It's war, stupid

While I enjoyed Carnacki's pep talk over at Kos, in the light of the Alito filibuster defeat, I think it's important for folks to realize -especially disaffected folks who are down on the cloture-weenies in the Senate- to realize, that goddamit, this is a war we're fighting. A war continued by other means.

And that means we have to fight it like one

.

"War is politics continued by other means," is the famous dictum by von Clausewitz, but the reverse is also true: Politics is war continued by other means.

The Repubs know this - and that is why, especially in the religious right circles war metaphors abound.

Make no mistake about it: the folks in charge of all 3 branches of government are playing for keeps, and it is our fortune and duty to remove them from political power, plain and simple. They have been at war with us "culture wars," class wars, etc., since the Air Traffic Controllers were fired way back when.

On the far left the word "struggle" appears a lot, but it appears that most of the time they're stuggling with themselves - they tend to lack a concrete strategy for obtaining political power in this country.  We need something successful, that will work.

So I would like to bring  Sun Tzu to the party to shed a bit of light on what we can do and where we can go, and why it is inevitable, if we are disciplined and dilligent, we'll win.

Let's just skim the surface, in fact to see what we can gleam from him:

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

   
   

3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

   
   

4. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.

   
   
   

5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

7. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.

   
   

8. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.

   
   

9. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness.

   
   

10. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.

    
    

11. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.

    
    

12. Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise:--

    
    

13. (1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law? (2) Which of the two generals has most ability? (3) With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth? (4) On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced? (5) Which army is stronger? (6) On which side are officers and men more highly trained? (7) In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?

    
    

14. By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat.

Consider:

The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger... Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law?

We know which of the two "sovereigns" - i.e., conservatives vs. progressives is imbued with the Moral Law.

From this it follows that:

• We simply cannot under any circumstances tolerate corruption on our side.

  
  

• We simply cannot allow the Repubs to use "wedge" issues or threats of terrorism without raising holy hell that casts the debate in terms of the immorality of the Repubs. They have been successful in attempting to creat the illusion of a moral high ground by "abortion, god and gays."  We must say, "But they're stealing from you. They're stealing from your kids. They're stealing your health insurance, your pensions and your savings."

  
  

• We must be seen and expressed as having more of a moral mandate than they do. It's not hard; we used to speak in those terms.
  
  

The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness...Which of the two generals has most ability?

Think Bill Clinton for a second.  Why did the Repubs attack him on moral grounds? Your answer's right here. Why does Bush pretend to be a "regular guy" who does the codpiece thing? Same reason.

Therefore being a namby-pamby pushover will not fly with the American people. Joe Liberman take note. Maria Cantwell, take note.

With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth? ...Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons... Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.

We have the "Heaven" advantage in the upcoming elections, but we are somewhat constrained by the right wing noise machine.  

Dean, I think is doing the right thing by building a grass-roots and bypassing traditional media. What else can we do; we must render traditional media and the "bully pulpit" of George W. Bush irrelevant. Then we will win if the other factors are present...

On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced? ...By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.

Indeed. We have to exercise discipline on the Libermans...

We need to have the infrastructure in place to win, as folks like Kos have been saying...

Which army is stronger?

I think there really is more of us potentially than them, but we have to continually recruit ...

On which side are officers and men more highly trained?

Uh-oh. Weak point for our side... We gotta work on that one.

In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?

Exactly. James Dobson says maybe he'll bolt from the Repubs and they all suck up to him.  If we don't have the reward and punishment on our side, we will be at a disadvantage.

One last thought from the master:

 The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat:--let such a one be dismissed!