Right Out of the Republican Playbook

Right out of the Republican Playbook
(Also posted on Square State)
by Nancy Cronk

It is said, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Imagine a relay race between the Democrats and the Republicans. Winner takes all. If Democrats win, innocent people's lives will be made better -- a stronger economy, health care insurance for everyone, green jobs, clean air, protected wetlands, guaranteed rights for all citizens, safer schools, etc. If the Ruplicans win, more corporate profit, more cheap labor, and the institutions that helped them get there remain in power for years to come.

The Republicans, licking their wounds from the 2008 election, have learned that splitting up into two smaller teams, the religious conservatives and fiscal conservatives, didn't help their overall game plan. Together in Barack Obama, they see not only a black man with a white man's attitude (their view, not mine) but also a serious threat to the status quo of corporate rule. Since November of 2009, they have started to come together again, in the spirit of a common enemy.

The opponent seemed so formidable in November -- a coalition of Latinos, African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, European Americans, women, children, men, homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual and "questioning". And so many others... Together, we blogged, we sang, we marched, we picketed, we rallied, we canvassed and we voted. We had to -- our lives and our homes and our families were at stake. Using the battle cry of "YES WE CAN", we proved mightier than the most powerful army on the face of this earth.

And on our victory night, newly elected President Barack Obama said, 'This is just the first step. The real work STARTS NOW."

It is said if you don't keep moving forward, you will slide backward. There is no such thing as a quiet system. Stop moving, and entropy takes over.

I spent the last week blogging almost daily on progressive blogs, trying to rally the troops a little more around health care finance reform. What I saw horrified me as nothing else can. I saw in-fighting. Raw, precious, valuable energy wasted on whose primary challenger was better than the other. Not energy spent organizing, calling neighbors and friends, planning events, writing to legislators who actually vote... just arguing. The three most precious revelations we learned in the Obama campaign, "watch each other's back", "tell your own personal story" and "focus on issues not personalities", seem to have all but disapeared.


"My Senate candidate is more supportive of the public option than your Senator".
"But my Senate candidate drives a more fuel-efficient car."

"Barack Obama (or substitute the name of any recently elected Democratic official) has let us down".
"I am going to take my vote and go start a third party (a variation of taking ones marbles and going home)."
Meanwhile, the Republicans are figuring out how to work together as a team again. They're watching us, one eye glancing over their shoulders, hoping the punches we throw at each other will wear us out before they are called into the ring. The fiscal conservatives are financing the Sarah Palin wack-a-doos and putting them on buses, or training them to be lobbyists. The insurance companies have been working behind the scenes, spending $350 million so far to buy votes against health care fiance reform.

And stil we argue. "Van Jones was a saint. He should have his own holiday".

"Van Jones sabotaged us. He never should have signed that petition, even if the whole country knows George Bush had something to do with 911".

Republicans see what's going on, and they organizing while we fight amongst ourselves. Sound familiar? Does anyone remember a young smoke-bomb style distracion named Monica Lewisnsky? Anyone remember the next eight years after Democrats lost the White House, and the Senate and the Congress?

So, going back to the Chapter 4 of the Republican Handbook titled, "Divide and Conquer".  Divide? 
Check. Will we let them conquer, too?