cross posted at The Burnt Orange Report and Texas Kaos
See prior diaries about Will Pryor and the 32nd Congressional District here, and here.
I attended an event with Will Pryor last week where I heard him speak about issues that really matter to all of us. It was refreshing to hear somebody actually take on the mantle of leadership by being a genuine leader and speaking from the heart. Will took the time to meet with everyone following the event and talk with them face to face. It was truly a pleasure to talk with the next representative for the 32nd Congressional District.
People sometimes ask me, "why is this race so important to you?" After all, Will's race isn't one of the top watched races in the country, and it's certainly not getting the big-time help from the DCCC.
This race is important to me because we have to break this cycle of learned helplessness in Dallas. Dallas and the 32nd district will be Democratic districts again, the question is simply when.
This race is important to me because it has
national implications. Believe it or not, Will's opponent, Pete Sessions, is the frontrunner for the next chairmanship position of the NRCC. From
The Dallas Morning News
Mr. Sessions is the only Texan to receive Foley donations, federal campaign records show. He is a leader among House conservatives and is locked in a three-way race for chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the arm of the party charged with electing Republicans to the U.S. House.
(read the rest of the article as well - the hypocrisy of the Sessions campaign is staggering)
Not only is Sessions the front runner for the NRCC chair position, he's also one of the twenty most corrupt members of Congress according to the non partisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
Needless to say...Sessions has got to go
But this diary isn't about Pete Sessions, it's about Will Pryor and where he plans on leading us.
Most of all, this race is important to me because we need a change in this country. We need to move away from this 12 year experiment in trickled-on policies, corporate-run government and disastrous foreign entanglements. We need a leader like Will Pryor
We need a leader who will stand up against fundamental human rights abuses like torture. We've all been talking a lot about torture lately on this community. The grotesque enabling by the current Congress has allowed this President to do away with a legal doctrine that is more than twice as old as this country. It's hard to say that we're a nation of laws when the fundamental legal principals of our country can be politically wiped of the map.
Like all of us, this bill disgusted Will Pryor. From his blog
Throwing Away the Key
Faithful blog readers know that I have seldom used this campaign journal to address issues and policy. But I have to point out how seriously concerned I am about the recent compromise in Congress on the issue of detention and interrogation of "enemy combatants", what Garrison Keillor describes as "a shameful retreat from American values". Keillor is right. The President will have the authority to declare any non-citizen an "enemy combatant".
Any non-citizen. This individual may then be incarcerated as long as
authorities wish, and interrogated, without any right to any appeal to any court of law. This is shameful. It's not hard to imagine Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove coming up with their own list of who is an "enemy combatant".
I have said many times this year that we must return to the values that made this nation great, and will keep us strong; and those values do not include our government advocating for the use of torture of political prisoners, spying on our own citizens, or threatening investigative journalists who are performing their Constitutional role of protecting us all with criminal prosecution. And now we can add dispensing with habeas corpus to the list of American values we seem determined to abandon. Who was it that said, "The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded"?
Will Pryor gets it. He understands that torture is un-American. He understands that the foreign policy of this President is dangerous. He understands that winning the war on terror requires ending the war in Iraq. He understands that budgets are moral documents with moral consequences attached to them. He understands that it's almost criminal that our country does not have a universal healthcare system.
We all have choices to make this November. The people in the 32nd District have the choice between a man of honor and dignity and lifelong service in Will Pryor. Or they can chose for more of the same old corruption from Pete Sessions and his bribery machine. This race is important not just for Dallas, but for the country as well.
I will end this diary with the same plea I've made in the other diaries. Tell your friends and family about Will Pryor. If they live in the 32nd district, ask them to tell THEIR friends and family about Will Pryor. Tell your bridge club, tell your church groups, tell your golfing friends, tell all those "closet Democrats" - the new silent majority in the 32nd - tell everybody....even your Republican Uncle.
And volunteer
And CONTRIBUTE
UPDATE!!!!
I didn't see this earlier, but CoolOnion diaried here about how Pete Sessions weasled out of a debate with Will Pryor. I guess democracy just isn't high on Pete Sessions list of priorities.