Politics 101 -----How to win Election 2004 – or ANY Election

[DisgustiPatriotiated]

Rule Number One. Survival – You cannot achieve ANY political goal unless you survive, no matter what you have done in the past or what you intend to do in the future. You must first do what is necessary to survive the election confronting you.

Rule Number Two. Getting half of what you want is better than nothing. No matter what you want and how good your intentions are, there is ALWAYS going to be someone opposed. It is always better in the long run to compromise and take SOME of what you wanted instead of being stubborn and insisting on holding out for the whole thing and ending up with NOTHING in the end.

Rule Number Three. The only way to shift back to the left is one bite at a time. This is done by picking off the weakest points of the opposition first, the “low hanging fruit”, and when that is successful, moving on from there. You don’t start by deciding to move an entire mountain overnight.

Rule Number Four. The masses are simpletons. They are not stupid, but they fall for simple catchphrases and attention-grabbers in advertising. I’m sorry but they just do. We have to be either ahead of such rushes the source of them.

Finally, KISS - KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!


My biggest issue with some people is with Rules Number Two and Three. I get the feeling reading in weeks past here that some people want an immediate reversal to the left, and in some ways they want immediate rhetoric in Rule Number One. That would cause the immediate loss of survival that would make the rest of rules moot to begin with.

This is not a simple process; it’s a complicated one. I just hope we can get a Democrat elected to get this complicated process started, and that as a Party we will have the strength to keep the naysayer’s at bay long enough to be able to get some progress made.

[Hav]

1. .

"Getting half of what you want is better than nothing"

No shit...

[orwell]

2. Nice post n/t

[eridani]

3. But at least have the gonads to ask for what you want

Don't lead off the bidding with your wussiest compromise. The Rethugs don't, and that's why they've destroyed so much of what remains of the New Deal. They were never shy about stating that that was where they were going, even when they were pretty far from the goal.

[sampsonblk]

4. Yep, we gotta drive a hard bargain

or else we will keep getting rolled.

[DisgustiPatriotiated]

5. But they have members within furious because they went too far!

Bush took too hard of a right turn and now there are Republicans and independenats turning on him. Economists, and look at the insiders that are turning ....

going too far can bite you in the ass too.

[eridani]

6. Sorry, universal health care is not 'too far'--

--not when 51% of Republicans and 86% of Democrats prefer it to the Bush tax cuts.

[DisgustiPatriotiated]

7. But Democrats were not in the majority of the House or Senate

nor holding the White Hose. Not a fair test.

Apply the same test when Democrats control all 3 branches. It doesn't matter what the people want when the assholes control the strings in the government.

[eridani]

8. Trent Lott came around on bulk buying for pharmaceuticals

Sez his mama done tole him. I sez, his mama and about 10,000 pissed off constituents. Enough public pressure can make even thugs act right occasionally. See also the Gingrich congress raising minimum wage.