Ideas. Imagination. Creativity. Unlike a political discussion with a Republican, which involves watching the talking points of the day emanate from yet another pair of koolaid-stained lips, political discussion with a fellow progressive Democrat often leads to insights and new ideas. Alot of those ideas may be crazy and unpractical, sure, but seen in the context of brainstorming, they are part of the process of imagining and then creating a better world.
In that brainstorming spirit, I'm asking you all to submit ideas and talking points for Democratic candidates. I don't care whether you describe your idea or give us the ready-to-dump-in-the-prompter text. I don't care if you have a complete stump speech, or a can't miss sound bite for a nomination acceptance speech, or a zinger for an appearance on HardSoftball. Whatever. Think of it as a break from all the metaKosing that's been happening here with the additional benefit of being useful to our candidates.
I don't mean, by that last sentence, to say that the navel-gazing isn't important. It is very important. In fact, Booman just wrote another great protest/60s/DC diary that has joined MB's great one on the rec list. And those are only two of several on the topic from the last couple days that are well written and well reasoned.
But back to this diary. To kick things off -- if you've read this far -- here is my idea for an introductory statement for a stump speech:
I want to talk to you today about the future of our country and about your future and about the future of your family. I could stand here and go on at great length and in great detail about the corrupt Republican leadership of the House and Senate. I could speak about the no-bid contracts and the meritless political appointments. I could recite a long list of the just plain wrong decisions that were made by our Republican leaders, our fellow citizens, who we voted into office to lead our country and serve and protect us, and who succumbed to other influences and have brought us to the brink of disaster. I won't do it. I want to talk about how we change the terribly wrong course they have set for us and our families. I believe they didn't set out to do harm our country. They thought their ideas might have some merit. But when they saw that they had us headed down the wrong path, that their ideas didn't work, they should have stopped. They should have backed up. They should have given up on these ideas that we needed to shrink the government, to "drown the government in the bathtub" as one of their leaders put it, and put our welfare in the hands of corporate interests. They should have rejected this crazy idea that helping the very rich was the best way to help the rest of us.
I'm here today, standing before you, to raise my hand and to say to my opponent and to the Republican Party elite -- Stop. America can't take anymore of your experiments. Playtime is over.
This would be a natural lead-in to whatever the candidate wanted to emphasize; for example -- fiscal concerns:
We need to back it up, roll up our sleeves, and put America back onto the path from which we led the rest of the world, instead of bullying it. We need to get back to the business of surplus building and reject this deficit building. We need to focus our government on making opportunity for a worker, not making opportunity for a corporation. We need our tax dollars spent on protecting our citizens in the gulf coast in at least an equal portion as our tax dollars are being spent protecting freedom on the other side of the world.
So please, have at it. Use your creativity and the power of the blog to give our candidates some ideas. Remember, what separates us from the redstaters is our ability to imagine a better world. A world in which trust and dignity and science are givens, not points to debate. A world were freedom and choice aren't entirely separate ideas. A world were questioning authority is the highest compliment you can pay it.