Wednesday, October 25, 2006

We The People





I have been away from the keyboard for a number of days because of commitments here at home. Some political work, some social obligations and family matters. Today in order to break the monotony I am featuring a short but potent post from a guest and my friend, Anne. I give you,

We The People

Seems to me the response to all the fear-mongering by Republicans is:

We are Democrats

We are the people who have been trying to raise the minimum wage, so people have more money to spend.

We are the people who are trying to protect your Social Security benefits from the false promises of private accounts.

We are the people who are trying to ease the tax burden on working families by asking the wealthiest to shoulder a more proportionate share.

We are the people who have been working for veterans’ funding, and health care.

We are the people who tried to give Medicare the authority to negotiate with the drug companies to make prescription drugs more affordable to our seniors.

We are the people who tried to structure prescription drug coverage for the elderly as part of Medicare, to keep it out of the hands of private insurers who were more concerned with the bottom line than looking out for seniors.

We are the people who have tried to bring new thinking and new ideas to the table for months and months and months, as Iraq descended further and further into chaos.

We are the people who have consistently sided with consumers against the interests of big business and the energy companies and banks.

The Republicans trying to scare you are the same people who have abandoned your interests time and time again, who have failed to listen to your concerns and address your needs. They are the people who think changing the rhetoric will fool you into thinking they are changing their policies.

The choice is yours: you can either fall victim to the scare tactics, or you can stand up for what you know is the truth, and vote Democratic on November 7th.

Graphic courtesy of Matt Wuerker

A last minute addendum to Anne's brilliant observations. A one minute video to remind you of the lies of George W. Bush. Read the accompanying LA Times story.

In case you need more proof that the chimp-master is lying check here.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool, Hope - a first for me!

Anonymous said...

Valuable and thoughtful post. The good news is that Republicans, in their desperation, seem to have moved past scaring people and on to actively offending them.

Anonymous said...

Why has it been so hard for the Democratic party to separate the wheat from the chaff in expressing its vision for America?

Anne distills the components beautifully and gives us substance without silly sloganeering -

"We Can Do Better" from the DNC just makes me want a third party.
Maybe Anne should be working policy for the DNC.

(Did I mix a metaphor back there? Unusual.)

HopeSpringsATurtle said...

Offending people seems to be what the rethugs are truly best at. I hope deeply the bullies will all return henceforth to the playgrounds from whence they came.

Anonymous said...

Republicans are the people who have succeeded in turning back the clock:

Back before 1978 to erase FISA and resume spying on American's private conversations.

Back before 1966 to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act, once again removing the functioning of government from the scrutiny of the people.

Back before 1791 when the US Constitution and Bill of Rights was ratified, guaranteeing us a speedy trial, and protecting us from cruel and unusual punishment.

Back before the 17th century, when habeas corpus was codified.

Next stop on our wild ride back through history: 1215, when the Magna Carta held that the will of the king could be bound by law.

This gang of despots will not stop before every individual right and freedom has been stripped from us, all in the service of raising the corporate oligarchs to the status of feudal lords, and lowering the rest of us to the status of serfs. We're on our way, baby.

Anonymous said...

Wow what an inspiring succinct message to share with us, swim. Thanks for your efforts on all our behalf.

Anonymous said...

That's really inspiring, Swim and Anne. I'm going to print it out and use it in my canvassing efforts for my Democratic candidate. I'm going to try to memorize it so I can spit it out with passion, machine gun style.

HopeSpringsATurtle said...

MassaManiac

Cool! Great idea! Good luck and it looks really good for your guy.
Go Eric Massa!!