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10:51 AM | link
The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes. The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
...Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were "German dogs." They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds. The MINUTE someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That, or you could just piss on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad news."
Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can.
2 comments
If all of those polling data are true, why is there an incumbent Republican president and a Republican majority in both houses of congress?
At least one of the following must be true:
1. The Democrat candidate must be so bad that voters will choose someone who disagrees with them on almost every single issue.
2. The polls are wrong.
I hope the Democrats do move more towards the left and alienate the middle. Howard Dean seems to be doing a good job of that, I hope he stays in that position for a long time.
It seems the only thing Democrats stand for is opposing Bush on everything. What new ideas have the Democrats came up with in the last 5 years?
by at January 30, 2006 9:19 PM
I wish I were as optimistic as Molly.
That aside, I can think of two more reasons not to support Hillary:
(1) Dynasty politics. The tendency in both parties to select candidates because of who they're related to is a sign of the sickness of our political system. (As is the tendency to select entertainers and celebrities, which is a good reason not to support Kinky Friedman.)
(2) She would be a gift to the right. The religious conservatives who hated Bill hate Hillary even more. There's nothing that would delight the Republican political strategists more than a Democratic candidate who would mobilize the conservative base. If the Dems want to pick somebody who enrages the right with his or her progressive substance, then fine; but there's no sense giving away freebies by putting someone up who enrages the right strictly for reasons of personal history.