The GOP's playing the same old framing game on the chatterati shows and with Mehlman's press releases. I, for one, am getting tired of it. Speaking of a party with "no new ideas" that's beginning to sound more and more like the Republicans. They're hauling out the same lines they used in 2000, and again in 2004, to paint Democrats and progressives in neon colors. Consider with me, if you will, the two "non-stories" of the past week. (1) Hillary Clinton calls for Democrats to speak up and out; and, (2) Coretta Scott King's funeral "controversy." ...more below.
Anger = irrational Here we go again. "Hillary's angry and Americans don't vote for angry people." First, it's a lie. Americans have voted for angry candidates. Franklin D. Roosevelt could just as easily have been characterized as "angry" about the Hoover Administration's response to the Great Depression. Had Mehlman been a Hoover adviser, HH would have received the same political advice from Ken? No reason to doubt it.
The other thing Mehlman seems to be trying to do is to deflect the anger back away from the President.
The "You're just angry" charge sounds like a spouse trying to dodge a marital issue. What are we angry about?
- We're angry AT a president who lied us into a war and then made a mess of it.
- We're angry AT a president and administration that completely fouled up its response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
- We're angry AT an administration that conducts warrantless domestic spying, and then claims to be above the law.
- We're angry AT an administration that leaks classified information for its own political purposes and then presumes to be outraged when its own domestic spying operations are uncovered.
- We're angry AT a president who cares more about Wall Street institutions than the Social Security Program for our elders.
- We're angry AT a president and his party that cares more for the bottom line of the Big Pharma outfits than about senior citizens who need prescription drugs at affordable prices.
- We're angry AT a president who defiles national lands for the benefit of exploiters and polluters.
- We're angry AT a president who lied us into a war of choice and then has the temerity to charge that opposition to that war is unpatriotic.
- We're angry AT a president who claims he is above the law.
- We're angry AT a president whose administration raises the terror alert level for partisan purposes, and selectively chooses to release information on terrorist activities to enhance his poll numbers.
Anger is a rational emotion when one is in danger of losing one's civil rights, one's environment, one's established system of government, and one's honor to a cult of personality in the White House. In this case there's nothing irrational about it. Crazy? Maybe we are, but it's more like: Crazy as a fox.
The Coretta Scott King Funeral Thank you Mr. Mehlman for showing us the face of the Republican Party. It's affluent white women calling African Americans racists. It's an affluent white man being made uncomfortable when African Americans call attention to the fact that poverty, economic hardship for working Americans, and attacks on civil liberties are part of the everyday existence of more and more Americans. While Mr. Mehlman and other's dithered about the proper political etiquette for a state funeral, I'd be willing to bet that a sound majority of those watching knew just exactly what Reverend Lowery was talking about.
So, if we're angry then Mr. Mehlman, why don't you and the Republican Party DO something to pacify us? Restore civil liberties? Get our troops out of harm's way in Iraq? Deal with real issues like North Korea and Iran? Get meaningful benefits for our senior citizens and veterans? Don't think you can tell us we're "angry" and dismiss us like adolescents who don't want to be told they can't have the family car tonight. And, while you're at it: Get out of the bubble, out of the pre-screened audiences, away from the "Speech with Props" formats and listen to what the American people are trying to tell you. Certainly, some leaders in the Democratic party are wimps, and some need to grow spines, but speaking Truth to Power works only when the powerful think they have to listen. Apparently, Mr. Mehlman and the Bushites don't think they have to.
All the more reason to fire up the Blogs, send in the campaign donations, sign up to volunteer for Democratic and progressive candidates, and sit on election boards. Write letters, send postcards, send e-mail, make phone calls. "We're not going to take it...anymore." <Whee, now I feel better...>