rabble rabble BIG GOVERNMENT rabble rabble CUT SPENDING rabble rable CUT TAXES

By Bryan Packman | Published: February 3, 2010

Well, this is what you’d end up with.

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Listen, Assholes. Quick Reactions To The SOTU.

By Bryan Packman | Published: January 28, 2010

This is going to be about style more than substance, because, unfortunately, I think it was more important for the SOTU to motivate people than it was to outline policy. So a few points.

The attitude in the beginning was something like, “listen, assholes”. He was telling everyone we had to rescue the banks and provide stimulus to avoid a depression. He got back to the “listen, assholes” tone a few more times, especially with HCR. I liked it, and I think the people who supported Obama want to see him take that stance.

There was a subtle theme of Republican obstructionism which can be used as a jumping off point for a new narrative. By my rough count (I haven’t gone back and listened to the speech), Obama mentioned bills passed by the House, and only the House, four times. “What the fuck, Senate.” He can expand on this theme in coming weeks, but this was a good starting point. He got on base with this, to use a baseball term.

If young people don’t get motivated, 2010 and the rest of this administration is going to be very difficult. He appealed to the base a few times: global warming, DADT, infrastructure, and a bit of civil rights issues. I hope it works. Without an enthusiastic base, we’re fucked.

A lot of the speech was aimed at Democratic Congressmen, especially in the House. We go back to the “listen, assholes” theme. The end was extremely strong, telling people “We don’t quit!”. He showed commitment to health care reform. This was also a reminder to a lot of people of who they voted for. I can’t see the House not passing the Senate bill after this speech. I could be wrong. Democrats might be bigger pussies than I thought. If they give up now, then fuck them. You can’t blame Obama.

The style was very good. I liked a lot of the content and a lot of the policy points. Some things, I disagreed with. I’m not quite sure how the part about defense and national security fit in. But overall, I think he nailed it. Let’s continue the fight.

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What Needs To Happen In The SOTU

By Bryan Packman | Published: January 27, 2010

I absolutely hate when people value style over substance. The worst offenders of this are the Giuliani lovers who think that saying “9/11″ and declaring “War on Terrorism” as loudly as possible while beating your chest is an effective foreign policy. Because terrorists who are willing to take their own lives while killing innocent Americans clearly would think twice about doing so if they only knew that they were going to get in trouble.

So, as much as it pains me to say it, tonight’s State of the Union Address has got to be about style. Yes, Obama’s got to reestablish the reasons for health care reform. He’s got to explain his new agenda concerning bank regulation. And then there’s that spending freeze bullshit, which I don’t even want to talk about. But the biggest problem facing Democrats and Obama is the enthusiasm gap between their base and the GOP base.

Teabaggers think their freedom is at stake while they fight Communists, Muslims, and Nazis all at the same time. As deluded and idiotic as they are, they’re enthusiastic and sure to vote. Democratic voters are sitting on the couch wondering who ate all the pretzels.

This is what Obama needs to address. Not directly, but he needs to restore the enthusiasm among Democrats. It’s certainly possible. We all remember 2008.

So, tonight, Obama doesn’t need to hit a homerun. Well, he can, but he doesn’t have to, at least not a walk-off homerun. A walk-off homerun isn’t even possible, since he can’t win the game all in one night. What he needs to do is get on base. He’s got to get a rally going and get everyone else in dugout on their feet, feeling some “hope”, as cheesy as that sounds. It’s going to take a lot base hits, doubles, triples, and a few homers to win this thing. The SOTU just needs to be the first in that long line of hits.

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Filmaker Behind ACORN Sting Arrested. Does It Really Matter At This Point?

By Bryan Packman | Published: January 26, 2010

While I certainly hope this sheds some light on the right’s tactics, I doubt it will make a difference:

James O’Keefe, the young conservative filmmaker who was behind the undercover operations that led to the ACORN scandal last year, was arrested with three others for allegedly trying to bug the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) yesterday.

Right wing strategists don’t give a shit about evidence or right and wrong. They just want to establish a narrative and taint their opponents’ images before anyone has a chance to get the facts straight.

As Jonathan Bernstein writes:

Republicans are attacking Democrats for taking away people’s guns, even though the Democrats basically surrendered on that issue fifteen years ago. They are attacking Democrats for cutting Medicare and for allowing Medicare to grow so fast that it’ll bankrupt the nation — sometimes in the very same speech (I’ve seen it in the same paragraph). Republicans have, repeatedly, attacked Barack Obama for not using a word he uses all the time. Last I heard, they were still attacking the Democrats for bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, something that as far as I know not a single elected Democrat has any interest in doing. No, it didn’t make sense, but if they don’t have attacks ready that make sense, they’ll use ones that don’t.

And don’t forget about death panels.

So, even though they were exonerated by a Congressional Research Service report, and even though portions of O’Keefe’s film were substantially edited, and even though O’Keefe has now shown a pattern of unlawful tactics, ACORN was, is, and will remain a boogeyman.

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Communist, Liberal, Muslim, Nazi Astronauts

By Bryan Packman | Published: January 25, 2010

Man. Looks like NASA’s in on that communist, liberal, Hollywood conspiracy known as “global warming”.

Well, now that I think about, NASA also staged that fake moon landing back in the 60’s. So maybe they’ve been a part of communist conspiracies this whole time. But then again, the moon landing was part of the Space Race, an effort to prove our dicks were bigger than the Soviets’. Oh fuck! Logical paradox! KABOOM!

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HOUSE – Pass The Senate Bill

By Bryan Packman | Published: January 25, 2010

Alright, so the title is actually a play on an inside joke I have about a former employer (quite a quirky guy) showing off his home in a local news segment. Particularly when he says “HOUSE – lower the attic stairs” at around the 1:45 mark:

Guess you had to be there. But seriously. It’ll be a long time before there’s another chance to pass meaningful health care reform legislation. It’ll be a lot easier to get the things you want if you’re starting from what the Senate bill offers than if you’re starting from what we have now.

HOUSE – PASS THE SENATE BILL!

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Plouffe To Return To White House

By Bryan Packman | Published: January 25, 2010

Awesome. I wish he had never left. This shouldn’t just be about campaigning for 2010 midterms. It should be an ongoing campaign of policies so we can drown out the noise coming from the teabaggers.

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The New Campaign

By Bryan Packman | Published: January 22, 2010

While watching Obama’s town hall style meeting in Elyria, Ohio this afternoon (Fox News, of course, wasn’t broadcasting it), I could think of only one thing – he gets it. To turn momentum back in favor of the Democratic party, Obama needs to go back on the campaign trail. He’s not campaigning for an upcoming election. Instead, he’s campaigning for the enthusiasm of the base.

Without a doubt, the Massachusetts Special Election was a setback. But as big of a blow as losing a 60 vote super-majority may have been, there’s something much bigger at stake. Unless the president does something to rekindle the enthusiasm of 2008, the Democratic party is in danger of having a generation of young voters simply saying, “fuck it”.

There are plenty of reasons for Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Special Election, including Martha Coakley simply being a shitty, shitty candidate. But the most disheartening of the reasons was that only “15% of Massachusetts citizens between the ages of 18-29 turned out to vote.”

Right now, the base is demoralized, unenthused, complacent and dispassionate. Meanwhile, Republican voters are fueled by hyperbolic conspiracy theories about America’s freedom being destroyed by a Socialist, Fascist, Marxist, Muslim, Nazi regime. They truly believe this shit. But while they’re out there fueled by a fantasy of fighting Communist Nazis, we’re busy rallying around Conan O’Brien. It’s time to rally the base again and bring back that 2008 feeling.

Part of what this campaign needs to accomplish is to begin a new narrative for the President. In part, this narrative needs to lay out his agenda for the next year in terms of policy. Obama needs to show a commitment to passing health care reform and explain his reasons for financial regulation. But more importantly, this narrative needs to tell the story of the obstructionist strategy that Republicans in Congress are taking. Not enough people understand the process around passing legislation. Without getting too nuanced, Obama needs to get this through to young voters, and get them angry over the exploitation of the filibuster rule.

The upcoming State of the Union Address is a perfect opportunity to launch this new campaign. It’s a tall order, especially when you’re going up against windmill fighters. But if anyone has the platform and the ability to motivate and inspire, it’s Barack Obama.

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The Strategy For 2010

By Bryan Packman | Published: January 19, 2010

Despite what anyone says, the result from the Massachusetts special election is not a repudiation on health care reform, President Obama, or Liberalism. Instead this was a perfect storm of 10% unemployment, opposition enthusiasm that always occurs in off-year elections, and a really shitty candidate in Martha Coakley. Regardless, the Democratic Party got caught napping, and we could use a good kick in the ass to wake us up.

I was all set to write a lengthy post laying out a plan for how we can rejuvenate the base and restore the enthusiasm we had in 2008. Turns out, Matthew Yglesias, a much smarter man than I, already wrote it, and you should read the whole thing.

By threatening to kill [the health care reform bill], moderates have consistently been able to water it down. The results have sapped the enthusiasm of Obama’s base, while also tying the president to the much-less-popular institution of Congress. To avoid a disaster in the midterms, the White House needs to reverse this trend: it needs to pick a battle it can afford to lose. The ideal candidate is the financial regulatory reform package …

This is an issue where the administration can afford to draw lines in the sand and refuse to compromise….

Then the president can do what progressives would have liked to have seen him do on health care—tour the country denouncing opponents of his agenda as corporate stooges, desperately in hock to special interests….

The key thing, however, is that if they don’t get spooked, the White House can afford to take the legislative defeat and play for a political win. Thus, Obama’s been hobbled by the need to take on issues like the stimulus and health care where everyone knows he can’t walk away from the table. Those are the cards he was dealt, but it’s made him look weak. A good loss, by contrast, could be an opportunity to show some much-needed toughness.

I’d also like to add that by not compromising and “playing to lose”, the White House can make “Republican obstructionism” the narrative of 2010. In doing so, Obama will educate the public on the Republican party’s overuse of the filibuster and how that is what’s preventing us from achieving the “change” we all want. Additionally, by refusing to compromise, proposed legislation will have a shorter lifetime on the floor and be subject to less misinformation and hyperbolic demagoguery from the far right.

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Compromise

By Bryan Packman | Published: January 18, 2010

Alright, teabaggers. I’ll meet you half way. Let’s agree that he’s not a Nazi, but he is a socialist.

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