We have a new mantra that is so simple -- and so precise in its cut-the-BS clarity, that we would be fools if we failed to re-use it. Use it early and often.
It is phrase that has the potential to rewrite political gamesmanship, if only it can be turned into the next ready-made cultural catch-phrase:
They Deserve a Vote!
(aka.
Do your damn jobs -- you Congressional posers!)
John McCain: Chuck Hagel Opposition Stems Partially From Attacks On Bush
by Mollie Reilly, Huffington Post -- Feb 14, 2013
[...]
McCain, who voted to delay a final vote on Hagel's confirmation, told Fox News' Neil Cavuto that Hagel's old colleagues haven't forgotten his criticism of former President Bush.
"To be honest with you, Neil, it goes back to -- there's a lot of ill will towards Senator Hagel because when he was a Republican, he attacked President Bush mercilessly, at one point said he was the worst president since Herbert Hoover, said the surge was the worst blunder since the Vietnam War, which is nonsense, and was anti his own party and people," McCain said.
"People don't forget that," McCain continued. "You can disagree, but if you're disagreeable, people don't forget that."
Yes Senator
I-can-hold-Grudge McCain -- Senator Hegel and fellow Vietnam vet -- and
all the enlisted people he will lead:
They deserve a Vote!
Yes Senator Watch-me-be-crazier-than-my-Primary-challenger Graham, throughout the history of the nation: the President's Cabinet nominees have always deserved a yes-or-no Vote!
’They Deserve a Vote’ Can Be More Than Rhetoric
by Jonathan Alter, bloomberg.com -- Feb 14, 2013
[...]
Hagel would be the first unpromoted enlisted man to head the Pentagon. If he’s blocked, Obama should rouse audiences of retired enlisted men with the message: “You deserve a vote.”
If voting is framed as a right -- as a service that the public “deserves” -- the politics of at least a few issues can change in subtle but significant ways.
There’s a big difference between aridly advocating filibuster reform and passionately demanding that members of Congress do what they are paid to do -- vote.
Americans who voted to have
actual representation down there in Washington DC, by our elected officials --
We too deserve a Vote!
Last time we checked, that was sort of in the Job Description of being a Representative or a Senator: Voting.
Voting -- it's the reason we elect them in the first place -- you know, to actually Take the damn vote! ... To get stuff done. To start fixing our many problems.
All those untold victims of Gun Violence (32,000 annually), they too and the loved ones that they leave behind, They ALL deserve a Vote! (They've earned it -- that minimum statement of common decency.)
As President Obama so empassionately framed it a few days ago ...
State of the Union -- “They deserve a Vote”
by Alex Rogers, swampland.time.com -- Feb. 12, 2013
[President Barack Obama, 2013 State of the Union: ]
[...]
Hadiya’s parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote.
Gabby Giffords deserves a vote.
The families of Newtown deserve a vote.
The families of Aurora deserve a vote.
The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote.
Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country. Indeed, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I’ve outlined tonight. But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can [...]
Interesting thing here in case you didn't know, that most memorable of phrases turned by President Obama at that State of the Union address --
was NOT on the Teleprompter.
It was an Ad-lib; a real-life expression of emotion and intellectual conviction. A rallying cry for our shared moral outrage, at the NRA's formulaic obstruction, and outrage at their congressional stonewalling would-be enablers too.
Repetition of 'They Deserve A Vote' Wasn't in Obama's Prepared Remarks
by Elizabeth Flock, Washington Whispers, USNews.com -- Feb 13, 2013
[...]
The most interesting ad-lib happened when Obama spoke about gun control, delivering an impassioned repetition of the phrase "They deserve a vote," in reference to victims of gun violence, including of the December shooting in Newtown. In his prepared remarks, Obama said the phrase "they deserve a vote" just once, then named the victims, then reiterated that "they deserve a simple vote." When he got to the podium, the president added in the phrase four more times.
George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California-Berkeley and a Democratic political strategist, says the repetition of "they deserve a vote" was a reflection of a speech he says was all about empathy.
"He's saying... 'Do you have empathy for the victims? Are you afraid to even say that you don't?' It's an emotional moment. He's saying 'Look, who are you?'" The moment was made stronger, according to Lakoff, because "the other guys [in Congress] were just just sitting there not clapping, saying nothing."
[...]
Hey you Congress-matons
sitting-on-your-hands,
doing-nothing --
We the American People deserve a your Vote!
We expect you to Do your damn jobs! We expect you to vote on the People's Business -- Up or Down. Yes or No. Each and Every Bill. THAT's WHY you make the "Big Bucks," Senators.
The Minority Party should not take every voting situation -- even Cabinet Nominees -- and turn them into the equivalent of a political hostage-taking situation. This is a Democracy -- NOT my-way-or-the-highway brute force coup d'État. You know, Majority rules -- like the founders intended it.
And in an actual functioning Democracy -- the people, through their Representatives, actually Vote. Vote on Bills ... they DO NOT obstinately block them out of petty spite or juvenile truth-or-dare whims.
At least our Democracy used to run that way, before Grover and ALEC, and the Kochs and the NRA, and the American Petroleum Institute, all came to town -- and paid to change "the rules of the legislative game."
Senate blocks Hagel nomination - for now
by Susan Davis and David Jackson, USA TODAY -- Feb 14, 2013
[...]
President Obama said at a Google hangout that he believes Hagel will be confirmed, but the "Republican minority" seems to think there should be "60 votes for everything" that comes before the Senate.
"The filibuster has historically been used selectively," Obama said. "We don't have a 60-vote rule."
"It's just unfortunate this kind of politics" is being played while U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, Obama said.
Very well said President Obama:
"We don't have a 60-vote rule." ... "They deserve a vote."
And
Americans deserve a Vote too -- especially after 4 long years with
record-breaking use of the Filibuster by the GOP. So to all those republican obstructionists out there
hoping to re-brand your Party -- here's a little advice for you. Instead of pursuing your own personal primary agendas and your grudge-match vendettas years old, you would be wise to remember the
most recent warnings from your own banner carrier of that not-so-winning 2008 campaign:
"You can disagree, but if you're disagreeable, people don't forget that."
We will remember ... remember who said No, who said Yes -- and
who would not even let a Bill (or a Nominee) receive an Up or Down Vote.
With so many lives hanging in the balance, we the American People, owe them that much -- to pay attention; to keep tabs on the political hostage-takers this time around.
To demand a damn Vote from our so-called over-paid, on-permanent-vacation, Congressional {cough} "leaders." Each and Every time.
And we will remember:
They Deserve a Vote!
... and not just more of the same-old same-old --
same old petty excuses.
We deserve action from those that we dare to send to DC. Hey Congressional posers, just remember that (whenever your latest vacation mindset ever ends.)