I have been watching the events of the past week and am slowly coming to the realization that the administration is turning this whole mess into a political windfall. W is showing great compassion and is getting a chance to look very "Presidentual" at his press conferences. Nevermind that he is in large measure responsible for the total chaos that followed the levee breaks.
Putting that aside for the time being, I am wondering what changes are going to occur to bring the "liberals" (my side of the isle I think) back into graces with the majority of the population. As it stands, I haven't seen anything or anyone that looks appealing or shows strong leadership. We (the liberals that is) seem to be caught in a moras of self-pity and inaction, probably created by fear.
I keep hearing that the only way to "win" is to move "toward the center" - in other words to adopt more conservative positions. This is making less and less sense to me the more that I think about it. I think we are already at the center. We are at the place that makes sense and will work. Any further movement to the right just moves the center of the entire spectrum of choices further to the right and continues the mess that we are currently caught in.
I think out biggest problem is that we don't seem to have a position. The Democrat leaders seem to be hunting for votes, hunting for polls and trying to find what is going to be there position from looking "out there" rather than in their hearts. Personally, I am not interested in voting for someone who is playing at being a liberal so they can get elected. I am interested in voting for people who are liberals in their heart and are willing to take chances for their beliefs. Enough of the wishy-washy approach to politics.
I think it is time for the liberal politicians (and citizens) to be brave enough to voice clearly what they believe in. Let the polls and votes do what they do. If we never have the guts to say what we believe we will never know if it is supported by the majority or not. I would much rather lose the battle but present good, clear arguments expressing our point of view than win (or most likely lose) the battle by putting on the clothing of a conservative.
We need to have the guts to say that we are trying to reach equality for all. That we are trying to make sure that everyone has adequate shelter, healthcare, food and education. That we want to be friends and partners with the other countries of the world. That we want to help where we can help, locally and internationally. That we want to do what we can to protect the environment by caring for our land, getting us off of the petrochemical orgy, caring for our forests, caring for wildlife and plants, and our neighborhoods. We want to root out and destroy corruption in our politics. We want to reduce the power of big business over us. We want to tax the rich more than we want to tax the poor. We want good jobs for everyone and a chicken in every pot. We need to be in support of women's rights, the right to choice, the right to marry whoever we want to marry (in the governmental sense, not necessarily the religious sense). We want religion out of politics - completely! (Personally, I want to eliminate all tax breaks for religious organizations. Maybe something for their truly humanitian efforts, but nothing for their religious teachings.) We want to stop the control of politics by big money. We want to stop, or at least minize, the system where those who give a lot to election funding get a lot in return later on.
I am not quite sure what belongs on the list, or how long it would get, but I think you get my point. We need a bunch of clear "planks" to our position and those should be plainly stated. No hedging or beating around the bush. No trying to expess it in terms that might confuse those on the other side enough to vote for us even though they don't agree. It has to be clear enough that there is no question about the positions being expressed. If that isn't good enough to win, then at least we lost with dignity. As it is, the entire process is an embarrassed and I am getting sick and tired of being embarrassed by politicians who claim to support the ideas that I believe in, but then mush up the message so much that nobody could support their position (including me).
It is time to stand up and be counted, to be clear and to be proud of the positions that we believe in.
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