"One last thing," he says. "I really think it's critical you reach out to hear from Grover Norquist or Stephen Moore," referring to two influential Republican advocates of the slash-taxes-and-starve-the-government approach to fiscal policy. "You need to understand what they think is core and what might be privatized."Now I can appreciate that out there in VOCHAS land, where they really think of Karl Rove as one of the Greatest Military War Heroes, EVER!!!! It is easy to not know, and not want to know, any of the basic actual lessons from the RealWorld[dm] actual american military.
Stern pauses and looks around the room. "We all know what will happen if we talk only among ourselves. We'll end up wanting to preserve everything. And that just ensures we'll be fighting a war of attrition, where it's all about 'How do we hang on to these 100 jobs?' " People start to nod, and he breaks into a wide grin. "Nobody wins a war of attrition. What we need to figure out is ... how we can go on the offensive."
[ cf CNNMoney: The new face of labor ]
One of those critical rules is PAINFULLY SIMPLE:
Take Care Of Your Troops.So let us step away from all of that Dungeon And Dragon Mythos about the Mythic Great Armoured Clad Super Hero Warrior, who with one swish of his vorpal blade, can down thousands of iranian flying saucers.
And they will take care of YOU.
In the real world we have to deal with real issues, and real realities.
Americans can either start sorting out how are they going to deal with "the underclass" and the Plebian Masses, or they will get a chance to work out where exactly they are going to raise the money to hire their own private armies to protect them.
One strategy is to work with the reality that Unions address a set of issues that will always need to be addressed - how to deal effectively with collective bargain as an idea, a tactic, and a way to help those who would otherwise not be able to help themselves.
Underneath that point is the reality, as some of my evil liberal friends have started to sober up and wake up to, namely that 'the wobblies' were right, and that we either have to solve this issue on a planetary basis, or we face what we have watched over the course of the "cold war" - the flight of capital to those nations where the use of "terror" and "fear" tactics by the government make the appearance of a "free maket" the political selling point for why Crushing Organized Labor is qool!!!
The fact that the Wobblies were betrayed on the right wing by the Self Indulgent Americans, because of course Jesus gave america Nuclear weapons, so what is there to worry about!!! While on the Left, the Stalinist Revisionists decided that being the Archetype for the NeoCon Movement to Come was more important than ACTUALLY being concerned about the working class!!!
So while we get ourselves organized to work on Naming the National Fear, Terror And Torture Campaign for 2007, maybe it is time for americans to step away from their Apocalyptic Visions that they will not have to worry because if things get really bad, then Jesus will give them the Rapture and leave the Peasants to clean up the Mess!!!
As such, maybe it is time for the Republicans in our midst to remember whom we are, and more importantly whom we were BEFORE the "democrats for Nixon" made their big move to help them cope with the reality that they could have served in vietnam, they could have served in the cold war! They could have accepted the END of the cold war gracefully - and with it the end of the NEED to play as IF we were the world policeman!!!
What WILL it take for the Republicans to Take BACK the GOP from the NeoConClownCarCrew and the rest of their fellow travellors who are now saying that they had always been "conservatives" rather than Republicans!!! Like DUH, perchance their Ranting about RINO over the last 20 plus years was, a bit too much 'protesting too much' for even them to stomach...
Or put the other way around - what DO the NeoConClownCarCrew have to actually offer americans as an alternative to Andy Stern???
Who knows, perchance if we start taking care of our troops, they may well start taking care of us!!!