So what can we do to fight these bastards? A resistance of some sort.

[maveric]

Do we cut down on consumption? Do we protest every chance we get? Write letters till we all have carpal tunnel?
What can we do to show these fascists that almost half of all americans are angry and not about to roll over like our leadership does?

[AzureWaves]

1. We do SOMETHING!!

And when something is organized, make sure we all know about it, I have a ton of very pissed off friends at my college that are on edge with me...we want to do something, anything to show the world that we did not vote for this!!!

[maveric]

6. Four years of excessive Civil Disobedience!

I'm at the point where I dont care if I have to sit in jail for it. My Irish ancestors fought a formidable opressor and sacrificed their freedom and lives to push the Union Jack out of Ireland. It took many years and lives but they won (except for the north).

True patriots will make these sacrifices for the futures of our nation, children and grandchildren.

So, when does the revolution begin?

[starroute]

11. Stop being polite and show our contempt for them at every turn

The Republicans and wing-nuts have benefitted by being given a level playing field when they don't deserve one. And the spokespersons for the left have worried that by speaking out too strongly they will be excluded from the public discourse.

Well, fuck that. The public discourse has already been cut down to a range between right of center and very right of center. At the same time, things like The Daily Show make it obvious that there are large numbers of people out there who will howl with appreaciation at even the slightest sign of truth-telling and honest feelings.

So let's tell the truth and say what we feel at every opportunity. If we've been assigned the role of the excluded, let's embrace it. Let's dig out every bit of dirt on the scum that we can and make reference to it at every opportunity. Let's start routinely using phrases like "the Bush regime" and "Emperor George" and all the things we may say here but haven't been saying in public. Let's call names and throw mud and do all those things that nice girls don't do.

That's what they tried to do to Clinton -- and it only half worked, because most of it was made up. With those bastards, almost anything you can say about them is true, but we need the guts to keep saying it.

[Bozos for Bush]

17. Agreed! We need to call a spade a spade, keep repeating things, etc.

"I'm a compassionate conservative"
"Bush is a man of deep moral conviction"

We all know these statements are pure BS, but because people keep repeating them over and over, all the zombies in America actually believe them.

So we do the same thing. Over and over, we state facts AS facts, without apologies, because we must not ever apologize for embracing truth...it is, and always will be, our strongest weapon.

[ClassWarrior]

2. Stay together. Make it a point to attend meetings - Dems, DFA...

...peace groups, etc. Network. Build the movement. Start adapting DU phrases and drop the RW phrases (i.e., "death tax," "partial birth abortion," etc.).

Keep posting here. Keep hope alive.

Never Give Up.

[RC]

4. Never Give Up.

[doni_georgia]

3. We have to return to our roots - the PEOPLE

We have to get out there locally. Democrats have always been the party of the people, and we have to get back out there and be active on local levels to win the hearts and minds of the people. The people of middle America have bought the image of Dems as "wine drinking elitists." We have to get out there and help the unemployed - fight for them. We have to fight for the kids in poor districts who are left behind before they even get to school. Get out there and stand up for family farmers and the local hardware store when they are being run out of business by big chains. All politics are local, and we cannot win the big show if we don't show up daily on the local level DOING what we talk about all the time. We need someone heading the party that understands this and is willing to go grassroots in a big way. You're right. We need new leadership and we need it now. Who that is, I don't know. But we need to make our voices heard and let the party know that it's time for a change.

[mumon]

5. Exactly.

We have to bear witness.

[HereSince1628]

7. We create a network of think tanks and a shadow government

We organize to be ready to criticize and offer well considered alternatives to action they try to take, and we hold them absolutely and completely accountable.

When they make a false step we come down on them like an avalanche, and in the process we develop the sort of intellectual infrastructure that can put forward our own agenda rather than remaining on the defensive or always starting from the compromised position of being triangulated.

Every department and major program in the federal government needs monitors, every legislative committee needs a shadow committee all these to monitor, critique, and offer alternatives suited to our philosophies.

We find leading democratic figures to function as spokes people for public communication of democratic analysis and critiques.

In short we develop an essentially complete shadow government, and punditocracy and we never never give the republicans a moment free from scrutiny. DU has lots of talented people who have functioned in this way informally. We nneed to make it more formal to close all the holes.

DU's infrastructure will carry us forward regardless of our current disappointment.

[starroute]

12. I'm starting to think we need a wiki

Forget think-tanks -- that's the top-down, conspiratorial Republican way of doing things. We need to open source this and create an ongoing, instantly updating, widely accessible database of research, background information, policy recommendations, and handy memes that anyone can access. (But with enough security to keep it from being freeped.)

I don't know exactly how wikis work -- except that you need more programming expertise than I've got and a server with plenty of bandwidth -- but I think they're what we want. (See wikipedia or disinfopedia for examples. For more on disinfopedia, see http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Disinfopedia or http://radio.weblogs.com/0110772/2003/05/14.html)

It really kills me that there's so much great research on DU that just vanishes into the archives. We need to get it out there and keep it out there and keep improving on it. It isn't just a parallel infrastructure that we need to create -- it's a parallel reality, and one that's both realer and more attractive than what the Republicans are offering.

[HereSince1628]

13. I think I agree, the idea is to create a system of surveillance that

helps us to always be aware and prepared to foil the redbots attempts to squander democracy.

If it is a network of people to build a wikitopia I am ok by that.

[starroute]

16. But how do we start?

I'm good at organizing information, and I'd love to be involved in something like this, but I don't have either the programming skills or the financial resources to set up the system myself.

Also, Disinfopedia already has the vast right-wing conspiracy fairly well covered, so what I'm thinking of is something much more in the moment. Something that focuses on issues first and only secondarily on individuals or organizations.

For example, vouchers are often touted as an answer to failing schools -- but whenever you look closely, the people doing the touting are either fundies or anti-government privatizers, and not anyone who actually cares about your children's education. That's the sort of information I'd like to bring out. It's the same thing for Social Security privatization and for various plans involving Medicare that turn out to be be promoted by supposed seniors' organizations that are actually fronts for the drug companies.

The sort of site I'm envisioning would have two main aspects -- one being a guide to current policies and who's behind them and the other being a general database of people and groups on the right that would make it easy to pinpoint the real backers of various plans and proposals. I'm very serious about wanting to do it, but I can't do it alone.

[Liberal Gramma]

8. Boycott Republicans

The damage that has been done, and will be done, by the Bush administration will never be undone in my lifetime. I cannot hope to see a more hopeful future, where Americans govern themselves. What I can do is my part to starve the Beast: I will not buy any product produced in a Red state. I will not visit any Red state as a tourist. I will not do business with companies that support Republican candidates. I will not watch any channel that has a right-leaning bias. I will not subscribe to right-leaning newspapers or magazines. I will not give them any more of my money to use against me.

[T Bone]

10. Starve the beast

works for me Gramma.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. I'm boycotting all red states..

But I think I was before, anyway.

[mitchum]

14. Plomo y fuego

[MUSTANG_2004]

15. More effective to write checks

Pick a couple of organizations you like, and write some checks. More effective than protest, IMO.