Skinner in 2008! :)

[The Straight Story]

Ok folks, things were shit today. They would like nothing more for us to be demoralized and leaning towards giving up. We have a lot of anger - everything from Kerry did not fight, he is just like other politicians, the dem party is weak and caves in, and well we could go on with all the things flying around.

Maybe NOW is a good time to kick some internal ass within the party, ferret out the weak, get a solid platform, solid inclusive message, and work on changing the people we know and the populace in general.

We cannot do that with hate or being divisive. Railing on rednecks or the religious, then trying to get them to vote for your candidate, won't win anything. Blaming * for everything from the grass not growing right in your yard to 9/11 has turned people off - we made this about * more than about the policies and directions. Spend more time showing how things changing (on whatever issue) will make the lives of all americans better. Michael Moore and others can and should (imho) focus their talents on issues, then when people see a candidate who sees things the same way they will vote for that person. BBV, workers' rights, all these and a zillion more.

Personally I think we focused too much on our hatred of bush and trying to make him look bad more than the ideology behind the issues. Hate and anger were all around this election from both sides. Everything was about * * *. I am in Chicago on business and was walking around downtown today and there was a young guy just walking around with a cardboard sign saying * is a terrorist. Maybe he would have been better off carrying a sign that says - "let's work to fix healthcare" or something of that nature - the right is laser focused at times on issues, like gay marriage, terrorism, tax cuts. We ARE focused on issues but we drift quickly into '* is evil, he wants us all in concentration camps, he used holographic planes which shot out missles at the wtc' and the issue discussions drift from the core values to the hate values of a person.

I know I will probably be flamed for all this, that is cool, I will be heading out soon for about 6 hours and will check back on the thread then.

All I really hope is that we use this day like I used to use lost games in chess tournaments. I would lose a game, play over it many times, find out where I made mistakes, and work to correct them. We could have done some things better, some we did well - keep the good, chuck the bad. If you see BBV as the only reason we lost, ok fine - but even then we can 1. work our asses off on that issue and 2. even then millions voted for bush, those millions need to be reached on an issue level - not a 'I hate * and he is evil' level. Change their hearts through showing them that the issues we care about can make their lives better and it won't matter who runs on the right as people will vote the issues.

They hammered the issue of gay marriage - yes some hammered at kerry himself, but the people were more attuned to the issues they cared about and I don't think many were energized to vote against kerry the man - they voted against what they perceived the issues he represented. * is evil, ok cool. But the issues he represents are not being hammered enough on their own - we try to make those issues sub issues and * the main one.

We have 4 years to define the issues, find a common thread we can support, and educate people on them and why the way we want things to be is best for them and us. We had anger, we had personal attacks on *, we had tinfoil, we had a hatred. We lost. I am shelving all that for a more rational step by step methodology to change minds on issues using logic and comparison, perhaps then people will vote on the issues - worth a try at any rate.