The GOP and DNC conventions are hopefully showing Americans there is a real choice to be made in November.
Absolutely everyone was on fiah last night! I expected great speeches from the professional politicians, but Lilly Ledbetter brought down the house with her down-home indignation, and Stacey Lihn's moving testimonial for the ACA was the most personal and sincere public speech I have ever seen. Incidentally, I refuse to call it "Obamacare", and I am disappointed Obama's campaign has adopted this overloaded branding of the Affordable Care Act. I understand the rhetorical judo move of turning a GOP talking point back on itself, but "affordable care" says exactly what it means, is a political slam-dunk in its own right, and does not fan the flames of right-wing animosity towards Obama nor of "nanny state" imagery.
Contrasted with the mendacious and angry GOP convention last week, I hope the "persuadables" will be persuaded to make the choice that will keep our country moving in the right direction.
I must confess that the repeated enumeration of Obama's first-term accomplishments last night have gone a long way towards softening my impression of President Obama as "Republican Lite". Like many socialists here, I was disappointed that Obama did not seize the early opportunity afforded him to make substantive structural changes to our health care, education and financial systems.
And, I never bought in to the argument that Obama's premature capitulation to Republicans on issue after issue was motivated by his campaign promise to build a post-partisan America. Rather, I think President Obama is inherently right-of-center, has been unavoidably co-opted by moneyed interests, and personally believes that all we need is some heavy tinkering around the edges of America's profit-driven culture.
Obviously, returning power to the GOP would be a disastrous step backwards, but for those who believe that the Clinton/Obama brand of liberalism is weak tea, and that our New American Century will be driven by true social democracy, below the squiggle is an apropos story as told by Tommy Douglas (1904 - 1986).
Douglas was among the staunchest socialist politicians in Canadian
history. As Premier of Saskatchewan in 1962, he introduced Medicare to
North America. On a trivial note, he is Keifer Sutherland's
grandfather.
It's the story of a place called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place
where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And
they lived much the same as you and I do.
They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election.
Used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even
got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next four years
afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time on election day
all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to
elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats.
Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government made
up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for last 90 years
and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider than we are.
Now I'm not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows.
They conducted their government with dignity. They passed good
laws--that is, laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were
good for cats weren't very good for mice. One of the laws said that
mouseholes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another
law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds--so that a cat
could get his breakfast without too much effort.
All the laws were good laws. For cats. But, oh, they were hard on the
mice. And life was getting harder and harder. And when the mice
couldn't put up with it any more, they decided something had to be
done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the
black cats out. They put in the white cats.
Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign. They said: "All
that Mouseland needs is more vision." They said:"The trouble with
Mouseland is those round mouseholes we got. If you put us in we'll
establish square mouseholes." And they did. And the square mouseholes
were twice as big as the round mouseholes, and now the cat could get
both his paws in. And life was tougher than ever. And when they
couldn't take that anymore, they voted the white cats out and put the
black ones in again. Then they went back to the white cats. Then to
the black cats. They even tried half black cats and half white cats.
And they called that coalition. They even got one government made up
of cats with spots on them: they were cats that tried to make a noise
like a mouse but ate like a cat.
You see, my friends, the trouble wasn't with the colour of the cat.
The trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats, they
naturally looked after cats instead of mice.
Presently there came along one little mouse who had an idea. My
friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. And he said to
the other mice, "Look fellows, why do we keep on electing a government
made up of cats? Why don't we elect a government made up of mice?"
"Oh," they said, "he's a Bolshevik! Lock him up!!"
So they put him in jail.
But I want to remind you: that you can lock up a mouse or a man but
you can't lock up an idea.