The way to achieve a return to the center and away from extremism that characterizes the heart of the GOP is for Republicans to either vote for Barack Obama and Democrats, or, not to vote at all.
There has been considerable attention to GOP efforts to suppress the Democratic vote, through various legislative attempts to make it more difficult for core Democrats to vote. There has been comparatively less said about the positive effect on the future for Republicans, if enough common sense members of the GOP deny the radicals what they are attempting to do: use the massive advantage of unlimited corporate donations to advance an agenda through activated extremist groups.
A recent article in the Orlando Sentinel, Special-interest money is sweet for House candidates, shows exactly how this works out. "The Republican candidates in Orlando's close races for seats in the state Legislature have found a sweet ally in U.S. Sugar Corp. Records show the Clewiston-based agribusiness has donated $5,000 each to the re-election campaigns of state Reps. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, and Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, both of whom face tough Democratic challengers this fall. The company has given another $2,500 apiece to Republicans Bob Brooks and Marco Pena, each of whom are in tight races for open seats in the state House. On the other side of the spectrum, the Florida Education Association and more than a dozen local teachers unions have together steered $13,400 to Karen Castor Dentel, the Democrat running against Plakon, and $5,000 to Mike Clelland, the Democrat challenging Dorworth. And they have donated $4,250 to Linda Stewart and $2,750 to Joe Saunders, the Democrats seeking the open seats. Thanks largely to donations from businesses such as U.S. Sugar, the four GOP contenders have together raised more than $1.3 million — close to triple the $470,000 raised by the union-backed Democrats.
The Florida Chamber of Commerce, for instance, asked candidates seeking its help to first answer a 68-question survey. Among its questions: Whether candidates would support restricting the number of issues on which the teachers union can collectively bargain, limiting lawsuits against insurance companies and making it easier to build nuclear power plants. The business-backed chamber, through its various affiliates, has given $5,000 each to Plakon and Pena, plus $3,500 to Brooks and $1,500 to Dorworth. U.S. Sugar is one of the biggest donors to the Florida Chamber."
The report ends, "I think it's absolutely critical voters learn where these candidates are getting their funding from," said Ben Wilcox, research director with Tallahassee-based Integrity Florida. "Because people that are funding these campaigns aren't doing it in the interest of good government. They're doing it in the interest of government being good to them."
The "them" in question is not just large corporations with their agendas, like Big Sugar, seeking control through the Republican Party. It is the clear ambition of corporate money to use extremist grass roots groups to advance an agenda that is deeply harmful to America: advancing concentrated wealth and power of corporations, reinforcing economic dislocation, income inequality and divisions within our society, and fostering conditions for social unrest.
We need a strong Republican Party, but the one visible today is extremist at its core. Although Mitt Romney has retooled his message to appeal to a wider universe of voters following a miserable primary campaign, voters should cast their attention to the spectacle of extremism on display during the GOP primary. That is the energy that Republican voters will be endorsing, unless they withhold their vote.
Soul-searching within the GOP will arrive only through a rebuke at the polls by mainstream voters who reject the extremism in our midst.
There has been considerable attention to GOP efforts to suppress the Democratic vote, through various legislative attempts to make it more difficult for core Democrats to vote. There has been comparatively less said about the positive effect on the future for Republicans, if enough common sense members of the GOP deny the radicals what they are attempting to do: use the massive advantage of unlimited corporate donations to advance an agenda through activated extremist groups.
A recent article in the Orlando Sentinel, Special-interest money is sweet for House candidates, shows exactly how this works out. "The Republican candidates in Orlando's close races for seats in the state Legislature have found a sweet ally in U.S. Sugar Corp. Records show the Clewiston-based agribusiness has donated $5,000 each to the re-election campaigns of state Reps. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, and Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, both of whom face tough Democratic challengers this fall. The company has given another $2,500 apiece to Republicans Bob Brooks and Marco Pena, each of whom are in tight races for open seats in the state House. On the other side of the spectrum, the Florida Education Association and more than a dozen local teachers unions have together steered $13,400 to Karen Castor Dentel, the Democrat running against Plakon, and $5,000 to Mike Clelland, the Democrat challenging Dorworth. And they have donated $4,250 to Linda Stewart and $2,750 to Joe Saunders, the Democrats seeking the open seats. Thanks largely to donations from businesses such as U.S. Sugar, the four GOP contenders have together raised more than $1.3 million — close to triple the $470,000 raised by the union-backed Democrats.
The Florida Chamber of Commerce, for instance, asked candidates seeking its help to first answer a 68-question survey. Among its questions: Whether candidates would support restricting the number of issues on which the teachers union can collectively bargain, limiting lawsuits against insurance companies and making it easier to build nuclear power plants. The business-backed chamber, through its various affiliates, has given $5,000 each to Plakon and Pena, plus $3,500 to Brooks and $1,500 to Dorworth. U.S. Sugar is one of the biggest donors to the Florida Chamber."
The report ends, "I think it's absolutely critical voters learn where these candidates are getting their funding from," said Ben Wilcox, research director with Tallahassee-based Integrity Florida. "Because people that are funding these campaigns aren't doing it in the interest of good government. They're doing it in the interest of government being good to them."
The "them" in question is not just large corporations with their agendas, like Big Sugar, seeking control through the Republican Party. It is the clear ambition of corporate money to use extremist grass roots groups to advance an agenda that is deeply harmful to America: advancing concentrated wealth and power of corporations, reinforcing economic dislocation, income inequality and divisions within our society, and fostering conditions for social unrest.
We need a strong Republican Party, but the one visible today is extremist at its core. Although Mitt Romney has retooled his message to appeal to a wider universe of voters following a miserable primary campaign, voters should cast their attention to the spectacle of extremism on display during the GOP primary. That is the energy that Republican voters will be endorsing, unless they withhold their vote.
Soul-searching within the GOP will arrive only through a rebuke at the polls by mainstream voters who reject the extremism in our midst.
8 comments:
Dear Red States:
We're ticked off at your Neanderthal attitudes and politics, and we've decided we're leaving: "Legitimate rape."
We in Massachusetts intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren't aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and the rest of the Northeast.
We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation and especially to the people of the new country of The Enlightened States of America (E.S.A).
To sum up briefly:
You get Texas, Oklahoma, and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Andrew Cuomo and Elizabeth Warren. You get Bobby Jindal and Todd Akin.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that the E.S.A. will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Afghanistan at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home.
We wish you success in Afghanistan, and possibly Iran as well, but we're not willing to spend our resources in these sorts of pursuits.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90% of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias, and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Stanford, Cal Tech, Berkeley and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92% of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson, and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11, and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals than we "lefties."
We're taking the good weed, too. You can have that crap they grow in Mexico.
Sincerely,
The Enlightened States of America
The "Blue" states may be in flux after November 6th. Especially after the just released Benghazi-Gate emails make it to the LSM.
Please promise to take Barry the Liar with you.
Can w find a way for Florida to join the blue States? Of course we have to get rid of the tea party Governor we have.
Bengazi? What about the trillion dollar war in Iraq launched by Republicans through blatant lies? That's what you call the reality based community?
RE: IRAQ; The good news is Saddam Hussein can't endorse Obama like Castro and Chavez did.
Lets cry May Day, May Day, as they did for seven hours in Benghazi while the current leaders of the USA listened and watched from drone video as our embassy and ambassador was savagely murdered. God help us if these impotent losers regain the White House. Help was 45 minutes away in Italy, gun ships were available with in minutes.... But ...no... The war on terror is over according to the campaign script. I guess our folks will die peacefully and not expose reality! May Day, May Day.
I would cheer heartily for the blue states to secede. Good bye and good riddance. You will end up like Greece before your realize the folly of your "enlightened" policies. California should give you a big hint as to the future of the blue states, but the Arrogant States that Secede are willfully blind to facts and figures.
Feds investigate phony letters warning Florida voters they're not eligible to vote
Florida voters receive letters saying their citizenship is being challenged, along with their eligibility to vote. WBBH's Dave Elias reports.
By Michael Isikoff
NBC News
The FBI and U.S. Postal Service inspectors are investigating bogus official-looking letters sent to voters in at least 28 Florida counties questioning their citizenship and their eligibility to vote, NBC News has learned.
David Couvertier, a spokesman for the FBI in Tampa, said his office opened up an investigation into the possible attempt at voter intimidation on Wednesday after receiving reports that eligible voters throughout the state have received the letters.
"We're taking it as a serious situation," he said. "We're looking at everything from civil rights violations to election fraud -- to everything in between."
Chris Cate, a spokesman for the Florida Secretary of State's Office, told NBC News, "We believe these letters appear to meet the standard of voter intimidation." Between 50 and 100 such letters have been reported to state officials so far, "and those are only the ones we know about. We're encouraging people to come forward."
The fake letters, which first started showing up last Friday, have been sent under the names of real Florida county election supervisors -- with some correct contact information -- informing the voters that the supervisors have received "information" about their citizenship status, "bringing into doubt your eligibility as a registered voter."
The letters also say the voter must fill out a Voter Eligibility Form in the next 15 days -- and failure to do so will result "in the removal of your name from the voter registration rolls and you will no longer be eligible to vote."
"A non-registered voter who casts a vote in the state of Florida may be subject to arrest, imprisonment, and/or other criminal sanctions," the letters state.
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