How does Tea Party do it?

As I've observed the events of the past few weeks unfold here in Wisconsin, I'm often finding myself wondering how the Tea Party is able to get their followers to believe all their lies and rev up their base.  And then, because I've been involved in different marketing campaigns, I start to realize how it's being done.  I would venture a guess that the Koch Brother's and Karl Rove have been a big part of the marketing of the Tea Party brand, knowing exactly how to get that base fired up.

But why then, aren't the Dem's, Liberals, Progressives able to do the same?  Well, for one, I don't think they have the immoral leaders like the GOP and Tea Party do.  Another point of fact that I've found to be true is that Liberals and Progressives take the time to research things before running with them.  I find that for the most part, we tend to base our decisions on facts and not feelings.  The Tea Party get's told that Obama's coming for their guns, and they just get all nuts and start ranting right away, without going to other sources of information to find what is truth and what is not.  They tend to be like those who send along e-mails without going to snopes first.

So then, how do we fire up the base?  A few thoughts I have.  Since so many non-union people seem to really despise those benefits that union member's enjoy, why not try and sell the non-union people on what a union could do for them?  The big argument I always here from non-union people is that unions protect the bad employees, and to a point, that is true.  I recall numerous occasions where I was supposed to defend a union member who had gotten themselves into a bind, all the while knowing that this person was just playing the system.  And when I talked about how frustrating that was to my grievance committee members, they told me to remember that they were the minority, and not the majority.  And I soon learned that if a supervisor really wanted that person fired, all they would have to do is perform their job like they should.  Thorough documentation of ones misgivings, or work issues, is usually enough for most arbitrators to find just cause for disciplinary actions by the company.  It just takes diligence, which I have found very few supervisors to have.

It was much easier for these supervisors to blame the union for protecting the shitty worker than it was for them to do their job and perform the tasks necessary to discipline those employees who they were always complaining about.  It's like the situation where my wife works.  They have a teacher who is still on probation, whose activities in the classroom are less than desirable and in some cases, downright abusive.  But, because administration doesn't have the balls to do the right thing, they blame the teachers union.

It's a lot like what the GOP, Tea Party, and Gov. Walker are saying currently about the unions.  AFL/CIO, and all of the other union leaders, you need to rebrand your unions.   You need to start selling the idea of unionization to the citizens of this country.  To show them that it's not what Fox has been spewing, and that unions have afforded people many great benefits that they realize in their day-to-day lives.  Let's get the tide to turn in favor of unions, and let's start today.