Posted on 02/23/2010 6:06:17 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
If you don't have a significant amount of money and/or political backing, keep your mouth shut. It is more the situation now than I've ever seen before. No one cares what you think or what you say unless you can back it up with money and or political force. Other than that, just shut up what I have learned. If one doesn't keep the mouth shut, someone will shut it for you.
We can change it if we have the will to do so.
That is what is so great about the TEA Parties and the internet. We ARE changing that.
Get used to it.
Shut up.
IBZ
We don’t know how much the heat has been turned up in the pot cooking the frog. Free speech, what free speech - say the wrong thing and get fired, sued, kicked out of school, etc.
When I was in New Zealand 3 years ago, I was at the hostel talking to one of the front desk kids. Several good looking college girls walked by and out of the blue, I asked the question, “are you allowed to go out with the people that stay here”. The young gentleman responded there were no rules against it but went on to rip on P.C. He mentioned that in NZ, you are free to speak your viewpoint and are expected to express it without repercussions.
Where I work at now, I cannot talk about how bad homosexuality is without putting my job on the line. In my old DoD job, there was certain freedom to speak your mind but it was quickly being lost.
I like your tag - I remember enough Latin to know what you are saying. “delenda est” goes well with a lot of things!
“ISLAM delenda est!” I agree!
Thanks for validating what I’m trying to say.
I am getting used to it. In fact, I am becoming comfortable with the new paradigm. It's called survival.
Not willing to change it any more. Those who don't want it changed can make life impossible to live if you oppose them.
Even when coupled with a check, mere individual opinions from the public do not matter a great deal because they exist in abundance. What makes you and your opinion or campaign donation special? Public officials hear it all, so what matters is the weight of articulate opinion by the public and effective political action by individuals and organizations.
Even without cash or position, an individual with political savvy and dedication can have a major effect. Here are some examples.
My brother, while a college student, spoke against a major toll road project and then formed a small neighborhood organization that was instrumental in defeating the project in a lengthy struggle. Years later, he spoke against a local option sales tax, came up with the strategy to defeat it, and repeatedly gigged the local county commission chairman in debates against the tax. It was defeated by a wide margin despite massive spending by the advocates.
In a small wealthy Florida community, two dedicated women frustrated with dishonesty in their city government eventually forced the resignations of the mayor and almost all of the council and high level city staff. The two heroic housewives spent more than a year digging out information through attendance at city council meetings and public records requests.
They became deeply suspicious of the city's finances and got the businessman husband of one of them to scrutinize the city's annual financial statements. He found irregularities that nearly forced the city into a bond default, led to the resignations I described, and to the discovery of almost a million dollars that had been salted away in a secret reserve fund. The circumstances suggested that the former manager and city attorney had planned to grab the money for themselves.
These examples are exceptional, of course. More routinely, volunteer work on political campaigns makes a difference. Capable, reliable volunteers are at a premium. To get noticed, do what you can do and do it well: walk precincts; raise money; make phone calls; put out signs; use professional and business skills; and so on.
Over the course of years, these humble tasks have their effect and result in the development of leadership skills and position. In the early 1960's, a Republican woman I knew sold Republican themed jewelry at Republican meetings to raise money for her club. She added conservative paperbacks. One day got a call from a favorite author, Phyllis Schlaffley, asking who she was because she was selling more of her books than anyone else in the country.
By the 1970's and 80's, this staunchly conservative housewife had become a good friend of Schlaffley and a leader of the Florida opposition to the ERA. To the intense annoyance of the Left, she and the other women who defeated the ERA were almost entirely not professional women but middle class mothers and homemakers. They learned how to organize and make their opinions count, handing the Left a severe defeat.
The tea party movement of today has an energy and base of support like prior waves of conservative activism. More so than at any other time since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the field is open for ordinary people to change the course of the country for the better.
I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s not happening around here. Perhaps in bigger cities these things can be accomplished. In smaller towns, it is quite a different story. The powers that be are untouchable.
If you have a specific problem or issue that you want to act on, send me an email and I will offer suggestions. I have many years of experience in opposition research and battling government officials.
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