One Year Until Our Next Elections

I was so distraught at the outcome of the 2010 elections, that I have barely been able to even think about getting active politically again. However, there is so much at stake that I guess it’s time to get busy again.

The Republican Party has lost its way, or perhaps its collective mind and has been hijacked by the Tea Party, which is very much out of sync with the majority of Americans and suffering from too much of the Rush Limbaugh Kool-Aid. Propaganda and intransigence are not substitutes for facts and consensus building in a democracy.

So I intend to get back to work again, writing more frequently, focusing on finding expressive language to explain what I believe is really going on and trying to frame discussion according to my own perspective. In addition, I have invited a friend, Bryan Schefman, to submit his very clear and articluate thoughts several times a week. Democtrats STILL need help framing issues and developing powerful labels and talking points.

Hopefully, we can add something to the conversation and move the dialog forward.

A Word from the Author

In a way, I really admire Republicans. It NEVER ceases to amaze me how they manage year after year to get SO MANY Americans to vote against their own self-interests again and again. They are brilliant, though cynical. I am afraid they are on the verge of doing irreparable harm. In the name of patriotism, they want to dismantle our government. They have taken Ronald Reagan's words as gospel, believing that government is the casue of all of our problems and that can remedy none of them. They have politicized nearly every aspect of government, orchestrated assaults on the separation of church and state, science, attorneys, the courts, higher education and even the Constitution itself. We have allowed ourselves to fall victim to the propaganda that led to war in Iraq without a critical analysis of arguments in support of the decision. Global warming appears real and is worsening while we fail to act. Our economy is in shambles. The housing crisis deepens. Our currency has lost substantially in value, and our manufacturing base is a remnant of what is was only a decade ago, with our jobs leaving for foreign lands, while big business sits on billions of dollars and giant corporations in banking, oil and energy remain largely under-regulated. We seem to have surrendered our future to a political discourse that descends to the lowest common denominator, usually influenced by fear, personal attack and destruction, rather than dispassionate consideration of the merits. If we are going to thrive once again, something has got to change. Here is my small contribution to that end. I will try to respond to what I read in the news, but I am NOT a scholar. I leave it to others to fact check, follow up and support my points, but I refuse to continue to sit quietly while our demacracy is subverted and turned to the support of wealthy, powerful and cynical interests.