And the relatively local nature of going to local US Senator’s or US Congressman’s field office makes for easier participation by a lot more people.
We line up at least one hundred people in front of five Republican US Senate or Congressional offices in each state, and people go in and lobby, preferably alone or in pairs. Fifteen minutes per lobby/staffer means 4 people an hour or 32 per day per staffer.
Every citizen lobbyist would take 2 messages to their Representative. One would be of their choosing or their coalition groups choosing, and the other would be Impeachment. We ask if the Rep will support Impeachment. If not why not? We target Repubs (on a mid term targeted basis) for our lobby day targets, and make sure local press covers the events (our bigger target) and then National Media --Our biggest target.
It would require 300 organizers (1 for 5 field offices per state + one state-wide organizer for a total of 6 per state), but it would be a great run up to the mid terms in terms of organizing, networking, energizing people, and giving people a good reason to vote in a Dem congress -- i.e. Impeachment, i.e. everything that’s wrong.
It could be a lot of fun. And it could very conceivably be a lot bigger than 25,000 people nationwide if we organized, because people could participate fairly locally.
Imagine! Home Town America with a long line of people lined up to talk to their Representative’s staffers about Impeachment and other issues would certainly get local coverage. And if it happened across America it would get National coverage.
The Repubs would have to be talking about, "Why not to impeach or why impeachment would be bad for the country."
Bloggers could blog from line, we get some celebrity lobbyists in line for media, we tie up Repo staffers for three days across America, and we could get lib talk show broadcasts from the line. We could make it an event, a street party, celebration of democracy and citizen lobbyists.
Phase 4
I haven’t looked that far ahead yet, but maybe Fall Impeachment Fairs? Direct lobbying of the media? An October Impeachment march on Congress?
Phase 5
Equate the Congressional and Senatorial votes with votes for accountability, with votes for Impeachment. Time for a change, time for voters to Impeach The Unaccountable Congress.
Arguments for this strategy and action plan
People are hungry to do something about the mess we find ourselves in. At the same time people are overwhelmed by the enormity of issues and how to address them. By focusing on one campaign that encompasses so many other interests, we can give people something meaningful and understandable to do. By having two issue Accountability Days we open the participation to everyone.
It doesn't matter if someone is for Impeachment or against Impeachment -- if you can get them talking about Impeachment you have already won. You have controlled the terms of the debate. Even arguments about the feasibility or practical desirability of Impeachment are irrelevant because Impeachment is politically impossible until sometime next year, and by then if it’s possible we will have won even if it’s decided it’s not practical or desirable.
This is something the Dems can’t really do themselves but it is something we can do.
The cost of not doing an organized campaign, including mass mobilization on a visible local level is unacceptable. We can’t leave it up to Clark, Ralph, Dean. Hillary, JFK, Obama, Cindy -- they have told us that already.
The left needs to be making demands on Republican Lawmakers. I know how I was during the Alito campaign, I called a lot more Dems than I did Republicans. I've been to my Dem Senators field office, but I've never been inside my Republican Congressman or Senator’s field office. We need to take the fight to them, we need to chat with their staff. Folks at home could be calling and writing the Reps asking them to meet with the lobbyists at a field office.
This issue focuses people on the House and the Senate while still keeping the heat on the prez.. It creates an opportunity to exploit fissures in the Repub party by squeezing Repubs between public pressure and the Prez.
While the media ignored the last big DC march, an action like a National Accountability Day(s) wouldn’t be anywhere near as susceptible to media blackout because it would be happening in everybody’s state and at offices and communities across the state. They are perfect for local TV, radio and print stories. The numbers are also verifiable in terms of nationwide turnout.
It would offer a huge umbrella to allow a number of existing interest groups to work together and hang out in line together, and it allows Independents to have access, too. Solidarity baby!
Everyone pretty well agrees that if the grassroots is going to have an impact we are going to have to take to the streets. This would be a good way to stick it to the petite fascists. We’d get ACLU members, Peace activists, Seniors, Families, Students, MMJ activists, Greens, Dems, Scientists, Unionists, Lefty Independents, Reasonable people, disgruntled old guard GOP, returned soldiers, everybody -- minus the bush base -- and we could take it right to the Repo staffers. Good media.
IDEAS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Discussion and refinement.
We need a working group to brainstorm and undertake specific tasks.
A number of groups are already working on Impeachment as an issue. These people should be ready and natural allies. And they get how Impeachment ties to accountability as an issue.
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