I'm not ready to make nice, either.
Right on, Dixies.
My recent post about my personal refusal to date Republicans was met with some criticism. I'm pretty thick-skinned so my response here isn't meant as a defense. It might even be meant as something more — a call to stand up and get mad.
This topic came up recently as I watched West Wing with my dear friend who called the show "liberal porn." He said that the West Wing makes us think that Republicans are reasonable. And in real life, in Washington at least, that's not true.
Republicans (professional ones, especially) are bad. Republican policies are hurting America.
Schools in America are worse for the policies that Republicans have put into action. More children are dropping out of school, or finishing school without an education that could help them go further. Healthcare isn't improving like it could. Civil rights are being curtailed in favor of a vague notion of security. More than 2,500 American soldiers have died in Iraq.
This isn't right. And I'm not going to be wishy-washy or compromising about it. I'm going to stomp my feet, yell, vote and tell my friends to vote too. I'm giving money to candidates I support, and I might volunteer my rowdy ass on Election Day.
I'm going to take lies spouted by Republicans as personal offenses and I'm going to shout the truth from the rooftops. I'm going to call people out on being racist, sexist and discriminating in other ways. (George Allen, I'm taking about you.) I'm not fooled by Republicans shrugging their shoulders about corruption.
I'm not saying I hate you if you're a Republican. You're probably perfectly nice, and you're probably confused about why you've been led astray. But I am saying that you're wrong. And you're hurting America.
How do you fix things without switching over the dark side? Stand up, too. Tell Republican policy makers and pundits that they're hurting the party. Tell them that Republican ideals don't match this nonsense. Scream from the hilltops that you, a Republican at heart, think that all people deserve equal treatment — equally fair shots at education, equal right to marry someone we love, equal opportunity to be great.
The Dixies are right. We shouldn't make nice, back down. Let's be mad as hell. And do something about it.
My recent post about my personal refusal to date Republicans was met with some criticism. I'm pretty thick-skinned so my response here isn't meant as a defense. It might even be meant as something more — a call to stand up and get mad.
This topic came up recently as I watched West Wing with my dear friend who called the show "liberal porn." He said that the West Wing makes us think that Republicans are reasonable. And in real life, in Washington at least, that's not true.
Republicans (professional ones, especially) are bad. Republican policies are hurting America.
Schools in America are worse for the policies that Republicans have put into action. More children are dropping out of school, or finishing school without an education that could help them go further. Healthcare isn't improving like it could. Civil rights are being curtailed in favor of a vague notion of security. More than 2,500 American soldiers have died in Iraq.
This isn't right. And I'm not going to be wishy-washy or compromising about it. I'm going to stomp my feet, yell, vote and tell my friends to vote too. I'm giving money to candidates I support, and I might volunteer my rowdy ass on Election Day.
I'm going to take lies spouted by Republicans as personal offenses and I'm going to shout the truth from the rooftops. I'm going to call people out on being racist, sexist and discriminating in other ways. (George Allen, I'm taking about you.) I'm not fooled by Republicans shrugging their shoulders about corruption.
I'm not saying I hate you if you're a Republican. You're probably perfectly nice, and you're probably confused about why you've been led astray. But I am saying that you're wrong. And you're hurting America.
How do you fix things without switching over the dark side? Stand up, too. Tell Republican policy makers and pundits that they're hurting the party. Tell them that Republican ideals don't match this nonsense. Scream from the hilltops that you, a Republican at heart, think that all people deserve equal treatment — equally fair shots at education, equal right to marry someone we love, equal opportunity to be great.
The Dixies are right. We shouldn't make nice, back down. Let's be mad as hell. And do something about it.
Okay Mandasaurus. The thing is that as a Moderate Republican and as someone who grew up in a family in which registering to vote was a celebration and as someone who worked on Capitol Hill for a House Republican and as a Social Studies Teacher, (had to make sure I am giving myself proper authority to rebuke you) I feel that you are taking the easiest possible way out. Its a fair statement to make that yes, the majority of ALL people who take an interest in this country are unhappy with several aspects of this administration, I think that you need to keep in mind several key historical facts and I think that you need to be realistic about the history of your party.
First and foremost however I would like to start with your lack of mentioning any Illinois politics. Is George Bush potentially going anywhere this election? No my dear he is not. Is that a happy statement, no, however it is a fact. Rod Blagojevich however is up for reelection. Have you had any personal experience with Rod? I have. I actually heard him yell at his staffers and pick up his huge leather club chair and throw it against the wall in the Cannon Building. I heard his staffer gasp through the new crack Rod made in the wall. I'd like to ask you that if Education which is a STATE issue (other than no-child which is crap) is being left to Rod Blagojevich (a democrat) and the state representatives and senators (majority of whom are Democrats) and we in Illinois are 49th in funding for education in the NATION, what does that say about the Democratic Party in Illinois?
In general Mandasaurus, we MODERATES like both parties and respect the great attributes of our leaders. I would rank my favorite Presidents in order of integrity, accomplishments, circumstantial evidence and political climate. In no order I would say that my top ten are: Teddy, Abe, John Adams, John Q. Adams, FDR, LBJ, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Truman. GASP! There are democrats on this list!
My Grandfather who served as a state representative in Illinois as a Republican and who was a friend to in my opinion the greatest Republican of all time, the man who was responsible for some of this countries greatest legislation, Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen. Dirksen voted in favor of the New Deal and was the first person that LBJ contacted to pass the Kennedy Legacy to get himself reelected in 1964. Dirksen got the Civil Rights of 64 and the Voting Rights Acts of 65 passed through the Senate and the House. How can you Mandasaurus honestly believe that without this man, this Republican that those ground breaking civil rights victories would have been won? At the vote for cloture on the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act, Dirksen had this to say
"Victor Hugo wrote in his diary substantially this sentiment, 'Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.' The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied."
How can a man who felt so strongly about equality and liberty be bad? How can all Republicans be guilty of all of the foibles of a single administration and how is it possible that the “good” party or Democrats have not been able to do ANYTHING to stop or curtail the problems that you have eloquently spoken of here? Are they do-nothings? Apparently. Let’s face it; we haven’t had leaders like the Presidents I listed above or my hero Everett Dirksen in nearly forty years. It’s not a matter of parties it’s a matter of people and power. It’s about bipartisanship and it’s about being the best representative that your country, city and state can ask of you. Those times are gone and we are now in an age of scandal, the end of moderates and the return of puritanical conservative Christians. How did we get here? I know that I didn’t elect these people and I am a Republican. Perhaps anger is not the answer; perhaps the answer is to appreciate your friend across the aisle and to understand that certain issues are universal to all. Perhaps the answer is to force a shift back to the moderate spectrum. Perhaps the answer is to send that message to Washington on November 7th and to more locally Springfield.
Perhaps the best laid plan is one that does not choose to be the opposite of an administration that you dislike as you have Mandasaurus, perhaps the power lies in seeking out those again as Alex Sanger said, moderate Republicans and creating battle lines with them, not against them.