what we on the left need to realize concerning the active, vocal organized crowd against change:

[islandmkl]

we find ourselves advocating, supporting and defending what we know as right...while our opponents will go to ANY length(s) to prevent the needed changes. We become incensed, rant and rave, wring our hands, occasionally confront our opponents directly...yet they are able to control the public discourse.

We do not have to stoop to their level to combat them. But, we must approach the public dialogue with the same ORGANIZED ferocity our opponents employ. We want to be the alternative so badly that we will take another ass-whipping instead of fighting fire with fire. The lack of direct confrontation will leave us only slightly battered in the aftermath...but LOST.

Not understanding, TRULY UNDERSTANDING, one's adversary is a fundamental flaw in ANY FORM of CONTEST.

per Colonel Kurtz:

"And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men..."

They may be bad...but they are just men. This is a battle of will.