One of the big Dem problems in recent years has been coming up with a message that had broad, universal appeal. One that would bring Dems together rather than drive them apart. Our party is supposed to be the big tent. Instead it has looked in recent years like a lot of little tents--some big enough for only one camper.
For years, 5.25 to be exact, I have wondered why this simple message has not been used by Dem candidates. There is only one possible answer to the question, unless you are filthy rich, and it covers almost all pitiful situations we are in today.
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EconomicsOnly a retard would think that the vast majority of Americans are better off today. This thought should unite everyone from factory worker (probably on unemployment or welfare) throught the college graduates who are earning less now that they were five years ago, even to the docs who are being squeezed by the greedy insurance companies, and everyone in between who is not clipping a huge pile of coupons. The markets may be up, but most Americans are in worse shape now than they were 5 years ago.
Why not tell them about it?
- Foreign Affairs Do I have to say anything? Our foreign policy is a shambles and the Middle East is descending into chaos. I won't bore you with more.
- The Law and Civil Rights We now have a Supreme Court Justice who is beholden to James Dobson. This is equivalent to Scalia writing a thank you note to Jerry Falwell. (He did? I hope not.) I'm a lawyer and I see the erosion of our civil liberties every time I have to go into Federal Court. We are worse off now, and it will continue for many years. We need to get Dem majorities in before we get swept back to the 1890s. Everything is a target for evisceration from the Sherman Act to Voting Rights, and all in between. I am not being hysterical.
- Choice South Dakota is first, but it won't be last. And the issue is not just abortion--right to die, right to choose means of health care, right to be left alone with one's thoughts and one's reading material, right to practice one's own sexual orientation--all of this is being eroded.
- Government as a force for good. The wingnuts are systematically stripping the government of all capacity to help those who are unable to help themselves. Katrina was only step one. Pray (if you like to) that there is not another Katrina this year. It will be just as ugly as last year.
I could go on and on. And I do. But the point is this--if you ask the question whether you and all of us are better off, Are you better off now than you were 5 years ago, there is only one rational answer, regardless of which angle of the American landscape you are looking at. And if you are a nut for one area, like civil liberties or abortion, you can't walk away if you aren't getting just what you want. All of the stuff dealt with above, and in a lot of other areas, leads to only one conclusion: America is going down the drain, but for all of us. Whether you are the gay couple in San Francisco pissed about not being able to get married or the miner's widow in West Virginia, your life is poorer now than it was five years ago. We all can and must agree on that. When you have answered that question, you have to agree with the rest of us--it is time to change, to make life better instead of worse. Vote Dem in 2006 and 2008. But let's keep it simple. Gore and Kerry didn't and lost. Let's support someone who keeps it simple. He/she will win.