Apparently they have talked quite a bit about OWS and the crap I heard from her would make you tired.  "I wonder if any of them know what the Fed is", "What a joke, no one knows what they want", "what are they going to accomplish stinking up a park".  Seriously, I felt like walking home.  

But instead I started by saying that I knew what they wanted.  It isn't hard to figure out if you listen.  And as to what they can accomplish by "stinking up a park"?  Well so far they've changed the narrative -- from Deficit!!! to income inequality.  She didn't have a response to that.  Then our cocktails arrived and it seemed like a good time to change the subject and let that idea percolate.  

The myth was that the middle class would stay the size it is and would grow.  In truth the myth died around 1978, since then we had all kinds of tricks to keep the expanding middle class myth going.  Well, the bag of tricks is done.  

The simple truth is this: if you are going to allow for the freedom of making wealth, if you are going to allow for an almost unlimited ceiling, then you MUST ESTABLISH A HUMANE AND GENEROUS FLOOR THAT PROVIDES EMPLOYMENT.  Or you are going to have increasing chaos, with increasing millions of unemployed and disadvantaged and angry and hopeless.

Period.  And this is only logic talking within me, viewing my society as rationally as I can.

A humane and generous floor that provides work.  It's not that hard to figure out, it's hard to implement within the hardened heart of our economic system.  

But it's all we have.

Obama could not only save himself but he could probably give himself a larger majority in 2012 - but he can only do that with action - by starting to produce something, anything, progressive that it was expected he would produce but hasn't - and the votes he needs next year would immediately follow.

Obama can have independents and liberals and progressives all across the country rewarding him for results instead of turning their backs on empty promises and one of the largest landslides in history in 2012 with just a few simple moves.

Creating and pushing an actual, real, universal single payer health care bill and rolling back the bailout of the insurance industry for example might do it all by itself, for example.

Although he could probably sew it right up it for himself by also starting torture and war crimes trials for Bush and Cheney, while withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan and breaking up the big Wall Street investment banks and prosecuting some of the people who destroyed the economy, like Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfeinz and Magnetar's Alec Litowitz, while firing Tim Geithner.

He's got a little more than a year, after all. Plenty of time.

[snip]

Now, how can you help him win in 2012, and avoid a republican administration?

First, and most important, remember that fearmongering never worked very well for republicans either, so give up on any idea that selling fear of republicans is going to win support for Obama. All that tactic will do is what it's doing now - drive even more voters into staying home.

Pick an issue or a set of issues. Draw a line. State clearly to Obama that "On election day 2012 you have our votes. Guaranteed. Without question. As long as you do 'THIS' before then."

It then becomes an eyeball to eyeball poker game right down to election day. You must have the determination to not back down out of fear - and it must be made as clear as a club on the head starting NOW to Obama that there will be no backing down, that "THIS" is the price you will charge for your votes. You must also from today onwards completely ignore all fearmongering about the other party, and instead turn that around and use fear of losing to motivate Obama.

You have the power to change things. You also have the power to either use the power you have, or to throw it away.

It's not up to Obama. It's up to you.

It will probably take a million or so people to do this, so you must start today, or nothing will change.

-- How To Help Obama Win A Second Term