I fear "When they go low, we go high" is now officially dead

[derby378]

Michelle Obama meant well. She was talking about taking the moral high ground. But political discourse in America is approaching the acrimony we saw when Preston Brooks cane-whipped Charles Sumner in the Senate before the Civil War.

We cannot afford to look like a bunch of schoolteachers wagging their fingers at an angry mob carrying torches and pitchforks. Right now, the very survival of our Party as a political entity is at stake - and this with a literal clown in the White House who gets more attention over "covfefe" than his possible withdrawal from the Paris climate accords.

We must fight. And we must win. We're not doing the nation any favors by losing.

[MADem]

1. Don't fear it, then. Embrace it.

If you're going to be one who fights, you can't be half stepping. Grab that baseball bat and those brass knuckles, and let's go.

We're at the point where the very AIR we breathe is at stake.

[C_U_L8R]

2. When they go dishonest

We go punch em in the face

Seems that's all they understand.

[bdamomma]

6. amen

there is no hope for these people.

[NCTraveler]

3. It's sloganeering.

And a beautiful slogan considering the extreme racism thrown at her and her husband for the previous eight years. I miss them.

[derby378]

8. I hear you

I miss the human chemistry between Michelle and Barack as well. When Trump was getting inaugurated, Melania felt like the odd girl out because he kept talking with Ivanka instead. She looks like she's trapped in a very ornate fishbowl.

[FM123]

9. I miss them too

They had to put up with so much.
Yet nothing but grace under pressure

[Blue_Tires]

4. +1

[MFM008]

5. Sounds terrific

But strictly music
Speak high.
Go very very low.
Especially against republicans.
They left their souls at the door
We went high.
We lost.

[Igel]

30. We went high.

We got Obama.

On edit: Since ill-wiil's fairly high, I guess I need to add, "I'd hardly call that losing."

[MFM008]

32. No

Obama made us high. I don't mean woozy.
Unfortunately
You try to go high, they drag you down anyway.
You need to fight hard and dirty.
An Obama comes along as rare as an FOR or
Lincoln.

[Igel]

34. Obama appealed to decency.

What we should do. And he got support.

He didn't go low for the most part and play the game of "let's beat up and misrepresent and insult." He did this, to be sure, because some need that, but that's not why most supported him.

You go low, and that's how you're going to have to govern. Most governments that start low end low: Once you've set the tone in the sewer, it's hard to not be what you used to hate. Your base expects coarseness and brutality, your opposition expects coarseness and brutality, and it's just a matter of time before that's the only MO you know.

A post upthread said that the (R) sold their souls. They did this not when they abandoned their goals (which are overplayed in stereotype: ask (R) if they want kids starving in the streets, people to be addicted and without help, homeless wandering the streets, and kids uneducated, and they'll almost always sincerely say 'no'), but when they selected their means and methods.

[awesomerwb1]

7. Good riddance.

We can go high again after we've saved the country. Until then, good riddance.

[ExciteBike66]

10. Wow

I just read reference to the caning a few minutes ago in the history of the war by Shelby Foote, and now you are here mentioning it.

Eerie....

[ck4829]

11. The words of Michelle Obama "We go high"

should definitely be used as inspiration and a source of what we can live by if everything was right in the world. They aren't naive or silly, but a reflection of how the world should be.

Unfortunately, it's not how the world is today.

The right wants to erase us from the public discourse and the alt-right which wants to literally erase us along with other 'others' is at war with us.

And if we're not prepared to do the political equivalent of throwing dirt in their eyes, kicking them in the crotch, and then kicking them while they're down over and over again; then we will not win. Period.

[get the red out]

15. Absolutely!

[LenaBaby61]

28. "We go high," Unfortunately, it's not how the world is today.

Sure isn't.

You have to fight back the best and hardest way that you CAN, and if that means going ballistic with language if you have to, then so be it.

thuglicans/tRumputin have shown that they are not playing with us who are in complete disagreement with their murderous us in essence IE: Stripping 24 million Americans and their families health care away from them, and people like Paul Ryan and of course treasonous tRumputin don't give a damn whether we live or die, because one of their lives missions is to give billions in tax cuts to themselves and in tRumputin's case, billions of tax breaks to his billionaire buddies and his grifting, thieving, treasonous family.

Oh yeah, treasonous tRumputin has to pay back putin who helped install him into the White House.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. I go both high AND low. Chop-block, anyone?

[BigmanPigman]

13. It sounds like a Rodney Dangerfield joke...

"How low are they?
They're so low that they're half way to China.
They're so low that a snake's under belly is above them.
They're so low that they're almost at the Donald's birthplace... Hades. Etc.

[vi5]

14. It won't be dead. It gives certain people excuses to not play hardball....

Since the Bush days we've been hearing how "we have to be better than them" or how we'll be "rewarded for doing the right thing" or any number of other, similar tropes.

It's been obvious that it should be dead for a very, very long time now but it still persists, mainly as an excuse to do nothing.

It runs a close second to quoting Will Rogers "I'm not a member of any organized party. I'm a Democrat!" as an excuse for letting our leaders and our politicians off the hook.

If it's not clear by now that we are on a sinking ship and the same people that insist on these two approaches are forcing us to cling to anchors instead of life jackets then I'm not sure I feel anything other than hopelessness.

[DonCoquixote]

16. speak spoftly and carry a big stick

Of course, you speak softly, but you let people know that if they want a fight, they will get it, no quarter.

[forjusticethunders]

17. when they go low

[link:|

take them even lower.

[FiveGoodMen]

21. Ah, what a wonderful clip!

Too bad the guy didn't have brass knuckles when he hit the fucker!

[JI7]

18. no it's not. the real issue is racist white men get more sympathy than others

Hillarys deplorable comment hurt her. But trumps bigoted ass was allowed to spew whatever the fuck he wants.

A black child is held to a far higher standard than trump.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. We aren't going to bring the Trump crime cabal down by doing stupid things.

[WhiteTara]

20. I like what a woman activist had to say about this

When they go low...we bury them.

[derby378]

23. NICE. (n/t)

[Yonnie3]

27. I had not seen this before

It's a keeper. Thanks.

[WhiteTara]

33. she was on the teevee

and I didn't get her name, but she is electric!

[Golden Raisin]

22. Sadly, united, obstructionist, bloc-voting Republicans

only tolerate how THEY operate and play the game. They laugh and sneer at Democrats "going high". The only tactic Republicans understand or will respect is getting hit in the head HARD with a baseball bat. Sad, unfortunate, degrading --- but true.

[Mr. Ected]

24. When they go low, we issue subpoenas

When they deflect, we indict.

When they dissemble, we adjudicate.

When they go low, we imprison. And impeach.

[realmirage]

25. Since when does showing strength require that you lose your self respect?

The left's problem isn't that we don't go low, but that we don't show confidence and strength. Instead our leaders in the Democratic Party speak meekly rather than standing up straight and speaking the truth with force. I don't want to go "low." No thank you. I want a party that has both balls and dignity.

[Rollo]

26. Well said.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

29. We go high is the right thing to do, but it isn't working.

We've turned the proverbial other cheek for decades and the only thing we've gotten is a bloodied eye.

I don't like it and I don't really want progressives to do it, but it is past time to fight them using their own filthy, slimy tactics... to politically obstruct, delay and deny. It is that desperate a time.

What concerns me most is the tragic but predictable end result of both sides going low, I fear, will be civil war and the end of the US as we know it.

[sarcasmo]

31. Down and Dirty in 2018. Win at all costs. Issa sounds like Isis.

These racist fools need to go.