She clears her throat, takes a long drink of water, ponders for a moment, and to the keys she goes…
Ladies and Gentlemen, friends and foes, welcome to my arena, and really, to my life.
I wish I could have joined you sooner, but yesterday I was making phone calls all day raising money for the Democratic Party and today... well here I am! At this point in the election, democratic party fundraising is what I do most waking moments that I am not in school. OK, well, that makes me sound like a really big loser, huh? Well I swear that I really DO have a life... just not really the typical college one. I worked for a year in fundraising for a rapidly rising Political Action Committee here in Washington (the New Democrat Network), then I worked in Senator Lieberman's Senate Office, then I worked
in New York City on Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign, and now, now I work for the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). I also am studying Political
Science, with an emphasis on American Politics. So, I offer you a wealth of knowledge here… and more than just the media perspective.
I am going to say an awful lot here because it is worth the time and the effort if I can manage to sway even ONE opinion. Please take the time and read what I have to say. My argument is systematic and progressive and so, if you read only one component of it, you will most likely take that component out of context and misconstrue my points. I already recently wrote the bulk of this for another reason having nothing to do with this BB... just had to put in that disclaimer so that you donÂ't think I am a complete whacko and wrote all of this to post on the board! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
First, let me just say that I am, indeed, biased... I am a proud Democrat. However, partisanship really pisses me off, and I am extremely moderate on all of the issues except for the social ones (abortion, gun control, censorship, etc.) I am what is called a New Democrat, a relatively new term that emerged in the 80Â's to refer to moderate democratic centrists. Joe Lieberman is the champion of the New Democrat movement, Clinton and Gore used to be considered "champions" of this movement as well, but they have leaned more to the left in the past several years because New Democrats don't yet reflect the base of the Democratic party (they will eventually, though, because of America's recent shift to
the center of the political spectrum). As is commonly known, without the full support of the base of your party, you just can’t win a presidential election in this political system… sad but true. Hence, Lieberman has taken on a somewhat more liberal persona these past few months… he simply must for Gore to win.
Anyway, working in Washington and being around "the scene" these past couple
of years has really driven in to me one very important point time and time again. With
Republicans, it’s their way or the highway. This is not to say that their are not exceptions, there are certainly many, many Republican Congressman who are willing to work in non-partisan ways and cross party lines, if need be. However, for the most part, and especially within the Republican Leadership, standards are NOT to be lowered.
Compromises with the other side are NOT to be made. I, personally, have been horrified
more times than I can count to see how absolutely and completely unwilling the
Republican leaders are when it comes to making conciliatory points or taking the middle road.
Allow me to demonstrate my point. I work in the office of Congressman Patrick
Kennedy (D-RI) and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MI) at the DCCC (Kennedy is the chairman). Gephardt came to Congress in 1976 and eventually became the Speaker of the House. I tell you, it was quite something to sit in front of a man, a man
who stands among some of the most powerful men in the world, and hear him sound like a
prisoner in our own political system. This man is a tried and true workhorse who is more
devoted to the democratic party and its causes than I could possibly imagine anyone else being. With that said, however, when the Democrats held the majority and he was
Speaker of the House and held the gavel and the control, he made sure that he met with
the Republican minority leaders at LEAST twice a week, although it was usually once a
day. He didn’t have to… there is no law that says congressional leaders must meet and
confer with each other. But to Gephardt, it just made sense to work with the opposition
instead of battle with it nonstop, and it was also just the right thing to do. He did not see the point in shutting the other side out. Then, in 1994, all was lost and the Republicans took over congress. I will never forget Gephardt standing in front of me, just a few weeks ago, counting on his fingers how many times he has met with Newt Gingrich (when he was there), Dick Army (Majority Leader, R-TX), Dennis Hastert (Speaker of the House, R-IL), Tom DeLay (Majority Whip, R-TX), and the other House Republican leaders. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… he stopped there… he couldn’t think of any other times. 6 TIMES!!! And HE met with the opposite side nearly every day when he had control. I believe his exact words were, “They WILL NOT work with us… it is their way or the highway. ItÂ’s like we
donÂ’t even exist… that we are not even here.” These were the words of a deeply
frustrated man who is incredibly weary of having to wake up and fight the hardest of fights every single day to get even the tiniest thing through Congress and past the Republicans.
One might say... well... that is what happens when you are in the minority, right? You have to expect to always be fighting an uphill battle. And while that is true, no good can come out of the immense SIZE of the uphill battle my party is fighting in Congress. Why? Because it just means that nothing meaningful gets done... or it only happens once in a blue moon (like welfare reform, Clinton's economic plan, and the Family and Medical Leave Law... items on the democratic agenda that were staunchly opposed by most Republicans but ended up having an extremely profound effect upon the country and its economy). The Republican's idea of making progress is stopping it. Keeping everything in a gridlock is their Â"preventative measureÂ". I swear to you that this is not me being biased... this is an eyewitness account of the facts. They REFUSE to work with us incrementally to compromise and produce meaningful legislation that has the ability to appeal to more than just a portion of the American public, but rather, to a large base of the American Public. It makes me want to spit.
What you have to understand here is the following. I mean really, I just can not
emphasize this point enough to as many people as I can… especially because most people outside of the Washington political world don’t realize how it really is… they don’t fully understand the politics of politics and how it has worked the past couple of years (since the Republicans have had control). I hope that does not sound patronizing… I don’t mean it to! ANYWAY, my all-important point is this… if Bush is elected he will most assuredly be no kind of moderate. He will be beholden and tied to the Republican Leadership, whether he likes it or not. And the Republican Leadership is made up of men like Tom DeLay, Denny Hastert, and Dick Armey, all of whom are admittedly proud hard line, right wing conservatives… MODERATES, they are indeed not!! And they are the ones who control Congress and its actions… they are the ones who represent the Republican majority. And they will control Bush, should he get elected. Bush may or may not like it… I donÂ’t know… but a fact that any political science class will teach you is
that the American Presidency has become an inherently weak institution. Bush will
essentially need the support of the majority party in Congress to zip up his fly.
Armey, Hastert, and DeLay are the ones who you might not know; they are the
ones who, in truth, most Americans donÂ’t know… despite the fact that these men are in a small group of the most powerful men in the country and, indeed, the world. These men dominate Washington and our government… but the general American public doesnÂ’t know this because the Republican Party is doing everything it can to keep how conservative it really is a big secret. They are depending upon how naive Americans are…DONÂ’T LET THEM! You may not know Armey and his cohorts because you wonÂ’t
see them out stumping for Bush and standing behind him, showing their support for him
on the campaign trail, even though they DO stand behind him and DO support him
(emphatically). You see men like John McCain and Colin Powell and JC Watts paraded
about by the Bush Campaign and the Republican Party. Is it not rather strange that Armey (the Majority Leader), Hastert (the Speaker), and DeLay (the Majority Whip) were barely present at the Republican Convention? That is because they were hidden behind closed doors… shmoozing with the donors and politicking endlessly… but out of sight of the cameras.
The BOTTOM LINE here is that the Republican Party has grown extremely
conservative. By saying that, however, I mean that the elected officials and leaders of the party are very conservative. I do not speak of the electorate. I actually think most Republicans, in terms of ordinary people, are not hard right, die hard conservatives who typify the classic Republican (i.e., they carry NRA cards, hate gun control, are fanatically pro-life, donÂ’t believe in taxation or strength in federal government, believe in religion in schools, etc.). I think those Â"typical RepublicansÂ" make up a much smaller part of the republican electorate these days. That is why GW Bush MUST play himself off to be
this Â"compassionate conservativeÂ" who is so moderate and wishy washy… heÂ’s got to pull
in those votes from those who donÂ’t embody what a traditional republican is in every
way… those who might be willing to vote for the other side if Bush sings the true
conservative mantra and turns them off too much. But as I have tried to emphasize here
over and over again, Bush can claim to be as moderate as he wants, but if he is elected, it will mean nothing… if he wants to get any legislation passed in his presidency he is going to have to drive on the Republican Congressional leadershipÂ’s side of the road, not his… and that other side of the road is a conservative one with drivers who will do everything they possibly can with a Republican President in office to get rid of Roe V. Wade, to strike the Brady Bill and prevent all other gun control measures, to drastically decrease the tax on the rich, to shut down the Trial Lawyers, to keep prescription drug costs were they are, to let the environment slide, and so on. With the majority in congress, three Supreme
Court Nominations, and without a Democrat in the Oval Office like Bill Clinton or Al
Gore to veto bills and call their bluff, the leaders of the Republican Party are going to be like kids let loose in a candy store. MODERACY??? YEAH RIGHT.
That is why I shout over and over again to all who will listen... WE
(DEMOCRATS) MUST TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!!!
I dream of waking up and seeing congress back in the hand of the democrats... not because I am a democrat but because I know that they are the only party of the two that we have that will do everything they can to advance their agenda... but NOT (and I repeat, NOT) at the cost of trampling upon the oppositionÂ's wants and needs. I dream of seeing
non-partisan bills passed by congress, signed, and enacted. If you vote Republican and they gain the presidency AND keep congress… my dreams die. ItÂ’s just that simple. Experts predict that this is the last chance for Democrats to take congress back… if we loose in this crucial election year then we will most likely not have the chance of getting it back for another twenty years. All I can say is God help us.
http://www.takebackthehouse.org
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
http://www.dnc.org
Democratic National Committee
http://www.dscc.org
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
http://www.algore.com
Gore/Lieberman Campaign
http://www.voter.com
Learn about who you are voting for
http://www.freedomchannel.com
Learn about who you are voting for
http://www.tray.com
Learn about $$$ in politics and who is raising what and from where
[This message has been edited by rockstar (edited 10-21-2000).]
To add to the fun, I’ll bring the Republican politico I am kind of/sort of seeing (I don’t know what I am thinking) and we can all unite in making fun of him the whole night! 