Posted Earlier on dKos:
Lifted from Bonddad’s Recent Diary @ dKos
The most fascinating thing about the discussion was that Democrats – the party of “big spenders” – spent most of the time talking about shrinking and/or reorganizing the government. I think this tact is great for two reasons. First, it is completely counter-intuitive to the way the Republicans portray the Democratic Party. Secondly, it allows the Dems to argue about Republican’s making government bigger.
I find this to be a horrible idea. HORRIBLE!
It is Republican Dogma, period.
That legitimizes and supports everything Republicans have force fed the American people for the last 40 years. It places Democrats squarely in the camp of government is bad.
Not only that, but it neglects the very essence of what is going on: The people of the United States, and their government are being fed to the economy so corporations can grow or die.
Republicans don’t grow the government, they give it away and let Bank of America, Aetna, Phizer, Exxon, Lockheed Martin, Monsanto, Blah, Blah, Blah and their cartels structure it for their profit. They sell us out.
That’s what they do.
What do Democrats do?
I’ll tell you what we used to do… and what we must do again:
Democrats make decisions to benefit people, Democrats make the government work for people. That’s what we do.
- We build roads, for everyone.
- We protect the poor and disenfranchised from exploitation, all of them.
- We promote and protect and push vital services to All of America.
- We build and protect the middle class. Everyone should be in the Middle Class.
That’s what we do.
You go and start trying to further eviscerate people’s ability to stand together and protect themselves and this country in the face of unprecedented consolidation of economic power, and you’re crazy.
Chasing that cheap labor conservative red herring of shrinking government is just about the stupidist thing we could do right now. We shoot ourselves in the foot in terms philosophy and march off to battle in our opponents stronghold. That’s a HORRIBLE idea.
We need to expose the fucking graft that is our government, and place the fucking onus on those who are responsible. We have to challenge crony capitalism and get this shit fixed. That is what will not only be an election win, but it will be a Progressive win; a win for the betterment of America.
The ability of government to work for the American people must be restored.
- Our privacy must be restored.
- Our confidence in the vote must be restored.
- Our economic security must be restored.
- Our environment must be restored.
- Our national security must be restored.
- The middle class must be restored.
The essence of our country is Standing together for the Common Good:
- in order to form a more perfect union
- establish justice,
- insure domestic tranquility
- provide for the common defense
- promote the general welfare
- and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity
is and has been under attack by people who say that the way to accomplish those goals is to give away the very power that ensures those tenets of our society, and hand it off to large monied interests. Their greed will guarantee those American ideals.
Look at where we are!
We need to fix stuff, Exxon has a bigger GDP than Austria, and you want to shrink government?
What entity, outside of a viable government will ensure that we are not exploited?
Who fills that vacuum of power?
There are giant monied interests heavily involved in the major tragedies of human existence: AIDS, Global Warming, Pollution, War, Cheap Labor Exploitation. GDPs larger than European countries, often several at a time aligned to protect their profit.
How do we, as people, address these issues if not through our government?
We need to expose and yank the fucking rug out on this corporate sponsored government and restore it to the people.
That should be our footing. That should be our stronghold. It’s not yet, but it has to be. Because if that is our stronghold, and the fight takes place there, we will mop the floor with these cruel bastards.