It Takes A Village – VNV Tuesday: A Dogpile of Sea Lions Gish Galloped in the Gaslight 4/11/17

A year ago, I never knew, or needed to know, these words!
A year ago, I never knew, or needed to know, these words!

With the ongoing misdirection, distraction, and lies from the R administration, it seemed a good time to remind us all that what we’re seeing is predictable, and even expected, from our attention-deficient Narcissist-in-Chief. 45* has already shown that he has the attention span of a gnat; that he takes on the opinion of the last person in the room; and that shiny things will hold his attention…until the next shiny thing comes along. (This may actually save us from some of the worst, as he clearly doesn’t have the will or ability to focus on ongoing legislative battles.) In the meantime, it is clear that we, as a coalition against Trump, are learning how to wade through the bombardment of words; now, if only our media would show some of the sense that allies like #Indivisible folks have used and taught us.

The first key point found in this December 2016 article, Opposition in the Age of Gish Gallops and that is to have a strategy. Calling ourselves The Resistance is not enough; knowing that we are trying to preserve what we can of the Obama years, while turning up the heat on Republican legislators is the why and wherefore of our resistance.

A second key point is to employ the divide-and-conquer strategy against Republicans, not Democrats. If our goal is to take down 45* through Constitutional means, and as many Republicans as we can, then now is not the time to urge primaries against less-than-pure Democrats.

If the game is on the Galloper’s terms, I’m not going to play.

One of the ways to combat the Republican Gish Gallops is to call it out for what it is and walk away, and I have come to believe that, for me at least, that’s the only way to deal with those who still wish to re-litigate the primaries. If I hear/see corporatist, shill, neoliberal, rigged, or any of the buzzwords of the primaries, I disengage. My energy is directed against Republicans, and I refuse to play divide-and-conquer with Dems.

Finally, unless you’re a policy wonk like Hillary, consider attacking overall themes, rather than engaging in point-by-point rebuttals. Whether it’s creeping fascism or Russian interference with our elections and policy, keep the big picture in mind…and return to it as often as necessary. Instead of arguing about whether Dems would have also engaged in missile strikes against Syria, ask if this was intended as a distraction from the Republican administration’s ties to Russia. In lieu of debating the ins-and-outs of customs’ officials asking for social media passwords, consider asking where this sort of Big Brotherism begins and ends.

And never, ever forget the Biden approach used against Paul Ryan and more recently, by Hillary against the Republican candidate: laughter, derision, and little bit of this…

And because a day without cartoons is like a day without sunshine…

About DoReMI 165 Articles
Now a Michigander, by way of Ohio, Illinois, Scotland, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. Gardener. Sewer. Democrat. Resister.

33 Comments

  1. Good morning, Meeses.

    Weather: It snowed on us last night!

    Most excellent diary, DoReMI. Keep focused on the big picture, and support Democrats!

    (And I love the cartoons.)

    • Last Thursday, we had snow, rain, sleet, and driving winds; by Saturday, it was shirtsleeve weather (albeit long sleeves). Today our high is supposed to be 64 but cloudy. Crazy weather, even by MI standards! The good news is that there’s no rain in the forecast until Saturday; our ground is so saturated, we need a few days to let it all soak in.

      And yes, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for political cartoons. The only downside to random internet searches is that I am exposed to a whole lot of ugly, racist RW cartoons. The way President Obama is portrayed (still!) is genuinely disturbing.

      • The way President Obama is portrayed (still!) is genuinely disturbing.

        But..but…economic anxiety…smh
        Thanks DoReMI for the most interesting diary…and I love those cartoons…

        • {{{shenagig}}} – yeah, you have to be really high up in white privilege to think the election was about anything but racism and misogyny. Of course some of those folks are hard-up white males (including some on my community needs list at DK) but really, just how blind can a person be?

  2. good morning DoReMi and thanks for posting. Good advice that I will be using over the next year and half as I try to interest more folks in voting out here. The R votes are steady, they’ve got as many as they’ll ever have so if we want to challenge them we must get new voters involved. It’s a serious problem in Texas and my part is worse than the rest of the state, people are proud of the fact that they do not vote. They are equally proud of polluting their minds with faux news which illustrates the problem. If I ever figure out what will motivate our Hispanic citizens to register and vote I will share, until then I keep trying.

      • same reason they’re proud to be ignorant and bigoted-stupidity for which there seems to be no cure. I call that out openly which is not greatly appreciated here although people know me well enough to know how little that matters.

        • {{{wordsinthewind}}} – I know. Some of them really believe they are “sticking it to The Man” by not voting, not being registered to vote. smh

  3. Good morning, Villagers, and DoReMI, thanks for the rousing call to action! Love the cartoons and the video of Hillary doing the shimmy-shimmy-shake-shake-shake!

    Like what you say about keeping eyes on the bigger picture. Just when we Dems thought we had our candidate for this year’s gubernatorial race sewed up, along comes Tom Pierello, the irritating fellow. He’s campaigning with BERNIE in deep red Southwest Virginia!

    The establishment candidate is our current Lt. Gov., Ralph Northam, a decent enough guy. He madly lacks charisma and is said to have voted for Dubya twice. Uh, people…what does that tell you? It tells me the guy is a Rethug masquerading as a Democrat. However, I’ll vote for whichever candidate seems to have the best chance of beating Ed Gillespie. We CANNOT have a Rethug governor! The only thing standing between us and total repeal of Roe v. Wade in Virginia is Terry McAuliffe’s veto hammer. When Gorsucks overturns Roe, it’ll go back to the states.

    Jesus Christ and the gas company! I feel as if my whole life has been a waste. All the rights we women thought we had—we don’t have. They were lent to us temporarily. We know that a woman can’t be elected “prez-dint,” but two low-IQ morons like Dubya and Thing can. The right to abortion is the next for the ban hammer, followed by the right to contraception. Then it’ll be our right to vote.

    • Morning, Diana. I feel the same way. To those women who have known nothing but Roe v Wade, this could be a rude awakening. As to contraception, it won’t go away (drug companies are people, too, ya know, and they need to make money) but the cost will be on you. Neither of these issues will affect us personally (we’re a bit too old) but still we will fight for them and for those who failed to vote for the only candidate who would’ve saved both.

    • {{{Diana}}} – Hope the “bernie touch of electoral death” doesn’t strike VA – we’re trying to turn states blue, not red. (Maybe jsvf is just confused – red means R, but red also means communist, an interesting bit of cognitive dissonance I’ve marveled at for years.)

      You’re life, my life, Hillary’s life – our lives have not be wasted. We broke new path just as our predecessors did before us. Backlash is just that – backlash – but the path is still there. Those who follow us will be able to travel the path we broke much more quickly than we did – then go forward breaking the next section. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  4. Good morning DoReMl and meese…Thanks for keeping us in a forward moving arc D…

    Bernie go home

    • Morning, Batch…I see you cleaned up your Bernie statement for the MM community. I’ve grown rather accustomed to seeing something slightly different at SOB!

    • Morning, Batch. That’s a lot cleaner version than what I’ve heard you holler at squirrel. Good to see you up and about. Yeah, Bernie, you’ve left our party so could you just go home? I wonder if I’m alone in my thinking that, if a show has Bernie on it, I change channels. If he recommended a candidate, I’d vote for the other dem if there was one. He has proven to be more of an albatross to a candidate than a helping hand. I dislike him immensely and have no need to be schooled by him.

      • He first got my hackles up in the 60s when our local campus radicals made a trip to New York and came back raving about the coolest guy they met. Every time they would tell another story of his alledged coolness my jaw would tighten up. When I finally had the opportunity to meet him I managed to be out of touch enough to miss it. That was just the beginning, he’s managed to piss me off in every decade since.

    • Yeah what’s with Perez going on the road with Bernie?…I think he is kissing Bernie’s ass a little much for my taste…oh well if he thinks it will help….

      • I’m hoping it’s a way to keep The Ego in check, with fewer inflammatory statements about Dems as a result. It’s a tough row to hoe…you have a politician who is very popular with a [smaller than they think they are] segment of voters; a segment that you don’t want to alienate because they are not reliable Dem voters. And then you have the same politician who is not very popular with a [base] segment of voters; a segment you don’t want to alienate because they are reliable Dem voters. I suspect/hope having him travel with Perez is a way to keep him on a leash.

        When I was at the Save ACA rally in January that was sponsored by the Michigan Dems, I though Sen. Stabenow handled it brilliantly. She introduced Bernie, who some in the crowd were viewing as the keynote speaker (he wasn’t). But she introduced him by including the observation that SHE had invited him to be part of the rally and the associated efforts. Never underestimate Debbie’s ability to throw shade…in the nicest possible way, of course!

        • I suspect you are correct about Perez and jsfv – he’s not nearly as inclined to attack us when he’s actually in our company. jsfv is a “stab in the back” type, not a “say it to your face” type. And Stabenow was indeed brilliant with the way she handled that. :)

        • with fewer inflammatory statements about Dems as a result.

          That would be nice as we don’t need that right now…I’ve always liked Debbie a lot…Amy Klobuchar reminds me a lot of her…even though I’ve lived in Utah now going on 5 years I still claim Minnesota’s Congress people as my own…I’ll always be from MN….

    • {{{Batch}}} – totally Bernie go home. Not just that it’s “cleaner” for MM, but the very idea of your usual comment is “ewwww! ick!” haz the gud day and moar {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Good morning, meese. Thanks for pulling double duty and making them unique in their own way. I agree about not allowing Dems to relitigate the primary. If you can’t pull the discussion back, then walk away. Of course, that’s easier said than done at the 🍊. 53 and cloudy with a projected high of 63. No rain until possibly Thursday or Sunday.

  6. {{{DoReMI}}} – thanks for doing double duty (and so well). Good to have the Moose Pond Village for more depth and where you don’t have to worry about the focus and discussion being derailed by hypersensitive 3rd party advocates masquerading as Dems. And doubly bless you for wading through the toxic waste dump of political cartoons to find the good ones.

    Totally agree that (unless you’re a policy wonk like Hillary) focusing on the concept, the big picture is the only way we’re going to achieve anything. The Rs gishgalloped pvl45 into office and are working on gishgalloping away all of our progress. At the moment what is helping us Resist is the fighting within the R party – between the group that wants no regulations and no safety net at all (taking us back to the 1880s), the group that wants to take women’s issues back to pretty much the same time frame (not just no abortion or contraception, but no vote, no ownership of property, no laws against “marital rape” or other abuse, etc) and install a (fundi psuedo-christian) theocracy, and the group that would be delighted to reinstitute slavery (back to the 1850s or so) – as the latter two groups wants the safety net for themselves (white male, fundie Xtian) – but nobody else. So the best strategy for Resistance is to keep fomenting divide and conquer for them and quit doing it to ourselves. If we can’t do the latter, it will take energizing more of us who want to actually defeat the Evil Ones, but we can do it without the disrupters – and we will if we have to. It just takes longer (more damage, more people hurt/dead) that way.

    Need to get back to work. {{{Village Peeps}}}

    • {{{basket}}} – YAY! that you are here, with or without confetti. :) Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}

  7. Thanks DoReMI for the MM version. Definitely the more flesh out version, but I understand why you didn’t do this at DKOS. Wouldn’t pass muster. Both good and I really like the cartoons!

  8. Hi Yall! Late today, just checking in. I left a few comments at dk but was not able to make a second stop. Love the post, DoReMI! My thoughts were drifting along similar lines, yours are far more coherent! ;)

  9. Great diary DoReMi under the weather but had to check my messes. The free speech challenge DKOS has ban me from the sight as if that is going to help the resistance, will be here and SOB site la resistacion no se acaba

    • {{{Philly}}} – chetniks v Partisans, Chinese Nationalists v Mao’s lot – this isn’t the first time supposed allies were more interested in taking down their competition instead of their common enemy. But that’s why we set up alternate Villages. moar {{{HUGS}}}

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