A Chicken Is Not Pillage

Here's to a Leftward Moving 2012

2011 probably wasn't the best year for most folks, though there was considerable improvement for many.  Politically speaking, it's been one of the most polarizing years I can think of.  Here's hoping for a better 2012.

We can make that happen.  Many individuals, smart and otherwise, have argued loud and long that America has a two-party problem.  We have a center right party and a far right party.  I'm not going to argue that; I never would or have.  Here's the thing, though.  Our challenge, which should be clear, remains muddied.  How do we get a left party in control of our governance?

If 2010, an awful year, is any indication, then the path would be to kill off the center right party.  How'd that work out?  Not well, obviously.  Since handing the US House back to the Republicans, the 99%ers have been held hostage at least 5 times.  I'm certainly glad we got rid of those Blue-Dog Dems in favor of truly partisan tea-baggers.  After all, partisanship is the problem and getting rid of partisans for more strongly partisan folks is surely the answer.

Or not.  How about this?  If the country has moved to the right because we have a center-right party and a far-right party, maybe the solution in defending the left isn't to attack the anchor in the middle.  Just saying ...  Maybe, just maybe, if we destroy the far right, utterly obliterate them, then maybe we might have vision left to support the left.  Just maybe.  It's easy to see that destroying the far right would leave us with a center right party in control, and doesn't that suck.  Maybe it does, except ...

You've all taken high school math, right?  If you want a function to move in a desired direction, you don't remove a moderating variable.  You remove the extremes.  It is that simple.  Remove the far right and you have a median that resembles more the country in representation.  The center right party already contains those who are of the left.  Destroy the far right, and you can't help but have a policy forwarded that better favors the middle and lower classes.  More to the point, you have a starting position for moving policy and politics towards the left.  This isn't that goddamned difficult.  Remove people like Skees, Burnett and Rehberg and you are left with people who are more pliant to your needs.  Start from the center right, and you're  one helluva lot closer to where you want to go than giving the game away to the far right, as we liberals did in 2010.

Here's to a happy New Year, one in which liberals finally decide to fight back rather than let the right take our apathy as acquiescence.

The Farmer v. The Snake.

Eli Sanders, at Esquire magazine, paints a realistic picture of the struggle between a Montana farmer and a Montana developer which could decide the sway of the Senate next year.  Read This.

Thank You, Jon Tester

I've written more than once here lamenting the ever shrinking access to hunting in the Gallatin valley area.  All that seems left are the ever expanding grizzly stomping grounds, something I don't like.  (Don't get me wrong.  I don't want the bears to move or perish; it's their habitat.  I just recreate in it.)  Meanwhile, the prey animals are pushed increasingly onto private land, and more and more hunters are funneled into less avaliability and greater conflict with the species we aren't hunting.  As a person who hunts for food, not trophy, it has gotten to be increasingly expensive and frustrating, so much so that I didn't hunt last year, and likely won't this year either.

I read this post at Montana's Bully Pulpit, and felt that old thrill that someone shared and was actually listening to my concerns.  There is no delusion that funding will be reinstated for Open Fields program, at least not in this current political environment.  I just wanted to join my voice to the chorus.  Thank You, Jon Tester.

Gosh I Can't WAIT!

So who do the Greens have running for Senate in 2012?  Anybody?  Anyone?  Beuller?

We Done Winned

Wow.  So this is what taking back control of the country feels like.

To be honest, I'd love to play the cheerleader, and write holy screeds about how we won.  The problem is, I'm kind of a rational type guy, and I know that we didn't win.  A lot of candidates I supported did.  And that's a start.  What we as voters have done is break the strangle hold that the Republican rubber-stamp Congress has had on our nation and our public will.  It's been pretty delightful to read a lot of the wingers screaming about how terrorists and the UN are happy with yesterday's results.  Get a clue, asshats.  Those folk didn't vote yesterday; the American people did.  And the vast majority of the American people are probably pretty damned happy with yesterday's result as well.  Though the wingers get all freaky by the thought, here's the truth of it:  if the American people don't like what's happening with our government, we're more than capable of changing it.  And, bottom line, that's exactly what we did.  To that degree, we sure as hell won.

Bush is no longer in charge.  Now, he has to deal with the will of the people, pesky bunch that we are.  Using his presser today as an indicator, I'm sure it's gonna take his frat-boy brain weeks (if not months) to realize that the people sent a message yesterday.  This is our country, George, not yours.  Quit fucking it up in our name.  Firing Rummy was a good start at actually serving the people.  It would have been a better start if Bush hadn't have lied his ass off about it in order to influence the election.  To be honest, that kind of bullshit, alone, should be an impeachable offense.  But I don't want W impeached.  I want him around to see the crap he's piled on our plates get thrown right back at him.  I want him to see that we, the people, don't suffer foolishness and incompetence without limit.  I want him to choke every time he says the words "Speaker Pelosi".  I want him to see, for the first time in his over-privileged sheltered life, that the American people are not his subjects.  We are in charge, and he works for us.  That asshat has never really had a boss before.  Since the overwhelming majority of us have, it's time we show him what it's like.  That's what we did yesterday.  We've given him a gift, a gift that will keep on giving for the next two years.  He's actually going to have to do his job, and I take sweet pleasure in the knowledge that he's going to hate every minute of it.  After all, "It's hard!  It's hard work!".  Too bad, George.

Of course, we have a job to do as well.  Winning was a start, but not the finish.  Mr. Tester is going to Washington, and Conrad is going ... oh, shit, I don't care where he goes.  We need to make certain that Congress speaks for us, in both houses.  Yesterday, we made a statement about who works for whom.  We can't drop the ball now.  We need to make sure that Jon Tester represents Montana, and hold him accountable 6 years from now if he doesn't.  I think he'll do fine; in fact, I think he'll do great.  But if he doesn't, then I will be among the first to remind the people of Montana exactly what we said yesterday:  "We are in control".

I do want to congratulate Franke Wilmer, our newest state Representative from HD 64.  She is terrific folk, and she'll be hell-on-wheels in the legislature.  And I'm going to pre-emptively congratulate J. P. Palmnichowski.  I am saddened, however, that Gallatin County saw fit to send 3 of the biggest headaches back to Helena.  Roger 'the lie-monkey' Koopman, John 'useless' Sinrud, and Jack 'workers be damned' Ward.  Strangely enough, 3 different people today tried to tell me that Gallatin county is historically Democratic.  I like to refer to those folks as 'history challenged'. 

Still, the mandate remains the same.  Those folk have their job, which is to represent us.  And we have ours, which is to make sure that they're doing their job.  We won big, yesterday, folks.  Not Democrats and not Republicans.  We the people won, but we'd best be ready, 'cause the next game gets played in two years and the people can't afford to lose.

The Man Struck a Chord

My brother laid it out, and did so well.  Looking back at the landslide primary victory of Jon Tester over the favored John Morrison, Moorcat focuses on what really mattered: Jon Tester is one of us.  Quite obviously, others agree with his analysis.  Now, we can put it in all kinds of high-faluten' terms, like "Jon is a man of the People", but there's a difference between catchy phrases and what wins elections.  Moorcat hit the nail squarely on the head.  It isn't that Jon Tester is an heroic advocate of the working man in some '30's Hollywood extravaganza; it's that Jon Tester really is one of us, struggling with the same crap we struggle with every damned day.  He is the People, with more balls than most of us, because he wants our voice heard in the Senate, and is willing to speak for us.

But, as I've clarified to the amusement of my own pet troll, I tend to be a strategist.  Though Moorcat does a great job of exposing why Jon Tester won, he doesn't tend to address how.  That's fine, I've got his back.  Our dad was a carpenter, and I can tell you for true that you don't drive that nail without the proper swing.  The manner is no good without the mode, so one has to wonder exactly what carried Tester to such a surprising victory.  In my opinion, it was the handshake.

Mommy, Wulfgar's talking about touching again!

Yep, I so surely am.  Even those of us who are so partisan to Jon Tester were surprised by the overwhelming nature of his victory, and we have the clues as to how he did it.  It wasn't the money, even though there was a surge of  funds before the primary; it wasn't the commercials, cute as the Buzz spot was; it wasn't the blogs (sorry, KOS commenters, but it really wasn't you).  It wasn't any one of those things alone, though they all helped.  It was the touch.

The first time I met Jon Tester, he shook my hand.  Energetically, enthusiastically, whole-heartedly.  He didn't touch me like another mindless vote, or a patron to whom he must pander for support. He shook my hand like an equal, a Montanan among Montanans.  A degree of trust was established at that very moment.  I was willing to listen to what he had to share with me, and share he did.  Every time I've met Jon since then, we've just been a couple of guys talkin', nothing more or less.  But it always begins with a handshake ... it always begins with respect.  The man is genuine, and he let's you know it right up front.

I know, I know.  Jon Tester certainly didn't meet every person who voted for him, to wow them with his "integrity voodoo".  Nope, no he didn't.  We did.  That's right.  The sweep of support started with those who have met the man, and believed that he was the one who would best take our concerns to congress.  It spread from us to most others who voted in the primary.  I told 10 people, and they told 5 people and they told at least 1 person.  And that's how a 2 to 5 point victory became a groundswell of 25% slamage.

Well, duh.  I just described the whole concept of grassroots campaign, now didn't I?  What has kind of shocked me, since last Tuesday, are the number of people who get the concept, but don't understand what it is they have bought into.  In the DKos post about Tester's victory, dozens of commentors dove into the deep end, describing exactly how Tester should proceed to win the general.  I laugh, loudly!  What Tester should do is be Jon Tester.  He is worth our votes and all he need do is meet those who will advocate for that very thing.  That would be us progressives.  Being a progressive doesn't mean dictating a different way of winning elections; it means voting for candidates who understand where we are, and want to represent that in the Congress of the US.  To me, that's the most humorous part of this whole primary campaign:  the most progressive thing is to get back to our roots, meeting and voting for the guy who is willing to support what we, the People, desire.  That's kind of a regression, but a fricken' worthy one.

Jon Tester is going to win the Senate seat in Montana.  He's going to do it by letting Montanans know who he is.  We will spread the word, in the media, on the WEB, by word of mouth.  Money may make a difference, but people want touch.  They want to know that the guy who speaks for them will shake their hand with respect and honesty.  More than anything, folks want to be included in the movement of their state, their government.  That's the strategy, and others would be well advised to emulate it.

A side note to Eric:  quit with the whole "2 fleas on a dog" BS.  You strongly advocated Morrison, which may have furthered the message of Tester.  I thank you for that, but I kinda like you, and I'd rather not have to rub your nose in the agony of Burns' defeat come November.  Keep up the lunacy, and I'll have no choice.  This victory was significant, and you know it, else you wouldn't have wanted so desperately for Morrison to win.

We Done Good

We did it, Montana.  We did the right thing.  Tomorrow, the work of beating Conrad Burns begins, but we can be proud as hell, tonight.  We done good.