Letters to the Editor
Taliesan
Published Letters: 942 Editor's Choice: 19
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As to divisions
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The electoral narrative has been "Don't vote Edwards because, essentially, he is too liberal."
Yeah because actually standing on firm ground was really Kerry's weakness. And lets not forget Gore's campaigning on "I am more harmless than the next guy." Gore as he is today would win with a wide enough margin to not have the election stolen. In 2000, not so much.
The narrative with Hillary and Obama? With Hillary it is "She is a tough centrist" and with Obama "He will unify the nation by appealing to the middle ground."
Where is the guy with enough guts to stand up and say "Yes I am a liberal and I am going to fight for my liberal beliefs"?
Coming third because the liberals, as a base, have no confidence in the idea that they might actually be right - even when it is absolutely clear that they are.
Look at what conservative ideology has wrought in America over the last 7 years.
The economy is on the verge of a recession, peaking lower than the previous peak for the first time since the great depression, your debt has almost doubled, your inflation adjusted deficits can only really be compared to those you had during WWII, your housing market is collapsing, your financial institutions require bailing out, your disaster relief agencies are now a sick joke with the head of FEMA being chosen by default because noone else wants the job, your human rights record is in the toilet, your foreign policy is a study of repeated failures and you are in two wars at the same time.
The military is overstretched, your environmental standards are lax to the point where they are actively harming your exports (Because American cars are seen as gas guzzling polution-mobiles, and hence, unappealing to a fair portion of the export market) your savings rate has gone negative, your schools have gotten worse, and you can no longer trust other countries to send you their best and safest products.
Your scientific policies are backwards, you have court battles over basic biology in your schools every few years, and a large plurality, if not majority, of Americans believe in creationism - even though the vast majority of your people have no Biblical knowledge beyond what their preacher assures them is really in the book (Which half the time, actually isn't.)
It is time to cut the bullshit and admit it to ourselves - liberalism has been demonstrated to be correct, and the conservative ideology which has led America to where it is now, is wrong.
Now, the thing is, I am not going to keep quiet about my support for Edwards, even if it appears to harm the candidate who wins. Why? Because it is time for liberals to stop appologising for being liberals, and if we keep quiet about the problems with the candidates or why we think one candidate is better than another, we are no better than the Republicans who shut up, hold their noses and vote in a national disaster because they don't want a Democrat to win.
The divisions within the Democratic base over what we think is best for America are important, they are what make us strong because we don't all agree and our divergent views keep us from making the mistake of groupthink - where unity becomes more important than achieving a given goal.
America is at a point where the next presidential candidates are submitting their CVs and going to interviews to get the job of running America. That is what the elections cycle is all about.
The most important thing should be who is best for the job, not who is nicest, the best statement on gender or racial equality, or even who has the best haircut. It is about who can do the job and right now, arguing over who can do the job serves an important function in finding that person who is best suited for it.
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Here is the problem:
[Read the article: Don't be happy, worry]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are times when the most appropriate emotion is depression. There are times during which you should not be happy, when it is right and good to feel down in the dumps.
And for those times, there is a magic little pill which isn't all that different to the various drugs you can get on your street corner, save that this one is legal.
You are told not to medicate your moods by the government, and the government's chums in big pharma tell you all about what neat new mood altering drugs they have for you.
America is medicating its humanity away, while big pharma gets rich and the competition gets thrown in jail.
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AKA Smith
[Read the article: Did Hillary Clinton really win in Florida?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yeah because real maturity is whining about the popular kid *gasp* not acknowledging you.
Yep, that thar is sure the mature way of doing things.
Meanwhile, what did Hillary do when Putin wished America a merry Christmas?
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Okay, let me get this straight:
[Read the article: Did Hillary Clinton really win in Florida?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Florida decided to hold its primaries earlier than the party was willing to allow (IE: They told the party to go stuff itself.)
In retaliation by the Democratic power that be, Florida was stripped of its delegates. While I disagree with this, I feel that decisions should be, you know, decided.
The three front-running candidates agreed not to campaign in Florida which shows that they sort of agreed to this.
Obama, made a statement about how he would support Florida getting its delegates back after all - so long as it didn't stop him winning.
Hillary, basically kept schtum on Florida getting its delegates back right up until they voted overwhelmingly in her favour, when she decided that Floridians weren't so bad after all.
Edwards, so far still looks better than either of them.