I wanted to share this e-mail from my brother who who claims to be a democrat, but has acted like a republican and voted republican most of the time. He cannot understand us and will vote for Bush this fall. I have tried and tried to reason with him. I have offered up cold hard facts, with documentation. But he continues to spout the Hannity and Limbaugh spin lines.
I want you to read my brother's e-mail and then offer up your responses.
I could answer him, but obviously he hasn't listened to a word I have ever told him.
Since he wrote my blog, I am going to post your responses there for him.
Joe Fields
The Bird
http://www.roaringbird.comDear Joe
As we have had dialogue over the past week concerning political issues
and events pertaining to our nation I have decided that this public
forum might suite my interests. However I will need your help and the
input of any of the viewers who come to this forum as well. I ask your
readers to bear with me as I am not skilled in the art of writing and will
make habit of jumping around.
My challenge to all of you is “where has the democratic party gone” why
are they loosing their base at an alarming rate and what will it take
to get them back?
I am a person without a party this is not really a crisis for me
personally but for the party it is, as I am not alone there are many like me
out there and many more that have jumped to the republican side. Some
may say that there is a natural progression to that and I say the
numbers are greater than normal. As a member of organized labor for 20 years
I find it incredible that in the last 2 general elections, of those
that voted 52% of labor voted republican. That coming from what was once
called the labor party should be a wakeup call in itself. I can still
hear the ringing promises shouted through the labor halls many times,
vote for me, vote for me “help is on the way” seldom if ever bearing fruit
once our vote put these officials into office.
Furthermore the renewing life blood of the party which primarily
would be young adults just reaching voting age are headed straight for the
conservative camp in greater numbers than ever. Or I should say it
seems, as is the case with a good cross section of the youth I am involved
with. Let’s let the obvious numbers speak to the problem.
Bill Clinton first campaign should have won by a mile, George Bush
didn’t deserve reelection he sat on his laurels for the last two years in
office and did nothing, the election was too close to call.
Clinton,s bid for reelection came prior to the scandals linked to his
administration, his opposition in Bob Dole was weak at best, and yet the
election was too close to call.
It could be said that Al Gore’s campaign carried no strength coming out
of an administration weighted down with trouble yet he was beat by an
inexperienced governor who many including myself thought not to be very
smart. To those that still hold to the theory of voter fraud it still
leads us back to, too close to call.
And now even with all the problems the current administration has had
and to their credit, all of the corporate scandals that were revealed,
the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and the inevitable fall of a grossly
manipulated stock market could not be faulted to them. However many mistakes
by this administration have been made. Couple that with the
accusations, innuendoes, lies, and the daily scrutiny concerning the war and
economy, mix that with an extremely biased press corps doing it best to see
them to the curb, we should be looking at a runaway landslide. Once
again too close too call.
I listened in to every one of the prime time speakers during the
convention with the slightest possibility of them garnering my vote and to be
honest if there was something of real substance there it probably would
have happened.
I give the convention a good grade for style but in listening to the
speakers I am left confused as to the mixed messages, an America I should
be ashamed of and far too many promises. Besides speaking on the war
there was no talk on the most controversial issues surrounding us today
in Abortion, Gay marriage and the anti gun lobby. Special interest
groups that seem to be holding this party hostage and once again that leaves
me with the feeling that they think I’m stupid.
The party is moving further to the left as it begs to embrace people
like Woopie Goldberg, Michael Moore and Puff Daddy, Hollywood aristocrats
that want to vilify the same nation that helped them to their
successes. Is this what they mean when they speak of two Americas?
I don’t think Americans are stupid, evidence of this will be in the
polls today, and customarily the post convention bounce will be from 12 to
15 points and hold strong a good 6 to 10 until the republicans have
theirs. I think a 4-point bounce will be lucky.
Those of you who have a voice may not choose to look inward at the
party and speak to its problems, maybe you would rather keep gritchin and
finding blame, but really now, how many peoples minds are being changed
by your wrath? The party needs reform and maybe you might be the voice
of change.
Joe as your brother I will tell you straight, I made two decisions
tonight after listening to John Kerry. First my vote will have to go to
George Bush. Second and this is where all you people come in if you care,
I will give this party four years before I change my registration.
God bless America.
Sincerely Mike Fields