Can we adjust our sails?

My sister sent me a card in the early 1980's when I was going through a very difficult post-divorce phase of my life. It read "We cannot cause the wind to blow the way we want it to. But we can so adjust our sails that they will take us where we want to go."

In a more detached way, I experience some of the same feelings of sadness and despair when my President, whom I feel a personal connection with for various reasons, makes a decision that I see as devastating to our people and our planet.

I am ambivalent about what to do or not do now. I've read various articles about the need for a Democratic primary challenger next year on the outside chance we could win the November 2012 election with a new leader. There are some valid points to be made for that idea.

I agree that Barack Obama's approval rating is at an all-time low. What I disagree with is that it is all his fault. Certainly, if I were asked if I approved of the decisions he made in recent weeks, I'd have to say no too. How those polls are conducted and what the respondents mean when they say "no" is another topic for another day.

What I'm thinking about right now is whether or not we can beat the Repugs at their own game. It will be much harder for us to memorize slogans and repeat the same message because we are such a bunch of freethinkers. But let's look back at how carefully constructed the attacks on Obama have been from the beginning. When he was running for president, they said he didn't have enough experience, he was from Chicago (horrors) and he wasn't even an American citizen. After his election, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the main goal of the Repugs was to make Barack Obama a "one-term president."

They laid out their battle plan and have kept to it with few exceptions. All the slanderous, racist, incredibly stupid things they've said about him have been etched in the minds of the voters. How many of us have attended town hall meetings where the same people who love their Medicare shouted ugly slogans about "Obamacare"? When asked to explain something they've written on a sign at a tea party rally, most of them just repeat the slogans. They haven't done their homework and aren't interested in that. All they know is what they are told to say. They get fired up by feeling they are part of something grand and glorious, kind of like a tent revival without the inspirational messages.

We can point fingers at them and call them "uninformed voters," or we can take a lesson from their success. Columnist Leonard Pitts said the other day in St. Louis that Democrats might consider using the same game plan the tea partiers have used and rally our troops with some powerful slogans of our own. He said if he were asked to suggest a campaign theme for Obama next year, it would be Country First. That's okay, but maybe we can do better.

Picture this. What if millions of Democrats all over the country held rallies to pump up the voters with something inspirational, grand and glorious too? President Obama has certainly done some good things, but they don't get much press because they aren't highly explosive. They don't make good "copy." They don't create mob scenes that make exciting TV news. What if we turned those accomplishments into something newsworthy? (I'm just thinking out loud here.) How have people's lives been made more secure with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? What protections do women in the workplace have now because of Obama's deicisons? How many jobs actually WERE created and saved by the stimulus funds? Ask someone who might have been out of work. Ask a teacher, a police officer, a county parks department worker. How about some "Thank you, Mr. President" signs on TV? These rallies must include people who have never been to one. We can't keep preaching to the choir. How do towns and churches get people to come out for street fairs, bar-b-que fundraisers and parades? Why can't we use some of their time-proven methods?

Alongside these positive messages, we need to get voters to understand that the economic crisis was not a fluke. It was caused by people who put their own accumulation of wealth above love of country. Every day I hear someone ask how those who manipulate the price of gas or those who refuse to hire new employees in order to make Obama look bad can look themselves in the mirror. See? We are so idealistic. My answer is always the same. Capitalists are not social workers. That's not their job. Their job is to create tons of wealth for themselves and their shareholders. And it doesn't concern them who gets hurt in the process. In fact, the more miserable the workers are, the better for them because they can pay the lowest possible wage and offer no benefits. It's a win-win situation for the controllers of wealth. Why would they want to change that?

The Repugs do the bidding of the corporate elite, and they make no bones about it. Tax cuts for the rich. Eliminate taxes for corporations. Dismantle the EPA. Build warehouses at Lambert Airport to make it easier for companies to import goods made in other countries. Multinational corporations have no allegiance to a "home country." They can operate a factory in Asia owned by a majority of American stockholders, use the cheapest labor they can find, and send the goods back to us to buy.

How have they been so successful at convincing people to cut their own throats? Who goes to those tea party rallies? Who writes checks to Repug candidates? The millionaires might write the big checks, but it takes a majority of average citizens to vote someone into office. Many books have been written about how Repugs have been able to get people to vote against their own best interest. To sum: They are fed a bunch of powerful slogans, sometimes with graphic pictures of fetuses, sometimes with lots of reference to scary things like socialism and "illegal aliens." Combine those scare tactics with an alternative that feels grand and glorious, and most people will follow the Pied Piper.

Speaking of which, Ed Martin has put out a call for his "Martin Minutemen members to help increase awareness of our campaign to keep the Second District conservative" by marching (not walking) in the various upcoming parades. Words have meaning.

What if we "adjust our sails" with a new strategy of overwhelming support and promotion of a president who has held the country together despite enemies within who love wealth and power more than America?

Just a thought.
Susan Cunningham