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May 23, 2005
Stand Up & Lead: An Open Letter to The Democrats
Dear Democrats:
Well, it's been a heck of a week, hasn't it? You came up with an 11th hour resolution to stop the filibuster from being eliminated by working together with seven moderate Republicans. Thank you. And while the details of the deal itself are important, it's not as important to me as what the announcement of the deal did: enrage many of the right wing extremists in this country. So I won't apologize: it feels good to see my ethically-challenged extreme Right-wing brethren and sistren suffer because a group of powerful moderates finally told them, in effect, "No, you're not permitted to have everything you want all of the time...".
To wit, Christian extremist James Dobson of "Focus on the Family" called the agreement "a complete bailout and betrayal"; Rush Limbaugh spewed his predictable cocktail of anger and bitterness; Jan LaRue, chief counsel for the partisan "Concerned Women of America" called the seven moderate Republicans who helped broker the deal "sell-outs"; Sean Hannity treated Senator Jon McCain, with resentment and frustration on his TV show; and when I, myself, called into the Larry Elder Show, "The Sage From South Central" childishly began calling me names because he had no suitable answer to two simple questions: (#1) Does he not support tools for the minority party in Congress to use? And (#2) Where, exactly, in the Constitution does it forbid the use of filibusters?
So yes, Democrats: let us celebrate that you stood your ground, that you worked with those across the aisle and that you found a way to forge alliances for the immediate future. And let us also celebrate that your hard work made every extremist Conservative nitwit I despise get red in the face. I drink a pint of Stella Artois and salute you with a hearty belch of hops and malt.
But let us not get too excited. What you've done is a fine start. But it's only a start. You still have a ton of voter inertia to overcome and a lot of 'splainin to do to your core, moderate constituents. For example:
#1) You gave up the fight for public support when Al Gore won the 2000 Presidential election. Never mind that Gore won the popular vote or the butterfly ballots of Palm Beach or that Gore that he ran an utterly lackluster campaign... What really stung was that you didn't use every available media outlet and grassroots organization to publicly fight for what you'd rightfully won: instead you opted to take the high road and act like gentlemen and ladies. It's not that you didn't fight for Florida because you kinda did: it's that you didn't rise to the challenge when your well-lubricated corporate opponents threw mud in your face.
#2) You didn't raise a huge fuss over the multitude of election errors in the 2004 Presidential election. The state of Ohio's voting errors continue to be a major embarrassment but you've stayed largely quiet, behaving like sheep and not getting the media involved. John Kerry lost the state of Ohio and, because of that, the entire election. Where was he after the returns? And why the bejeeguz hasn't the Democratic National Party raised serious issues about voting laws and procedures in this country and taken them, full court, to the supposed liberally biased press?
#3) You gave up on the environment. In the House, 21% of you voted for Bush's "Healthy Forest Initiatives" which, in an ironic fashion, actually thinned or decimated 20 million acres of our public forests. Not to be outdone, nearly 30% of Senate Democrats voted for this legislation. Worse, you voted to allow drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) despite the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) saying that even if the price of oil fell to $16 a barrel, there would actually be no economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain.
#4) You've given up on the common, non-rich, working-class Americans you claim to protect. 37% of House Democrats and 42% of Senate Democrats voted for Bush's crippling new bankruptcy law despite its effects on the average American because it favored your big campaign funders; ignoring Florida state law and personal choice when it comes to our own bodies, 47 Democrats in the house voted to delay the removal of Terry Schiavo's feeding tube.
#5) You've sat idly while Republicans have shut you out of committees, debates and procedures. You've allow laws pushed by the Republicans to be passed in the middle of the night; after John Ashcroft and the House Rules Committee altered the original Patriot Act to include a tremendous expansion of search and seizure rules, you debated the new legislation for a grand total of one day before voting almost unanimously in favor of it; you debated the Iraq War Resolution for a luxurious two days before voting on it. Even moderate Republicans are beginning to acknowledge and resist this unprecedented grab for power and control of information.
#6) You put Nancy Pelosi on camera too much. Way too much. Bottom line: ANY person with that much make-up and facial work scares the shit out of me and most of America. Please stop. Seriously. Just put someone else on camera that looks more like a human being and won't scare my cats out of the livingroom when I bother to watch TV.
#7) You've got no clear and concise vision or guiding principles as a party. In the 1950's Democrats stood for unions, working-class families, civil rights, education and the environment. But what do you stand for now, Democrats? The website for the DNC has a link to a forty-three page document outlining your goals. What moron do you actually think is going to scroll down to page thirty-four to read the party's thoughts on the environment?! Why is it so difficult for you to clearly and concisely list your goals and priorities on one page? I'll tell you why: because you don't really know for yourselves. Here's one suggestion for a clear list.
Why is it that five-and-a-half years after Bush took office that you still haven't you figured out that you need to STAND THE FUCK UP AND FIGHT LIKE HELL for your beliefs?!? That playing nice-nice won't get the prize when dealing with Republicans or Christian extremists? That you need to roll up your sleeves, get some friggin' backbone and use the truth like it's the most powerful weapon since the atomic bomb?
Stand up, you scared, pitiful men and women. Stand up! Stand up for the environment that provides you with a multitude of trees to filter the filth out of our air that you've almost allowed to become legislated. Stand up for the poor, the forgotten, and the down-trodden in our cities. Stand up for the successful unions that have made working conditions better for Americans and fight corruption in those that haven't. Stand up for economic policies that support a fair distribution of wealth and vigorously oppose those that don't. Stand up and SCREAM about voting machine fraud. Pass a voter's bill of rights.
Stand up for God and stand up for religion but fight ANYONE who tries to co-opt either of those things. And since everyone on Capitol Hill loves a good litmus test, I'll give you one: deny power or political office to ANYONE who believes that I'm going to hell for not believing in their version of God. No one group, no one religion, no one book is the final and only word of God. Our livelihood as a nation is not based on Jesus nor the God of the Jews or the Muslims: it's based on the Constitution.
Stand up and remove Tom Delay from your midst. He is a complete disgrace as a politician. He is a fraud, a sham and a fucking shill. Remove him from power. Relieve him of his station because he has lost the respect of the nation and you, lazy Democrats, have lost our respect for not dealing with him promptly, loudly and efficiently.
Stand up to this incessant grab for power by a bunch of extreme Christian idealogues. Stop backing down every time someone plays the religion or faith card. In fact, do the opposite: start talking about God and religion out loud: to the press, to your constituents, to your families, to everyone. Stop waiting for a signal. Too many of them have already passed.
Stand up to the Neocons. Hold a series of press conferences with Harry Reid, Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich and the Democratic leadership. Demand an exit strategy from the President on the war in Iraq. The American people -- whether they support the war or not -- still wish to know the following:
And that process has already begun, Democrats. Your flocks are dwindling.
And the clock is ticking.
Well, it's been a heck of a week, hasn't it? You came up with an 11th hour resolution to stop the filibuster from being eliminated by working together with seven moderate Republicans. Thank you. And while the details of the deal itself are important, it's not as important to me as what the announcement of the deal did: enrage many of the right wing extremists in this country. So I won't apologize: it feels good to see my ethically-challenged extreme Right-wing brethren and sistren suffer because a group of powerful moderates finally told them, in effect, "No, you're not permitted to have everything you want all of the time...".
To wit, Christian extremist James Dobson of "Focus on the Family" called the agreement "a complete bailout and betrayal"; Rush Limbaugh spewed his predictable cocktail of anger and bitterness; Jan LaRue, chief counsel for the partisan "Concerned Women of America" called the seven moderate Republicans who helped broker the deal "sell-outs"; Sean Hannity treated Senator Jon McCain, with resentment and frustration on his TV show; and when I, myself, called into the Larry Elder Show, "The Sage From South Central" childishly began calling me names because he had no suitable answer to two simple questions: (#1) Does he not support tools for the minority party in Congress to use? And (#2) Where, exactly, in the Constitution does it forbid the use of filibusters?
So yes, Democrats: let us celebrate that you stood your ground, that you worked with those across the aisle and that you found a way to forge alliances for the immediate future. And let us also celebrate that your hard work made every extremist Conservative nitwit I despise get red in the face. I drink a pint of Stella Artois and salute you with a hearty belch of hops and malt.
But let us not get too excited. What you've done is a fine start. But it's only a start. You still have a ton of voter inertia to overcome and a lot of 'splainin to do to your core, moderate constituents. For example:
#1) You gave up the fight for public support when Al Gore won the 2000 Presidential election. Never mind that Gore won the popular vote or the butterfly ballots of Palm Beach or that Gore that he ran an utterly lackluster campaign... What really stung was that you didn't use every available media outlet and grassroots organization to publicly fight for what you'd rightfully won: instead you opted to take the high road and act like gentlemen and ladies. It's not that you didn't fight for Florida because you kinda did: it's that you didn't rise to the challenge when your well-lubricated corporate opponents threw mud in your face.
#2) You didn't raise a huge fuss over the multitude of election errors in the 2004 Presidential election. The state of Ohio's voting errors continue to be a major embarrassment but you've stayed largely quiet, behaving like sheep and not getting the media involved. John Kerry lost the state of Ohio and, because of that, the entire election. Where was he after the returns? And why the bejeeguz hasn't the Democratic National Party raised serious issues about voting laws and procedures in this country and taken them, full court, to the supposed liberally biased press?
#3) You gave up on the environment. In the House, 21% of you voted for Bush's "Healthy Forest Initiatives" which, in an ironic fashion, actually thinned or decimated 20 million acres of our public forests. Not to be outdone, nearly 30% of Senate Democrats voted for this legislation. Worse, you voted to allow drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) despite the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) saying that even if the price of oil fell to $16 a barrel, there would actually be no economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain.
#4) You've given up on the common, non-rich, working-class Americans you claim to protect. 37% of House Democrats and 42% of Senate Democrats voted for Bush's crippling new bankruptcy law despite its effects on the average American because it favored your big campaign funders; ignoring Florida state law and personal choice when it comes to our own bodies, 47 Democrats in the house voted to delay the removal of Terry Schiavo's feeding tube.
#5) You've sat idly while Republicans have shut you out of committees, debates and procedures. You've allow laws pushed by the Republicans to be passed in the middle of the night; after John Ashcroft and the House Rules Committee altered the original Patriot Act to include a tremendous expansion of search and seizure rules, you debated the new legislation for a grand total of one day before voting almost unanimously in favor of it; you debated the Iraq War Resolution for a luxurious two days before voting on it. Even moderate Republicans are beginning to acknowledge and resist this unprecedented grab for power and control of information.
#6) You put Nancy Pelosi on camera too much. Way too much. Bottom line: ANY person with that much make-up and facial work scares the shit out of me and most of America. Please stop. Seriously. Just put someone else on camera that looks more like a human being and won't scare my cats out of the livingroom when I bother to watch TV.
#7) You've got no clear and concise vision or guiding principles as a party. In the 1950's Democrats stood for unions, working-class families, civil rights, education and the environment. But what do you stand for now, Democrats? The website for the DNC has a link to a forty-three page document outlining your goals. What moron do you actually think is going to scroll down to page thirty-four to read the party's thoughts on the environment?! Why is it so difficult for you to clearly and concisely list your goals and priorities on one page? I'll tell you why: because you don't really know for yourselves. Here's one suggestion for a clear list.
Why is it that five-and-a-half years after Bush took office that you still haven't you figured out that you need to STAND THE FUCK UP AND FIGHT LIKE HELL for your beliefs?!? That playing nice-nice won't get the prize when dealing with Republicans or Christian extremists? That you need to roll up your sleeves, get some friggin' backbone and use the truth like it's the most powerful weapon since the atomic bomb?
Stand up, you scared, pitiful men and women. Stand up! Stand up for the environment that provides you with a multitude of trees to filter the filth out of our air that you've almost allowed to become legislated. Stand up for the poor, the forgotten, and the down-trodden in our cities. Stand up for the successful unions that have made working conditions better for Americans and fight corruption in those that haven't. Stand up for economic policies that support a fair distribution of wealth and vigorously oppose those that don't. Stand up and SCREAM about voting machine fraud. Pass a voter's bill of rights.
Stand up for God and stand up for religion but fight ANYONE who tries to co-opt either of those things. And since everyone on Capitol Hill loves a good litmus test, I'll give you one: deny power or political office to ANYONE who believes that I'm going to hell for not believing in their version of God. No one group, no one religion, no one book is the final and only word of God. Our livelihood as a nation is not based on Jesus nor the God of the Jews or the Muslims: it's based on the Constitution.
Stand up and remove Tom Delay from your midst. He is a complete disgrace as a politician. He is a fraud, a sham and a fucking shill. Remove him from power. Relieve him of his station because he has lost the respect of the nation and you, lazy Democrats, have lost our respect for not dealing with him promptly, loudly and efficiently.
Stand up to this incessant grab for power by a bunch of extreme Christian idealogues. Stop backing down every time someone plays the religion or faith card. In fact, do the opposite: start talking about God and religion out loud: to the press, to your constituents, to your families, to everyone. Stop waiting for a signal. Too many of them have already passed.
Stand up to the Neocons. Hold a series of press conferences with Harry Reid, Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich and the Democratic leadership. Demand an exit strategy from the President on the war in Iraq. The American people -- whether they support the war or not -- still wish to know the following:
- How much longer will our sons and daughters in the military be there fighting?
- Does this war in Iraq have an end?
- What are the specific goals we must accomplish before we can bring our trooops home?
- Are you still willing to commit troops to Iraq if we don't achieve these goals in a reasonable period of time?
And that process has already begun, Democrats. Your flocks are dwindling.
And the clock is ticking.
