Letters to the Editor
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Just a nit: misuse of the word "overwhelm"
In this post you wrote: "The House overwhelmingly approved a new version of the vetoed SCHIP legislation Thursday afternoon, but there are still aren't enough votes to overturn a veto if President Bush nixes the bill again."
In this context, use of the word "overhwhelmingly" could only be fairly applied to a vote that would be large enough to override a veto. To overwhelm is to overcome, to surge over. It simply was approved, and by less than 2/3 of the house, unfortunately.
Like I said, just an editing nit. I love the war room!
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Just shut down the government for 120 days
Close it down. Stop all services - all Medicare, Medicaid, government utilities, water sanitation, landfills, crop subsidies, road repair, the TVA, the EPA, the air traffic controllers, the VA. Everything.
That should save some money. Let's see how that works out.
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Wouldn't it be better
to not sink to the level of vapid debate so embraced by the right wing? Stark contrasts and Good vs. Evil narratives are out, man. This country needs some good, honest leadership that is willing to dot the i's and crunch some numbers - maybe someone will show up to offer it, eventually.
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Americans are not total idiots
We get that SCHIP is good and everyone in Congress knows exactly what it means. The question for Democrats is whether they will start laying down markers for their takeover of government in 2008 so that they have a mandate for real change, like single payer. Sadly, they show no intention of doing this. If all we're going to get when the Democrats take over the White House is just a handful of what Bush has destroyed, then I guess it's time to move to Canada.
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A very good question indeed. How about...
A very good question indeed. How about...
"no child left uninsured".
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Actually, what WOULD be better
is if the Democrats actually won some of these critical legislation battles, or refused to back down, continually, for fear of being called wimpy. Which they're going to be called no matter what they do, so what's all this compromising for, anyway?
If sinking to the level of vapid debate so embraced by the right wing is the way to do it, I say sink away, people! The Dems seem genetically incapable of matching the Republicans' rhetoric (mother of all tax increases comes to mind, immediately....surrendocrats...etc) Juvenile? Yes. Misleading? Certainly. Effective?? Well, all you have to know to answer that is that despite the results of the 2006 elections, Republicans and President Bush are still getting pretty much everything they wanted from the Democrats, who are THE MAJORITY. Go figure.
Something needs to change, and fast. If snappy soundbites that really don't mean anything do the trick, I say go for it.
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A good point
While I agree with xxysyndrome that there is something that rankles about appropriating vapid "conservative" messaging tactics, I also think that it would be a good idea to use it. The problem is that the tactic works. The public is not the thoughtful, reflective decision making group we might wish it were. Certainly, pretty much everyone is capable of weighing options about complex issues, but that doesn't mean that their lives allow them to actualize those capabilities in regard to national issues. Given that rhetoric obviously works to at least get balls rolling, why not use it to accomplish some good? If it is necessary to use simplistic, rhetorical clubs to accomplish what needs to be done to fix this country and repair the damage done by the irresponsible "conservative" barbarians, then use them. It may be Orwellian to have initiatives called "Healthy Forests" that involve destroying forests, but it is not the same to have a "Healthy Kids" initiative that, well, is meant to help make sure the next generation is, well, healthy. Such a label would work to mobilize passions far more than would the laundry lists of specific policies that the Democratic party tends to put out. The list will still be there, but if we can talk about it in other ways that work better in debate, then why not?
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Precisely what Reps want Americans to forget
The devil is in the details. Dragging our country into the globalized 21st Century, getting our foreign policy anything approaching "back on track" and insuring our citizenry's health are all jobs that have to be done one detail at a time. Leadership can rouse a people's energies (think Kennedy and the space race) and perhaps Dems are lacking in that department these days. But the Reps' dishonest sloganeering and semantic weaseling isn't leadership. It doesn't inspire any more than a bad smell whets the appetite. What it does is turn people off to the whole process, leaving Republicans to pilfer the treasury, borrow the nation into bankruptcy and consolidate their fiefdoms of personal power. A pox on them all.
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@CT voter
I hear you, but one has to be, by nature and constitution, good at wrestling in the mud before one jumps into the mud with a past master. Is it really because we're so daintily intellectual that we don't play unfair, that clever lies don't come trippingly to our tongue? If John Kerry (and his people) could have swiftboated Bush right back in his smug chimp face, he'd probably have been happy to do so. Some people are willing to pick up a rock to end a fight and some aren't. Those who aren't should stay out of fights with those who are.
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Acting Like Republicans
Republicans, and their enablers in the media (Hannity, Limbaugh, etc.) are continually simplifying talking points into these simple moral questions of right and wrong, and the Democrats have always felt that such actions are beneath them.
A simple fact to remember, half of the country is either at, or below average intelligence.
It is very easy to simplify complex progressive talking points into emotionally charged messages that get it across to people who either don't have the time, or the desire, to understand those issues.
On the issue of abortion, Democrats when challenged should no longer talk about the complexities of choice, and socio-economic factors, instead they should be crying foul about how Republicans want to force victims of rape to have babies. Or how they want those babies born, but don't care if they have health care.
It's very easy to do, and Democrats should suck it up, and play hardball on these issues.