While reading at dKos this morning, I came across a diary by TXsharon about the candidacy of David Van Os. He’s running for Attorney General of Texas. Unlike the vast majority of today’s fake democrats who infest the power structures in DC, he has no desire to pander to the right wing as a way for democrats to win elections.
I wanted to keep this short, and direct you back to TXsharon’s excellent diary over there, but I also want to post a couple of short quotes, and two audio files to give you an idea of this guy’s positions. As far as I’m concerned, David Van Os speaks for me, because he speaks the truth. This east coast liberal is sick of being told that we need to give up our deepest held principles if we want to ever win elections. I’ll let David Van Os of Texas say it like it needs to be said.
In his own words:
Dare to Fight and Dare to Win.
It is time to discard the “avoid polarization at all costs” strategy, the “take no risks” strategy, the “appeal to everybody” strategy, and the “chase the middle” strategy. It is time to remember what Jim Hightower told us 20 years ago, “there’s nothin’ in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.” It is time to cease the followership strategies of scripting campaigns on the basis of what people thought yesterday in polls, and assert the leadership strategies of campaigning for what we know to be right based on our deepest convictions of what we want for tomorrow. It is time to stop worrying about whom we might offend if we speak truth to power, and start worrying about what value are our lives if we don’t speak truth to power. It is time to cherish partisan Democrats and reject nonpartisan Nothingcrats.
In his own words: (from a post on Texas Kos)
The new Texas Attorney General who is going to get sworn in to the office next January, after having been elected as part of the Texas Democratic ticket, is going to investigate possible connections between the possible fraudulent use of American military forces in Iraq and private corporate profiteering by corporations and persons doing business in Texas and engaging in activities in Texas.
Can you spell Halliburton? Can you spell Oil? Can you spell Fraud? Can you spell No-bid Contract? Can you say, “Fraudulently appropriating the Texas National Guard for the purpose of funneling illegitimate profits to corporate coffers?” Can you say, “Report to the People of Texas by their Attorney General on Possible High Crimes and Misdemeanors?”
And the audio clips
David Van Os’s message to George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzalez
Thanks to David Van Os for speaking the truth and reminding us all what real democrats look and sound like.
And thanks to TXsharon for making my day.
Peace
Lol! Great quote! Send this over to Hillary right away! (cc Lieberman)
O/T.
boran, pls chech your meet-up diary which has scrolled away.
Thanks for pointing this out to everyone super. It’s at the state level that we’re likely to get real change. Especially key statewide races.
I liked his comments. He sounds real.
Now I want a pimento cheese sandwich for lunch. 😉
Real change starts at the most local level. If you think for a moment, it makes sense. You have to expand and deepen a foundation if you want to build on it.
If we focus our efforts on change from the top down, we’ll be disappointed even if we win (!) because the structures will still be set up to support different values and processes than what we aim for. Power corrupts, and that’s another reason for being careful about expecting too much from a top-down approach to change.
If our real aim is “power to” rather than “power over”, we need to go for inside-out change. It is not enough to have just a more palatable outer shell in the form of the most visible parts of the power structure. The real power is held in the invisible parts of the body politic, which the average person doesn’t see or know much about.
It all comes back to starting in one’s own backyard.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to change what happens at the top. I’m saying we need to pay a heck of a lot more attention to what happens at municipal, county and state level than we usually do.
Bravo jcb679 !
Whenever I see “power over” vs “power to” I remember the revolutionary experience if reading Marilyn French’s “Beyond Power”.
That book is very powerful. You never see things the same after reading something it.
I can say all of those things, but didn’t have much hope of ever hearing them coming out of a politician’s mouth. Just this morning I was trying to get my mind around all of the really sick things this degraded adminstration has gotten away with. It’s nice to imagine that “what goes around comes around,” that it won’t take too long, and that we’ll all have a front row seat when it does.
As ss notes, Van Os’s statements show the difference between a politician saying things to get elected and saying things he or she believes, which could be interpreted as the difference between someone after power and someone seeking to use power to do some good.
Unfortunately many mainstream Democrats appear to be the former type — bought and paid for by big money, sold their souls to consultants and pollsters. That’s is why I am Green Party, hoping to build a new kind of politics focused on using democracy to make our society and everyday lives better. (I thnk the way to do this is with a very local emphasis.)
In national elections, I will probably vote for Democrats until the rightist-royalists are ousted, but for anything past that, Democrats will have to earn my vote. They haven’t done a very good job at that over the last 20 years, but if there are more Van Os’s, maybe they’ll start.
Thanks nine. I’m a Green myself. But like you, I’ll vote mostly for democrats nationally, unless they’re of the Lieberman mold. I can’t vote for people like that. They’re traitors as far as I’m concerned.
And of course, Republicans have done so much better.
When I went to vote yesterday as a democrat I ended up giving away a few votes(didn’t vote for Feinstein as I figured she’d win anyway)…but as I was leaving I picked up two registrations for the Green Party and am absolutely planning on filling it out…as is my sister. This was a major decision for me as I never ever thought I register as anything but a Democrat.
And was royally pissed that my precinct has changed to those fucken diebold machines. Plus it seems Kern County had problems to start with with these machines. Voting was delayed by several hours while the ‘problems’ were fixed. Kern is another very red part of California and it gets just a bit(ha) oppressive here due being republican stronghold.
Are there any local party groups in yr area? If not, maybe you and yr sister could start one up.
Maybe at some point the Democratic Party will start giving us reasons to vote FOR them, as opposed to AGST the other guys. But until they do, we should keep our ideals and keep looking at what else we can do to advance them. That way we can maybe avoid becoming a dupe constituent counted on for Democratic votes without getting anything we really believe in exchange for our support.
I don’t know if there are any Green groups here but will have to find out.
I know all the discussions about working at net roots to get good dems in but at this point I’m like many of us who are absolutely fed up with the dems in general for becoming rethuglican lite. I’m also absolutely appalled that a dem can even consider being ‘pro-life’ or against gay marriage-or are so wishy washy about it they may as well be against it. There should be no room for anything but civil/human rights for everyone period. It’s not negotiable.
there is apparently this group (altho in my experience in San Diego, local groups tend to appear and disappear):
http://www.kerngreens.org/kerngreens.html
hey nine, thanks very much for the link. Yeah I am in Kern in ‘beeoutefal’ Taft.
in the Green Kick ASS blogosphere!
Thank you TXsharon.
Besides, this is serious Frog Food. I can’t let my green homeys go hungry ;o)
Interesting words. Did he ever articulate a stance on the death penalty & its application in Texas?
Offer an opinion about the Texas Supreme Court’s refusal to heed the US Supreme Court’s rulings? They’ve tossed one case back to the Tx SC three times now.
I think under ”David Van Os”. For some months now…
I loved his diaries. That is a liberal progressive in a Red State. A REAL ONE.
His diaries are here. His username is ‘TX AG Candidate Van Os’. I agree, I’ve often enjoyed reading his diaries (and comments!).