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Republican Excuses, Democratic Apologies

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Tim Mooring

Democrats are in a state of denial that just won't quit. Everybody is singing the praises of www.sorryeverybody.com. I for one am as sick of democrats apologizing as I am of republicans making up new excuses for the same old self-serving policies.

The DNC website is all about how, under Terry McAulliffe's inspired leadership, record funding was obtained for the '04 election. This is not where reality lies. People contributed money to the democratic party to defeat George Bush. The DNC, even with record funding and one of the most unpopular incumbents in history still managed to lose the election. When we needed an antiwar candidate we got John Kerry who borrowed money from himself (I'm being nice here) in order to defeat Howard Dean. Once that was done he promptly paid himself back from the contributions of mom and pop democrats. In addition he cleverly stashed away 15 million to get a jump start on any upstarts in '08.

They're at it again. Circling the wagons around Roemer to keep Dean out. These people are killing the democratic party. And maybe it is Bill Clinton's fault. After all, McAuliffe was his man and all the Roemer supporters are from the BC camp of the party. I love Bill Clinton and think he was an excellent president. But he's been remarkably ineffective at getting anyone else elected. First Gore, then Kerry. There's this issue of very heavy baggage that encumbers all Clinton candidates. Bill had the personality, the brain and the chutzpah (I'm being nice again) to win. His friends and supporters are nice people -- but they're not Bill Clinton and they're not going to win.

This is the bush-age and we need leaders and candidates that are the antidote to bush. We don't need to emulate the republicans or republican strategies. Republicans respond to the "Special Ed" treatment, democrats are smart enough for -- and even demand -- a more enlightened approach.

Notice how the republicans have moved seamlessly from denying global warming to global warming is not necessarily a bad thing -- northern sea routes, etc. REPUBLICANS buy this crap and don't at all mind the hypocrisy associated with it. They'll follow bush into hell with the same gung-ho, "bring it on" attitude of their tin horn excuse for a president.

Democrats need to address a much broader range of topics than just murder and mayhem in Iraq and the greater middle-east. This is the tactic that skilled prosecutors use to convict felons. They present the jury (the electorate) with a pattern of behavior that supports a guilty verdict on the central charge (murder and mayhem in Iraq and the greater middle-east). Everything from environmental policy (pass the sockeye salmon please) to space policy (bouncing off the moon to Mars). From civil rights to economic recidivism (the piss-on-the-poor theory of "trickle down" or "voodoo" economics). You really don't have to be that clever to counter the republican tactic of "just drink a little more of this poison and everything will be alright."

People are ready to realize that big business and their government fronts like the FDA and the FCC are *not* their friends. Medical marijuana is bad for you -- but "Ask your doctor about Vioxx, Celebrex or Zoloft." Even idiots eventually tire of idiocy, just as children tire of parents that only want to be their "best friends." Democrats need to present the face of reality and throw the "H" word into republican faces. I don't need to tell you what I'm talking about. It's common knowledge now, and we just need to treat it as such. It's a special case where derision is an appropriate tactic -- even though it's not a democratic specialty. After all they've had their heyday with the "L" word.

Democrats need to escape from the causal-loop of complain-capitulate-whine. One of the things that I most liked about Bill Clinton was his concept of that there should be a symbiotic relationship between environmental technologies and a good economy. We need to embrace this concept and others like it.

For instance republicans sabotage any chance of solving the N. Korean situation because they need it to justify Star Wars. The situation on the Korean peninsula has been begging for resolution for years now. They don't have any oil and don't have any money to buy oil. There are nuclear technologies that generate electricity that cannot be adapted for production of weapons. Let's get the lights turned on in this pathetically poor relic of the cold war age, get some light industry going and move towards reunification.

Instead of missile defense, let's get back to Low Earth Orbit, finish the International Space Station, refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope, and build a replacement for the Space Shuttle. There's no cheese on the moon, we've been there and know that. Just as NASA is getting good at robotic missions to explore the solar system bush wants to drop it in favor of sending a manned mission to Mars. Why? To plant the American flag? This is a justification that would only make sense to the bush crowd. It would divert money to their corporate pals in the short term, fail in the long term and bush would get to console the widows in a space suit. NASA should continue to improve their prowess with robotic missions, to the point where robots could build a *residence* on Mars so that when manned missions eventually arrived they could do more than just plant the flag and return to earth. The military needs the spin offs from these types of technologies to build the cost effective armed forces we will need to keep America strong in the future. Bush's vision is focused on short term ROI that presupposes eventual (faster than you think) bankruptcy.

Democrats need to find and champion a vision of the future that presupposes a future.

Tim Mooring

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION