I don't know the guy. I don't know if he'd agree with me on any issue. I don't know if he's a nice guy or not. For all I know, he might torture small animals and steal my car.
But right now, I love the guy. So does everyone who watched the drama unfold on tv, or who's heard the story or read about it.
I love him...
I love him for one simple reason -- he knew how to fly that plane.
That's a sharp contrast to the Bush adminstration. I think that's a point we can't make often enough, and I think that simple competence can be the winning theme for us in the midterms and in 2008, if those of us out in the trenches are willing to do the work to challenge the Republicans on that every single day until then.
First, we need to get behind candidates who have more than just charisma and passion, but who are charismatic and passionate about running government cleanly, openly and well.
Secondly, all of us have to do lots more than gnashing our teeth over the Bush administration's ineptitude and complaining about it here on kos. We're doing an awful lot of preaching to the choir. What we can do, and must do, is go out into potentially hostile territory -- non-liberal blogs and forums, local newspapers, talking to friends and neighbors, and the like. There are political discussions all over the place in otherwise non-political fora, and we need to be there every day, calling the Bushies on their incompetence.
WMD? The economy? Responding to Katrina? The list goes on and on of examples where this administration showed they can't fly the plane. We've shown we can. We need to say that every single day, and know the facts supporting what we say.
Yes, it can be frustrating, it can be tiring, and we've all got other things we'd rather do. But because we care about our country and the world, and because any more years of Republican dominance of American government will allow these weasels to continue to screw us and virtually everyone else, we've got to do it.
We can't rely on the DNC, we can't rely on the DLC, or any other group. If we're going to change things, it's going to have to come one voter at a time, and it's going to have to be all of us as individuals who shoulder our share of the work.