(This is a reprint of the first blog entry at http://blog.bruderly06.com, please feel free to stop by, and by our homepage, http://www.bruderly06.com. We need your support to help take back the House!)
We the People, in order to form a more perfect union…
Welcome to the campaign blog for Dave Bruderly for Congress. Dave has an outstanding website about himself and his campaign. Please take a look at it! I have great faith in Dave’s belief that the Florida Sixth District, along with every other Congressional district in the country, needs a new voice. Less than 30 percent of Americans are happy with the way Congress is running the country, clearly, it is time for a change.
I believe Dave will help provide that change.
This blog will be a frequently updated outlet for readers to learn more about the campaign from the guy who will set the day-to-day course of the campaign. Until Dave is sick of me, I will be helping him guide our effort to unseat the incumbent, Cliff Stearns, and I will describe that effort here.
I’ll also throw in a few of my own observations. This first post will be a manifesto of sorts, hopefully defining why I am working for this campaign, rather than as the reporter I trained for a decade to become.
I asked my younger cousin, in Jacksonville, who he was voting for in 2004 and he said, “Bush, because I hate Democrats.”
I was pretty sure he didn’t hate me, but that incident clarified what I had known for a while. Something MUST be done to make people realize our government is not about parties, it is about people. Dave is going to be a new voice, but the more important promise is that he will represent REAL people.
Our people must rise above the aspects of ourselves that are the most base. We, as a country, must realize that hating Americans because they disagree with us politically is foolhardy, pointless and eventually detrimental to this “noble experiment” of democracy.
Already in our infancy, the politics of fear created a Civil War, waged over issues more bitterly divisive than those we face today. Despite our history, two sides, this time completely arbitrary have been formed; by pundits and planners whose schemes draw us apart as a people, to promote their own agendas.
The truth, as is often the case, has become the first casualty. The truth is that we are all Americans. We desire freedom to live as we choose, within the law. We yearn for the opportunity to worship or not worship, however we see fit. We want an equal opportunity for success in our great nation. We want our children to grow up to be smarter, healthier and blessed by peace and prosperity that we dream of everyday. Moreover, we all want this great country to continue to display itself to the rest of the world as a shining example of what people who are free can accomplish.
Problems have developed from wedges of division driven between Americans by shrewd political minds who know that fear is a constant and incredible motivator.
However, I believe it is time that these fears are overcome.
Dave’s campaign will not be a message of Republican vs. Democrat, religious vs. atheist, or rich vs. poor. This campaign is about the right of EVERY American to have equal ownership in their government, and for government to listen to what the owners have to say.
I am helping to run this campaign because Dave and I have similar beliefs about how our country is best served:
I believe Congress and the President have a DUTY to protect our citizens. At our borders, in our ports, on our roads and in our cities, we must train and pay our law enforcement at every level, in a way that ensures our safety. We must retool our immigration policies to protect that safety as well. It is the duty of the government to know who enters this country. We must know our borders are secure, while not trampling
the dreams of those who long to be one of the “tired, poor, huddled masses, yearning to be free.” After all, they are welcomed by our largest immigrant, the French-made Lady Liberty.
I believe we must bring our troops home from Iraq, as soon as possible. Our presidential administration maintains that the troops will come home when, “the mission is accomplished.”
George W. Bush stood on an aircraft carrier several years ago with a
banner reading, “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.” I know that we cannot remove our
troops immediately, leaving a power vacuum, regardless of the legitimacy of the quagmire we have gotten ourselves into. However, it is time to spell out what the current mission is. We must also begin allowing Iraqis, and encouraging the UN and forces from other Arab nations, whose level of security will be enhanced by a free Iraq, to take up the tasks of defending this nascent “democracy.”
I believe we must rebuild a stagnant economy. Many investors consider our market to be one of the worst investments in the world. We must research new energy solutions, to wean our nation from the teat of foreign oil. We must produce the products of those solutions, and the services they spawn, in America, using American workers, in American plants, and we must encourage American companies to remain in this country.
I believe we must protect our workers with a nationwide standard of health care, alleviating the inefficiency of HMO?s, PPO?s and the costly middlemen of insurance companies and resellers. A nationwide, standard health plan will allow workers to stay healthier and thus more productive. It will also allow workers to budget their health care costs, regardless of where they work. Finally, it will encourage excellence among doctors and hospitals, whose competitive advantage will be to the quality of their work, not the price of their care.
I believe we must harness the enthusiasm, the work ethic and the ingenuity of our citizens, to provide the best education in the world, in top-notch schools, taught by well-paid and well-trained teachers.
I believe we must protect our nation from foreign attack, while protecting it from our own shortcomings domestically. We must fight to lower crime rates, cut drug abuse and begin to cure the economic and mental disadvantages that encourage crime. We must ensure that pollution, deforestation and other environmental issues do not damage the green infrastructure of this land. We must balance a strong economy, a strong moral code and a strong ecology, for the betterment of our citizens now and for the future.
This is not just idealism, for I am a pragmatist. However, I know that if we have vision and courage, to spend our nation’s wealth, our effort and our moral clarity on these goals, to free the government from the burden of greed, if we have the passion for change that encourages every man, woman and corporation to pay their fair share and not to shirk their responsibility, and if we can look to the future of America through the clear eyes of patriots, rather than the jaded glasses of partisan politics, we can accomplish anything.
I am working to elect Dave Bruderly because I know he will be a leader for Florida’s Sixth Congressional District and for the United States of America.
Let me know what you think, leave a comment here or visit our website at
www.bruderly.com, check out the issues page, and find out where Dave stands, and of course, feel free to contribute to our campaign, as we seek to take back the House; not just for the Democrats, but most importantly, for the People.