No More Mr. Nice Liberal

Bill Maher made a great point on his show Friday that liberals need Occupy Wall Street/99% Movement to be the Tea Party for liberals, an uncompromising far-left block of noisy voters. It's time Occupy Wall Street get out of the parks and into the streets. The Tea Party went from a small group to a controlling block of the U.S. Congress in just a few short years because they actually got involved in politics. There's a lot more effective uses of our time than singing songs and camping.

The far-right are also superb at messaging, even if what they say isn't true, they get the majority of the public to believe them. We have to start actually talking to people who don't share our views. We need to canvass and make phone calls like crazy. Even though many of us did this the past year, more of us need to get involved.

If conservatives think we've been giving them hell so far, they have no frickin idea. Their heads would explode if we acted like them. Yet, it seems to work. So, lets start giving the far-right what they've been dishing out to us. We don't have to lie like them, but we can do everything else. Come up with some short, memorable and emotional talking points, and repeat them over and over. Explain little, just repeat talking points. Hammer away. Admit no fault. Hammer again. We've got the facts behind us if anyone decides to actually look them up.

This will be hard for liberals to digest. I understand, this goes against our grain, but it's time for us to stop being so passive. It's time to be aggressive. It's time to aggressively spread our ideas and attack the lies.

We need to get a lot louder and our message much simpler, even if it leaves out details. It's clear the majority of the voting public can't take, nor really cares for, lengthy explanations. Don't try to convince voters, just repeat until they believe. If we would have hammered home the importance of the recall this past year, Wisconsin would probably have a Governor Barrett today.

I'll start by calling Scott Walker a dictator, though I'm sure I'm not the first, because that's exactly what Walker is. Instead of doing the difficult and democratic job of negotiating with Wisconsin's workers (teachers, janitors, garbage collectors, etc.), Walker stripped their rights and dictated their working conditions and benefits in order to give tax breaks to corporations instead of taxing them appropriately. Wisconsin's workers improve all of our lives, and by screwing them, we screw ourselves.

Here's some suggestions for talking points:

• Scott Walker is a dictator over Wisconsin's workers (teachers, janitors, garbage collectors, etc.)
• Unions are essential for the economy: The smaller unions are, the less money you make
• Collective bargaining rights are rights: the right to assemble and freedom of speech
• We must invest in our children not big corporations. Teachers must get paid more and schools need more money.
• Lower our taxes, not corporations and the rich who already pay less taxes and are doing very well
• Taxing the rich more improves the economy: See the last 80 years, there's no evidence for the Tea Party's old Herbert Hoover idea that put us in the Great Depression
• Corporations and the super rich control Republicans, and their only concern is their prosperity
• All men and women are created equal, including minorities and LGBT. Only tired old bigots refuse to support equal pay for equal work legislation or gay marriage. Archaic religious views have no weight in American law.
• There is no voter fraud, but Walker or anyone else can add thousands of votes in seconds (election fraud)