"I'm not a joiner." The liberal meme that will guarantee we lose.

[barbaraann]

Many liberals that I know are fiercely independent; that independence is part of their ability to resist the propaganda and control of the right and to remain capable of reasoning and reasonable behavior. Liberals are especially less likely to belong to an organized religion and the right is using religions intensively to maintain power. Many conservatives I know have their brains so full of group dogma that there doesn't seem to be any room left for reason or skepticism. There is a thread on DU today about how religions are proselytizing children and converting them and that is indeed a threat.

I have to confess that until the last election I didn't even know you could join the Democratic Party!!! And for my entire life until that time I never knew anyone who said they were a "member" of the Democratic Party, althought I knew plenty of people who voted Dem. I have now joined the party. My husband always resisted joining because his parents were heavily involved in a fraternal organization that was basically institutionalized alcoholism; and I was never much of a joiner because I grew up in the military and didn't have a chance to put down roots.

The people we are up against are very, very organized and BONDED with rituals, crimes, dogma, and in some cases cult-like mind control. I honestly think my most rabidly rightwing brother would kill me if George Bush told him to.

I think we liberals are starting to catch on that we MUST become "joiners" and work together to fight fascism, but in different ways from the right. Meetup.com, DemocracyforAmerica, DU, and MoveOn are examples. My husband and I are doing as much joining as we can because we both believe this is the most crucial time in American history. However, I still know some people who hold onto the idea that they are not joiners and just will not sign up for some group that is fighting for freedom because they think "joining" is for mindless people. I think this is wrong.

Anyway, I'm just making a plea that anyone reading this who has always felt like they are "not a joiner" replace that meme with a new idea: "I'm not a follower, I'm a joiner." Rightwing organizations are for followers, liberals organizations are for joiners. I have found that every organization that I have joined which is based on values that I hold dear (human rights, environmental protection, etc.) allows me to remain a critical thinker and does not demand loyalty or cult-like behavior. And some of them even have refreshments! :-)

We must all hang together or hang separately. Or, in this case, we must all hang together or be tortured and hung separately. The BFEE seems to be Torture, Inc.

[Zolok]

1. It's not a lack of joinerism that

inhibits American Liberals its a fear of winning quite frankly.
JFK used to rail against the liberal fear of governance...so it's an old problem.
And quite frankly looking around the DU, I think there are plenty of people more confortable with Bush winning in November than with the alternative.

www.chimesatmidnight.blogspot.com

[barbaraann]

2. I don't think it's a "fear of governance" but "live and let live."

I myself used to think that was a perfectly workable way to be a citizen, but not any more!

It's much easier to see how to fight for the imposition of a theocracy or fascism than it is to see how to fight for the absence of those things, but I think we are learning.

[Zolok]

5. I dunno...

liberals have this self defeatingself destructive tendencies....they inhibit action in an election.
I see it every four years..."Oh candidate X is useless we'll just wait four years for the GOP to fuck up THEN we will ride into power".

Heard this about Dukakis Clinton GOre and now Kerry, THEN never comes for these people!
www.chimesatmidnight.blogspot.com

[eridani]

8. It's lack of effective marketing of our ideas that is the problem

How the Democrats Were Betamaxed
By Laurie Spivak
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18395


Think of a "marketplace of ideas" where the products are policies, positions, and issues all competing for dominance. On the surface, this may seem like the stuff of dreams for "free market" conservatives, but it turns out it's a nightmare. You see, what we find is that in this marketplace, Democrats actually have the better product and Americans prefer the policies of Democrats by a wide margin to those of the GOP. In the realm of ideas, just as in any marketplace, the superior or preferred product usually wins out, but not always. An inferior product can dominate in the market when it has superior marketing, and this is precisely what we have seen come to pass in U.S. politics over the past two decades.

When we fail to view the world through the conservative business lens, we can easily see all of this as a vast rightwing conspiracy. However if we recall the frame of the marketplace of ideas, then we see it for it is: a well-run operation that recognized its weakness – a less desirable product – and figured out a way to dominate in the marketplace through an incredibly successful, integrated marketing strategy. Branded by the right and blind-sided by the conservative marketing machine, for more than a decade Democrats have been running to the right and abandoning core progressive issues and values in an attempt to keep pace with conservatives. This has been completely the wrong response.

Conservatives, after all, are dominating through superior marketing, not with better ideas or policies. However, because Democrats have failed to grasp the root of the problem, they have reacted to the growing conservative dominance by trying to fit into a more conservative mold. This wrong-headed response has played into the hands of conservatives. Democrats have lost ground in the marketplace of ideas, and have helped to tarnish their brand, as the right and left alike branded them as "wafflers," "Republican-lite" and "spineless liberals."

[Bandit]

3. You mean Bush* really is a uniter?

He is going to unite the Democrats like never before. :shrug: Go figure.

[barbaraann]

4. Yeah. I guess there's nothing like a common enemy to unite people.

It's too bad that fear motivates people more than pleasure, but it seems to be human nature.

[sangha]

6. Organized political activity counts more than your vote does

.

[dryan]

7. A past post

A few months ago I posted a question to all DUers about how many of us are members of their local DEC (Democratic Executive Committee), Central Committee or whatever your state calls the structured party. I think six people posted. Whether people are "joiners" or not, this is one of the reasons we have problems winning elections--we have to re-invent the wheel every two or four years.