With a doff of the hat to Trace for sharing, watch this with joy and ask yourself this question:
Why is it that it takes a fictional character to tell the truth about liberalism? Why won't Democrats, especially Southern Democrats (Cohen, etc. excluded, of course) say this now? If you're ashamed to be a liberal, take a hike.
Showing posts with label Liberalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liberalism. Show all posts
Monday, August 02, 2010
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
When you enter House District 62 you're entering the Twilight Zone
I never knew the Shelbyville area was that weird a place. When Democratic Rep. Curt Cobb resigned his House 62 seat to take a clerkship in the Bedford County Courts, he set off a chain of events that has led to the following:
1) His brother Tyrus, or Ty, a UPS driver, ran for and won the Democratic nomination. He is not to be confused with Democratic State Rep. Tyler "Ty" Cobb, a Columbia firefighter. Then, he sought AND WON the endorsement of....wait for it...TENNESSEE RIGHT TO LIFE. Yes, the people who think that people like us who believe in a woman's right to choose what to do with her body are baby-killers. How did this happen?
Well, because 2) Pat Marsh, the GOP nominee, had been a DEMOCRAT until right before the filing deadline, and apparently thought it would be easier to win the open seat as a Republican than as a Democrat. As every seat is now crucial in a 50-49 House, the GOP establishment has circled the wagons around him. The establishment, yes. The GOP rank-and-file, not so much.
They seem to be moving toward 3) the Constitution Party candidate, Chris Brown, who has decided to bring the crazy when he has gotten the chance to debate either or both candidates.
So, we have a Republican who was a Democrat, a Democrat who is anti-choice and the candidate of the Right-to-Life movement, and a Constitution Party candidate who shows signs of out-looning them all. Why the hell should I even care? It's not my district, after all.
You see, this is the problem with the TNDP outside Memphis, they don't seem to really understand what a Democrat is or is supposed to be. (We had that problem for a while ourselves; see under Ford Jr, Harold) The freaking TNDP is even attacking Marsh for allegedly supporting human cloning! What the hell?
What next, a call for the end of fractional reserve banking? Welcome to Bizarro World, folks, where apparently Democrats are running to the right of Republicans (again, ask Jr. how THAT worked for him), who are trying to keep the Constitution Party guy from getting the teabagger types and pretending everything is OK.
THIS whole scenario is why the TNDP, despite the best efforts of Chip Forrester (who is cranking up ground troops as I write) is lost right now. Outside Memphis, with the exception of a few Nashvillians and bloggers, they still seem to think that Blue Dogism is the path to victory and it's still 1992.
To hell with that noise, I say. If you're not a National Democrat, you're not a Democrat, it's that simple.
Or not; see Baucus, Max, or Lincoln, Blanche. I am a Hubert Humphrey Democrat, a Paul Douglas Democrat (look them up) and a Dale Bumpers Democrat (there was one Southerner who understands the term). Those were people who took stands and were respected for those stands, even getting votes from people who might not agree with them.
You see, if all you do is just run slightly to the left of the GOP, the battle keeps moving to the right and away from natural Democratic positions. Why? Because the GOP ALWAYS advances their beliefs and their agenda. The Democrats here? Gosh, no, we don't want to offend our preachers or Mom or the druggist or whomever, so we can't do that.
BULLSHIT. People respect you when you stand up and fight for your beliefs. The crazy teabaggers? Well, right now, they're unreachable, so quit worrying about them. If you can't make a case for liberalism, what the hell are you doing in the Democratic Party? I am tired of appeasement (and that goes for you, too, Mr. President, STAND UP FOR THE PUBLIC OPTION AND USE YOUR BULLY PULPIT!) and I want Democrats who FIGHT and move the agenda forward. If you can't do that, move over for someone who can.
Besides, we're running out of guys named Ty Cobb.
UPDATE: Andy Axel, who makes a great comment, goes on to write a post of his own at KnoxViews well worth your time, and Aunt B. joins the fun as well. Our beloved Newscoma follows up on this, too.
1) His brother Tyrus, or Ty, a UPS driver, ran for and won the Democratic nomination. He is not to be confused with Democratic State Rep. Tyler "Ty" Cobb, a Columbia firefighter. Then, he sought AND WON the endorsement of....wait for it...TENNESSEE RIGHT TO LIFE. Yes, the people who think that people like us who believe in a woman's right to choose what to do with her body are baby-killers. How did this happen?
Well, because 2) Pat Marsh, the GOP nominee, had been a DEMOCRAT until right before the filing deadline, and apparently thought it would be easier to win the open seat as a Republican than as a Democrat. As every seat is now crucial in a 50-49 House, the GOP establishment has circled the wagons around him. The establishment, yes. The GOP rank-and-file, not so much.
They seem to be moving toward 3) the Constitution Party candidate, Chris Brown, who has decided to bring the crazy when he has gotten the chance to debate either or both candidates.
So, we have a Republican who was a Democrat, a Democrat who is anti-choice and the candidate of the Right-to-Life movement, and a Constitution Party candidate who shows signs of out-looning them all. Why the hell should I even care? It's not my district, after all.
You see, this is the problem with the TNDP outside Memphis, they don't seem to really understand what a Democrat is or is supposed to be. (We had that problem for a while ourselves; see under Ford Jr, Harold) The freaking TNDP is even attacking Marsh for allegedly supporting human cloning! What the hell?
What next, a call for the end of fractional reserve banking? Welcome to Bizarro World, folks, where apparently Democrats are running to the right of Republicans (again, ask Jr. how THAT worked for him), who are trying to keep the Constitution Party guy from getting the teabagger types and pretending everything is OK.
THIS whole scenario is why the TNDP, despite the best efforts of Chip Forrester (who is cranking up ground troops as I write) is lost right now. Outside Memphis, with the exception of a few Nashvillians and bloggers, they still seem to think that Blue Dogism is the path to victory and it's still 1992.
To hell with that noise, I say. If you're not a National Democrat, you're not a Democrat, it's that simple.
Or not; see Baucus, Max, or Lincoln, Blanche. I am a Hubert Humphrey Democrat, a Paul Douglas Democrat (look them up) and a Dale Bumpers Democrat (there was one Southerner who understands the term). Those were people who took stands and were respected for those stands, even getting votes from people who might not agree with them.
You see, if all you do is just run slightly to the left of the GOP, the battle keeps moving to the right and away from natural Democratic positions. Why? Because the GOP ALWAYS advances their beliefs and their agenda. The Democrats here? Gosh, no, we don't want to offend our preachers or Mom or the druggist or whomever, so we can't do that.
BULLSHIT. People respect you when you stand up and fight for your beliefs. The crazy teabaggers? Well, right now, they're unreachable, so quit worrying about them. If you can't make a case for liberalism, what the hell are you doing in the Democratic Party? I am tired of appeasement (and that goes for you, too, Mr. President, STAND UP FOR THE PUBLIC OPTION AND USE YOUR BULLY PULPIT!) and I want Democrats who FIGHT and move the agenda forward. If you can't do that, move over for someone who can.
Besides, we're running out of guys named Ty Cobb.
UPDATE: Andy Axel, who makes a great comment, goes on to write a post of his own at KnoxViews well worth your time, and Aunt B. joins the fun as well. Our beloved Newscoma follows up on this, too.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Yeah, I know...
I've been a slacker this week, but I'm not alone (Jon, where are you?) and I will have more up later, I promise, really, really, I do.
I am getting more pissed off at the Democrats in Congress (excluding MY Congressman, who, with one exception, has been his usual progressive self) for being the very wimps that the VRWC says they are. They seem to forget very easily why we sent them there, to stop at every turn the corporatist policies of the Republicans who have tried to destroy everything that America stands for.
Which is why Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer should be run out of the party and kept out.
Enough on that.
I want to say GREAT JOB to the Flyer for expanding their blogroll, which I have been fortunate enough to be included for some time now, there are more great local blogs than ever, and Kudos to them.
More later.
I am getting more pissed off at the Democrats in Congress (excluding MY Congressman, who, with one exception, has been his usual progressive self) for being the very wimps that the VRWC says they are. They seem to forget very easily why we sent them there, to stop at every turn the corporatist policies of the Republicans who have tried to destroy everything that America stands for.
Which is why Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer should be run out of the party and kept out.
Enough on that.
I want to say GREAT JOB to the Flyer for expanding their blogroll, which I have been fortunate enough to be included for some time now, there are more great local blogs than ever, and Kudos to them.
More later.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Steve Gilliard's I'M A FIGHTING LIBERAL
Jesse Wendel at the Group News Blog reminded us of this classic Gilly post today, and I repost it here because it is the spirit that I would hope we would all emulate. Gilly, you are deeply missed.
I'm a fighting liberal
You know, I've studied history, I've read about America and you know something, if it weren't for liberals, we'd be living in a dark, evil country, far worse than anything Bush could conjure up. A world where children were told to piss on the side of the road because they weren't fit to pee in a white outhouse, where women had to get back alley abortions and where rape was a joke, unless the alleged criminal was black, whereupon he was hung from a tree and castrated.
What has conservatism given America? A stable social order? A peaceful homelife? Respect for law and order? No. Hell, no. It hasn't given us anything we didn't have and it wants to take away our freedoms.
The Founding Fathers, as flawed as they were, slaveowners and pornographers, smugglers and terrorists, understood one thing, a man's path to God needed no help from the state. Is the religion of these conservatives so fragile that they need the state to prop it up, to tell us how to pray and think? Is that what they stand for? Is that their America?
Conservatism plays on fear and thrives on lies and dishonesty. I grew up with honest, decent conservatives and those people have been replaced by the party of greed. It is one thing to want less government interference and smaller, fiscally responsible government. It is another thing entirely to be a corporate whore, selling out to the highest bidder because the CEO fattens your campaign chest. They are building an America which cannot be sustained. One based on the benefit of the few at the cost of the many. The indifferent boss who hires too few people and works them to death or until they break down sick. Cheap labor capitalism has replaced common sense. "Globalism" which is really guise for exploitation, replaced fair trade, which is nothing like fair for the trapped semi-slaves of the maquliadoras. In the Texas border towns, hundreds of these women have been used as sex slaves and then apparently killed,the FBI powerless to do anything as the criminals sit in Mexico untouched by law.
For the better part of a decade, the conservatives made liberal a dirty word. Well, it isn't. It represents the best and most noble nature of what America stands for: equitable government services, old age pensions, health care, education, fair trials and humane imprisonment. It is the heart and soul of what made American different and better than other countries. Not only an escape from oppression, but the opportunity to thrive in land free of tradition and the repression that can bring. We offered a democracy which didn't enshrine the rich and made them feel they had an obligation to their workers.
Bush and the people around him disdain that. They think, by accident of birth and circumstance, they were meant to rule the world and those who did not agree would suffer.
Liberal does not and has not meant weak until the conservatives said it did. Was Martin Luther King weak? Bobby Kennedy? Gene McCarthy? It was the liberals who remade this country and ended legal segregation and legal sexism. Not the conservatives, who wanted to hold on to the old ways.
It's time to regain the sprit of FDR and Truman and the people around them. People who believed in the public good over private gain. It is time to stop apologizing for being a liberal and be proud to fight for your beliefs. No more shying away or being defined by other people. Liberals believe in a strong defense and punishment for crime. But not preemption and pointless jail sentences. We believe no American should be turned away from a hospital because they are too poor or lack a proper legal defense. We believe that people should make enough from one job to live on, to spend time on raising their family. We believe that individuals and not the state should dictate who gets married and why. The best way to defend marriage is to expand, not restrict it.
It was the liberals who opposed the Nazis while the conservatives were plotting to get their brown shirts or fund Hitler. It was the liberals who warned about Spain and fought there, who joined the RAF to fight the Germans, who brought democracy to Germany and Japan. Let us not forget it was the conservatives who opposed defending America until the Germans sank our ships. They would have done nothing as Britain came under Nazi control. It was they who supported Joe McCarthy and his baseless, drink fueled claims.
Without liberals, there would be no modern America, just a Nazi sattlelite state. Liberals weak on defense? Liberals created America's defense. The conservatives only need vets at election time.
It is time to stop looking for an accomodation with the right. They want none for us. They want to win, at any price. So, you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?
I'm a fighting liberal
You know, I've studied history, I've read about America and you know something, if it weren't for liberals, we'd be living in a dark, evil country, far worse than anything Bush could conjure up. A world where children were told to piss on the side of the road because they weren't fit to pee in a white outhouse, where women had to get back alley abortions and where rape was a joke, unless the alleged criminal was black, whereupon he was hung from a tree and castrated.
What has conservatism given America? A stable social order? A peaceful homelife? Respect for law and order? No. Hell, no. It hasn't given us anything we didn't have and it wants to take away our freedoms.
The Founding Fathers, as flawed as they were, slaveowners and pornographers, smugglers and terrorists, understood one thing, a man's path to God needed no help from the state. Is the religion of these conservatives so fragile that they need the state to prop it up, to tell us how to pray and think? Is that what they stand for? Is that their America?
Conservatism plays on fear and thrives on lies and dishonesty. I grew up with honest, decent conservatives and those people have been replaced by the party of greed. It is one thing to want less government interference and smaller, fiscally responsible government. It is another thing entirely to be a corporate whore, selling out to the highest bidder because the CEO fattens your campaign chest. They are building an America which cannot be sustained. One based on the benefit of the few at the cost of the many. The indifferent boss who hires too few people and works them to death or until they break down sick. Cheap labor capitalism has replaced common sense. "Globalism" which is really guise for exploitation, replaced fair trade, which is nothing like fair for the trapped semi-slaves of the maquliadoras. In the Texas border towns, hundreds of these women have been used as sex slaves and then apparently killed,the FBI powerless to do anything as the criminals sit in Mexico untouched by law.
For the better part of a decade, the conservatives made liberal a dirty word. Well, it isn't. It represents the best and most noble nature of what America stands for: equitable government services, old age pensions, health care, education, fair trials and humane imprisonment. It is the heart and soul of what made American different and better than other countries. Not only an escape from oppression, but the opportunity to thrive in land free of tradition and the repression that can bring. We offered a democracy which didn't enshrine the rich and made them feel they had an obligation to their workers.
Bush and the people around him disdain that. They think, by accident of birth and circumstance, they were meant to rule the world and those who did not agree would suffer.
Liberal does not and has not meant weak until the conservatives said it did. Was Martin Luther King weak? Bobby Kennedy? Gene McCarthy? It was the liberals who remade this country and ended legal segregation and legal sexism. Not the conservatives, who wanted to hold on to the old ways.
It's time to regain the sprit of FDR and Truman and the people around them. People who believed in the public good over private gain. It is time to stop apologizing for being a liberal and be proud to fight for your beliefs. No more shying away or being defined by other people. Liberals believe in a strong defense and punishment for crime. But not preemption and pointless jail sentences. We believe no American should be turned away from a hospital because they are too poor or lack a proper legal defense. We believe that people should make enough from one job to live on, to spend time on raising their family. We believe that individuals and not the state should dictate who gets married and why. The best way to defend marriage is to expand, not restrict it.
It was the liberals who opposed the Nazis while the conservatives were plotting to get their brown shirts or fund Hitler. It was the liberals who warned about Spain and fought there, who joined the RAF to fight the Germans, who brought democracy to Germany and Japan. Let us not forget it was the conservatives who opposed defending America until the Germans sank our ships. They would have done nothing as Britain came under Nazi control. It was they who supported Joe McCarthy and his baseless, drink fueled claims.
Without liberals, there would be no modern America, just a Nazi sattlelite state. Liberals weak on defense? Liberals created America's defense. The conservatives only need vets at election time.
It is time to stop looking for an accomodation with the right. They want none for us. They want to win, at any price. So, you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?
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