The Seven Principles: Do, Be, Cope, Exist, Truth, Love, and Communication
Thanks are due to Publius for promoting this endeavor.
My father developed a philosophy based on the Seven Principles of Life: Do, Be, Exist, Cope, Truth, Love, and Communication. These principles can be applied to the Democratic Party to show how to beat Republicans at all levels of government.
Do: Right now, the Republicans are masters of illusion (or delusion) while the Democrats sit back and say "that isn't true". The problem is that while the Democrats are trying to say the truth, the Republicans are ACTING to implement their version of the truth. As a student of revolution and international politics, I understand that in order to change anything, there must be unity between the elite and the masses. They must want the same thing and be willing to implement it. In the 2000 election, Gore was fighting to get every vote counted in Florida, but the left didn't think he was any different from Bush, so they stood by while Bush took Florida from Gore. In 2004, the Left was willing to fight for every vote and uncover what looked like evidence of massive fraud, but this time it was Kerry who misunderstood the stakes of the election, thinking it was simply another election to win or lose while the Left saw it as life or death. There has been a schism between the Democratic Base and the Democratic Leadership because of this. The Democratic Base was forced to vote for Clinton in 1996 even though he moved to the right. They were forced to vote for Kerry to get rid of Bush. Since Kerry gave up before the fight even really started, the key step for Democrats is to stop talking about policy and actually find candidates who will start to win at the local level. The Republican party has a base that is unified with the party leadership. The Democrats must stop talking about their core ideals and start implementing them by picking leftist candidates, not centrist candidates, who are unified with the party base.
Be: This gets us to the second principle. The Republican party is strong because it has a cultish nature: it has a secure ideology, and it weeds out any candidates or officials who do not agree with this ideology. The ideology is reinforced by think tanks, talk radio, and church. Republican candidates repeat the same things all the time and never deviate from message. In contrast, the Democratic Party keeps trying to tailor a message to small interest groups and balance those interest groups. This is all well and good, as long as the party has a central guiding philosophy. But it doesn't. At the moment, the only guiding philosophy it has is "don't make anyone mad", including interest groups, swing voters, and even conservatives. This needs to change and go in the opposite direction. The Republicans, and their core supporters, have played emotional jujitsu with the American public. A conservative tends to be angry, rebellious, and hateful. Just listen to talk radio or watch cable news shows, such as Bill O'Reilly. Anger is the dominant emotion that they express, and it is pretty effective at mobilizing voters, as well as entertaining. Yet, the politicians tend to be touchy-feely types: look at Reagan and Bush (the younger), both of whom used optimism an a naive attitude to seem like "common people", even though they were not. The Democratic party in 2004 did the opposite. It preached love and community from its base, but the primary candidates expressed anger, especially over the Iraq war.
What the Democratic party needs to do is get very comfortable with anger, and even hatred, because that's what the Republicans are throwing at us. Bush Hatred is not enough. Hatred of Conservatives and Republicans is the only solution. If Democrats preach love and peace and angry, hateful people, the angry people simply think we are wimpy, weak pushovers. Thus, the Democratic Party needs to learn how to fight for its ideals. This isn't just about protest. This means using cable television and talk radio in the same way the Republicans have done it: get angry at Republicans for destroying everything that Democrats hold dear. Don't try to convince or persuade Republicans. What Republicans really want to do is fight. That's why they use anger to spark conflict. Democrats should take the fight to them and beat them at their own game.
Exist: This goes to the third principle. The Republicans are not in this to govern the country effectively, They literally want to eliminate the Democratic Party and Destroy liberalism. In this sense, they are taking a page from the play book of Fascist philosopher Carl Schmidt, who argued that politics is about eliminating the opposition, not about communicating with them. This is the game plan that Republicans have, and that is why they have no problem suppressing liberal voter turnout and constantly telling lies about liberal candidates. Again, match Republicans at their own game. Do not try to communicate with someone who does not want to communicate with you. The only option is to destroy them. Engage in the same tactics they engage in. When fighting for your right to exist, the last thing you want to have is a sense of morality or ethics. The Republicans preach morality but practice immoral behavior when it comes to politics. When there is a contest, unless both players act ethically, the unethical person wins. That is why we have arms races. The person who decides to be peaceful will be eliminated by the person who is aggressive and warlike. This is not politics. It is war, and the Republican Party wants to destroy the Democratic Party to end the war. It is our job to prevent that from happening, and instead work to destroy the values of the Republican Party.
Cope: This principle naturally follows because, when defeated electorally, Democrats must not think of the defeat as a temporary setback and say "we'll get them next time". The time to deal with an election is when the ballots are being counted, not when people are voting. The Republicans have mastered the art of making sure votes aren't counted. Thus, no matter how many new voters democrats sign up to vote, the Republicans will make sure those voters never get to the voting booth due to long waiting lines. The Democrats must have the equivalent of a rapid reaction force for every election. Every election must be fought to the bitter end, even if it means suing many times, challenging votes in the state houses or congress, or asking judges to throw out votes. The Republicans are liked used car salesmen who are knowingly and deliberately selling the lemon of democracy, when in reality they operate under and authoritarian structure. The Democrats must be the good mechanic and show "lemon" votes for what they are: not a true representation of the people's will.
Truth: This principle gets to the heart of what it means to be democrat. Democrats tell the truth, Republicans do not. Democrats take the time to tell the whole truth, Republicans do not. Instead of telling the whole truth, Republicans used facts to embellish fantasy. There is global warming, but Republicans will use some facts to tell you that there isn't global warming.
Love: This principle tells Democrats how to win elections. Instead of preaching love in order to win votes, they must show love by rebuilding communities. Alliances start at home. Democrats need to preach the virtues of family, friendship, and the neighborhood.
Communication: Finally we get to the tactical aspect of being a democrat. The Republicans shun communication and promote secrecy. They tell followers to trust leaders to make the right decision because the leader is a moral leader. In contrast, the Democrats promote communication as the lifeblood of democracy, including dissent and challenging authorities. Democrats must show that they have superior communication abilities. It isn't enough to make a decision that is pleasing to people. Democrats must tell why the decision is good, and, if they change their minds, why their change the minds. A Democrat, at root, is a person who wants to turn the community into a group of people that is capable of self-governance. Self-government depends on vibrant discussion and debate. The Republicans have all but eliminated the public sphere, preventing any debate or communication from occurring, and relying almost entirely on faith to make decisions based on trust in a strong leader. The Democratic Party is based on empowering ordinary people to be leaders by communicating with them about the principles that organize our society.
My father developed a philosophy based on the Seven Principles of Life: Do, Be, Exist, Cope, Truth, Love, and Communication. These principles can be applied to the Democratic Party to show how to beat Republicans at all levels of government.
Do: Right now, the Republicans are masters of illusion (or delusion) while the Democrats sit back and say "that isn't true". The problem is that while the Democrats are trying to say the truth, the Republicans are ACTING to implement their version of the truth. As a student of revolution and international politics, I understand that in order to change anything, there must be unity between the elite and the masses. They must want the same thing and be willing to implement it. In the 2000 election, Gore was fighting to get every vote counted in Florida, but the left didn't think he was any different from Bush, so they stood by while Bush took Florida from Gore. In 2004, the Left was willing to fight for every vote and uncover what looked like evidence of massive fraud, but this time it was Kerry who misunderstood the stakes of the election, thinking it was simply another election to win or lose while the Left saw it as life or death. There has been a schism between the Democratic Base and the Democratic Leadership because of this. The Democratic Base was forced to vote for Clinton in 1996 even though he moved to the right. They were forced to vote for Kerry to get rid of Bush. Since Kerry gave up before the fight even really started, the key step for Democrats is to stop talking about policy and actually find candidates who will start to win at the local level. The Republican party has a base that is unified with the party leadership. The Democrats must stop talking about their core ideals and start implementing them by picking leftist candidates, not centrist candidates, who are unified with the party base.
Be: This gets us to the second principle. The Republican party is strong because it has a cultish nature: it has a secure ideology, and it weeds out any candidates or officials who do not agree with this ideology. The ideology is reinforced by think tanks, talk radio, and church. Republican candidates repeat the same things all the time and never deviate from message. In contrast, the Democratic Party keeps trying to tailor a message to small interest groups and balance those interest groups. This is all well and good, as long as the party has a central guiding philosophy. But it doesn't. At the moment, the only guiding philosophy it has is "don't make anyone mad", including interest groups, swing voters, and even conservatives. This needs to change and go in the opposite direction. The Republicans, and their core supporters, have played emotional jujitsu with the American public. A conservative tends to be angry, rebellious, and hateful. Just listen to talk radio or watch cable news shows, such as Bill O'Reilly. Anger is the dominant emotion that they express, and it is pretty effective at mobilizing voters, as well as entertaining. Yet, the politicians tend to be touchy-feely types: look at Reagan and Bush (the younger), both of whom used optimism an a naive attitude to seem like "common people", even though they were not. The Democratic party in 2004 did the opposite. It preached love and community from its base, but the primary candidates expressed anger, especially over the Iraq war.
What the Democratic party needs to do is get very comfortable with anger, and even hatred, because that's what the Republicans are throwing at us. Bush Hatred is not enough. Hatred of Conservatives and Republicans is the only solution. If Democrats preach love and peace and angry, hateful people, the angry people simply think we are wimpy, weak pushovers. Thus, the Democratic Party needs to learn how to fight for its ideals. This isn't just about protest. This means using cable television and talk radio in the same way the Republicans have done it: get angry at Republicans for destroying everything that Democrats hold dear. Don't try to convince or persuade Republicans. What Republicans really want to do is fight. That's why they use anger to spark conflict. Democrats should take the fight to them and beat them at their own game.
Exist: This goes to the third principle. The Republicans are not in this to govern the country effectively, They literally want to eliminate the Democratic Party and Destroy liberalism. In this sense, they are taking a page from the play book of Fascist philosopher Carl Schmidt, who argued that politics is about eliminating the opposition, not about communicating with them. This is the game plan that Republicans have, and that is why they have no problem suppressing liberal voter turnout and constantly telling lies about liberal candidates. Again, match Republicans at their own game. Do not try to communicate with someone who does not want to communicate with you. The only option is to destroy them. Engage in the same tactics they engage in. When fighting for your right to exist, the last thing you want to have is a sense of morality or ethics. The Republicans preach morality but practice immoral behavior when it comes to politics. When there is a contest, unless both players act ethically, the unethical person wins. That is why we have arms races. The person who decides to be peaceful will be eliminated by the person who is aggressive and warlike. This is not politics. It is war, and the Republican Party wants to destroy the Democratic Party to end the war. It is our job to prevent that from happening, and instead work to destroy the values of the Republican Party.
Cope: This principle naturally follows because, when defeated electorally, Democrats must not think of the defeat as a temporary setback and say "we'll get them next time". The time to deal with an election is when the ballots are being counted, not when people are voting. The Republicans have mastered the art of making sure votes aren't counted. Thus, no matter how many new voters democrats sign up to vote, the Republicans will make sure those voters never get to the voting booth due to long waiting lines. The Democrats must have the equivalent of a rapid reaction force for every election. Every election must be fought to the bitter end, even if it means suing many times, challenging votes in the state houses or congress, or asking judges to throw out votes. The Republicans are liked used car salesmen who are knowingly and deliberately selling the lemon of democracy, when in reality they operate under and authoritarian structure. The Democrats must be the good mechanic and show "lemon" votes for what they are: not a true representation of the people's will.
Truth: This principle gets to the heart of what it means to be democrat. Democrats tell the truth, Republicans do not. Democrats take the time to tell the whole truth, Republicans do not. Instead of telling the whole truth, Republicans used facts to embellish fantasy. There is global warming, but Republicans will use some facts to tell you that there isn't global warming.
Love: This principle tells Democrats how to win elections. Instead of preaching love in order to win votes, they must show love by rebuilding communities. Alliances start at home. Democrats need to preach the virtues of family, friendship, and the neighborhood.
Communication: Finally we get to the tactical aspect of being a democrat. The Republicans shun communication and promote secrecy. They tell followers to trust leaders to make the right decision because the leader is a moral leader. In contrast, the Democrats promote communication as the lifeblood of democracy, including dissent and challenging authorities. Democrats must show that they have superior communication abilities. It isn't enough to make a decision that is pleasing to people. Democrats must tell why the decision is good, and, if they change their minds, why their change the minds. A Democrat, at root, is a person who wants to turn the community into a group of people that is capable of self-governance. Self-government depends on vibrant discussion and debate. The Republicans have all but eliminated the public sphere, preventing any debate or communication from occurring, and relying almost entirely on faith to make decisions based on trust in a strong leader. The Democratic Party is based on empowering ordinary people to be leaders by communicating with them about the principles that organize our society.
posted by Marriah @ 3:12 AM
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