# Gregggate.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gregggate/485693>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 13, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gregggate/485693 "2009-02-13T15:45:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gregggate/485693/61 "2009-02-19T21:15:22Z")

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> [@jayjay](#):
>
> But we, even those of us that are “his biggest supporters” here, are meaningless in this context. If you think the idea of ushering in a new civility is ever going to have any control over the general population, you’re wrong.

I disagree completely. The people in Washington are politicians who care about reelection enormously, and they take “tone” cues from us at least as much as we from them. They are well aware of the mood coming out of talk radio, the blogosphere, and the editorial pages and yes, even (down on the list) messageboards.

Attitudes are contagious. If we are out here screaming “kill kill kill,” they hear it.

“We are the change we’ve been waiting for,” remember? And if the answer is “we’ll change when they do” or “we gave them a whole two weeks, and they didn’t change instantly” … well, then the whole spiel was bullshit to begin with.

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