So
the nasty RNC robocalls worked. Guess what? Rahm Emanuel has half a middle finger and it still works too.
They won't go to jail. They likely won't even be fined. Heck, they probably won't even be investigated. It's up to us Americans to put a stop to it. We need to quit our whining and do something proactive about it.
If it wasn't Ken Mehlman running an obscene number of robocalls at the Dems' expense, it's going to be Karl Rove inviting bums to a Dem fundraiser, bugging Repubs' own phones and blaming the Dems, or the Maryland GOP printing highly questionable flyers, or Republican-paid Kerry-haters trumping up bogus BS about his combat service.
We already know they'll stoop to any level. Playing dirty is all a cheater has left in order to steal win.
Why do we whine about it? We must act.
What we really need to do is head it off at the pass. The robocalls began in the weeks (not hours) before the election.
Nothing they did was illegal per se (so far as I've read), though obviously completely unethical. But we know to expect the slimey, unethical attacks.
We had time to raise funds for at least a commercial or two in lower cost markets. All you need is the airtime for three or four spots and a damn good PR blitz to get the free airtime CNN and the others are all too happy to give.
We know the media doesn't care unless you make them care, and the only way anyone's made them care in the past several years is to spend some dough.
When they hit us with a board covered in rusty nails, we've got to hit back -- and hit back hard -- with a clean, all wood, all-American Louisville Slugger.
Turn their offensive (and offensive) plays against them with our defense. Once the truth comes out about who's actually making those calls (or inviting homeless people to fundraisers, or printing up slick deceiptful flyers) it will hurt them. Bet on it.
But they do it because they count on us whining about it instead of acting on it. It's not enough for us to know what they're doing is unethical. We have to act and shine the bright light of truth on it.
Mike Stark and multitude others have shown we can YouTube a viral media campaign. It may help in the future, but YouTube was so Election 2006. By 2008 that sort of thing will be drowned out by the sheer number of YouTube spots. No one will really be able to hear about it because of the density.
This is where I get fuzzy on how to proceed. Can a fund be set up on Act Blue that will act as a contingency to produce a spot and then put it on the air and (most importantly) promote it to the newsmedia? Or does it have to be a 527 or some other regulated fund?
From here on out we know that every election has got to have some contingency fund, our Louisville Slugger, to turn defense into offense and play political jujitsu on the right-wing's slime.
We have time to slowly build up enough funds in order to do this.
But how best do we do it? I don't trust the DNC, DCCC or DSCC (or even the independents like MoveOn, who was mute in the face of the Swift Boat Liars)... we have to do it ourselves. The First Amendment gives us that right.