Re- Zogby confirming: if the elections aren't totally rigged, Republican's face landslide losses -- see
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1339722Dems should be taking action NOW to prepare for the following:
1. Election rigging, of course, plus cover stories for "surprising" Republican wins. However, I think even the Republicans must realize that, unless there's a terrorist attack between now and November, they can't expect to steal everything they'd like and get away with it this time.
So instead of just grabbing all the elections they want, I believe that even as I write this, they are analyzing what they could plausibly get away with. They are targeting key, strategic positions over which they must maintain control in order not to lose too much power, now and in the future, and they are working every possible angle to ensure plausible "wins" of those positions. What are those positions, and how should we anticipate that they might attempt to hang onto or gain them? What are their cover stories going to be? We need to have done the same analysis, and more!
E.g., might it be helpful if we get on the record predicting specific, surprising Republican wins in the next election? If we guess right, they might be a bit more nervious about stealing those positions, or if they do steal them anyway, the larceny might seem a bit more obvious.
(When you do this analysis, remember, e.g., that to them, W and Cheney are exhausted assets at this point, of little further use.)
P.S. -- Do we know, is there even going to BE any exit poll this year, and who's doing it?? Should we hire one ourselves?? For the sake of history, if nothing else, we need this, and we need it to be done by creditable professionals.
2. If we do manage to stop them from stealing too much, if Dems DO gain a majority in Congress, what are we going to do with it??
One of the Republicans' most successful strategies has been that they are CONSTANTLY initiating new measures, faster than we can respond to them. We need to be ready to do the same, to the extent we gain the power to do so. They obviously had the Patriot Act ready on the shelf, and who knows what else. Do WE have on the shelf TRUE election reform legislation/regulation, media reform, education measures, healthcare, social security, energy, etc.? DEMS SHOULD ALWAYS have drafts of legislation on issues we care about ready and revised on a rolling, up-to-the minute basis. Not only would Dems then be ready to pass that stuff in a minute if given the chance, but until then, that gives us our own agenda, talking points, etc., so we're fully prepared to seize every opportunity to talk about those instead of just responding to the Republicans' issues, half of which are fully intended as mere distractions anyway.
I'm sure the foregoing reveals a lot about my own ignorance; but I hope it's a helpful reminder that we need to think strategically about the big picture and try to ANTICIPATE and PREPARE for future possibilities, both the negative ones and the positive ones.
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