Via Suzanne, always a good source of interesting leftie articles, pointed to one last night that analyzes the success of the pushback against the Komen foundation’s abandonment of Planned Parenthood.

I’ve already seen several stories about the power of social media in breathless posts about the role of Twitter and Facebook in the Komen debacle. It reminded me of the early days of blogs and before that email campaigns.

I will point out one insight that I got after Mike asked me a question, “Why did the SOPA story work and the push for Net Neutrality go down the wonk hole?”

I wondered about this and why the overwhelming response on SGK’s action regarding Planned Parenthood.  Part of it is because we on the left know how to respond to overreach. We aren’t as good going on the attack and creating outrage.

Some people have talked about keeping the pressure on SGK, doing oppo research on the board members and using it against them.  I think keeping the pressure on is the right idea, but that’s the wrong approach.

If we started an oppo program the media (with the willing help of the MSM and their corporate backers) would start having to “balance” their stories and defend SGK.

There can be exposure, but not out and out attacks. At this point one of the best ways to put pressure on them is by helping them rip themselves apart from inside.

This is one of those things I do to a certain extent myself. It can be very useful to give an opponent an opportunity (and a certain amount of pressure) to speak, to ask questions and keep following up on them. It’s extra useful when dealing with authoritarian types, because they really do not care to be required to explain themselves. It makes them cranky. Then, eventually, the public face slips. In public.

Then the fun starts. The calm, quiet, rational fun.

Rather than us attack Komen, we should simply be pointing out to people who run large enterprises that right-wing ideologues are unstable and can’t be trusted to put the larger interests of the firm ahead of their own personal agendas. If you put them in positions of power, you’ll have to watch them every minute so they don’t run your company into the ditch.  They don’t have the detachment and reasonableness required for business — and they don’t give a good goddamn what they’re doing to your assets when they get on these holy-roller tears — so it’s just too risky to trust them.

There are other ways to use these sorts of “overreach” as well. The important thing is to remember it’s there, not very far from the surface, ready for you to use.