Marching orders

Digby, inspired by a post at the Liberal Oasis, makes an excellent point. We must remember that we are not fans of our team, but members of the team. This means that it is time to join ranks, quit our bitching, moaning and second guessing. Liberal Oasis uses the latter stages of the Gore campaign to illustrate this point.

Monday morning QBs still lambaste Gore for his call, under the "every decision was a bad decision" logic when assessing "losing" campaigns.

But to this day, they can't be sure that a heavy dose of Clinton would have meant a popular vote loss too, or if it just wouldn't have made a difference.

And we also don't know what would have happened if the party just got in line and backed Gore's strategy to the hilt.

Meanwhile digby adds the following observation:

I've been thinking about this all day and I think part of what is going on with us Democrats is that while it is natural to treat the race like it's a sporting event our mistake is in thinking that we are the fans. We sit around the metaphorical bar and kibbitz about what the manager should and shouldn't do. Don't pull Pedro! That's nuts!

But this isn't a sporting event in which we are all observers. We are players in this game and it actually matters what we do and say. Our attitude, our intensity, or energy and our willingnesss to walk the precinct and put up signs and talk to our friends can all affect the outcome. The manager can't listen to all of our conflicting advice, but he sure needs us to play to the best of our ability.

We all realize the stake we have in this election, but sometimes forget the direct impact we can have as members of the team. That our actions, demeanor, and attitude can have a substantial affect on this election. As Steve Gilliard put it:

And while a lot of Dems want Kerry to lash out, he has to be careful and time his attacks right. One thing which the Dems haven't done, and have to, from the blogs to campaign talking points, is create the sense of inevitability of Bush's defeat.

I prefer "it is time to embrace the inevitability of a Kerry victory", and I have tried to take this advice to heart and usually add a signature to comments on other blogs usually a variation of KERRY IN A LANDSLIDE!!. And while I can't take credit I am happy to announce that I see others using a variation on this theme and it always puts a smile on this cynical bastard's face. I have been trying to find a post or two of mine to insert some previous insight The following was written in response to the confimation that there are more registered democrats (17 million) than republicans:

This information also suggests that we should be less worried about "undecideds" or "swing" voters, and should instead concentrate our amunition on those who are already with us.
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You have friends that did not vote last time around. Talk to them about the Courts (boring I know, but damn inportant), the environment, Health Care. Find a resonant topic and start pushing buttons. It should be clear by now that there are more than just superficial differences between the parties.
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So you know what to do, find 5 dems or socially-liberal friends and see to it, that they make it to the polls, and then we can start the serious work of cleaning up after these fools.

Which brings us Back to what I found so interesting in Digby's post. The fact is that he articulates what I mean above in more elegant fashion. And while I have dumped variations of the above themes on comments hither and yon, it is nice to see that great minds think alike, and more importanly that many more will see the message and embrace the action suggested. In fact I love the fact that Digby lowers the requirements to one person.

Here's a little idea for a personal political project that each of us can undertake. Surely, we all know one person who doesn't usually vote, an apolitical type who isn't interested. This country is crawling with them. This is the election to get them registered and make sure they vote, whether by sending them the link for an absentee ballot or offering to pick them up and take them to the polls on election day. Everybody knows somebody like this. If we all make sure that we each get one person to vote who wouldn't otherwise give a damn, we win.

So, think about it. Which of your slacker friends can you get to vote this year? Take the initiative. They won't mind. They don't care. Make that work for us.

So folks there you go. If you do nothing else, energize a slacker friend or just drag their ass to the polls. We can take our country back on slacker at a time. If you can find more people fantastic. Disdain dispair, embrace inevitability, quit paying attention to the media and the polls. If you get sucked in anyway, use the resultant anger and find another slacker. I am absolutely convinced of Digby's conclusion, you find one friend who did not vote last time, get them to the polls and we win. KERRY IN A LANDSLIDE!!