Posts tagged Senate

Play this video and listen as you read this post.  You’re welcome.

Jill Sobule @ Netroots Nation 2011

I sent the following to a request for comment/advice regarding a bright young man’s effort to make a difference through a “bi-partisan organization”:

I don’t do anything (political) non-partisan or bi-partisan.  Partisanship isnt the problem, blind extremist ignorance is.  Good ideas are good ideas regardless of party and corruption is corruption regardless of party, party is a key feature of our current electoral system and it is the party with the strongest brand that holds the advantages (and wins more often, enacting their ideas in to law).  Until we stop tripping over ourselves to disguise the problem to make it more palatable, we wont start making real progress.  Stand up, speak out and have no shame for your chosen party id.

Note that this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever criticize or question your party of choice.  Quality control is needed.  Badly.

Change the electoral system and then we might have a different discussion.

While the Republicans pursue a hyper partisan agenda, with remarkable success, Democrats – under the leadership of our President and Senate Majority Leader are striving for “bi-partisan compromises,” seen by many of us as solving little while giving away tax payer money to the wealthy, gutting regulations and axing social programs crucial to the survival and recovery of so many Americans.  No where in the Republican sales pitch do they disguise their allegiance to “conservative ideals”, no where do they beg for approval from Democrats.  They make declarative statements about what (they believe) America needs and package their pitch in an emotional, passionate narrative.  They embrace the Tea Party, ignoring or approving of the xenophobic racism and bigotry.  They use fiery rhetoric and aggressive campaigning coast to coast to raise money and shift the debate radically rightward .  That’s important.  What they are doing IS radical.  The proposals and ideas of progressives today are not at all radical.  They are rooted in the preservation of the New Deal, the regulations and social mechanisms put in place to end the Great Depression and prevent a future economic disaster of similar magnitude. Republican’s, joined by a relative handful of corporate crony Democrats committed terrorism and/or treason in decimating the regulations and systems keeping corporate greed and the financial sector in check and stable.  We need to remember that.  It was radical action by “conservative leaders” in the 1990′s through 2006 that turned our economy in to a mob run casino and mired our nation in wars on multiple fronts without clear objectives or adherence to the Powell Doctrine.  Actual wars, with huge costs, human and financial.  Accompanied by none of the planning and consideration needed for such endeavors.  They didn’t pay for the wars, they slid them off the books and made major tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest 2% simultaneously.  Now they object to raising the debt ceiling, something they did repeatedly without reservation while George W. Bush was working with them to rapidly inflate the debt.

What’s my point?  We don’t need less partisanship.  WE NEED MORE. We need progressives to stand up and speak out about the atrocities foisted on the Nation and 98% of the population.  We need to speak about the young men and women serving their country returning broken or worse – while Republicans work to diminish the services available to those soldiers and their families.  We need to stand up for educators and the institution of public education, it is the future of this nation that is being destroyed with every cut and every profit based decision.  Decisions in education must be based on one thing and one thing only, the highest possible quality education provided to every child everywhere in this great nation.  They aren’t less partisan with their attacks on these vital components of America.  Why are we (Democrats) acting under the premise that reducing our level of partisanship will be beneficial?

We have some great speakers unafraid of the partisan labels and attacks from the right, but we need more of them.  If I could clone Van Jones and run him for Senate in every state, I would, but reality requires we all stand taller and speak louder, that we join great voices like Van Jones and take on the Republican Greed & Hate Machine.

We must have one hundred bold progressives come forward between now and the end of 2011 to run for Congress and Senate.  They must be willing to do the hard work and under the sheer brutality of a Congressional Campaign.  As it reaches the peak of stress, frustration and exhaustion, they need to remember why they are fighting and say, “I Fight for We the People! I Fight for America!”

We need bold progressives to run for State House and State Senate across the country.  To step forward to lead their community back to a path that gets them an opportunity at the American Dream.  We need men and women to stand up and declare that equality is a right of all Americans.  That greed is not a right and should be put in check.  That corporations are not people and are not entitled to act with impunity, manipulating elections and destroying America’s people, land and resources with little to no concern.  This is the time to act.  We have to be the ones we were waiting for, there may not be future generations if we don’t stand up to the GOP now.

Are you ready to join the fight as a candidate? A volunteer? A donor?  Contact us today, we need your Talent, Time and/or Treasure ASAP to win this war, what investment can you make in America?