A Democrat’s Plea to The Republican Party

~ Deb ~ Leave a comment

Let’s get a few facts out of the way first.  I’m a Democrat.  In fact, I’m a progressive Democrat.  Actually, if I ever thought the Green Party had a chance in hell, I’d vote left of Democrat.  But that doesn’t mean I want the entire country to think just like me.  I’m a Democrat who recognizes that we need Republicans (and yes, Republicans, you need Democrats too).  A diverse political discourse is vital to the our national health.  The ultimate example of checks and balances is not found in the constitutional framework for our government, but rather in a balanced two-party system.

So, with the back story out of the way, I’d like to make a personal plea to all Republicans.  Take your party back.

I would like to continue to have intelligent discussions with Republicans about how trickle-down economics has never worked, how rampant deregulation is akin to giving a five-year-old boy an all-you-can-eat day at the candy store, and how free trade will ultimately decimate the middle class until we can bring all those countries we trade with up to our standard of living.  But, those conversations are increasingly difficult to have because of a particular phenomenon in your party which has been made glaringly manifest with this election.

Somewhere along the journey of the past 20-30 years, you sold your soul to the religious right.  The end result is that the things you now have to do to play to your base debase your party.  The extreme right faction of the Republican Party became the party’s core over the past couple of decades and now you are stuck with pandering to a few staunch social positions.  Quite bluntly, if overnight some magical shift happened and the Democrats became the pro-life, pro-gun, anti-gay marriage party, you would lose your “base” to Barack Obama on November 4th in droves.  The true essence of the Republican party has been lost in the strident rhetoric of some very angry people.

When your best hope for the presidency runs a campaign that is reduced to name calling and race baiting, you must admit that the party is in trouble.  (By the way, Senator McCain, the correct response to someone calling Barack Obama an “Arab” is not, “No, he’s a decent family man.”  The correct response is “There are many decent hard-working Arab-Americans.  However, Barack Obama is not of Arab descent.”)  My personal advice to the Republican Party, should they actually request it, would be to cut your losses and stop putting any more money into the McCain Drain that is this election and focus on restoring your party’s former greatness.

Pandering to the religious right has done more than just shift the focus from what you’re good at to what will get you votes.  It has watered down the very focus of your political philosophy.  Now the party that shouts for smaller government and deregulation is socially commited to putting government smack dab into the middle of a woman’s reproductive choices and regulating the relationships of millions of gay Americans.  If you truly want smaller government, then you can start by eliminating the segments of Capitol Hill that hold meetings in my uterus and my bedroom.

Ah, but I got sidetracked by issues, didn’t I?  And this really isn’t about issues at all.  It’s about who owns your party.  Bay Buchanan insisted on CNN that those radicals who say outlandish things at John McCain’s now wisely-defunct town meeting style rallies represent maybe only 1% of Republicans.  If that’s true, then you guys have some really terrible luck.  What are the odds that 1% of your base would so often have a microphone at a presidential rally?

We’ll debate gay marriage and abortion and taxes and trade policies another time.  Forgive my tangent.  Until then, I humbly ask all thoughtful, balanced, intellectually-curious Republicans out there to please take your party back.   I may disagree with you on economics, but I recognize that you’ve got some pretty impressive economic minds among your ranks, and our country needs them.  I may disagree with you on the way to handle Iraq and Afghanistan, but you’ve got some brilliant foreign affairs brains on your team, and our country needs them.  I may disagree with your party’s official stance on abortion and gay marriage, but I know that you’ve got plenty of moderates in your number who would be willing to work with Democratic moderates to find equitable solutions that we can live with, and our country needs that.

Dear, wonderful Republicans, you won’t get my vote this November 4th, but you will have my support and applause should you return to your core values, restructure your fractured base, and take your party back.

Why I am a Democrat

~ Deb ~ 3 Comments

I wasn’t sure I wanted to get political on this blog, but this is on my mind so it’s showing up here.  I will refrain, however, from delving deeply into the pros and cons of the various candidates.  I will hold myself back from saying that Sarah Palin is a strident, smug, sarcastic woman whose speeches sound more like angry stand-up comedy than problem-solving ideas.  I will resist the urge to point out that John McCain’s “straight talk” is about as forward moving as the Teacup Ride at Disneyworld.   I will not discuss Joe Biden’s place in my heart as one of my all-time favorite politicians, smartass though he may be at times.   And I certainly will not be writing about the way Barack Obama makes me believe he really can heal the world, with our help.

No, instead I want to speak in more general, philosophical terms.  Who is running is somewhat secondary to the ideas behind the two sides, and never before in my lifetime have the two sides been more (pardon the pun) black and white.

I am a Democrat because of my values.  The principles which I hold dear and, yes, would fight for are the same ones espoused by Democrats.

1)   I value civil liberties.  It literally brought a chill to my spine when Sarah Palin thought it was some kind of punch line to state that Barack Obama wants to make sure we have read terrorists their rights.  It brought an even deeper chill when thousands of Republican delegates applauded in response.  There is a little concept called “liberty and justice FOR ALL” which I (call me old-fashioned) still believe is at the core of American values.

2)   I value the people of America over the government, industries, and institutions of America.  The Republicans have a foundational belief that if they take care of business, business will take care of the people.  The Democrats believe that if you take care of the people, the people will take care of business.  You only have to compare the booming economy under Democrats with the floundering economy under Republicans to see which idea has proved true.

3)  I value the Constitution.  Never in my life have I seen our Constitution take such as beating as it has over the past eight years.  The Patriot Act was the most grossly misnamed bill to ever cross a President’s desk.  It is not patriotism to infringe on the basic rights of privacy and due process afforded us by a system that has held strong for 230 years.

4)  I value human rights.  The Republicans seem hell-bent on restricting rights while Democrats would expand them.  Republicans want to tell people how to live.  Democrats want to help people live their best lives in their own unique and creative ways.

5)   I value the separation of church and state.   Regardless of what a person thinks their bible or their preacher tells them about gay marriage, the issue of marriage in our society is a civil issue.  So many issues – abortion, gay rights, faith-based initiatives, gun control, the death penalty – seem to be influenced heavily by the bellows of the religious right.  In the same way that we do not let a Koran or the Tao determine who gets the benefits of our society, neither should we allow the Christian Bible or the Torah.  America seems to have arrived at a point where all presidential candidates have to undergo a religious vetting process.  Our increasing flirtation with theocracy scares the hell out of me ever so much more than any of my grandfather’s sermons ever did.

6)   I believe in the strength of diversity.  All you have to do is recall the audience shots from the two conventions to see who has this area covered.  During the Democratic convention, CNN ran little tidbits of trivia across the bottom of the screen.  These included what percentage of Asians, African-Americans, Gays and Lesbians, Hispanics, and people with disabilities were included among the Democratic delegates to the convention.  Those statistics were glaringly absent during the Republican National Convention.  Perhaps it was too embarassing to announce that “0.03% of delegates are (fill in the blank with something other than white).”

There are more reasons why I’m a Democrat, but these are the biggies.  And they are among the reasons why I will proudly cast my vote for Barack Obama and Joseph Biden this November 4th.

Feigning Sleep

~ Deb ~ Leave a comment

This morning, just after I woke up and just before I admitted that fact to the world, I daydream fantasized a poem.   I was in an old house, but it was light and airy.  Big wooden windows opened by breaking a paint seal.  Dust motes swimming, diving and rising as the calico’s tail creates a stir from the sill.  Hardwood floors.  High ceilings.  Mismatched furniture.  Desk from a yard sale.  Couch handed down from somebody I don’t remember.  Plastic crates stolen from Purity Dairy holding books, tapes, . . . actual albums.

I see it, hear it, taste it.  I remember it so well, and yet it is no specific place I have ever been.  Rather, this is the vision that remains from long ago feelings.

It’s a rental.  Upstairs a struggling musician lives with his girlfriend.  He’s a bass player, thank god, not a drummer.  The back screen door has a wire coil pulling it shut.  Back porch a slab of concrete with four steps down to the yard, a patchwork quilt of grass, weeds, and bare earth.   Grass has a hard time growing under the constant shade of such big old trees.

I feel it.  It is a house of youthful hope and ancient desire.  It holds a memory of simplicity unappreciated in its time.  It was a place I think I might have been once in the 80s.

When the feeling has been explored, my poet’s mind begins to consider structure and rhythm.  I anticipate the writing by combining words and rolling them around in my mouth awhile like analyzing a vintage Cabernet.

The last line might be, “How could I ever want more?”

Then, finally, I rise from my bed, abandon my theta state wet dream, and turn once again to the world of work and worry.

The United States of the World

~ Deb ~ 1 Comment

I watched the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics last night.  I could write for an entire day about the artistry, precision, and beauty of the spectacle and still not even come within spitting distance of describing it.  How can you not love China?  Tea, calligraphy, tai chi.  Okay, so there’s smog, human rights abuses, and communisim, too, but they still get high marks for the tea.

I love the Olympics.  I enjoy the athletic competition, but that’s really secondary.  I love the Olympics because for that one brief fortnght every two years, governmentsare not the most important players on the international scene.  Presidents take a backseat to pole vaulters.  Dictators are knocked off the front page by diskus throwers.  Sultans don’t have as much gold around their neck as a few really incredible swimmers.

I appreciate the feelings of national pride people can experience around the Olympics.  The Chinese were sure strutting their stuff last night.  And I suppose if I was there I might even chant a few “USA”s myself.  But national pride has a dark side.  It’s an “official” form of bigotry.  We’re from Iraq, so we get to hate Iran.  We’re from Japan, so we get to despise China.  We’re from the U.S., so we get to glare suspiciously at North Korea.  As if people are really different once a national border is crossed. 

The Olympics present a wonderful opportunity to put political ideologies aside and root for the human spirit.   I don’t really care if the American girls win the gymnastics medal or the Romanian girls.  I would absolutely love to see the Island nation of Samoa or the Democratic Republic of the Congo go home with a medal.  ANd some of the best Olympic stories are about the non-medal winners.  I applaud them all. 

I am a citizen of the world and my race is human.  So when the Russians win or the Chinese or the French or the Americans, I swell with pride and sometimes even cry a little during the anthem.