I agree that the Democratic Party's economic positions have shifted rightward, and there are big parts of what their poverty, tax and Wall Street positions look like Rockefeller Republicans.
What I think I see is that Nader and Sanders each came after 8 years of Democratic rule, pushing us toward the left after "lesser evil" wins.
Meanwhile the corporate Dems biggest surge ever was Bill Clinton and the "Third Way," which came after 12 years of Reagan and Bush.
Have you given up on communication techniques to politically opposed voters? Don't bother with active listening, don't bother with framing, because it's hopeless?
The results of how the we handled Kavanaugh should change your mind.
Here's a gentle action that might change the frame for congresspeople and congressional staffs regarding sexual assault — that I hope could work well in conservative districts:
Politics today are described as "tribal" — most people start with their allegiances and judge or filter each fact based on those allegiances.
Imagine your position as a fortress, and solid counter-arguments are cannons.
A "Gish Gallop" is like bringing automatic tennis ball launcher a quarter mile from the walls of the fortress and turning it on. The defender comes out and whacks the tennis balls away. No chunks are torn from the walls of the fortress. But to anyone watching, it sure looks like the attacker is wearing out the defender; with so many points, some must be true?
In politics today, the Gish Gallop is used most often on climate change.
Techniques
Issue
First draft -- Help me write this!
There is a bit of noise on the internet about civility:
Personally, I think that the options that fall under "civility" are usually the right choice, and name-calling almost always counter-productive.
I'm not sure what our frame should be; it's not as simple, not a binary. I think groups that want Gandhi or King style resistance should be exploring ways to get us out of the civility-incivility frame. It might be best expressed with a graphic, something that we can dump into all the articles.
Cognitive Politics
The Social Media Guide contains the Comment Better Button and optional media guides. Your version is configured to use the guide provided at Cognitive Politics. When you read websites, the chrome extension skims them for keywords.Issue
Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a 'Feckless Cunt' for her role in enabling and covering for atrocious Trump administration policies such as separating parents and children, an insult which blew up, and became the story:
I would do anything to help those kids;
I hate that this distracted from them,
so to them, I am also sorry.
Stephen will be leading a workshop on "Talking Across Partisan Divides" at the Whole Earth Festival in Davis, CA, on Sunday May 13, 2018. Come join!
I am skeptical that saying the president has lost it is and is "like a child" is helpful in an era of blue lies. We would actually do much better if we (liberals) steelman Trump — quite a job — but find something we can defend Trump against overreach, which at the same time makes the other accusations feel more real (it's no longer a spitting contest.) I think the accusation that "100% of the people around Trump…question his intelligence and fitness for office" is already being disputed by some people who would have to be in the 100%.