I have spent much of the time when I rant on here criticizing the right. I think it is high time we took a hard look at how the once proud and strong Democratic Party became weak and pathetic.
In a recent interview, Gore Vidal said the Democrats biggest problem is that they want to be the party who doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings. They want to be nice, happy and politically correct. This reminds me of a movie called “Stripes.” I have always enjoyed the montage of magazine covers at the end of the film which clue in the viewer as to the destiny of each character. Russell Zisky, played by Harold Ramis, ended up on the cover of Urban Warfare Magazine with the byline, Zisky Rates the Russians: “They’re Pussies!”
Well, ol’ Markie here is rating the Democrats and I pretty much feel the same way. So this time around I thought I would give five action items to Howard Dean, the new Chairman of the DNC, on how to return to glory. Here they are:
1. Iraq. Most people in this country are against this war. Most people, and they are right, think that the goal of this war was to pad the pockets of big business. When the midterm elections roll around, I suggest the Democrats show images of all the people we have killed over there. Let’s start with the women and children and let’s see some real gore. I don’t want to see the pantywaist bullshit they show on the news or the 3-5 second shots Michael Moore showed in Fahrenheit 911. Let’s see some dead children. And then let’s see some executives from Haliburton golfing. The American people are coddled every day with their video games and lazy boy sofas. Most folks aren’t use to seeing that kind of horror up close and they need to see it. This war is a complete waste of resources and an insult to the men and women that serve our country in the armed forces. And while we are on the subject of war….
2. Where the hell is Osama Bin Laden? You remember, him, right? He is the guy responsible for killing 3000 people on our soil in the worst attack in our country’s history. And how about Zawahari? What is going with Al Qaeda and am I the only one left who wants to find these people and kick their ass ten different ways from Cleveland? The Democrats could start getting out into the media and saying this stuff so when the next attack comes (and it will) they can be on record questioning Bush on what he has been doing. I think Bush would be pretty hard pressed to get ANOTHER free pass if there was another major attack and he was busy counting his oil money.
3. How about some tough talk on the real nutters of the world? Folks, let’s face it. Saddam Hussein looked like Jerry Garcia after a bender when they pulled him out his hole. He was no threat to anyone. Iran and North Korea, however, ARE a threat and actually have WMDs. And aren’t we, at this very moment, doing the one thing that right wingers accuse the left of doing? Negotiating? The Dems should be all over this like white on rice. We are letting Europe handle the negotiations with Iran? Huh? And China handle North Korea? What is going on here? Shouldn’t the United States handle negotiations with the second and third dangers (the first being Al Qaeda) to our National security? The Dems used to be the party of great presidents (FDR, Truman, JFK) standing tall in the face of evil. Time to start doing that again, folks!
4. I recently watched the movie Hotel Rwanda and I hate to be the one to break this to the Democrats but people of all nationalities, races, and religions are evil. White people are not the only ones responsible for the world’s ills and they need to stop giving free passes out and/or feeling sorry for people based on the color of their skin. The Democrats could go a long way with Middle America if they judged people based on their actions alone.
5. Domestically speaking, the Democrats need to be the party of Health Care for everyone. If there is one thing, in addition to video games, that Americans love, it's money. Blaming lawyers and mal practice suits for the rising cost of health care is very one dimensional and myopic. The problem is that the industry as a whole is very greedy and needs to be stopped. The words health and money should not be uttered in the same sentence. I am not saying that I have an overall solution but it seems to me that the Democrats should stick a bunch of smart people in a room somewhere and come up with a solution that makes Joe America not have to pay through the arse when he goes to the doctor and gets his pain medications.
Well, Howard, these are my suggestions. The ball is in your court. It’s time to make like Andre and hit a cross court forehand with some wang on it and bury them!
4 comments:
#4 - amen. I obviously agree that whitey has done a great deal of wrong in the past. Pointing fingers and laying blame does nothing to help us remedy today's situation, however. As long as we continue in this environment of white=bad and color=victim we will go nowhere but backwards as a society. Unfortunately, that's going to be a hard cycle to break, because entitlement is a very powerful motivator.
#5 - My opposition to "health care for everybody" is well-known, so I'll just leave this one alone.
#3 - I'm not sure I understand your message on this one. You want the US to proactively seek out and eliminate "threats" to our security? Who is going to define what's a threat and what is not? (Clearly you don't trust GWB to do that...) Who says NK and Iran are any more of a threat that what Iraq was thought to be? And I thought international policing was the job of the UN and not unilateral action on the part of the US? Help me out on what policy you're advocating I support here...
#2 - This is a no win situation for GWB or whoever might be in the White House. If you dedicate enormous manpower and $$$ trying to track these people down, who are hiding among people with no motivation to turn them in, then you are criticized for being ineffective and needlessly wasting $$$. If you don't turn up those individuals, however, you are criticized for being incompetent or for having the wrong priorities. The only thing you can do is catch those individuals, but once you do, you'll be criticized for making them martyrs and furthering the cause of your enemies. No, I don't buy this one. GWB and crew are properly motivated for finding these scumbags, and constructive criticism is the order of the day here.
#1 - This one blows my mind. You are honestly suggesting that human misery be used for political gain? For your own satisfaction? To further a political agenda you support?
How very disappointing....
The media also portrays black people as being criminals and thus fuels the fear that people of color are out to git us. My entire point here is judge on action alone.
People that have nuclear weapons and are lunatics (Iran and NK) are threats. People who do not (Iraq) are not. The problem here is a matter of intelligence. We need some.
Our society as a whole should try to find OBL....media included. Imagine a world where the media focused as much attention on OBL as it does on Jacko. We would find him in a day.
I am not suggesting the human misery be used for political gain. People need to see the truth. I don't think they want to see it. But someone, and it might as well be the Democrats, should show it. What have the got to lose?
Besides, wasn't it Mark Kennedy who showed images of children being killed and then claimed that Patty Wetterling was behind it? This has already been done before. Don't sound so shocked.
This has already been done before. Don't sound so shocked
Did you just break out the "They started it" argument?
I agree that people need to see the truth. What does that have to do with Republicans and Democrats, neither of whom have any reason to tell the truth unless it actually gets them something?
I would like to say we could rely on the media to show us the truth as they are allegedly independent of political cause, but we all know that's not really true. If not furthering their own political agenda (CBS, FoxNews) they are simply pursuing the mightiest of all motivators -- $$$. It's hard to really blame the media for going apeshit over Jacko, though. They're just showing "us" what "we" want to see.
“Iraq - Most people in this country are against this war. Most people, and they are right, think that the goal of this war was to pad the pockets of big business”
Most people? Wouldn’t know it by the election results. The anti-war movement isn’t that big, they’re just really loud. Yes businesses are making money – they aren’t going to go over there and risk their lives out of the goodness of their hearts, assuming they have hearts. It’s all selective outrage – Halliburton was awarded a no-bid contract in the 1990’s in Yugoslavia and no one uttered a peep of condemnation then. I’m not asking anyone to defend Clinton but you get the drift.
“I suggest the Democrats show images of all the people we have killed over there. Let’s start with the women and children and let’s see some real gore.”
I think that “most people” understand that there are casualties in war. Yeah, lets put hundreds of images of people the US has killed on political advertisements so Al Jazeera can run those images 24/7. The only results of that idea would be 1.) furthering the already distorted world view of the daily realities in Iraq 2.) contributing to a further erosion of international support for the United States' efforts there and 3.) strengthening the insurgents' resolve and recruiting efforts. How can someone who claims to “support our troops” advocate something like this? The terrorists propaganda machine is almost worthy of envy these days due to people like Michael Moore, who they know will give their actions air time in order to divide this country as well as the world. You can bet that Al Zarqawi would be dancing in the street if images of his deeds were to be shown and repeated over and over on US television. Did it ever occur to you that this type of notoriety is just what the terrorists want and need? Every headline they grab is a victory for them. Those who have read the ancient Chinese military theorist and army general Sun Tzu will recall the philosophy of "Kill one, scare ten thousand" as the basic theory behind the strategy of terrorism. Through fear (that word again), the terrorist can then manipulate the behavior of the masses. The media allows the terrorist to use relatively small but spectacular events that directly affect very few, and spread them around the world to scare millions. With each commercial that would run the enemy would score another point and the good guys would lose one and this method of scoring slowly would erode domestic and international support while fueling the enemy's cause. Maybe if you show the images often enough you can have people line up to spit on our boys upon their return to the states…this all from people who claim to “support the troops”? Saying “both sides do it” is hardly a justification. What suffers in the end is not GWB, it’s the American image abroad. You lefties have already had a field day with the Abu Ghuraib photos as well as the images of a battle weary Marine making a split second decision (and a correct one at that) in shooting an injured terrorist to "support" the troops enough as it is so this type of “support” isn’t needed anymore, even though I’m convinced you posted that just to get a reaction.
“What is going on with Al Qaeda”
See above paragraph…they are busy using the political left to further their propaganda machine.
“And aren’t we, at this very moment, doing the one thing that right wingers accuse the left of doing? Negotiating? The Dems should be all over this like white on rice.”
Well there is negotiating and there is war with nothing in between. Democrats criticize GWB for going to war and then they criticize him for negotiating. Half of them bitch about taking Saddam down and the other half bitch about not taking action in Iran or other places in the world. I wish they would pick a side and stay on it. You all don’t even know which side of the issue you’re on, how is any president supposed to satisfy you guys?
“the Democrats need to be the party of Health Care for everyone”
Universal healthcare would have its benefits no doubt but it would also virtually eliminate private insurance firms, causing more unemployment and more loss of tax revenue thereby requiring even higher tax rates. It would literally put thousands upon thousands of folks in the insurance industry out of work and their capital infused into markets is in part what keeps things going around.
I thought the democrats were the party of protecting people’s jobs. Who’s jobs are next?
Maybe the pharmaceutical jobs? It was kind of ironic last year during the election cycle - democrats pushing for moving pharmaceutical jobs offshore via stimulating demand for imported drugs. Where are the unions on this one? I guess their partisanship is deeper than their commitments to American workers. I was pleased that the dems were not afraid of hypocrisy by saying they protects America’s workers when this policy is contrary to that very end. So importing drugs already available in America and costing even more people their jobs is in the "greater good"? It gives one pause to think: if they throw pharmaceutical workers and insurance company jobs to the wind for political gain which other workers that they are "battling for" will get tossed to the wind as well the moment it is politically expedient to do so?
I dealt with a lot of these companies as McKesson has a large pharmaceutical division. You tell the workers at the Searle plant or the Baxter plants in Chicago or the Pfizer plants in NY state that they are not in the drug manufacturing business, then be sure to duck as they throw things at you. Indianapolis is another city with many pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs as well. While you’re at it, tell Aventis Behring that we are no longer in the manufacturing business for drugs, considering the 2000 pharmaceutical jobs they have in a small town just south of Chicago.
Since the imported drugs would be produced across the border, the FDA says they can't be assured of their quality because the FDA has no jurisdiction in those plants. Moreover, if they were exported at a lower price then re-imported and sold at even a lower price, Bayer in Germany (my old parent company) and the French pharmaceutical firms would be in the WTO so fast to get sanctions on us it would make your head spin.
Man this pointing out hypocrisy stuff can wear a guy out – the left battling for the poor downtrodden workers then coming up with a scheme to shift demand to drugs manufactured in foreign plants. Perhaps there is something I am missing: is there a plan to relocate our displaced workers to another country as part of the fighting for the little guy thing?
Canada has a waiting list for most procedures. Imagine our fast food society being told their procedure will be performed on them in 6-9 months. The government never ever runs anything efficiently, nor cheaply.
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