Montana Maven's
Opinions Worth Ropin'
Opinions Worth Ropin'
|
||
Hey, Get Your Own Party
This entry was posted on 6/20/2009 8:57 AM and is filed under politics.
Listener Benny of Benny's World blog sent me a link to Bill Maher's righteous riff last night and kindly said it reminded her of me.
Maher's rant on the feckless Democrats and the crazy Republicans is dead on. I dug up a piece that I wrote back in July of 2005. Once I started paying attention again to politics after the coup of 2000 and my entry into party politics with the 2004 campaign of John Edwards, it became clear to me that the Eisenhower/Rockefeller Republicans were steadily taking over the party of labor.
The essay/column was called :
HEY, GET YOUR OWN PARTY!
Hey, what the hay is going on? The party of the “The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit” of the 1950’s was a fairly cooperative bunch with the affable Eisenhower as its leader. Not anymore. The new Rethugnican Party (with leaders like Tom “The Hammer” De Lay, who is inches away from being indicted for fraud) resembles the Corleone crime family. So, much to my dismay, some of my fellow boomers who are moderate Republicans have decided to take over the party I’ve belonged to since the sixties⎯ i.e., the Democratic Party.
Rather than fight the neo-cons and religious fundies for a voice in the GOP, moderate Republicans and blue dog Democrats are actively trying to take over the Democratic Party in name, but not in spirit. They are looking for a place for their corporate friendly bent without the hassle of dealing with icky issues like workers rights, victim’s rights, and troublesome groups like unions, peaceniks, women’s groups and those g.d. bunny huggers. They are used to a patriarchal “Father Knows Best” style of politics and are uncomfortable with the more fraternal we-are-brothers-and-sisters-in -arms style of the New Deal New Society Democrats.
On C-Span I caught Al From, the CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, call for expelling Michael Moore from the party. Michael Moore, the son and grandson of union auto- workers from Michigan, should leave? I don’t think so. Then I switch the channel, and there is Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic, also criticizing moveon.org for making the Democrats look soft on terror by their anti-war talk. Hello! Democrats can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can be anti-foolhardy war fought for profit and at the same time, pro-annihilating terrorist organizations and hunting their elitist leaders that seem to elude capture while regular Muslims keep getting blown up.
Add to that the entrance of anti-choice, pro-social-security-disemboweling, pro trade Tim Roemer into the race for the head of the Democratic National Committee and it became obvious that women, minorities, anti-war activists and union members all should just shut up, behave and ⎯ for women especially ⎯ just go shopping, dearies.
Hey, get your own party, we should say to the corporatists. Let’s get to work and find our real center and our real core that includes rather than excludes. Yeh, we could steal somebody else’s party, maybe the Greens. Or, if many of us were forced to leave (and it looks like millions of women might be getting ready to jump ship rather than return to steerage dressed in burkhas), we could form a new party, but I’m getting too old for that. A new generation needs to pick up the reins on that one. No, for now, let’s stay and fight. Let’s get behind our leader, Hurricane Howard Dean and kick some butt. We either keep our great working middle class party or we are all going to be sitting in that hand basket, going plum to hell.
Diane Kamp; a beer drinking, latte sipping, pick-up driving, book-reading, red meat loving-liberal from Big Timber, Montana also known as the Radio Rancher on Citizens Voice 1450 AM KMMS, Bozeman.
Maher's rant on the feckless Democrats and the crazy Republicans is dead on. I dug up a piece that I wrote back in July of 2005. Once I started paying attention again to politics after the coup of 2000 and my entry into party politics with the 2004 campaign of John Edwards, it became clear to me that the Eisenhower/Rockefeller Republicans were steadily taking over the party of labor.
The essay/column was called :
HEY, GET YOUR OWN PARTY!
Hey, what the hay is going on? The party of the “The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit” of the 1950’s was a fairly cooperative bunch with the affable Eisenhower as its leader. Not anymore. The new Rethugnican Party (with leaders like Tom “The Hammer” De Lay, who is inches away from being indicted for fraud) resembles the Corleone crime family. So, much to my dismay, some of my fellow boomers who are moderate Republicans have decided to take over the party I’ve belonged to since the sixties⎯ i.e., the Democratic Party.
Rather than fight the neo-cons and religious fundies for a voice in the GOP, moderate Republicans and blue dog Democrats are actively trying to take over the Democratic Party in name, but not in spirit. They are looking for a place for their corporate friendly bent without the hassle of dealing with icky issues like workers rights, victim’s rights, and troublesome groups like unions, peaceniks, women’s groups and those g.d. bunny huggers. They are used to a patriarchal “Father Knows Best” style of politics and are uncomfortable with the more fraternal we-are-brothers-and-sisters-in -arms style of the New Deal New Society Democrats.
On C-Span I caught Al From, the CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, call for expelling Michael Moore from the party. Michael Moore, the son and grandson of union auto- workers from Michigan, should leave? I don’t think so. Then I switch the channel, and there is Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic, also criticizing moveon.org for making the Democrats look soft on terror by their anti-war talk. Hello! Democrats can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can be anti-foolhardy war fought for profit and at the same time, pro-annihilating terrorist organizations and hunting their elitist leaders that seem to elude capture while regular Muslims keep getting blown up.
Add to that the entrance of anti-choice, pro-social-security-disemboweling, pro trade Tim Roemer into the race for the head of the Democratic National Committee and it became obvious that women, minorities, anti-war activists and union members all should just shut up, behave and ⎯ for women especially ⎯ just go shopping, dearies.
Hey, get your own party, we should say to the corporatists. Let’s get to work and find our real center and our real core that includes rather than excludes. Yeh, we could steal somebody else’s party, maybe the Greens. Or, if many of us were forced to leave (and it looks like millions of women might be getting ready to jump ship rather than return to steerage dressed in burkhas), we could form a new party, but I’m getting too old for that. A new generation needs to pick up the reins on that one. No, for now, let’s stay and fight. Let’s get behind our leader, Hurricane Howard Dean and kick some butt. We either keep our great working middle class party or we are all going to be sitting in that hand basket, going plum to hell.
Diane Kamp; a beer drinking, latte sipping, pick-up driving, book-reading, red meat loving-liberal from Big Timber, Montana also known as the Radio Rancher on Citizens Voice 1450 AM KMMS, Bozeman.
