The strongest weapon that Bush has is division...

[kentuck]

if he were not able to divide people, his support would shrivel up and blow away. He and Rove are both aware of that. That is why he accuses others of wanting to "cut and run" and how they are soemhow appeasing the terrorists if they insist on following the law. This White House uses division like Lash LaRue would use a whip.

If "division" is truly their major weapon, how would we defeat it? How do you defeat division? Any ideas?

[mike_c]

1. as a matter of fact I do....

It's not enough to reply in the negative to divisive remarks-- "no we don't want to cut and run."

"Yes you do."

"No we don't"

If the divisive attack is skillful, it forces the victim to either unite around the attacker's position in order to "disprove" the ad hominum portion of the attack-- Dems agree: "We cannot afford to cut and run in Iraq."-- or it leaves the impression that the victim occupies a ludicrous position or a dishonorable one. That is because it allows the attacker to frame the alternative in ways favorable to his position.

The correct way to respond is to unite around a POSITIVE alternative and to UTTERLY IGNORE the negative response the attack seeks. Let them talk about cutting and running all they want. After a while they will begin to sound pretty shrill if they're the only ones talking about that or responding to it. Instead, dems should unite around alternative ideas that undercut the logic of the opposition, like "American foreign policy creates terrorism, so the best way to fight terrorism is to attack its root causes, not the people who have few alternatives," or "The war against Iraq was ill conceived and wrong -- America admits its mistakes and corrects them."

The real problem is that Americans live a life that is fundamentally based on greed, deception, exploitation, oppression of others, militaristic expansionism, and economic slavery. Most don't realize it, and our politicians don't have the courage to admit the truth and begin acting rationally within that context. We could end the "war on terrorism" tomorrow, and with it the American empire-- the one will not be ended without the other-- but doing so would be a terrible shock to America's economic engine and its self perception. We MIGHT be able to come through it with a couple of decades of "isolationism," but I doubt it-- not without a real revolution along the lines of the original American Revolution.

You're probably wondering what any of this has to do with your OP question. The answer is that at the end of the day, both sides are working toward the same ends. Both are ultimately on the same side, at least from the perspective of the rest of the world, who doesn't care much whether it's Republicans or Democrats whose government is responsible for their misery, or for their enslavement to maintaining Americans' standard of living. The divisions between the two sides of American politics are not all that deep, really. One desperately wants to keep the American people as ignorant of the truth as possible, and the other simply doesn't have any desire to stop riding the peoples' delusions to power. That's why we don't hear democrat leaders uniting around genuine alternative proposals. We've painted ourselves so far into a corner that the alternatives are simply unthinkable. If you doubt it, ask yourself why NOT ONE DEMOCRAT has had the courage to tell the truth about the "war on terror?"

[kentuck]

3. I think this is a very relevant question....

and thanks for your thoughtful response.

Think about it. He has used division on purpose. I don't know how we can defeat the division, but I have a hunch that partisanship plays right into their strategy? But what to do?

I think we could speak more from a perspective about what is best for America. We could ask the Republicans to join us in taking back our country. We could appeal to their better senses. Fiscal sanity. Strong defense. Jobs staying in America. Working together to solve the immigration problem. Rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Everyone is required to pull their weight. Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.

Or we can slug it out until we see who is the last person standing? We can fight them every inch of hte way. We can call them on their lies and they can accuse us of being unpatriotic and isolationist. Where does it all end or where does it all begin?

[mike_c]

4. I suppose I'm feeling especially cynical and hopeless....

I'm reading Chalmers Johnson's The Sorrows of Empire and frankly it makes me want to join al-Qaeda (and that's not much of an exaggeration). America has reached the point where FIXING the problem is going to cause immense pain to Americans, largely because of the legacy of painful karma we've accumulated screwing the rest of the world. If Johnson is right, and he makes a damned good case, virtually nothing that most Americans believe about their place in the world is really true. In that context questions about who will lead the great Satan become somewhat less relevant unless someone wants to try to lead us out of the dark side, but neither democrats nor republicans are stepping up for that job, and it's unlikely the public would elect anyone for it anyway.

[Inland]

2. Wrong question! Ask it AFTER the purge.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x48281

[ncteechur]

5. And the paranoia of idiots.

[Mark5]

6. Sell the paranoid idiots, utopia

An effort to create a pre-911 like-place, with no terrorist threats. When the Bush admin neo-cons ask how we dems gonna do that, first simply point out their failure, that although they did their very best to turn a bad situation worst, and making that region a hot bed for terrorist training we still have not been attacked. They had theior chance they f*cked it up time for someone else to give it a try.

If the american public is paranoid, make them ask who is this weak leader that does not even give american piece of mind and safety for their families,point out dems are not in power.

that paranoia that bush has been using is a double edged sword, it needs to be used against him.

If you are paranoid your security system cant guard your house, well damn, wouldnt you get a new one?