Daily Kos: Operation Hilarity... Urging liberals and Dems to go out and vote for Rick...

[BrentWil]

I think it is a great idea. I have said so in pervious posts.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/15/1065052/-Announcing-Operation-Hilarity-Let-s-keep-the-GOP-clown-show-going-?via=blog_1

It's time for us to take an active role in the GOP nomination process. That's right, it's time for those of us who live in open primary and caucus states—Michigan, North Dakota, Vermont and Tennessee in the next three weeks—to head out and cast a vote for Rick Santorum.
Why would we do such a crazy thing? Lots of great reasons!

Republican turnout has sucked, and appears to be getting worse by the contest. Unlike the 2008 Democratic primaries, which helped President Barack Obama and the Democrats to build a national organization, the GOP is an organizational disaster, with waning voter interest. That means that it takes fewer votes to have an impact than if Republican turnout was maxed out.

Note, if you want to give some money towards the effort:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/operationhilarity?refcode=blog1

[Richardo]

1. Disagree

As unilateral as it may be, I prefer to keep the electoral process as shenanigans-free as possible.

[Redstate Bluegirl]

3. That'd be great

But I don't think the GOP is reading from the same playbook. Like the OP, I think it's a terrific idea.

[Richardo]

8. I acknowledged that it's a unilateral position

Still, it's my preference.

[Liquorice]

18. I also disagree. When I see republicans plotting to influence

democratic primaries, I always think they are dirty players and have no ethics. It just makes them look bad and probably doesn't really have any effect on the outcome of the primaries anyway.

[Rex]

2. Just curious, but would people feel guilty if he won?

nt

[Redstate Bluegirl]

5. If he were nominated, I'd dance!

And so would Obama! All the way to a 2nd term!

[BrentWil]

7. What is the rational for guilt? It is a primary, I am allowed to vote NT

[Rex]

12. I mean overall, if he beat Obama

would people feel bad that they helped get him elected, even if indirectly?

[Redstate Bluegirl]

22. Santorum will never be President

There's a greater chance--if he got nominated--that Dan Savage would be his running mate

[sabrina 1]

25. I know it's a rare thing in the US electoral system to be concerned about, but how about just plain

deception? I am allowed to walk under a moving train, but just because I'm allowed, doesn't mean it's a great idea.

These kinds of practices are what turn people off politics, turning it into a game, one team against the other, and if both are without ethics, people just tune out the whole system.

[sabrina 1]

4. A terrible idea. This is the kind of deception that has destroyed our electoral

process. Democrats should NOT be imitating the dirty tricksters on the right, they should be working to expose them and protect the integrity of our electoral process.

We need to get all the political operatives out of politics. This is the kind of Rovian trick that completely undermines our system and causes people to not vote at all, out of disgust for the whole process.

But it's Kos, so no surprise.

[surfdog]

6. Hey if we don't start fighting fire with fire

Then very soon there could be nothing left to fight for

What OP is talking about is 100% legal

[sabrina 1]

10. Well, as an ordinary person, I find these kinds of deceptions to be disturbing

Maybe for political operatives anything goes, and they do get paid for their 'ideas' but most of us are not operatives, we are people who want a better country, NOT one built on lies and deceptions.

And what we have is way more powerful than these dirty tricks, it is the TRUTH. Since when do we have to sink to the level of Karl Rove, one of the most despicable characters ever who belongs in jail but because neither party is willing to stand up for what is right, he is still influencing our electoral process.

Each time we give in a little, because 'they do it too' or whatever, we make things just a little bit worse.

Democrats can win this election without doing these kinds of things, which disgust most ordinary people btw. Kos as I said, no surprise, he was after all a Republican. Guess in some ways, it's something that's hard to recover from.

[surfdog]

13. 70% of the nation thought Saddam was behind the 9/11 attacks

See my point ?

If ignorance didn't have such a firm grip on this nation then I would say lets play fair but that's not the reality we are living in today ... And it's legal

[BrentWil]

14. Its legal and its voting.. how is it a trick? You simply follow the rules and vote. NT

[sabrina 1]

21. Lots of things are legal. Bush made torture legal, that doesn't mean they are right

or that we should throw away the moral authority to oppose them and eventually work to make them illegal . You can't criticize Rove if you adapt his tactics.

The nation thought what they thought because Democrats did not stand up and contradict the liars. They did what you are advocating now. They either joined them in their lies, or remained silent. So you have just made my point. 'If you can't lick'm, join'm' that was the philosophy that cause 70% of the population to swallow those lies.

[Motown_Johnny]

20. In open primary states, this is the process

to not participate would be to damage our democracy.


The (R)s should put forward candidates that are not repulsive to the majority of the electorate. If we want to legally submit protest votes then that is what we should do.


If they don't want our input then they should hold closed primaries.

This isn't a trick. This is the process. It is how we are supposed to keep them from nominating a nutcase. It is our duty to do our best to participate in the system and make our opinions known.

[Great Caesars Ghost]

11. OK, then let me ask you this....

What if , in Massachusetts, there is a right wing ploy to vote for James King as Democratic challenger? And he won, hypothetically.

[gratuitous]

9. This is why open primaries are a bad idea

But as long as folks in those states have them, why not monkey wrench the Republicans a little bit? They're certainly doing it on our side. Santorum is the latest flavor of the month for the Republicans as they slouch inevitably toward nominating Romney, kicking and screaming all the way.

Santorum might last a little longer than some of his predecessors simply because he's the last of the last resorts. Romney has the money and the organization to run for months in all 50 states. Santorum is running on fumes, puffed up by media attention right now, but he's always one stupid comment away from oblivion, and Santorum's mouth has some pretty despicable stuff falling out of it.

[tanyev]

15. They keep moving the Texas primary back.

At this rate, it's going to be all over by the time it gets to us.

[Motown_Johnny]

16. I plan on doing it in Michigan

I have been planning something like this ever since Rush's "Operation Chaos" in 2008.

I thought it would be Palin, then Gingrich, then Paul but now I am pretty sure I am voting for Santorum.

Anything that screws with them I am all for.

[abowsh]

19. And you wonder why our country is so screwed up....

It's stuff like this and Operation Chaos (Rush Limbaugh's thing in 2008) that undermine our elections. Yes, we have some serious problems with our electoral system, but this just makes it worse.

We need honest and fair elections, not crap like this. I can't think of any way to stop this (other than having closed primaries), but it needs to stop now. The rest the modern world looks at the United States as a massively corrupt superpower, this is just proving them right.

[sabrina 1]

23. Thank you. I didn't think Democrats needed advice from Rush Limbaugh on

strategy. We have a a winning strategy, be honest. Half the country doesn't vote because they no longer have any faith in politics, and this is a perfect example. It's a Republican idea, coming from a former Repub. Don't we have any real Democrats with honest, good ideas without resorting to the very same tactics we so criticized when Republicans were doing it?

Yes, being honest is a little harder sometimes, but it has better longterm results for the entire country.

[Great Caesars Ghost]

24. I remember Kucinich did a you tube video on this.

Not only did it cost votes for president, he almost lost his congressional seat primary.

[Great Caesars Ghost]

26. Here is the video of Dennis Kucinich about the 10,000 republicans who did the same.