Well, the cat got out of the bag early as they so often will do. I was going to announce on July 10th (my 50th birthday) before our Journey for Humanity that I would run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) if she didn’t put impeachment back on the table before our tour reached DC on July 23rd. Impeachment was never hers to take off the table as it is a Constitutional remedy for BushCo, not an optional smorgasbord choice. However, the story was leaked to the AP and we couldn’t keep the big announcement under wrap
The feedback I have been receiving since then has been about three to one positive and supportive. Some people have offered to quit their jobs to move to California’s 8th to help my possible campaign. People are lining up to donate and help and I am again very grateful and touched beyond belief by the generosity and energy of my fellow Americans.
I truly understand the not so supportive people, though, because I have been in their shoes. Here in the USA most of us put our faith in a two-party system that has failed peace and justice consistently and repeatedly. The Republicans do not have a monopoly on the culture of corruption (although BushCo have elevated it to policy status) and the way we do politics in this country needs a serious shake up when all we the people are getting is a shake down. I was frightened out of ever voting for a third party, or independent candidate, but voting out of fear is one of the things that bestowed the Bush Crime Mob upon us and may give us the Republican in actuality, if not in name, Hillary Clinton.
I was a life-long Democrat only because the choices were limited. The Democrats are the party of slavery and were the party that started every war in the 20th Century except the other Bush debacle. The Federal Reserve, permanent federal (and unconstitutional) income taxes, Japanese Concentration Camps and, not one, but two atom bombs dropped on the innocent citizens of Japan were brought to us via the Democrats. Don’t tell me the Democrats are our “Saviors” because I am not buying it especially after they bought and purchased more caskets and more devastating pain when they financed and co-facilitated more of George’s abysmal occupation and they are allowing a melt down of our representative Republic by allowing the evils of the executive branch to continue unrestrained by their silent complicity. Good change has happened during Democratic regimes, but as in the civil rights and union movements, the positive changes occurred because of the people not the politicians.
I have nothing personally against Nancy and have found our previous interactions very pleasant but being “against” the occupation of Iraq means ending it by ending the funding and preventing future illegal wars of aggression by holding BushCo accountable. Words have to be backed up by action and if they aren’t they are as empty as Cheney’s conscience.
If Ms. Pelosi does her Constitutional and moral duty by July 23rd, then I believe some balance will be restored to the universe and my organization, People for Humanity can carry on with our humanitarian projects, if she doesn’t we will carry on anyway with a campaign to run to boot. I hope this challenges other people who desire healthy political change and not temporary band-aids to replace other Democrats and Republicans who do not conform to the beatitudes of peace, sustainability and the rule of law for everybody, not just poor, or marginalized persons.
I don’t have the power to destroy the Democratic Party as some people have written. The Dems themselves are doing a good job of that and if they don’t wake up and distance themselves from George faster than the Republicans are and if they don’t realize that people are more important than politics, they will go the way of the Whigs and sometimes endings are as appropriate and constructive as beginnings.
I wouldn’t put myself in this if I were not serious and committed to making America a better country than we have now and holding people to a much higher standard than politics as usual. I am rested, restored to health and ready to rumble and realize that if ever there was a time for politics as unusual, it is now!
For more information, or to donate, to our walk/caravan from Camp Casey to NYC, please www.thecampcaseypeaceinstitute.org.