The "politics as usual" attitude of the Democratic candidates is preventing necessary measures for saving our country from being planned and publicized. The "as usual" I'm referring to is the ASSUMPTION that a candidate who is not a sitting president plans to hold the office for TWO TERMS. In 2008, for a Democrat, this makes no sense.
First, everyone has said that this is an election that no one wants to win, which is why the GOP are satisfied to have the deeply flawed and controversial-to-the- extreme-right candidate, John McCain. If he loses, no big deal.
Second, everyone knows that if a Democrat wins, all of the sudden, the free-ride on the budget deficit, the trade deficit, the stock market, etc. will come to a screeching halt. All the blame for the financial disaster (that Bush and the GOP Congress and his appointees, Greenspan and Bernake, created, nurtured, and brought to fruition) will be dumped on the incoming Democrat.
Third, this Democrat will be forced to confront the fact that we have lost in Iraq and that we treat our wounded servicemen like trash. This Democrat will have to begin the withdrawal from Iraq. That means he/she will have to shoulder another phony "stab-in-the-back" smear campaign about "not staying the course", "betraying our servicemen", etc.
The corporate media grow more anti-Democratic and pro-GOP every day. They shelter McCain from Hagee while "Dean screaming" Obama about Wright. They refuse to talk about the shill generals on TV, the open admission of torture by Bush. Any elected Democrat can expect to be more tortured than Bill Clinton was by a constant drumbeat of character assassination and phony scandals.
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So, if I were the Democratic nominee, I would say:
I intend to do everything in my power to repair the damage Bush, and his corporate and theocrat enablers (and their media propagandists) have done to the U.S. To its Constitution, its economy, and its millitary - not to mention its free press and its global reputation. This will make me a lot of enemies among the corporate class and the American ayatollahs. As FDR said, "I welcome their hatred."
If we do not dramatically turn America around within four years, there won't be an America to turn around. If we do not embark on a massive investment in Alternative Energy and Mass Transit, our economy will collapse from rising oil prices in less than four years. If we do not embark on a massive effort to stop Greenhouse Gases, our planet will see even more widespread environmental damage than we are already seeing. We may even move past the environmental point-of-no-return in those four years. If we do not bring accountability before the law to the massive, coordinated, and on-going criminality of the Bush-Cheney years, our Constitution will be null and void.
All of these efforts will be sabotaged, counter-attacked, and resisted to the last ditch by the mercenaries of big money, a.k.a. the "politics as usual" crowd of both parties - pollsters, political advisors, pundits, lobbyists. They are part of a trans-national corporate elite. They think that it is America's turn for some Shock Doctrine. They think that it will be business as usual for crooks, cronies, and ideologues.
I refuse to think about or talk about 2012. The fight for our country and our planet will be won or lost long before then. I ask you to tell the truth, today, in 2008, about our greatly diminished future, about the existing (but denied) multiple emergencies that threaten our prosperity, our lives, and our planet.
I will not go out whimpering poll-tested talking points and responding to gotcha queries from corporate stooges.
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Yeah,I will hear such a speech from either Barack or Hillary - in my dreams. This country is so over.
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