what can I do to put pressure on the oligarchs?

The following excerpts have been taken from Conceptual Guerilla’s blog [that he writes for the Daily KOS]; the Howard Zinn portion was posted on 6-16-11 and the White Supremacist teabagger portion was posted 07-01-11.  I did not seek or receive permission to repost, and the originals can be found here and here.  But I humbly appreciate of Mr. Guerilla’s writing style and his ability to cut through the bullsh*t.  Enjoy:

“I do not suggest for one minute that you should happy about all of those items on the Progressive Agenda that remain undone.  I am personally disappointed about a number of things . . . including not closing Guantanamo Bay, not including a "public option," and not allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire.

I merely state the Progressive Agenda is BIG . . . and in the present capitalist oligarchy with little democratic representation . . . it is extremely difficult to do a fraction of what we want.  It is impossible in 2 1/2 years.

So I'm saying stop attacking the President, and start helping the President.

How, you ask?  By doing all the "direct action" stuff some commenters have discussed.  FDR famously told a group talking about Social Security "go out and make me do it."

Don't attack the President . . . attack the forces who have the President hemmed in.  Stop blaming the President, and instead start asking "what can I do to put pressure on the oligarchs?"

Two years ago the teabaggers hit the streets to oppose healthcare reform.  Where were our – the progressives -  rallies in support of it . . . in support of single payer . . . in support of the public option?  I don't remember them.  They rallied . . . and then last November they showed up and voted.

And now you want to know why the President isn't doing more to fight the oligarchs?  What are you doing to help him?  What are you doing to fight them?  If you're thinking about staying home from the polls next year . . . because Obama isn't sufficiently "progressive" to suit you, you might want to consider the consequences of a GOP victory next year. 

 If Republicans control the White House and Congress:

1.  They're going to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

2.  They're going to repeal the minimum wage.

3.  They're going to undermine if not outright destroy, public education.

4.  They're going to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

5.  Once that is accomplished, Republican controlled state legislatures are going to bring back literacy tests.

For those of you who doubt this agenda, they're already doing it.  They are passing restrictions on access to the polls as we speak, even as Paul Ryan proposes his voucher plan for medicare.  Presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann says people need to be "weaned off" of Social Security and Medicare, and says that eliminating the minimum wage would create jobs . . . a claim for which there is zero evidence.

As for specifically repealing the voting rights act, that subject is already being discussed. The Tea Party is now lobbying against the voting rights act.  You will see more and more of this.  Why?  They are going to repeal it . . . and bring back things like literacy tests.

Since the early 1950's, even before Buckley founded the National Review, conservatives have been defined by xenophobic paranoia.  The list of "alien others" is long:  Communists, socialists, liberals, "fellow travelers," blacks, "minorities," "radical feminists," dirty hippies, atheists, the Russians, "secular humanists," and most recently Mexicans, and radical Islamists.  "Did you know they want to establish a caliphate over the WHOLE WORLD, and impose SHARIA LAW on America?  I hear they've already started."

This is the expression of something very simple and easy to understand.  When you cut through conservative rhetoric bullshit and get to the bottom line, what you find is nothing more [or less] than the defense of "WHITE PRIVILEGE" -- a privilege that has been steadily eroding since the early '50's with the advent of the civil rights movement.

The ugly demographic truth is that white folks are losing political power as their population declines relative to blacks and Hispanics.  If you are motivated by preserving "white privilege," you are destined to lose . . .

. . . unless you DO something about it.

At this point, there is exactly one strategy open to the teabaggers:  they have to shrink the non-white electorate, though even that might not be enough.  Non-white America must be kept in check using the age old weapons of poverty and ignorance.  An educated, increasingly prosperous non-white population will not tolerate being denied access to the voting booth.

Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz, and every teabagger in America knows this.  Re-segregation is their only hope . . . and they're going to try it.  That's what happened after the Civil War.  The forces of WHITE PRIVILEGE managed to keep the south an oppressed, impoverished back water for 100 years.  The people bigots pushing this agenda today are the great-grandchildren of the very same people bigots who did it back then.

So . . . . if you are planning to stay home next year, because President Obama isn't sufficiently “progressive”, and isn't “doing enough” to suit you, you might want to consider the alternative.  

It isn't pretty . . . and the baggers already doing it in states they won last year.