Just do it.

[ourbluenation]

So, here we are all hanging out together. It’s nice, isn’t it? To find people that think somewhat similarly to each other…sharing frustrations, laughing at freeps, lamenting the current state of the world and how it can and will be better some day. Good times.

NOW GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE.

There is work to be done and here’s where it begins.

Between now and the November elections I’m urging every DU’er to adopt some message board somewhere. All the networks have message boards for most of their shows. This is where middle America is hanging out, people. The internet has become the backyard fence where 1000’s of people hang out and chit chat about this, that and the other. And almost always there is some conversation going on about politics. I should know – I’ve been hanging out with a group of faceless people for the last 2.5 years on a board for a primetime show, clearing up ENORMOUS amounts of disinformation out there. There are a lot of freeper types on these boards and not enough of the good guys. In my internet corner of the world it has paid off…other posters have written me off the board and said I’ve made them think and some have changed their political stances.

Think of it as a sort of guerilla marketing for our side.

Now get yourself a message board other than this one, if you haven’t already, cuz we’re preaching to the choir here folks. I love DU – look at my post count. But we can post here and an adopted board, too.

Here’s all the ABC News message boards
http://forums.go.com/abcnews/index

ABC primetime message boards
http://o.forums.go.com/abc/primetime/category?categoryID=4

NBC boards
http://boards.nbc.com/nbc/

NBC News boards
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14394865/

CBS sports message boards
http://sportsline.com/mcc/messages

JUST DO IT.

:headbang:

Then come back here and tell us how it’s going.

PS) Word to the wise...use a different handle than you do here.

[ourbluenation]

1. thx for the rec...shameless bump because

it's important.

[ourbluenation]

2. so...is this just a bad idea or what?

helllloooooooooooo

(((((crickets)))))

[DaveJ]

3. Good Idea

I can see how the TV junkies on these sites might be easily persuaded. However I also think that 'preaching to the choir' here is beneficial in the sense that it serves to formulate various rational and acceptable approaches toward political issues. Mainly, even though we are just preaching to the choir, our opinions are being view by others as long as we keep going at it.

[ourbluenation]

5. Yes - BOTH are important. Here is where we get our nutrition, as it

were. Sustenance...the next part of the equation though is what do we do with it? Boards are one vehicle for getting thru to people. TV junkies vote too. And it's so bloody easy. That's the best part. You post something and several hundred people see it at once.

[DaveJ]

10. I would not want it to backfire...

I would suggesting keeping posts positive on other sites. Like, "oh I think (xxx candidate) is sooo handsome," and stuff like that, or "(xxx) is such a spiritual man." Arguing or any negativity whatsoever will turn these people away.

[ourbluenation]

12. absolutely. but there are lots of righties that need to be taken on

for their bs. straight up.

[DaveJ]

14. I'm just saying....

...you might need to pretend to have no political agenda. If a con starts rattling on just say 'what a Republican nutbag' or something and move on. But most importantly, facts don't matter to them. Compliment Democratic candidates with the same stupid compliments that cons get. "He's a family man." "He's a religious man." "He was a football coach." Etc. Most people do not care about the issues. They hear a name and vote for it thinking they will help make them a new friend or something.

[ourbluenation]

15. well, it's the fence sitters that I focus on and the righties take up a

lot of hot air. The amazing thing is how much people get into the political threads once you get them going. That is where the misinformation is...with the good folks who are well intended but sometimes misinformed. I've had perfectly lovely people tell me their frustration with so many people on welfare, for example. When you ask how many people they think are on welfare, they say 20%! It's actually around 2% of gdp. And most of them are children....that usually is quite the revelation, especially the children part. They also seem to know nothing of Clintons welfare reforms. I was happy to clear that up too.

[DaveJ]

16. Ya their attitude about welfare is ridiculous...

They should be told that Republican candidates keep more people on welfare with their fiscal policies that support underpaying workers.

[hsher]

25. Sadly true

>>Facts don't matter to them. Compliment Democratic candidates with the same stupid compliments that cons get. "He's a family man." "He's a religious man." "He was a football coach."

This is so true. It is amazing how a bland platitude not even related to a candidate's political acumen can sway right-wing voters. I cannot believe they will hand over the keys of the country to someone because "he seems like a nice guy". If these dummies are that stupid but yet well-financed, I should hire 10,000 smartly-dressed, clean-cut Mormons to say I'm a nice lady then go to some Republican business investors meeting and ask for a million dollars. I mean, if the country can be forked over for a bland, positive blurb, the sky is the limit, right?

Everyone repeat after me: "Heather is a deeply religious librarian with traditional women's values."
Notice there is no such thing as a family woman.
And how my saying I'm a coach, as a female, brings in an immediate lesbian hint and therefore liberalism and unsuitability. How rigid their roles are.

Boy oh boy, neocons. These people.


www.yourmorningleibowitz.blogspot.com
Yer Daily Show comic strip

[Hugin]

4. I already hang out on several other non-political boards.

[ourbluenation]

7. good for you....

:)

[mod mom]

6. Here's mine: Deeply red Cincinnati

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/2006/10/first-name-basis.asp#comments

check out the comments. (I am alway polite, no name calling-just facts with links)

[ourbluenation]

8. Nicely done!!!

[hsher]

9. OK, I will

Onebluenation, this is a great idea. Consider it done. PS, I'm currently working on changing the thinking of a certain neocon TV news pundit (I mentioned him by name on another post, and probably won't here). He's an acquaintance of mine and is slowly coming around, waking up to the right's lies and thuggery. To win him over to the left side would be an enormous media coup against the right wing, so wish me luck. I am off now to do just what you've suggested, under a different screen name. Maybe the revolution will be a thinking one and not an armed one. May it be so.

Thanks for making me think.

www.yourmorningleibowitz.blogspot.com
A Daily Show comic strip

[ourbluenation]

11. stfu! really? a tv news guy? good for frigging you!

may it be so... :)

the keyboard is mightier than anything.

[hsher]

24. Yep, a *conservative* TV news guy

I'll describe him instead of name him a second time on DU, because I don't want him lurking here, finding my posts, and getting wind of the fact I'm deliberately trying to change him. He's a stubborn sort and likes to come to conclusions his own way at his own time. If he suspects I'm getting through to him, he'll shut down like a guillotine dropping, and it'll take me another string of months to slip past his wall again. But, just so you know who he is and how critical it is his heart is opening now, his eyes are opening now, and his mind is starting to put 2 and 2 together about this Administration (which he hates anyway)... here's a description of the TV news guy I'm slowly working on (and seeing results from!):

Big, tall, husky guy
Dark, fluffy hair, blue eyes
Cannot dance
Used to wear a bow-tie

Know who it is?

Anakin has begun to see the Light. On his show yesterday, he posed the question, "Who would vote for the Republicans now?", argued with right-wing WH advisor Lisa Sanchez telling her point-blank the Republican Party is finished, and said out loud on national news that "if the Democrats just came down to reality, I would vote for them. I actually almost want to vote for them." This is a far cry from the way he was even six months ago! He's coming around!

Wish Ben Kenobi here continued luck with her paduwan.


www.yourmorningleibowitz.blogspot.com
Yer Daily Show comic strip

[ourbluenation]

13. quantalagustalagustalagusta quantalagustalgusta

bump

[ourbluenation]

17. bumping for the afternoon crowd.

I'm shameless...

}(

[bonito]

18. Doing n/t

[BelgianMadCow]

19. Too true! AW :-)

Wilco.

[ourbluenation]

20. thx all - bumping for the evening crowd. Just do it...

but after Maher in 10 minutes!!!

:)

[WilliamPitt]

21. Not to be a wet blanket

but I have to wonder a bit here. Message boards? Message boards are where the hardcore hang out, where the faithful reside.

Put it this way. I can't imagine a single, solitary argument a FreeRepublic denizen could make to me that could compel me to vote Republican. Not one, swear to God. If Ba'al, Lord Of Agony and Master of the Seven Pits of Hell, burrowed out of the ground and secured the Democratic nomination for my House district, I'd vote for Him over the Republican.

And I am mortally sure, were I to attempt an argument to convince the FreeRepublic denizen to vote against the Republicans, I'd run into a similar sentiment.

The 'net is ENTIRELY polarized, especially on the message boards. On the open ones, where registration isn't restricted by ideology, it's a bloodbath. No one is ever, ever, ever convinced. People just whale away on each other, sharpening and/or road-testing the talking points.

In places like this, or FR, anyone attempting to prostelytize for the other side is fed a granite cookie faster than you can spit. And that's the way it should be here, and there, and that's how it is. Places like this feed into the open forums. It's a checkmate.

My point is simple: if you want to make a difference next month, if you want to convince people or swing votes, online isn't the place to do it, in my opinion.

One suggestion: http://www.pdamerica.org

Another: volunteer with your local Dem office to drive the elderly to the polls on election day.

This is trench warfare in here. Real victories are won in the real world.

[ourbluenation]

23. Well you are a wet blanket, Mr. The message boards I'm talking

about are not political ones, so I'm not sure what "hard core" people you're talking about. Slow down and read my post again. I'm talking about people who mosey over to the Good Morning America boards for example, for whatever reason, and when a political conversation pops up they jump right in. And it is a way to make a difference, a few votes at a time, especially when elections are so close. We all can do our part and this is just one way. Get out there and talk to people. Only do it online.

People like me do not have access to public forums, you know, in person...face to face. Nor am I terribly comfortable with that anyways. But I'm a gentle warrior with my quiet pen, which happens to be a keyboard. So are lots of people here at DU. All I'm saying is put that ability to use out there somwhere between now and November.

What in hades is a Ba'al, Lord of Agony anyways? :rofl:

[cry baby]

22. Been trying to change minds here in Tn on a message board.

I've had some success, too!