2014 is going to go down in history as the Year of the Woman. I'm not usually into making predictions, but it seems pretty clear that the women of America have concluded that enough is enough and the election of Nunn in Georgia, Davis in Texas, Bellows in Maine, Shaheen in New Hampshire and Grimes in Kentucky, among others, will show what that means.
Meanwhile, if the message is to be well delivered, money is needed and the citizenry is going to be asked to cough some up. And, for some inexplicable reason (professional propagandists?) candidates flying the democratic banner have taken to touting doom and gloom scenarios to loose the purse strings. "Catastrophic" seems to be one of the words du jour.
Thankfully, Michelle Nunn, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Georgia has not gone that route. Her latest missive comes with the subject line "What you need to know." After that comes what the GOP considers an attack, but you be the judge.
The GOP is in full-on attack mode.
Over the air, outside special interest groups are running misleading, negative ads against someone who has dedicated her life to trying to make a difference for others.
And the mischaracterizations don't end there. One of the first things our opponent, David Perdue, did as the GOP nominee was to attack Michelle's record of service and attempt to belittle her lifetime of helping others.
...
In a not-so-thinly-veiled attempt to discredit Michelle’s decades of service and leadership, Perdue said:
“Who brings more value to the debate? Someone who has been running a philanthropy for 15 years -- or whatever -- or someone who has been out here – not to go bragging, competing in the real world!”
Let's take a minute to think about what Perdue’s “real world,” looks like: his real world includes shipping thousands of jobs overseas while his company shut down plants here in Georgia, leading a company that went bankrupt, costing over 7 thousand people their jobs while Perdue walked away with millions, and running another company that paid 20 million dollars to 2,100 women for not paying them fairly or treating them equally.
Washington doesn't need more of the same -- politicians putting their own gains above the needs of the people.
That's the last thing those of us living in the, ahem, real world want or need.
While I'm not sure I'd use the word "paid" in connection with a penalty for unfair treatment, Purdue is the obvious master when it comes to weasel words.
"Philanthropy" and "competition" are weasel words. One is reminded of the long ago effort to disparage a candidate's relative with the word "thespian."
There is something to be said for employing simple language. In this case, the appropriate comparison is between a "caring" Nunn and a "predatory" Perdue. This David seems to have lost his way and wandered into an unfamiliar arena.
As our Democratic candidate for the House seat from the first District in Georgia, Brian Reese, has clearly laid out, "politics is not a spectator sport." Elections aren't contests; they're a hiring process and the important actors are the voters.
Want to be important? Be a voter!
Finally, I'm not sure what I think about the word "collaborator" that's being deployed by Democrats talking about working together. It's an entirely appropriate word and definitely in need of rehabilitation from its conservative usage as a dysphemism.
dys·phe·mism
ˈdisfəˌmizəm
noun
noun: dysphemism; plural noun: dysphemisms
a derogatory or unpleasant term used instead of a pleasant or neutral one, such as “loony bin” for “mental hospital.”
On the other hand, dissing the fem is a conservative constant, don't you know?
But, "enough is enough!"