What a sunk ship.
I explained to a friend tonight that as the Bush years dragged on I found myself moving further and further to the left. I held the belief that political parties were the source of many ills in American politics and that we should be looking for right answers and not politic ones. I am a liberal moderate, a Mark Warner "radical centrist." As the present campaign has developed, I am becoming more and more of a Democrat. Not because they have all the answers but because they are at least willing to give people a try.
The speeches at the RNC were pathetic, truly pathetic. I know many fine Republicans who will surely be ashamed tomorrow. Republicans hold different values than I but there was always some understanding that they were honorable people. Kiss that goodbye. For democracy to work there has to be debate and not just one party in power. I see nothing coming of this election but, like me, further democratizing of plenty of people.
It is one thing to attack an opponents policies. It is another to attack one's background. Now many of us lay people in politics have made the mistake already of attacking Sarah Palin and John McCain, and others, for issues in their personal lives. The goal is to raise question of these only if there is an issue which would affect their candidacy. An question of Palin's ethics in the dealing with Wooten is valid, for example. Straight up lying that Obama has not authored a single piece of legislation of any inherent worth as a senator is ludicrous. Want to see what Obama has done? Even Wikipedia has a list for crying out loud.
Obama has sponsored "131 bills since Jan 4, 2005.[2] This figure does not include bills to which Obama contributed very substantially as cosponsor, such as the Coburn-Obama Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 or the Lugar-Obama Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act of 2006, which were formally sponsored by Senators Coburn and Lugar, respectively.Note that Senator Lugar is a Republican. That shoots that accusation of never reaching across the aisle out of the water.
Out of all these idiots had to say at the RNC tonight, I heard not one, not one, policy initiative they would promote. Not a single policy except some broad statement like
Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines ... build more new-clear plants ... create jobs with clean coal ... and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.HOW ARE YOU GOING TO PAY FOR THAT WHEN YOU TALK OF DROPPING ALL OF THE TAXES?
I absolutely DO NOT want a higher national debt. I do not want China to own my country. No one likes to have to pay taxes but that is the cost of America running. Small government would be great but it can only be as small as necessary to run the country properly. I do not want these soundbytes. I want honest and practical solutions. If we have to raise a tax here and drop a treaty there or end the war short of whatever victory you think we're supposed to get or whatever else HAS to be done to make sure America has a future then you damn well better do it even if we all complain. It's okay... I'm adult. Treat me like one.
So go donate to the Obama campaign (whatever you can reasonably afford) and maybe we'll get a bumper sticker out there with the apt logo: McCain/Palin: A Bridge to Nowhere