Today's Republicans are far from Dirksen and that's a shame. Beyond political differences with Obama and the Democrats, they've been making war on reality itself, which should be a major issue of the campaign's final days ... If there's an antidote to this denial and to the paid lies that fuel it, it's citizen participation ... If we're silent, we allow reality itself to become hostage to delusion and our country and planet to pay the price. Paul Rogat Loeb, Republican War on Reality, Truthout, 11-1-10
Vote "R" for Renfeld? This Election is NOT a Referendum on POTUS or Speaker Pelosi, It is a Referendum on Us
By Richard Power
Defeat Feingold, and re-elect Vitter? Privatize social security? Eliminate the minimum wage? Give "pre-existing conditions" back to the health insurance racketeers? Is this who you are, USA? Really?
"We, the People"? This election is NOT a referendum on POTUS or Speaker Pelosi; it is a referendum on us.
Are "We, the people" competent to lead? If control of the House of Representatives passes to the Renfield Party, and Boehner is elected Speaker, we will have the answer; and it will be a much greater tragedy than whatever tragedy (e.g., Afghanistan, no public option, DADT, etc.) caused you to "not vote."
The Republican Party is gone; in its place there is a "Renfield Party," it serves the appetites of its corporatist overlords, who, like vampires, are draining the blood out of your economy, your government, your industrial base, your critical infrastructure, your biosphere, and inevitably your common humanity.
The teabagger Renfield's stream of consciousness sounds like this: "Master needs a cut in his capital gains tax, Master suffers so, Master says I need to privatize my social security, Master is so kind, Master says he will invest it for me, Master says he just can't afford 'no pre-existing conditions,' all God's children are just going to have to 'man-up.' Master knows best. Master needed my job too, he sent it to China, but that's OK, I have boot-straps, and Master is getting the government off my back, Master knows best, Master says the market is a magic place, Master is going to abolish the Department of Education and break the choke hold of those Marxists from the teachers union ..."
Vampires make for excellent erotic fiction, but they make for a tragic political reality.
There is no excuse for not voting, not voting is voting for the most reactionary forces within this country, and voting against the future. And there is no excuse for voting "R" either; it is a vote for death, a vote for despair, a vote for ignorance and fear in the service of greed.
If you think there is no difference between the Parties, or that the difference is not significant enough to call forth your vote, then you really need to sit down and re-evaluate your sources of information.
If "We, the People" return control of the House of Representatives to the Greedy Oil-Drenched Plutocrats (GOP), then it is not POTUS' failure, or the Speaker's failure, it is ours.
If "We, the People" cannot discern the difference between news and propaganda, then we do not deserve the nation the founders gave us.
And of progressives in particular, I ask how is allowing USA to move backwards a rational response to the USA not moving forward fast enough?
Not voting is voting "R"! And "R" for Renfield.
This is going to be terrible. In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness ... Beyond the politics, the crucial difference between the 1990s and now is the state of the economy. When Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, the U.S. economy had strong fundamentals ... Today’s situation is completely different. The economy, weighed down by the debt that households ran up during the Bush-era bubble, is in dire straits; deflation, not inflation, is the clear and present danger. And it’s not at all clear that the Fed has the tools to head off this danger. Right now we very much need active policies on the part of the federal government to get us out of our economic trap. But we won’t get those policies if Republicans control the House. In fact, if they get their way, we’ll get the worst of both worlds: They’ll refuse to do anything to boost the economy now, claiming to be worried about the deficit, while simultaneously increasing long-run deficits with irresponsible tax cuts — cuts they have already announced won’t have to be offset with spending cuts. So if the elections go as expected next week, here’s my advice: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Paul Krugman, Divided We Fail, New York Times, 10-12-10
You can't stomp on us.
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