Hippies. Teaparty.

[jillan]

I'm thinking what's missing from the movement on the left - which includes the Unions and working class, is a label - a frame.

Maybe if we had a label, besides 'the far left' or my favorite 'the extreme left' & 'the professional left'
maybe the msm would pay more attention to our protests.

I have no clue what it should be called, but I think we need something. I'm generally against labels, but in this case I'm wondering if it might be helpful so the media can report that there were 100,000 members of the ----- movement today in Wisconsin.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

On edit - going with my earlier post - what about the Compassionate Party?

[mmonk]

1. How about we, the people?

[jillan]

4. How about we shorten that and just call it the People's Party?

The teabaggers vs the people's party. hmmmm. I like it.

[napkinz]

5. There is a WE party ...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=339608504744

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=108492552527738

http://theweparty.ning.com

[Melinda]

2. I like your sig banner.

Solidarity, indeed :grouphug:

:)

[MadHound]

3. No, the left, no matter what the name is, will be ignored by the MSM

That has been increasingly the case since the end of the Vietnam War. We can put hundreds of thousands of people out on the street, and yet it hardly gets play in the press.

This is a deliberate corporate media policy, for the left is a threat to their obscene profits. The teabaggers on the other hand are enabling the wealthy elite continue to rake in their obscene profits, thus they are the MSM's darlings, taking a dozen idiots in the Mall and making them out to be hundreds or even thousands.

The only thing that will get the attention of the MSM is something akin to a violent revolution, only because if it bleeds, it leads. Anything short of that is going to be ignored.

[Melinda]

6. We need to organize in our communities. Get out & volunteer - meet people,

change minds, register the vote - save lives.

We need to come together and work at the local level. We need to elect progressives and liberals to all local, state, and federal elective office.

The internet is our friend. DU is an enormous data base of resources. The Activism board is long dead --- why?

There are wise voices here. Lots of smarts and support. We are caring and compassionate, but we are not weak. It's long past time to

Organize.

[mmonk]

7. We won in the past through non violence.

It showed true natures.

[UrbScotty]

8. "The Quality of Life Party" - That was mentioned at our local Dem convention

a couple months ago.

[jillan]

9. That's good too.

[upi402]

10. Youth are missing

drunk on media Kool Aid and distracted with bits and bytes and the words that count but don't count for nuthin'

[jillan]

11. They showed up in Wisconsin. I think if we had the right frame, they might want to join.

There is a huge movement from the left, but we have to figure out a way for it to get some attention.

[MedleyMisty]

12. Funny

I see a different story in the high schoolers staging walkouts in support of their teachers, in all the young people in Wisconsin, in the children who marched against the insane immigration laws in Arizona, in all the young Americans in Anonymous who are helping to provide information and net access to people involved in the revolutions in other countries.

But hey, keep up those stereotypes and generalizations!

[upi402]

13. kids skipping school not what I'm talking about really

The 60's and 70's had so many college people and young adults. I guess the draft made it real.
It's easier now to get cannon fodder by duping some and making others desperate for work.

[Ghost Dog]

14. Social Justice

Movement or Party.

All-encapsulating. Easy to explain.

- Ecological and Social Justice, in full.

[Enthusiast]

15. Thing is, there is nothing extreme or "far"

about those characterized as the extreme left. Actually on most issues we are the center. Calling us extreme and retards allows legislators and the White House to do as their corporate masters want. We are being mischaracterized. This is your center.

[liberalla]

18. You are exactly right! As is Rachel!

I remember that show she did and it was like ding! ding! ding!

We ARE the center!

How about the FAIR Left? (instead of FAR Left?)

[Scuba]

21. This is exactly correct. The middle is actually much further left...

...than the media - or White House - portray it to be.


I like "Progressive Party", but I'm biased coming from Wisconsin.


Regardless of what branding we use, we have to stop allowing the right to dictate the conversation.

On Wisconsin Public Radio in the car this morning I heard a guest describe Friday's budget compromise as follows: The Republicans gave up essential new military hardware. The Democrats gave up some funding for the arts.

He then went on to state that unless the debt ceiling is raised, there will be no choice but to further cut services.


No challenge came from the moderator (Joy Cardin), but callers were starting to take exception when I got home and turned it off.

The guest was a professor of political studies at (surprise!) UW-Waukesha.

[L0oniX]

23. +1

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Hippies + Teaparty

"Teepees"

[franzia99]

17. People are so pissed off post financial crisis/great recession we are ripe for a movement.

We need a name that demonstrates that we represent everyone vs. just the economic elite. A lot of people right now even in the mainstream feel like government has let them down in order to cater to the financial elite like wall street, GE who doesn't pay any damn taxes.

[liberalla]

19. The Fair Left

...instead of the far left, or extreme left.

Fairness and equity is core to the Democratic Party.



edit to add: Hi jillian! :hi:

[Kip Humphrey]

20. Afew suggestions: Cooperatists, Organicists, Communitists, Earthists.

[Melinda]

22. How about we 'ARM' ourselves through an "American Reform Movement"

Although I still like the idea of co-opting Lech Walesa's "Solidarity"... I mean, you already have the banner and everything. ;)

[starroute]

24. Whatever it is, it has to be catchy

The suggestions I'm seeing on this thread may be descriptive -- but they're nothing that would roll of the tongue of a newscaster.

Nothing with "party" or "movement" in the name is going to be snappy enough. ("Tea Party" works only because you can say "teapartiers" as one word. But you can't say "compassionatepartiers" in the same way.)

Comment #20 is getting closer -- label the people, not the movement -- but anything that ends in "-ists" is both awkward to say and has ideological overtones. Also, whatever is happening now isn't just about the environment, or about community, or about social justice. It's much broader.

Back in the day, "hippies" worked as a label because it implied that the people it described were "hip" -- without saying anything about their beliefs or objectives. It was a screen onto which anyone could project their fantasies of being young and open to new experiences.

In the same way, "Tea Party" evokes vague images of founding fathers and resistance to tyranny without pinning down policy details.

So we need to find something that is metaphorical rather than literal or it just won't catch on.

[starroute]

25. And using whatever your enemies call you can also work

"Yankee" was originally an insult. So was "Quaker."

Having the self-assurance to pick up whatever name your enemies try to taunt you with and wear it proudly is an immediate attention-getter.

At the moment, I don't think the right has come up with anything more eloquent than "union thugs" to describe the protests. But we ought to be on the alert for anything better that comes through and jump on it wholeheartedly in the spirit of "Yeah -- you got a problem with that?"