If you haven't already decided that our democracy is under threat when a sitting president joins with the right-wing arm of the republican party to propose to enact huge cuts to our social safety net, then I would urge you to wake up!
The threat to our democracy is the act of attempting to push these cuts through under the guise of a manufactured "crisis": raising the debt ceiling. We've heard it before, with Iraq, with the TARP. You're being manipulated and played for fools, and some of these same politicians have the gall to come to you for money for their campaigns.
It you don't stand and fight, when will you? What does it take to awaken your sense of outrage? I think many here are sleepwalking, afraid to admit the truth to themselves: this President puts the bankers, the oligarchs, before the people. Jobs? They'll trickle down. Social Security not tied to the deficit? Doesn't matter. Homeless rate growing across the nation? What homeless rate?
Using the debt ceiling "crisis" to enact a kind of shock and awe to our social safety net is unconscionable. We don't have to take this kind of treatment.
This is a call to battle for your hard won rights during the pit of the labor movement and the Great Depression in this country. It does Obama no good, btw, for you to be dishonest with yourselves over this. He could stand a bit of pressure, how about a mountain of pressure, to withdraw this proposal to cut our social safety net. And I'm not talking about the tepid action diary on the front page. We need to all start visiting our congressional reps offices like yesterday, en mass, and email and call the White House. Posting your objection all over the internet too won't hurt. Don't think they aren't listening, and watching. What do we have to lose at this point?
We need an army of people fighting for our social safety net. Now.