Humorless Lefties

One of my big complaints for our side is just the terrible lack of a sense of humor that our side has. I mean how can we effectively reach people if we can't connect with them on this basic human level of laughing? I've learned over the years that humor is an important tool in organizing people. Though it's been a tough few days getting over the National disaster, I think it's important to have a sense of humor as part of our movement. In that spirit, here's something that you can hopefully create a little smile for you in these times of darkness.

Top Ten Reasons Raddude created this Blog site:

10. It's better way to vent my anger over the next 4 years than go around muttering "Fuck Dubya' every 15 minutes

9. I had to see what this whole "Internets" thing is about

8. I want to express my great glee that George Bush came out against slavery in the debates.

7. I'm hoping to publicize my efforts to replace Jon Stewart of the Daily Show.

6. Okay then how about Craig Kilborn on the Late Late Show?!

5. I'm just procrastinating over packing up and leaving Seattle to go home to the Bay Area.

4. The Red Sox ending the curse, Dubya being re-elected, we just need 2 more signs of the Apocalypse and we're toast anyway so why not have some fun?

3. Prepping to throw my name out there for President in '08

2. No HBO setup yet so I've got to spend my time doing something.

and the number ONE reason I created this website:

Jeb in '08

SEIU Heroes-Washington State

I've been in Seattle since April as part of my union's efforts to take back this country. The Service Employees International Union created the "Heroes" program where over 2000 union members from safe Dem states went to work in swing states. I've been fortunate to meet so many of my wonderful fellow heroes who put their lives on hold for months so that we could try to change this country. They have been a real inspiration in their committment to try to make this a better world.

While the national results are devastating, we still accomplished some great things in Washington state. It looks like we will have a Democratic governor and we've flipped the State Senate from Rep to Dems and increased the Dem majority in the State house.

As I emailed to a friend recently on our defeat:

We were never in the majority when

unions were fighting for recognition or when women

were fighting for the right to vote or when African

Americans were fighting Jim Crow laws or when the

public demanded an end to the Vietnam war.  All of

these fights took years and suffered many defeats

along the way.

Despair paralyzes but Hope Inspires

Why I created this Blog

Hi folks,

My frustrations over the reelection of George Bush and the terrible analysis on the left has prompted me to create this blog. While much good came out of the progressive movement, I see many mistakes that we need to work on if we are to effectively reach out to the American people to create a true progressive majority.
I was listening to the Majority Report on Air America Radio tonight with Janine Garofalo and Sam Seder and I got real angry at them for saying that people who voted for Bush are just ignorant and uninformed. That is the problem with the left, though we claim to be great egalitarians, too many of us are elitists. This so fits into the Republican caricature of us as limousine liberal elites who want to tell working poor folks how to live and what their values should be.

Frankly, Karl Rove and the Republican right just plain out organized us. I know that is difficult for lefties to understand but it is the painful truth. They motivated rural, often times working class folks to vote against their own economic interests because "Liberals want to force gay marriage down your throats and kill the unborn". We have to figure out a way to talk to these folks based on our values of economic and social justice and the importance of community.

If we are ever able to build a majoritarian movement, we have to rid ourselves of this elitism that folks who voted for Bush are just stupid. They voted for him because he spoke to them about their values and what is important to them. We need to speak to them about values of justice and respect for others and how we all need health care, a good paying job and a clean environment. We need to talk about how we have to stick together in America to accomplish these things and how the real corporate elites in this country don't care about people. Based this mutual respect, I am sure we can have conversations with these folks about gays and abortion in a way that is respectful of their beliefs but realize that we hold common values that corporations and the rich folks who run this country don't care about.
People are not stupid. If spoken to in a respectful manner and pointing out what we have in common, I'm convinced that the folks who voted for George Bush and the Republican party can be part of a progressive majority that challenges the corporate elites who really don't give a shit about gay marriage but use the issue as a cover for their real corporate agenda.