The only thing that makes me a little optimistic, is that RE does not go off the reservation. He is a strict "knife who the leader tells me knife cause he's the leader's the one with the money" guy. His fighting with Dean wasn't about hippies or whatever, exactly. He does have a distaste for "grassroots" organizing, being a machine guy, but the bigger part of that conflict goes back to the beginning of this paragraph--Dean hadn't demonstrated yet, in the necessary ways, that he was a man in control so RE was not on that train.

I suspect it may be different now. But we'll see. I'm not thrilled with it either.

Given that the social attitude is going to change with time, as these older generations die off, rather than by persuasion, it seems like the most productive step would indeed be to, aside from a "gay" issue, tackle the obvious unconstitutional nature of "marriage" per se as it is currently enshrined.

Claims that a guy standing there trying to look paramilitary with a club is intimidating, are self-evidently not bullshit. Come on.

Does anyone have research on how effective human calls are? We know that robo-calls for any purpose simply don't work. Ever. We know that face-to-face contacts via doorknocking and whatnot can have tremendous impact. But I haven't seen research on human GOTV calls. I'm personally very dubious, but... I don't have data, so that's just a gut feeling based on my own biases.

But if you convince a few people, and they convince a few people, then eventually we end up in a nice little righteous bubble and end up right back where we started, out of power and doofuses screwing up the country. You think it can't happen again? Check the arrogance at the door if you actually care about this. The GOP didn't get their "permanent majority" either. Look how fast it turned.

But if you don't care less what Drudge or Fox thinks about anything that's unfortunate, because millions of your fellow travelers do and *that* matters. For all of us. The more legitimate ammo they have (and this is legitimately bad, not some wingnut nightmare that most people will tune out), the worse it is for ALL OF US that have to live here with each other.

I will never understand this thinking. It'll kill us. We're on a good part of the pendulum swing right now. Doesn't mean it stays that way. Four years ago the GOP thought they had a permanent majority. Let's get real and embrace what Obama says about understanding and working with each other, instead of acting like a bunch of "Fuck ya'll!" Tom DeLay disciples. Or we'll end up just like him. Out of power hunting roaches somewhere in Texas.

I imagine they're well-meaning guys who fancy themselves protecters of their neighborhood and didn't think through their plan. I mean, if they meant to cause trouble they would have--and they didn't. But it's still intimidating to see guys in matching psuedo-paramilitary getups with a billy club. :P

I'm on our side, for the record. Look up my post history.

Look, if the GOP were to steal this election I'd be the first one manning the barricades with a molotov cocktail. Literally. But this happened, and it's bullshit, and just because a bunch of weasels are the ones yelling about it doesn't change that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neGbKHyGuHU

The guy with the camera sounds like a weenie trying to incite something... but a guy standing in front of the polling place with a billy club is intimidating, period. Whether it's a Panther or a cop. And I'm speaking as someone who would pay good money to watch a Panther take a billy club to a cop. :P