This morning McClatchy newspaper reports, "Democrats poised for sharp turn to the left: Two days before their party convention, Democrats are more liberal than at any time in a generation."
I disagree with a main point of the McClatchy article: that the conservative right represents mainly wealthy, and the liberal left, the rest of us. There are plenty of conservatives who are not, themselves, wealthy.
The story is on point, where it notes how Americans recoiled at the weak federal government response to Katrina in 2005. Today, what Americans want is simply for government to work. Period.
The disastrous response to Katrina revealed a federal government stacked with political appointees in key management positions, rewarded for ideology and not experience.
Today it is clear to voters that an integral part of the conservative plan was to deliberately cripple government and regulation. This was part and parcel of the Karl Rove and Grover Norquist nightmare unleashed by smart people who should have known better: that protecting democracy meant destroying government itself; give industry, give the "free market", give the profit principle the tools to protect people where-- they believed-- government was itself the enemy.
It's not a resurgence of liberal values that will drive voters in November: it is a belief that government should work and that it hasn't worked because Republicans put ideology before performance and then covered up their mistakes.
Democracy should be more than words, flags, lapel pins and Fox spin. It should be stopping white collar crime, it should be intervening in the slide to climate chaos, it should be protecting elections, enhancing and protecting individual liberty and freedom, not empowering insider dealing, ideology in private life and the bedroom. How are those "liberal" values?
In 1994, with the Gingrich Republican revolution, it seemed conservatives were on the way to securing a mandate yet with all their opportunity, what they did was drive the economy straight off the tracks with historic blunders in management of the treasury, monetary policy, and war.
The party of limited government presided over an unprecedented expansion of government power and reliance on corrupt lobbyists like Jack Abramoff.
Starving budgets with regulatory responsibliity, they believed, was the companion piece to putting ideological loyalists in positions of authority. On every front, the results have been devastating and the opposite of what they intended.
It is not "liberal" to believe that America has to change course. What America needs is fiscal accountability and fairness: these aren't liberal or conservative values-- they are what every American believes in.
There will be a Democratic landslide in November. Some would call this counting one's chickens before they hatch, but in the case of the Republican Party; they killed their brood hatch. The Democrats will be picking up the pieces of what is left. And that is not to be confused, with being "liberal".
14 comments:
How's this for a gunshot survivor..?
Linda Burnett, 23, a resident of San Diego , was visiting her in-laws, and while there, went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries.
Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up, with her eyes closed, and with both hands behind the back of her head.
One customer who had been at the store for a while became concerned and walked over to the car. He noticed that Linda's eyes were now open, and she looked very strange. He asked her if she was okay, and Linda replied that she had been shot in the back of the head, and had been holding her brains in for over an hour.
The man immediately called the paramedics, who broke into the car because the doors were locked and Linda refused to remove her hands from her head.
When they finally got in, they found that Linda had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head. A Pillsbury biscuit canister she purchased in the store had exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot, and the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head.
When she reached back to find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains. She initially passed out, but quickly recovered.
Linda is a blonde, a Democrat, and an Obama supporter, but that could be irrelevant.
Obama, being the candidate for "CHANGE", chose Biden as his VP. Biden has been in Congress for the past 35 years, longer than John McCain.
Plagiarism Joe loves to hear himself talk...microphone time will be at a premium for Bama & Biden.
So much for intelligent exchange of ideas.
I do not understand these comments. The blog was very well done and contained the truth all through it. I could not add anything to it except "Dosen't anybody deserve a government that works". Obviously the present one does not not I would not like to see it continue, therefore I have to vote for Obama.
Here is an exchange from a debate last night between a Democrat, Joe Garcia, and Republican Diaz Balart, both running for U.S. Rep:
"If we do nothing, in 30 years we may be knee-deep in water,'' Garcia said, touting the importance of acting locally on climate issues.
Diaz-Balart responded quickly.
''Anything we can do to lower carbon dioxide emissions without destroying the economy makes sense,''
Look at that qualifier: "without destroying the economy"
If we are knee deep in water how do you compute the economy? Corporate America always shouts you are "destroying the economy" and this is always used as an excuse to do less than is needed.
Clueless Floridians have now bought into the need for offshore drilling in our State. What a bunch of short-sighted, self-interested dimwits.
You have the right to your own opinion and I respect it, but there's no need to insult those that do not share your way of thinking.
There must be approx 12,600,000(70% of 18,000,000 people) dimwit Floridians then that want to consider offshore drilling. Sounds like a huge number to me.
"Democracy should be more than words, flags, lapel pins and Fox spin. It should be stopping white collar crime, it should be intervening in the slide to climate chaos, it should be protecting elections, enhancing and protecting individual liberty and freedom, not empowering insider dealing, ideology in private life and the bedroom. How are those "liberal" values?"
The above sounds like fighting words from the Rep Party.
If you don't want to read that I call people dimwits because they buy into some half truth and are only thinking that somehow this very bad policy for Florida's shoreline will lower their price for gas at the pump --using short term thinking that will not produce the short term goal they are looking for....
then read a newspaper instead of a blog.
Even ARNOLD agrees with what I am saying on this issue and both candidates agreed on it before they needed a stump speech on oil. Blogs are blunt. Newspapers make nice. I am sick of reasoning with people that listen to Rush or Fox News and take it as their gospel... I am way over polite.
I agree. Offshore drilling is a very selfish policy.
People are only agreeing to it now because they THINK it will lower their gas prices. They are not looking at the whole picture.
The oil companies that are posting record profits (why don't they lower their prices) won't be able to get to this drilling for 10 years or thereabouts. Why does this appear to be a solution to Florida voters? I can't figure out the logic either for their about-face, but I won't call them names because they are not logical.
Sure drilling for Oil right smack in Hurricane Alley makes a lot of sense.
The only reason offshore drilling is being pushed is because their time is running out and is going to be much harder for them to get their way when Bush is gone. You see Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by 361 percent, according to a June 2008 Congressional report called "The Truth About America's Energy: Big Oil Stockpiles Supplies and Pockets Profits." In the last four years, the Bureau of Land Management has issued 10,000 more permits than have been used. That means the oil and gas companies are actually stockpiling extra permits, and that these companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres that are not in production. Oil companies haven't run out of land, as they're claiming -- they just want unfettered access to protected natural areas, and they're using the current crisis to try to get it.
Release oil from the U.S. Strategic oil researve below market value and see how low the price will go. Overnight!
Oil is coming down. Bush is setting a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. The federal government is bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
It must be time for a national election!
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