Part I of an interesting email / blog from a GOOOH supporter: http://twobrain.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/color-blind-hearing-empowered/

I have to admit a lack of optimism since the election. Not long before the primaries of 2008 started, I started blogging for the first time.  Hey, I had moved all my music from cassette tapes to an MP3 player, so I finally started exploring the social aspects of the Internet.  The new forum (new to me) allowed me to grow in way an introvert would never grow via live debates.  Of the many areas my curiosity grew wild was to finally try to understand politics.  At most I had ever cared about voting for the President once the choices had been narrowed down.  One dilemma arose: the more I learned, the more there was to learn, more people to track, and more half-truths to filter.  Both sides, in theory, had positions that I could agree with.  Both sides shared an aptitude for broken promises, deceit, not admitted mistakes, childish games, etc.  And the level of scrutiny, also riddled with half-truths, deceit, etc., was raised to a level that not one historic ‘leader’ would measure up.

Among the things that blogging showed me, most people are guilty of being too forgiving of “their side”, overly critical of the “other side”, and the art of constructive criticism is in very short supply.  Being aware of these inconvenient truths, I try even harder to remain open-minded without being easily swayed from my foundation.  The only time I may be wrong on my website is when someone does not challenge my perspective.  I may have been wrong, but if a healthy argument has happened, my position can be changed, but henceforth, I am again right.  Lately, healthy arguments have been less frequent.  Automatic defenses of the current party in power illicit responses such as “so-and-so did that too”, “that can’t be true”, “he has only been in office…”, and my least favorite “You only feel that way because you don’t like the guy.”  None of these tactics has convinced me to reverse my position.  One does not ‘win’ an argument, by excluding opinions purely due to not being aligned with the same political party.  Some of the more energetic exchanges tend to label people as racist for daring to question our new leader.  Regardless of family lineage, I equate certain derogatory racial terms with attitude, not skin color, so, my prejudices have no conventional tie with racial history.

So, with my effort and interest, I thought I would experience joy of “having an effect” and how “everyone’s vote counts”, but the Democrats have control of the White House, and both sides of Congress, and I have had no effect on interacting with third parties.  Where does that leave those that disagree with the paths they choose? Note: The stated question includes Independents, Libertarians and other third parties, AND Democrats who are not acting like kids in an unsupervised candy store.

Part II - From John "Sanity"

The Republicans had power and lost it. Everything has cycles, so it isn’t as if Democrats would never have majority again, but obviously ‘the People’ lost confidence in the RNC.  From my perspective, there are signs that those in power are ignoring Republicans, excluding them, and may be gloating about it.  Should the Republicans admit defeat and be content with commentary and criticism from the back seat? I say no.

George W. Bush suffered a huge volume of destructive criticism during his presidency.  Attempting to be “slow to speak, quick to listen”, I always asked the following: Why was a certain action bad?  How do you measure/monitor the effect of a decision? What should have been done instead with the knowledge at the time of the decision? What should be done from the current circumstances? (Rarely, if ever, do I get those answers)

Given the diminished position of power, where do we go?

1. Servant leadership - Establish who knows ‘what’ to do, by seeing them doing it themselves.
2. Reasonable accountability - No one is righteous. Know what to forgive and what to ignore.  A “plank in the eye” is usually warped and blocks ones hearing.  An opponent may criticize our leaders, but their leaders are usually guilty of the same criticism, so listen, set the bar higher and show progress by acknowledging and learning from mistakes.
3. Micro-manage - National fixes rarely find their targets without a lot of waste.  Help the macro-changes find the little guys/gals that need the help.  If money is falling from the sky, the 10th floor exec has a better chance of benefiting than the single story mom-and-pop shop.
4. Minimize the damage - We may not agree with the plan but we use it to our advantage by minimizing the waste and demonstrating who is actually fixing things with the piles of money.
5. Regain trust - Things do need to change. Politics is riddle with stereotypes, a majority of which are not flattering.  Sing about accomplishments, share what works with other communities, and give people more of a choice than the “lesser of two evils”.
6. Compromise on policy, not principle - There can be many ways to accomplish the same goal, as long as the goal is consistent. Don’t move the target to appease the last complaint received.