Getting Real
.ExternalClass .ecxhmmessage P{padding:0px;}.ExternalClass body.ecxhmmessage{font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma;}I believe we should examine how we go about changing
the landscape. The PPA is fine, but in the real world of
politics things rarely change from the top down. Thus more
political movements effect change from the local level up as
opposed to the national level down. Too many traditional
politicians think "inside" the beltway. Once you achieve a
goal the DC lobbying of a PPA type association is good for
maintaining presence, and monitoring legislation and
regulations. However, such DC organizations rarely effect
major change.
The Tea Party folks generated change by intense local
activities that generated national attention. Of course their
movement was helped by our nation's polarized political
climate and a general concern about the condition of the
economy coupled with a very proactive 24/7 news industry.
So, how do we attack locally? We begin by indentifying potential
supporters that can help deliver our message. We must remember
that the masses may or may not know anything about online
poker. Worse, they likely do not care. For example, outside of our
poker community Friday's events really occupied one day of
press attention. Whatever follows is likely to be minor. Generally
speaking my guess is that the reaction of the masses is likely
to be "a bunch of crooks cheated a gang of gamblers".
Now supporters that are main stream, non poker playing, citizens
will have a broader and more receptive audience.
For example, your recent activities involved an event that
assisted Special Olympics. Believe me, a call from the Special
Olympics Chairperson has more impact than a call from you, me, or
Martin. This sort of thing can be repeated in hundreds of
communities.
The Chambers of Commerce should be approached. There are
some serious "freedom" issues, and common sense business
issues involved in all of this.
We must determine a way to approach major E commerce
companies. They have a vested interest in having some sort
of check on DOJ activities.
We must point out the obvious. Other "scams" did not cause
the DOJ to punish the victims. Ergo the Enron mess did not
motivate the government to turn off everyone's utilities.
Poker has been embraced by a gaggle of celebrities. They
should be mobilized. I doubt that you or I can get on the
Conan show but, Jennifer Tilley can.
At the same time there needs to be activity that targets
politicians a la the Tea Party "We are going to throw you
out of office" message. Remember Palin's "target" list?
It worked, they got a lot of them, and "scared" triple that
number.
You know there is a long history of working professionals
being harmed because they failed to understand how politics
works, combined with being too busy to learn how, and then
work on it.
The horrible truth is that political change is fueled by fear.
One political sage is credited with an alleged Lyndon B.
Johnson axiom that stated, "The strength of your political
friends is based on how they see you treat your enemies."
That is it for now. I believe we can do a lot. However,
I also believe that we have less than 30 days to channel
the anger, and marshall an attack. Do you recall the
so called five stages of death; Denial, Anger, Bargaining,
Depression and Acceptance? In our case "denial" cannot
last very long. Clearly bargaining has not been productive.
Thus our only momentum can come from using anger as
a fuel.
