A "Shallow End Pool"? Suggestions wanted!

Looks to me so far from listening to Sirius Left which is now almost totally Sirius Democrat that the so called progressive leaders are "very disappointed", "dismayed", almost "angry" at the Obama administration. And so it is our fault, we progressives, for not organizing. We must organize, don't you know? So let's join Van Jones and "rebuild the dream". That's the drivel Katrina Vanden Heuvel was selling on the Ed Shultz Show guest hosted by some guy from Boston.

I started paying attention to politics after the 2000 coup. At the time I thought that meant subscribing to The Nation, The Progressive, Mother Jones, and The American Prospect. Thought it meant working to get Democrats elected. Thought I should go on "The Nation" cruise and go to "Campaign for America's Future" conventions and "Daily Kos and Net Root Nations get togethers. Thought it meant becoming a county chair and a delegate to Boston. Thought it meant getting Jon Tester elected. Thought it meant showing up in Washington for Single Payer Health care rallies. Ha! Ha! Ha! Joke's on me. Only the radio show I had for 5 years seemed to at least allow me some creativity and fun in the pretty awful and utterly mundane world of politics.
I cancelled all my subscriptions and if I ever take another cruise it will be a cooking cruise. If I ever work for another candidate , it will be for our local city council that has been taken over by "patriots" who want to eliminate mail in ballots and think a nature park is part of a UN plot.
No Katrina, I will not join the shallow enders in rebuilding their dream. Because it is a house made of sand.

Funny you should ask this question - I've been thinking about this for a while and I have an idea.

First I must say that I firmly believe that "shallow enders" have what could be called an addiction problem with the Obama and the Democratic Party. For those into the lingo of co-dependency you could say that "shallow enders" are "enablers" to the Democratic Party Establishment. Because they willingly function as doormats to the Dems of DC they essentially allow the Establishment to do as they please without consequence. Anybody that has freed themselves from being an enabler knows that it's a long process that can only be done one step at a time.

This brings me to the concept of the tool to help the enabler through the process of breaking their addiction and for that I have to thank my long-term compadre, a 4th grade teacher, for explaining to me one day his classroom discipline process. It essentially consists of a poster board covered with pockets (envelopes) attached to a corkboard in the classroom. Each students his/her name on one of them and every time a student does something bad he puts a card in their pocket with an explanation of the offense and its date & time. To pay off the offenses they lose recesses, trips & etc. As they pay them off the cards are removed from their envelope.

It occurred to me that we could turn recovery of the enabler into a program where the "shallow enders" could put a couple of envelopes on the front door of their fridge with Dem Politicians names on them. Every time the Pol did something bad the recovering enabler would write one too many cards with the offense on it and place them in the corresponding envelop. They could also have envelopes for Orgs like the DNC, DSCC & the DCCC. To pay off the offenses when the DNC or a Dem Politician calls for money or for free work the enabler could pull out their cards and say you know on July 20th you voted for that horrid bill that raised the debt cap and while I have the time or dollars no I won't work for you or give you money today because of that vote. Then the enabler could say - call me in a week or so and I might do something then. The person would then tear up the bad behavior card and the process would continue. If the request came by mail the "shallow ender" would simply stuff the card in the return envelope and a note explaining the process and drop it in the mail.

I know this wasn't the kind of activity you were thinking of but I like this because it's a positive and easy thing to do. It's also transitional. It does not require the person to go cold turkey or break contact with the Democratic Party - just modulate it a bit. It also will blow the minds of campaign staff and will get back the Politicians themselves very quickly.

One important thing to note here that is critically important, the system fails without it, you do not tear up bad behavior cards because of good behavior. We have a right to expect good behavior - it cannot be used to pay off prior sins.

Comments - Suggestions? Am I nuts? Let me know what you think.