Letters to the Editor
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They would not listen...they're not listening still...
"Perhaps they never will". (Consider this the long Scary Scary Night of the Democratic Party)
It's long past time to wake up from this nightmare.
During the 2004 elections, I campaigned as a surrogate for John Kerry and was told repeatedly, even smacked down now and then, for saying ANYTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT GEORGE BUSH. You're campaigning FOR Kerry, not AGAINST Bush, we were all told. This, despite the fact that in our minds, there was no question...we sacrificed our income and our comfort for one reason...to see that George Bush was NOT RE-ELECTED. You could have substituted Homer Simpson for Kerry, and we (or at least, I)would have campaigned just as hard. Sad, but necessary.
Because then, and now, it was and is about George Bush and the "more of the same" his party will visit upon us if they retain the White House. Particularly now that they have created a virtual fascist state in place of our democracy.
If anybody doubts the wisdom of our convictions then, you have only to look at the horrific and almost irrepairable damage Bush has done. Damage we were predicting and depicting years ago. We were dying to shake Kerry and tell him what we thought...stop taking the punches and hit back. Hard. But somewhere, some highly paid, not-so-competent strategist was calling the shots to play dead. The orders to campaign strictly on Kerry's resume were uniformly enforced, from the daily talking points to the oversight by our young, politically inexperienced and naive road handlers. And we all know how it ended.
All you have to do is listen to the Dems and watch the way they still respond to the extreme right's finger-wagging rants to see that they didn't learn a thing in 2004.
Democrats need to get over their fear of being criticized by their opponents...and their enemies. They need to believe that they can speak up, especially when it is a FACT that an overwhelming majority of Americans WANT them to speak up, and will support them when they do.
I am firmly supportive of everyone on the Democratic roster. They are all intelligent, competent, reliable and honorable people, in my opinion. I have my favorite, but after the primaries, I will work like crazy to get the winner elected.
However, unless the Democrats stop listening to their inner compromise and start doing some serious truth-telling about the practices and policies of the other side, we are going to have a too-close-for-comfort race. Because voters are too lazy, in the main, to do any reseach or think for themselves. Case in point "flip flop". And then, we will have to worry about where the next Katherine Harris will pop up, and who is on the Supreme Court.
Note to Democrats: Save us. Stop pussyfooting around the devastation this administration has wrought, and the prospect of more to come for years. The elephant in the room won't disappear just because you persist in campaigning as though it's really just all about you.