OK, so the actual title was "No More Apologies -- It's Time to Stand Up for Our Convictions".
But that's the main thrust of his post, it's time to stand up for something.
Excerpt [source: www.huffingtonpost.com]
Excerpt [source: news.yahoo.com]
The fact is that the Democrats won the election in 2008. The Republicans refuse to do anything for the country except say "no". That means we have to work hard and do what we believe is right. And we have to stop apologizing for it.
As many who have hung round hereabouts for some substantial time, I was (and remain) a supporter of Howard Dean.
One of the main reasons was (and remains) my respect for a man who could have lived a private life in comfort, but chose a public life with all of it's concomitant ills.
One of the other main reasons was my fascination with a politician who is willing to speak truth to power, in public, again and again.
Today, when I read his article on the Huffington Post (HuffPo), I found myself remembering all over, why I slapped on a DFA T-Shirt (back when it was Dean for America) and Meetup'd my way into being the local Chair of the DFA campaign in my Legislative District, back in 2003.
Dean starts out with this line:
For some time now, various "reporters" and on-air personalities on the Fox News Network...
Characterizing, quite succinctly, using simple grammatical devices, that Fox News Network doesn't employ actual Reporters or Journalists.
He continues this line of thought with:
...have failed to report the full story or relevant facts, instead indulging in race baiting in order to exploit people's fears...
Highlighting the program underway at Fox News Network: We Report (the parts that we like): You decide.
Howard Dean has just announced to the world at large that Fox News is neither news nor dispensed by professional news reporters. This proclamation should be neither 'news' nor necessary, but (to paraphrase the Mr. Magoo of the Secretaries of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld) we must live in the world we have and not the one we want.
Dean then notes that:
Despite his claims...on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace didn't have his facts quite right... a Media Matters study showed, Fox News did in fact spend a lot of air-time on July 19th and 20th cranking up the false story. Not to mention that foxnews.com bragged that shortly after they posted a "report" about the video Mrs. Sherrod resigned.
Blowback against the claims in the past two days of Fox News Network that they did not broadcast any 'news' on the Sherrod story until after she was fired/resigned.
Dean ends the article with:
We have to stand up for what we believe in and stop trying to make deals with people who cannot be trusted to make deals for the good of our country. It's not too late to win in 2010. Conviction politics works. Just ask the right wing!
Which outlines the programs for the Republicans and the Democrats in the US Congress:
Republicans: Just say, "No!" (definition: Whiners)
Democrats : "We have work to do!" (definition: Do'ers)
The article contains a lot more meat, and you should avail yourself of these words of wisdom.
What I want to know is, why aren't the Democratic Leadership (the current Chairman of the Democratic Party, former Governor Tim Kaine; President Obama; Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid) out stumping on this flavor of political harangue?
I accept that Liberals and Liberalism is still only supported by about 1 in 4 Americans.
I understand that another word for politics is negotiation.
What I don't understand is how in the world demanding that TV News dispense News in place of Gossip is a liberal viewpoint.
Don't Conservatives have any interest whatsoever in verifible facts anymore? What about Independent voters, are they now, too, adverse to actual News, and simply interested in gossip?
This is no way to run a country, much less a Free Press.
All of you Liberals, Progressives, Independents - Howard Dean is speaking to you. He's reminding you (and me), once again, that the true power in America is held, in the end, by the voters - and that the power clenched in the hands of some of our current politicians is transitory and may be, at any time, taken back by The People.
All that is required is for voters to remain diligent, when it comes to our Government and those who Serve therein - and to remind their fellow Americans to do the same, and to Vote, when the opportunity arises.
So, scandals and disasters and the gossip of the day aside, there is still a place for News, and for those who would use such news to inform their thoughts and decisions - and we need every damned one of those people to come out in November of 2010 and tell the world, again, whose vision for American is the right correct path.
Keep on reading, and blogging, and talking - and most of all, keep up the energy and passion for GOTV this year.
Because we might have won the Oval Office in November of 2008, but it's the heart and soul of America that is at stake in 2010.
Either we, as a nation, progress into a future guided by the 'big tent' ideals of the Democratic Party; or we fall back into the 'compassionate conservatism' of the Republican Party, and lose all hope of any better days in our future.
As our fallen compatriot Steve Gilliard wrote (way back in December of 2003),
in his iconic rant "I'm a Fighting Liberal":
I know what I am. |
What are you? |