I'm afraid that I may have to actually do something to effect the political outcomes in the coming year... It's beginning to look very important...
After working not quite hard enough for Al Gore in 2000 and bustin' a gut for Howard Dean in 2003-04 (all good effort, it led to Howard at DNC, 2006, and ultimately Obama...), I worked down the shoe leather, while keeping the keyboard blazin', tryin' to Draft Al Gore in 2007-08...
Frankly I had less faith in the American Voter than did our President. I finished Summer '08 with Head Count registering voters at Ratdog shows before I began waving the flag for Obama, attending the legendary Warfield "Dead for Obama" show. I was deeply gratified by his election, the event in Grant Park, where the protests of Convention 1968, which I witnessed as a 12 year old page from Oklahoma, were centered, was incredibly emotional. I still hold these emotions closely, it has been a struggle these last three years, but governance and politics are not the same thing, although the disloyal opposition must think they are...
As we approach the 2012 Elections we have been treated to a spectacular Republican extravaganza, unseemly, disorganized and not at all in the GOP tradition, the lasting effect has been to expose them all as creatures of the Billionaire Elite or just garden variety wingnut Birchers dressed as ersatz Minutemen... To say that there has been a whiff of the oddest brand of racism is to whistle right past the open sewer, but the new 'dog whistle' is of a different pitch, one angled toward the poor downtrodden white folks who believe they have endured the quiet racism of quotas and affirmative action, the naked appeal to fear and the hard edged let 'em starve (or just plain die, quickly, of anything that might require 'socialized medicine'...) mindset of the Randian Right is proudly displayed... On the one hand they wish to intrude into every bedroom not fully controlled by a heterosexual male in a traditional relationship, while on the other they call loudly for "limited government"... Abortion and the use of birth control is called murder, while in the same breath they proclaim that heroin should of course be legal and available...
So, obviously, it is in our interest to be respectfully quiet as the GOP re-elects the President...
With that said let me take you back to something I talked extensively about in December 2008... It's called "governing" and though it is something we haven't seen much of since Clinton was indicted by the House in '98, the Republic has been allowed to drift into untenable water, both fiscally and politically, and it now desperately requires it...
Governing is not politics... Politics is how we choose our leaders and direct them in how to represent us in deciding the affairs of our Republic. But in a Republic controlled by the Rule of Law and the Consent of the Governed, politics and governing are never the same thing. This separation is essential if open political warfare is not to become (?) a constant and destructive distraction, leading to gridlock and stagnation. If, and I believe that we already are at maximum distraction, the political discourse becomes so poisonous that one faction or the other decides to just take the ball and go home, it becomes the true duty of the governing faction to begin to play for all the marbles and achieve a working majority.
In order to govern the President will need a Congressional mandate, it is essential that not only do we regain control of the House and attain 60 votes in the Senate, but also that our ranks be purged of those who have amply demonstrated their true colors by abandoning the people who elected them, siding with the disloyal opposition to obstruct the President. If we are not to repeat the Health Care Debacle, and it was the saddest negotiation I have ever witnessed, and if we are to finally move this Nation off dead center, if we are to begin again the growth of our People, growth achieved through the hard work and the adaptive and nimble American spirit of ingenuity and risk taking that are at the heart of our great Republic, we must remove the naysayers from power, the President must be able to govern.
Or we will continue to wallow in the self indulgent and destructive 24 hour news cycle "debate", driven by the disproportionately loud voices in the pay of the Billionaire Elite.
With the Nation's business conducted in the interest of those who benefit from the oppression of the 99% or not at all...
This is the First Intolerable...
There are others, which we will explore on coming Sunday's...
A Great Nation cannot just stagnate, it grows or declines. I, for one, am not ready to accept that the unique American Experiment has failed.
It has not, and we will prove it... First assignment, turn 8 California House seats from Red to True Blue..
RG Johnson
San Jose CA
2/12/12
truebluedemocraticwin2012@gmail.com
After working not quite hard enough for Al Gore in 2000 and bustin' a gut for Howard Dean in 2003-04 (all good effort, it led to Howard at DNC, 2006, and ultimately Obama...), I worked down the shoe leather, while keeping the keyboard blazin', tryin' to Draft Al Gore in 2007-08...
Frankly I had less faith in the American Voter than did our President. I finished Summer '08 with Head Count registering voters at Ratdog shows before I began waving the flag for Obama, attending the legendary Warfield "Dead for Obama" show. I was deeply gratified by his election, the event in Grant Park, where the protests of Convention 1968, which I witnessed as a 12 year old page from Oklahoma, were centered, was incredibly emotional. I still hold these emotions closely, it has been a struggle these last three years, but governance and politics are not the same thing, although the disloyal opposition must think they are...
As we approach the 2012 Elections we have been treated to a spectacular Republican extravaganza, unseemly, disorganized and not at all in the GOP tradition, the lasting effect has been to expose them all as creatures of the Billionaire Elite or just garden variety wingnut Birchers dressed as ersatz Minutemen... To say that there has been a whiff of the oddest brand of racism is to whistle right past the open sewer, but the new 'dog whistle' is of a different pitch, one angled toward the poor downtrodden white folks who believe they have endured the quiet racism of quotas and affirmative action, the naked appeal to fear and the hard edged let 'em starve (or just plain die, quickly, of anything that might require 'socialized medicine'...) mindset of the Randian Right is proudly displayed... On the one hand they wish to intrude into every bedroom not fully controlled by a heterosexual male in a traditional relationship, while on the other they call loudly for "limited government"... Abortion and the use of birth control is called murder, while in the same breath they proclaim that heroin should of course be legal and available...
So, obviously, it is in our interest to be respectfully quiet as the GOP re-elects the President...
With that said let me take you back to something I talked extensively about in December 2008... It's called "governing" and though it is something we haven't seen much of since Clinton was indicted by the House in '98, the Republic has been allowed to drift into untenable water, both fiscally and politically, and it now desperately requires it...
Governing is not politics... Politics is how we choose our leaders and direct them in how to represent us in deciding the affairs of our Republic. But in a Republic controlled by the Rule of Law and the Consent of the Governed, politics and governing are never the same thing. This separation is essential if open political warfare is not to become (?) a constant and destructive distraction, leading to gridlock and stagnation. If, and I believe that we already are at maximum distraction, the political discourse becomes so poisonous that one faction or the other decides to just take the ball and go home, it becomes the true duty of the governing faction to begin to play for all the marbles and achieve a working majority.
In order to govern the President will need a Congressional mandate, it is essential that not only do we regain control of the House and attain 60 votes in the Senate, but also that our ranks be purged of those who have amply demonstrated their true colors by abandoning the people who elected them, siding with the disloyal opposition to obstruct the President. If we are not to repeat the Health Care Debacle, and it was the saddest negotiation I have ever witnessed, and if we are to finally move this Nation off dead center, if we are to begin again the growth of our People, growth achieved through the hard work and the adaptive and nimble American spirit of ingenuity and risk taking that are at the heart of our great Republic, we must remove the naysayers from power, the President must be able to govern.
Or we will continue to wallow in the self indulgent and destructive 24 hour news cycle "debate", driven by the disproportionately loud voices in the pay of the Billionaire Elite.
With the Nation's business conducted in the interest of those who benefit from the oppression of the 99% or not at all...
This is the First Intolerable...
There are others, which we will explore on coming Sunday's...
A Great Nation cannot just stagnate, it grows or declines. I, for one, am not ready to accept that the unique American Experiment has failed.
It has not, and we will prove it... First assignment, turn 8 California House seats from Red to True Blue..
RG Johnson
2/12/12
truebluedemocraticwin2012@gmail.com
Recommended article:
No comments:
Post a Comment