I hate ABC’s fucking right-wing leaning The Note. This morning they have a list of truisms about the midterm elections. Among them is an appalling canard.

A week is a lifetime in politics blah blah blah.

Some things, however, can get baked into the electoral cake. The White House and congressional Republicans will not give up until Election Day on making Iraq less of an albatross and on getting more credit for positive economic news. But there are other factors that are immutably fixed in place from now through November:

…— A majority of the minority will be in their hearts for higher taxes, universal health care, a heightened emphasis on civiil (sic) liberties, and a dramatic and swift reduction of troops from Iraq. They know it, the RNC, NRCC, NRSC, and The Note all know it — the Democrats just have to hope that the American people don’t find out until February.















Am I in my heart for higher taxes? Thanks for putting it that way. How about I ask you if you are for record breaking deficits? Here’s what I think about taxes. I think everyone in this country should have some basic things available to them. People should be able to afford to provide housing, basic preventative health care, and education to their children. After those basics are taken care of, a portion of each citizen’s income and wealth should be taxed at a progressive rate. We have a massive government and a massive military. I am open to reducing the size of both. But running our country is tremendously expensive and it must be paid for somehow. I support paying for it by taxing the wealth of people that have enough money not to worry about feeding, educating, or providing health care for their children. I also support raising enough revunue from this generation that the next generation won’t be presented with an enormous IOU. Does that make me a lover of higher taxes? You be the judge.

The Note thinks I want to hide from the American people my desire to see universal health care. What baloney!! In what universe do you have to live where it is a political embarrassment to advocate for fucking health care for all American citizens? It’s just bizarre for The Note to think advocating health care for human beings is some kind of political liability. I’d like to slap Mark Halperin right across his mouth. I bet he has great health coverage from ABC. He needs a reality check.

And God forbid the Democrats should want to put a ‘renewed emphasis’ on civil liberties. If we have any intention of sticking up for civil liberties we certainly should keep that a deep dark secret from the electorate this fall. How goddamn arrogant and insulated and just plain stupid and unpatriotic do you have to be to see the defense of civil liberties as a political liability? This drivel makes me sick to my stomach and ashamed of the pundit class’s depth of cyncism and apathy.

And the last point? We want a ‘dramatic and swift reduction in troops from Iraq’. Last I checked, the American people strongly support just such a move. Why on Earth would we want to disguise our desire to ramp down the war when the war in so unpopular?

The Note is doing nothing more than demonizing progressive values and trying to classify our ideas as so unacceptable and unpopular that we need to pray the electorate never figures them out.

Fuck The Note. Fuck Halperin. We can stand on our own and win these elections. We have nothing to apologize for. Look at the state of the union. You want more of the same? You think the American people do?