A LETTER TO THOSE VALUES VOTERS
Dear Values Voters;
I know you don't like being preached to (particularly from a Liberal: Married 20 years, 1 son, only person in my family that drinks - a beer a day), but I wanted to talk to you about the people you seem to vote for. Specifically, I wanted to ask, what exactly do you see in them?
I know many of you consider yourselves good conservatives and believe that the Republican Party extols the values of conservativism. But where exactly is that happening? I mean, how do you square the Republican Party telling you its the party of family values with Representative Mark Foley - a suspected pedophile? How do you square House Speaker Hastert telling us that he knew nothing about it, when we have more than one other member of the House saying they told him about this situation at least a year ago? Whether or not he tried to cover up Foley's criminal activity, he was, to put it in the best light, grossly negligent, and I know that if I were so grossly negligent in my work, I would be fired. So why shouldn't he?
But that's only a small part of the values problem your party seems to have. Imagine, the party which believes in the saving of innocent life, yet the Vice President shoots a man in the face, then lies about how it happened.
Or a president who has stated we will not sacrifice innocent life to save lives, then sends off young men and women, our sons and daughters - innocents all, to fight his war. A war he had to lie about to get us into. A war he knew was unnecessary, but because of pride and ego, chose to prosecute anyway. And of the promises he made to get the terrorist who murdered 3,000 of our fellow citizens, you hear nothing.
Or how do you explain a noted heart surgeon, now Senate Majority Leader, who believes he can diagnose an illness from 2 minutes worth of edited vidotape? They speak of personal responsibility and choosing your way of life, but then they wish to control how you live and how you die while all the time talking about an ownership society.
What about the ownereship society? We were promised that economically we would be better off under the Republicans. Are we? Tax cuts managed to put all of $300.00 back into our pockets, not even enough for 1 month's mortgage payments. But if you're wealthy, it gave you a big boost. And all the while, if you're middle-class, they took away money from College Education Grants, they took away money for the poor, they took away money from school funding.
And next time you're in church, ask the seniors there if they're ready to give up their social security? Ask them honestly whether or not it helps make their life easier. Sure, Social Security has problems - but what program doesn't? In the final analysis, does it do more good or harm? Ask the people directly affected by it what they think.
Don't forget, that it was President Bush who stood in front of a crowd of wealthy donors and made the joke: "We have two kinds of people in this room: the haves and the have more. Some call you the elite; I call you my base."
And when the Republicans attack Democrats as being the Party fo Tolerance, think about that for a minute. When they attack them for their Liberal views which they argue brought about the sexual promiscuity they so abhor and it's all Clinton's fault, remember that it's Newt Gingrich who had an affair while his wife was in treatment for cancer, who told his wife he was divorcing her over the phone, remember that it was Republicans forced to resign during the Lewinsky scandal because while they were screaming for Clinton's head on a plate, they were doing the same thing and lying about it just as blatantly, remember that it's Rush Limbaugh who has had numerous affairs and too many marriages to count, remember that it's Ann Coulter who lived in the Penthouse Mansion with Bob Guccioni.
Yet many of you will still not vote for a Democrat because Democrats are just awful, or so you believe. Really? Are they awful? Democrats ran Congress for some 30 years with slight majorities. In that time, we had the civil rights movement, we had consistent economic growth, we had reduction in poverty. Yet Democrats became complacent and possibly a bit corrupt. So they were voted out.
But Republicans have now had control of Congress for 8 years. In the last 5 years, we have had rising poverty, reverses in civil rights, the worst economic growth this country has ever seen outside the Great Depression, a US city underwater, and it took the Republicans only 8 years to become totally corrupt. Abramoff is a Republican problem, Tom Delay is a Republican problem, Bob Nye is a Republican problem, Mark Foley is a Republican problem. And we still don't know the full extent of Abramoff's reach into the White House.
So when you think to yourself that there can't be anything worse than a Democrat, think to yourself how can they be any worse than the corrupt, unfeeling, criminal enterprise that is the present day Republican Party? And if you're honest with yourself, you'll have to admit that they can't.
When you vote for values, remember; it's the Democrats who have them.
I know you don't like being preached to (particularly from a Liberal: Married 20 years, 1 son, only person in my family that drinks - a beer a day), but I wanted to talk to you about the people you seem to vote for. Specifically, I wanted to ask, what exactly do you see in them?
I know many of you consider yourselves good conservatives and believe that the Republican Party extols the values of conservativism. But where exactly is that happening? I mean, how do you square the Republican Party telling you its the party of family values with Representative Mark Foley - a suspected pedophile? How do you square House Speaker Hastert telling us that he knew nothing about it, when we have more than one other member of the House saying they told him about this situation at least a year ago? Whether or not he tried to cover up Foley's criminal activity, he was, to put it in the best light, grossly negligent, and I know that if I were so grossly negligent in my work, I would be fired. So why shouldn't he?
But that's only a small part of the values problem your party seems to have. Imagine, the party which believes in the saving of innocent life, yet the Vice President shoots a man in the face, then lies about how it happened.
Or a president who has stated we will not sacrifice innocent life to save lives, then sends off young men and women, our sons and daughters - innocents all, to fight his war. A war he had to lie about to get us into. A war he knew was unnecessary, but because of pride and ego, chose to prosecute anyway. And of the promises he made to get the terrorist who murdered 3,000 of our fellow citizens, you hear nothing.
Or how do you explain a noted heart surgeon, now Senate Majority Leader, who believes he can diagnose an illness from 2 minutes worth of edited vidotape? They speak of personal responsibility and choosing your way of life, but then they wish to control how you live and how you die while all the time talking about an ownership society.
What about the ownereship society? We were promised that economically we would be better off under the Republicans. Are we? Tax cuts managed to put all of $300.00 back into our pockets, not even enough for 1 month's mortgage payments. But if you're wealthy, it gave you a big boost. And all the while, if you're middle-class, they took away money from College Education Grants, they took away money for the poor, they took away money from school funding.
And next time you're in church, ask the seniors there if they're ready to give up their social security? Ask them honestly whether or not it helps make their life easier. Sure, Social Security has problems - but what program doesn't? In the final analysis, does it do more good or harm? Ask the people directly affected by it what they think.
Don't forget, that it was President Bush who stood in front of a crowd of wealthy donors and made the joke: "We have two kinds of people in this room: the haves and the have more. Some call you the elite; I call you my base."
And when the Republicans attack Democrats as being the Party fo Tolerance, think about that for a minute. When they attack them for their Liberal views which they argue brought about the sexual promiscuity they so abhor and it's all Clinton's fault, remember that it's Newt Gingrich who had an affair while his wife was in treatment for cancer, who told his wife he was divorcing her over the phone, remember that it was Republicans forced to resign during the Lewinsky scandal because while they were screaming for Clinton's head on a plate, they were doing the same thing and lying about it just as blatantly, remember that it's Rush Limbaugh who has had numerous affairs and too many marriages to count, remember that it's Ann Coulter who lived in the Penthouse Mansion with Bob Guccioni.
Yet many of you will still not vote for a Democrat because Democrats are just awful, or so you believe. Really? Are they awful? Democrats ran Congress for some 30 years with slight majorities. In that time, we had the civil rights movement, we had consistent economic growth, we had reduction in poverty. Yet Democrats became complacent and possibly a bit corrupt. So they were voted out.
But Republicans have now had control of Congress for 8 years. In the last 5 years, we have had rising poverty, reverses in civil rights, the worst economic growth this country has ever seen outside the Great Depression, a US city underwater, and it took the Republicans only 8 years to become totally corrupt. Abramoff is a Republican problem, Tom Delay is a Republican problem, Bob Nye is a Republican problem, Mark Foley is a Republican problem. And we still don't know the full extent of Abramoff's reach into the White House.
So when you think to yourself that there can't be anything worse than a Democrat, think to yourself how can they be any worse than the corrupt, unfeeling, criminal enterprise that is the present day Republican Party? And if you're honest with yourself, you'll have to admit that they can't.
When you vote for values, remember; it's the Democrats who have them.
posted by George at 6:16 PM
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