Author: PsiFighter37

(cross-posted at Daily Kos)

Warning: some graphic photos below.

It’s nice to see that good people like John Kerry are beginning to recognize that the Bush administration is crawling in the feces of its own incompetence, that it is governing about as poorly as a boozed-up alcoholic. But it’s stories like this one that really piss me off.

I’m a thoroughly middle-class American. I was born in another country. I have no delusions about the ‘American Dream’; that’s been dead since before I was born. But I would expect that our government would have sense of common decency, a sense of fairness, that they would care an iota. But they don’t, and I’m sick of it. I can’t take it anymore.
Our president couldn’t give half a shit about us.

Our rightly chosen president was forced to concede a race when partisan, activist judges on the Supreme Court stepped into something they had no business getting involved in.

Our president can’t be bothered with the specifics of national security, so thousands of people die while he reads a children’s book. But hey, brush needs clearing, right?

We get tax cuts that give more money to the rich when we have record budget deficits.

We have Congress legislate what a woman can do with her body.

We’re told that Saddam Hussein is a grave threat, even though it’s clear he has no weapons of mass destruction.

A couple who have devoted their careers to public service for their country have their reputations destroyed for sheer political gain.

We invade a country on false pretensions, killing untold thousands of civilians who will only be remembered as ‘collateral damage’.

Our president declared that our mission was accomplished three years ago, even though it was clear the job was far from done.

We’ve lost 2,433 of our young soldiers – people my age – in a senseless cause. I hope and pray that my cousin, who is in the Army, does not become one of those. Our leaders can not even be bothered to show up to their funerals. But we won’t forget them.

An honorable man who volunteered to serve in a war few people in his position were involved in, including our current president, is smeared with shameless lies…and the media eats it up.

Our leaders don’t bother showing respect, and it shows in the way they present themselves.

We lose our moral standing as a country…

…and we lose respect around the world…and in our own country.

Republicans rush back from vacation to intrude on the life of a person they’ve never met, passing judgment on her medical condition by videotape and pushing through legislation to serve purely political purposes. In the end, her husband is finally allowed to fulfill her wish, and a woman can finally rest in peace.

While Bush is on another long vacation, playing the guitar and eating cake…

…a beautiful city drowns, and, to this day, the government simply doesn’t care.

Gas prices soar, and average Americans are beginning to pawn off their valuables just to fill up.

The NSA initiates an illegal wiretapping program that violates the law, but we’re told that it’s part of a perfectly legal ‘terrorist surveillance program’.

A White House aide is indicted for the first time in over 130 years.

Corruption runs rampant in the Republican Party, whether it be…

Tom DeLay…

Jack Abramoff…

Duke Cunningham…

Bob Ney…

Ernie Fletcher…

…and many more to come.

But what gets me most is that for the last 5 1/2 years, we’ve been lied to again, and again…and again…and again. This administration and the Republican Party have taken the American population to be completely oblivious and have bankrupted us socially, morally, and economically, and who knows what else. It’s the fact that they are so comfortable in their lies that really makes me mad.

Whether it’s the president…

…or the vice president…

…or the secretary of defense…

…or the attorney general…

…or the previous guy…

…or the secretary of state…

…or the previous guy…

…or the recently departed CIA director…

…or the previous guy…

…or the National Security Advisor…

…or the previous guy…

…or the new press secretary…

…or the previous guy…

…or the guy even before that.

And the media just ignores it. It’s sad that the two most honest journalists out there are the following:

I’ve had enough.

I’m sure many of you may disagree with the premise of my diary – after all, several polls still show Casey with double-digit leads over Rick Santorum, such as Quinnipiac’s latest poll. However, Matt Stoller’s analysis of the latest Rasmussen poll may give us some cause for concern.

My reasons, though, for Bob Casey’s defeat in November 2006 have more to do with the impression I got of his campaign when a senior staffer visited the 27th Ward Committee meeting last night. I had decided to attend to get a feel for the local politics of the area, and although I couldn’t stay for the whole time (I missed Valerie McDonald-Roberts, who spoke shortly after I left), I did get to listen to the pitch for Bob Casey. One would expect to be more inspired after learning more about a candidate, but after this one, I was less inspired and less inclined to donate any time to the Casey campaign.
As this senior staffer took the floor to speak at the ward meeting (I don’t recall her name, but apparently, she’s been working with Casey for quite some time), she started expounding upon Casey’s great work as Auditor General and his first couple of years in the Treasurer’s office. It sounds like he’s been doing good work in those positions, for sure – but, to be honest, being a senator goes far beyond those statewide issues. It may help his credentials as someone who will be fiscally responsible, but in no way does it reflect on the job he will do as a senator. What particularly struck me was the emphasis of the staffer on what Bob Casey has done in the past. There was no mention of what he might stand for as a senator. Of course, vague, appealing platitudes were thrown out towards the end – that Casey will fight for education, for lobbying reform, and so forth – but when you’re speaking to a room full of people at a ward committee, this isn’t your average American who may like the sound of those words. These are folks who are politically involved, politically aware, and will be able to detect a bullshit line right away.

Afterwards, there was time for Q&A, and it was clear that there was an ‘elephant in the room’, so to speak. That would obviously be Casey’s anti-choice stance, but while the staffer acknowledged that he was ‘pro-life’ (I can’t bring myself to call anti-abortion folks that anymore, given how the current administration’s policies could not be less ‘pro-life’), she brushed around the issue, stating that there were more important issues to be discussed in the race. I agree with this, but the political reality is that social issues, whether we like to discuss them or not, will be prominently displayed during the campaign. I raised my hand for a question, speaking about how, as a Democrat, I believe in largely broad ideals such as equality, justice, freedom to make one’s own choices, helping out those who need help, etc. How then, I asked, can I support someone who denies these things on social issues – whether it be with abortion, gay adoption, and other important social issues? (by the way, thanks to jpol for having this post on Casey’s stand on issues) The staffer had the audacity to say that Casey stood for gay rights, even though the answers he provided above are clearly hostile to such rights. The staffer made a point about making me visit Casey’s website to see his positions on the issues. I did visit this morning, and, not to my surprise, there is nothing on the website about his positions on social issues. It’s the sign of someone who is clearly scared to showcase their positions on the social issues; after all, it is a no-win situation for Casey: he can lose the support of his base for his extremely conservative social views, and he can lose the support of independents and moderates who are more socially liberal but may be more inclined to vote for Santorum if they see that Casey essentially holds the same views.

There was one more question that was similarly confrontational; one of the committeepersons asked why Casey hasn’t taken a stance on any important issues, such as the war on Iraq. The staffer didn’t really answer his question either, and I got the feeling that there was a sour taste left in a lot of people’s mouths afterwards. We politely applauded after the Q&A was over, but it was disturbing to see what I thought was a great disconnect between the people who are running this campaign and the grassroots. I have never seen in my political experience (granted, it’s not much, but I’ve volunteered for a few campaigns and have interned with Rep. Nita Lowey) a display of such arrogance. This staffer spoke down to us, as though her personal connection to Casey somehow made her qualified to tell us how we should think about him. She was rude to the point of cutting us off several times during questions, and, quite honestly, did not answer any of the relevant questions that she was asked.

Perhaps I’m wrong, and the Democratic base will embrace Casey more energetically as Election Day nears. But people should know that simply not being someone is not cause enough to win an election. It didn’t work for John Kerry in 2004 (although, unlike Casey, Kerry did have a platform he was running on; he let everyone else frame the campaign as anti-Bush), and it certainly won’t work for Casey in 2006. We in the grassroots may not like Rick Santorum – and he is one of the Republican politicians I dislike the most – but there is simply no way to inspire us to help his campaign out when they are hostile towards their own base. For these reasons – not standing for anything, being an extreme conservative on social issues to the point that Santorum would be proud, and for ignoring the base – Bob Casey will lose in November.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve posted a couple of informational diaries regarding an upcoming fundraiser that the Penn College Democrats were planning to host. Titled ‘An Evening in Blue’, we set out to bring together candidates for various offices – mayor (Michael Nutter); state legislature (Paul Lang); and congressional candidates (Dennis Spivack, Lois Murphy, and Patrick Murphy) – to interact with Democrats on-campus. Furthermore, knowing that the netroots will be an important factor in upcoming elections, we also invited Chris Bowers (from MyDD) and Duncan Black (Atrios, from Eschaton) to address the group; furthermore, Booman also showed up, bringing together some of the most prominent liberal bloggers on the Internet.
The setup of the fundraiser was fairly open – we decided to allow everyone to mingle for quite some time before we got to the speakers. During this time, I had a chance to chat with most of the speakers. It was a shame that I didn’t quite have a chance to speak with Chris and Atrios as much as I had wanted to, but I was able to speak for an extended period of time with Booman, which proved very insightful. We spoke about a range of topics, including the notion of supporting Fightin’ Dems somewhat blindly, the Ohio and Illinois intraparty squabbles, and many other issues. I also had a chance to speak with Lois Murphy, who seems to be running an extremely tight operation in PA-06 and stands a great chance of winning a race she nearly won last year against Jim Gerlach. Student attendance exceeded any expectations I had; I was surprised to see a good number of students (roughly 60-65) turn out for an event that is still 7 months away from Election Day. From my experience, the most populated meetings for Penn Democrats has been the events leading up to Election Day in 2004, but the fact that so many people turned out bodes well for the upcoming election season.

Once everyone settled down, our president, Nathan Hake, introduced each of the speakers. Chris and Atrios spoke first, and, to be honest, I was quite a bit more interested in hearing what they had to say than the actual candidates themselves. Chris’ speech focused on the positive prospects that the party has in the upcoming elections, along with the idea that Democrats need to formulate a coherent political ideology to attract voters. Atrios, as is his style online, was very sharp-witted and funny, and he geared his speech towards advocating us students to volunteering our time and effort to candidates in any race that we could. In fact, Atrios posted his thoughts over at Eschaton tonight on the matter. I agree that providing monetary incentives for students to aid candidates would greatly improve participation. However, that’s another reason that we held this fundraiser tonight: if we have increased funds, we can afford to pay for students to commute out to the suburban Philadelphia area to help out other congressional campaigns (the Murphys, Allyson Schwartz, etc.). I know one of the reasons I’m hesitant about volunteering at every possible moment is because I simply can’t afford to pay for round-trip train tickets every weekend. If students could be reassured that volunteering wouldn’t cost them anything, that in and of itself would increase participation, I feel.

The candidates who spoke afterwards (with the exception of Joe Hoeffel, who is currently not running for public office) tended to appeal to the notion of helping make the world a better place. I don’t remember the exact details of all the speeches, but what stuck out to me was Patrick Murphy’s appeal to us to step back and think: are we doing all we can to make the world a better place? He told us the story of one of his staffers who was at the fundraiser; this particular young woman dropped out of Brown University – one of the top universities in the country – to join his campaign. One of the members of Penn Dems simply showed up at his headquarters this past weekend to start helping out Patrick’s campaign because he came by our weekly meeting last week. When you have inspirational people running for office, particularly someone as charismatic as Patrick Murphy, you feel as though you’re truly working to make the world a better place for everyone. As Joe Hoeffel said, it’s not just family values that Democrats advocate; it’s the community values that the Democratic Party stresses – that all Americans are in this together, that we should help each other out – that makes us strong. It drives us when we’re down; it keeps us dreaming of a better day even during the darkest nights.

After the speeches were finished, dessert was served (the chocolate-covered strawberries were obscenely good), and more socializing took place. I had one last chance to speak to Chris, and I plan on going to the ward committee meetings nowadays – not only to get to know more about Philadelphia politics, which is something I feel is important for the Penn Dems to get more involved in – but to also get to speak more with Chris, who is one of the most thorough (and a personal favorite of mine) bloggers I’ve had the privilege of reading. At the end, we took a few pictures, and after staying well past the time we had reserved our reception room, we were kicked out of Houston Hall. I’m not sure exactly how much money we raised tonight (I’ll be finding out from our treasurer later this week, I’m sure), but coming away from this event, I feel that there is a renewed energy growing within Democrats to take a step forward after taking several back. 2006 is going to be our year…and it’s going to start at the grassroots level – whether it be at college or in any sort of community.

Below are the candidates’ website. If you couldn’t happen to attend our fundraiser tonight, please do show some love to the following members. They can all use as much help as possible.

Paul Lang – candidate for Pennsylvania State Senate (6th District)

Dennis Spivack – candidate for House of Representatives (DE-At Large)

Lois Murphy – candidate for House of Representatives (PA-06)

Patrick Murphy – candidate for House of Representatives (PA-08)

Below are some pictures from ‘An Evening in Blue’. Enjoy!

People socialize and enjoy appetizers at the beginning of the fundraiser.

Patrick Murphy and MyDD’s Chris Bowers

Penn College Democrats president Nathan Hake

MyDD’s Chris Bowers

Duncan Black (Atrios)

Paul Lang, Pennsylvania State Senate candidate

Philadelphia City Councilman and mayoral candidate Michael Nutter

Penn alum Dennis Spivack, DE-At Large candidate

Lois Murphy, PA-06 candidate

Former Congressman Joe Hoeffel (PA-13)

Patrick Murphy, PA-08 candidate

A bunch of Penn Dems getting their picture taken with Paul Lang, Patrick Murphy, and Michael Nutter. A 4 to anyone who can correctly guess who I am. 🙂

(cross-posted at Daily Kos)

As some of you may or may not know from my profile, I’m currently attending the University of Pennsylvania. Being a member of the Penn College Democrats has been one of the best experiences to date I’ve had while attending college – it’s a great way to meet people and to get involved in politics while in school. That being said, there’s a great disparity between the operations of the College Republicans and the College Democrats, even though we outnumber the GOP in great numbers at the college level. It’s one of the reasons I’m serving as part of the finance team in Penn’s chapter of the College Democrats – we need to keep working towards building more active political involvement at the college level, and we need to start supporting the leaders of tomorrow. You may not like Karl Rove or Jack Abramoff, but they were former heads of the College Republicans nationwide. This points to a Republican hierarchy that is able to groom their future leaders now, while there is no such similar, coherent structure in place for the Democratic Party.
As such, it’s difficult to participate in many activities, even when it’s helping out for local congressional races. Oftentimes, it’s difficult to convince students to spend a Saturday afternoon participating in events when they have to pay their way to take SEPTA out to Bucks County or other suburban areas of Philadelphia. The lack of funds is also another reason that we can’t sponsor many events outside of our weekly scheduled meetings. As a partisan political group, we can’t receive funding from the university, and the College Democrats of America (CDA), is extremely disorganized and provide us with little to no funding. Essentially, what we’re aiming to do here at Penn’s campus is to build a self-sustaining organization that will be able to attract larger numbers to the Democratic Party. This is our strength, and if we have the resources to take advantage of the overwhelming majority we have on this campus (according to our 2004 poll count of the machines on campus, roughly 80% voted for Kerry) and most college campuses nationwide, we wouldn’t be worried so much about not having the political talent – it would already be there.

In a week, the Penn College Democrats will be hosting a fundraiser on campus. While I recognize that most of the readers of dKos most likely are not located in the Philadelphia area, I would personally appreciate anyone who is in the area coming to our event. Currently, we have congressional candidates Patrick Murphy and Lois Murphy speaking, along with former congressman and 2004 U.S. Senate candidate Joe Hoeffel, City Councilman and mayoral candidate Michael Nutter, and two of the more well-known bloggers in the Philadelphia area – Chris Bowers of MyDD and Duncan Black, who is better known as Atrios. Other invited speakers include Penn alum Governor Ed Rendell, senatorial candidate Bob Casey, Jr., and Representative Chakah Fattah. The event will take place on Tuesday, April 4 and will be located at 200 College Hall – on Penn’s campus, this is located between 34th and 36th Streets, between Walnut and Spruce; if you’re on campus, it is the building that has a statue of Benjamin Franklin in front of it. The event will begin at 7 PM and conclude at 9 PM, and hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served. Suggested contributions are as follows: hosts – $250, friend – $50, student – $10.

I know that it is a long process in rebuilding the Democratic Party, but I believe that it’s essential that not only do we rebuild the state parties, as current DNC chair Howard Dean is doing, but we need to strengthen our organization at the college level to take advantage of our majorities at the younger age groups and get more people involved in the political process. Once again, thanks for taking the time out to read this, and if any of you are in the Philadelphia area, I’d be delighted if you could attend. I know that Booman Tribune is a Philly-based blog, and it’d be wonderful if some of the netroots could turn out for the Penn Dems. Thanks!