The NRA cares about who gets elected to office, as does the Tea Party, and they try to do something about it, often successfully. If I could get the left to think and act like the NRA and the Tea Party, that would be heaven.
When Rand Paul was doing his filibuster of the Brennan nomination, Mitch McConnell went to the floor in support of the filibuster. McConnell! Why? Because he's afraid of the Tea Party. Why is he afraid of the Tea Party? Because it's threatening to primary him. OK, how about if we threaten to primary Durbin? Could we get anyone on the left to support that? On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 4:20 PM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > me: >> is this kind of iffy strategy (if that's the word) worth spending >> scarce political capital on? Why not do something to shame Obama for >> being such a Nixon? > > Robert "Media Star" Naiman writes: >> 1) It's no more iffy than a lot of other things people do - life on >> Earth is like that 2) it didn't take that much political capital, >> which is not that scarce in this case 3) there's no contradiction >> between doing both 4) the path from "shaming Obama" to a concrete >> change in policy is even more iffy. > > 2) your political capital isn't scarce? there are no other uses for > besides lobbying to increase Pentagon power? Something is only > non-scarce if there's no use for it. > > 3) Obama's a politician. Period. Like all politicians, he gives into > political pressure. (Look, for example, at his position on gun > control, which reflects NRA clout.) Pressuring him to rearrange the > deck chairs on the Hindenberg (e.g., shift drone responsibility to the > Pentagon from the CIA) seems much much weaker a strategy than, say, > starting a drive to get him to _either_ give up his Nobel Peace Prize > _or_ stop all drone-killings of civilians, US citizens, and all > "terrorists" who haven't been tried and convicted. Take away the Nobel > Drone Prize! (My impression is the Obama was a tad embarrassed by > winning the Nobel. This campaign would bring that out.) > > In my book, political strategies should aim not to nudge the in-power > politicians directly but to instead empower the citizens and others > subject to the state's power. It's the latter power that shapes > politicians' actions. Again, look at the NRA. The NRA doesn't just > create worthless web petitions. It spends a lot of money on not just > mass-media advertising but on creating grass-roots support for their > program. > -- > Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your > own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
