Become the Hostage Takers
The Tea'ers have become influential not because they hold President Obama or our economy hostage, but because they hold the GOP hostage. If we (we, as in those of us whose ideas and interests are being ignored) are to become a political force, we need to learn the lessons of the Tea'er movement.
The Tea'er movement is not a grassroots effort. Political insiders have effectively exploited an angry segment of the GOP base into an electoral voting block.
If the DCCC, Obama team, all the Internet groups like Move On, and 100 others want to affect the future of the nation, they must use the Tea'ers' hostage taking as a model. There is a path to political power, but it is not the one we are on.
As events unfolded that disappointed people after the Obama inauguration, public option, tax cuts, immigration, DADT, etc. the response has been to splinter. Calls for Obama to be primaried, Africian-Americans and Hispanics to not support Democrats, and a plethora of third party, middle way alternatives to the two parties have sprung up. Now this is a sure way to lose, to insure the powerful will continue to choke our political system, and the death knell of policies favored by any of these groups.
The failure of policies that many Obama 2008 voters thought would be enacted was disillusioning. Even though a great deal of the disillusionment can be attributed to unrealistic expectations, the failure of policy is attributable to money. Money has the power to talk to Congress. Politicians have only one game, being elected.
Click to Read Next Page 