Booster-Shot Time: It's Us v. Them Now, and I Think We Look Great!

My love affair with the Democratic Party began at age 8, when I would go with my grandfather to work at the Jack Kennedy for President headquarters across town on Sunday afternoons. My grandmother, who never learned to speak English very well, was not political at all. But my parents and all my aunts and uncles were Republicans, equating Republicanism with the Americanization they so desired.

But, Grandpa would sit at Sunday dinner, shaking his head at all their "nonsense", and after the meal was over, would sneak out and go down to the headquarters and fix whatever needed fixing, or putting up signs. I'd always ask to go with him. I'd run the mimeograph machine, making flyers for the campaign. Sometimes, we'd sit together and stuff envelopes. The whole time we were there together, he would tell me what a great country America was, and that the Democrats were the greatest Party. They loved "little people like us," he said. They fought to make people equal and free and pay them wages that would allow Americans to hold their heads up and support their families.

I always believed what he said. I always believed the Democrats fought for "the little guy" and equality. And, so... I loved the Democratic Party. When I was old enough to vote, I was the only one of my family to register, proudly, as a Democrat. I took time during my summers while I was in college and went to the deep South to register people to vote for the Democrats. I was always involved and working.

That's all background for what it is I feel I need to say to you all today. I feel this Party has lost its way. I've felt that for a while now, but only in the last several years has the feeling taken a voice and now, out of sheer and utter frustration with the Party I used to love, has that voice become a scream.

Where have all the heroes gone? Granted, my generation has seen Democratic heroes slain when their power began to rise. JFK, RFK, MLK... all taken out by assassins bullets. When I was younger I used to wonder why assassins only killed Democrats. Older now, I believe I know why, but is that any reason for the limp-wristed, no-balls, middle-of-the-road, do-nothing capitulation I see in this Party today? Are the people who are supposed to be representing us not rocking the vote just to stay alive, or is their cowardice rooted elsewhere? Have we just lost our way? Have we just forgotten who we are?

I believe that corporate influence and the money needed constantly for re-election has lured many off the path, but I also believe that a lot of us have forgotten one thing about being Democrats that is the absolute truth: WE SIMPLY ARE BETTER THAN REPUBLICANS. We are on the side of the angels, and we just need a booster shot to remember who we are and where we came from and then maybe we'll find the courage to get up off our knees and claim our Party with the pride and vigor we should.
I put together a little something for all of you.... a booster shot, like I just mentioned. Be proud Democrats. Be REAL Democrats. Make this the Party of the little guy and equality. Fight for a day when being "right" won't indicate the direction of your politics, but the righteousness of your beliefs and values. Fight for the day when "liberal" is no longer an epithet, but is once again a compliment indicating one lives and votes an open mind and heart, and whose beliefs are those which seek to make all Americans truly free.

It's US v. THEM now... and, imo... we fair better case by case:

Political Family Heritage...

Us:


The Kennedy Brothers

Them:


The Bush Brothers

Presidential Leadership...

Us:


Franklin Delano Roosevelt



John F. Kennedy


Them:


George W. Bush



Richard Nixon

Us:


The Kennedy Brothers During the Cuban Missle Crisis

Them:


The First Attack on 9/11


While people in New Orleans were dying during Hurricane Katrina

Vice Presidential Gravitas

Us:


Al Gore, "Global Warming" Expert and Environmentalist

Them:


Dan Quayle, couldn't spell "potato"

SCOTUS Judicial Integrity...

Us:


Thurgood Marshall

Quotes:

"A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi... has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for."

"Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds."

Them:


William Rehnquist



Antonin Scalia



Clarence Thomas



John Roberts



Samuel Alito

Attorneys General...

Us:


Robert F. Kennedy


Quotes:

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change. -- From 1966 speech

The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use - of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public. -- From 'I Remember, I Believe,' The Pursuit of Justice, 1964


Them:


Alberto Gonzalez

"An Aug. 1, 2002, memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, addressed to Gonzales, said that torturing suspected al Qaeda members abroad 'may be justified' and that international laws against torture "may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogation" conducted against suspected terrorists."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26401-2004Jun8.html



John Ashcroft

"Attorney General John D. Ashcroft yesterday refused senators' requests to make public the memo, which is not classified, and would not discuss any possible involvement of the president.... In the view expressed by the Justice Department memo, which differs from the view of the Army, physical torture 'must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.' For a cruel or inhuman psychological technique to rise to the level of mental torture, the Justice Department argued, the psychological harm must last 'months or even years.'"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26401-2004Jun8.html

Christians...

Us:


Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quotes:

"Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

Them:


Pat Robertson


Jerry Falwell


Jimmy Swaggart


Gary Bauer


Ralph Reed

The Dignity and Compassion of First Ladies...

Us:


Eleanor Roosevelt

Quotes:

"It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death." April 1, 1939

"Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth." August 22, 1944

"...without equality there can be no democracy." October 12, 1944

"...I have never felt that anything really mattered by the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could." November 8, 1944

"An economic policy which does not consider the well-being of all will not serve the purposes of peace and the growth of well-being among the people of all nations." February 14, 1945


Them:


Barbara Bush

Quotes:

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" -- March 18, 2003, on ABC's Good Morning America

"Almost everyone I've talked to says, 'We're gonna move to Houston.' What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas... Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality, and so many of the people in the arenas here, you know, were underprivileged anyway. This is working very well for them." -- September 5, 2005, while visiting Hurricane Katrina relief centers in Houston, TX

More of Us:


Ted Kennedy



Bobby Kennedy, Jr., Environmental Scholar, Election Reform Advocate



Mario Cuomo



Barbara Boxer



John Conyers



Wes Clark, retired Four-Star General, SACEUR/NATO


More of Them:


Tom Delay, under endictment



James Sensenbrenner, known to take his gavel and go home when he loses a vote



Rick Santorum, a mind from the 13th Century



Katherine Harris, Whackadoo Extraordinaire



Tom Tancredo, believes we should nuke Muslim Holy Sites in the ME



Newt Gingrich, Father of the Neocons


This is a great Party. I urge you all to find the REAL Democrat in yourselves again, and then help America come back home to the one Party that represents us ALL. Never surrender this Party to a faction or entity out to tame its fire or change its goals. And demand those you elect vote with and for the Democrats and the issues that represent the Democratic Party and YOU. Hold them accountable.

TC

Great to see the comparison is such stark pictures!

Originally, this was just to lift my own spirits, but once it got going, I knew I needed to share it.

So, thanks!

TC

It should have been a great piece, but it falls into the whole attack your own mode that really isn't fair, imo.

You buy into the whole image that corporate media has purposely cultivated about the fearsome Republicans and the "limp-wristed" Democrats and of course you must use the "cowardice" word.

There are so many corrupt Republicans we point to, yet media has made sure Dems find it difficult to acknowledge the import of anti-corruption lawmakers.

Maybe THAT is what's wrong with the Democratic party. The old honest media would REPORT on the efforts of our Democratic leaders, then the corporate takeover of the media in the 80s started to decrease the coverage given to the best efforts of our greatest Dem lawmakers, an agenda that made it easy to manipulate even Democrats into attacking their own as "weak...limp-wristed...cowardice...Democrats."

That's where I will not give in to the media - I choose to fight their agenda.

But, this has been a weekend of pulled ads and more capitulation. Originally, I pulled this stuff together for myself, as I said, but wrote what I did from the heart. I hoped it would be taken that way, but not all will I'm sure. I am heartsick aboput this Party and what's happening to it. THAT's that I wanted to come across, but as in all things human, not all will look at the words and feel the same feelings.

I'm glad you at least found it interesting.

TC

piece. But there really is a media influence on the left even when we don't realize it.

We've been conditioned for over 20 years to what the corporate media has chosen to give coverage and what serious matters it has declined to inform us of throughout that time. Because of that, many Democrats aren't as familiar with the efforts of their own lawmakers as they should be by now.

Roots of the roots. Thanks TC.

:hi:

TC

:hug:

I'm with ya!

Being a Democrat that will stand up and state the case firmly in the face of opposition, fear and threats is what makes the best possible case. One person I would add to your excellent comparison is Rosa Parks. Without her, my civil rights would have been even futher delayed. Outstanding! :yourock:

:applause:

And Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Geraldine Ferraro.... I had a MUCH longer list than those presented here, but I had to consider the length of such a post.

Thanks, Pithy one! I am honored.

TC

but the other half stinks up the place.

so many of us talk about the heroes of the past ... perhaps we were just young and naive but we saw many of them as leaders of a movement ... as Democrats, many of them, by no means all of them, spoke to our hearts and stood up for some of our deepest beliefs ... their focus seemed to be on making a better world for future generations ...

i'm sorry to say that a very different message is being sent today ... some have argued that many of us are perhaps ill-informed about some of our reps; that's certainly a valid point ... but nevertheless, the bigger picture does not convey a party standing up for civil rights the way the Kennedy's and LBJ did in the deep south ("that would cost us the south for a generation or more") ... they knew an electoral price would be paid but they did it anyway ...

show me today's heroes who stand up for truth when entire constituencies will stand against them ... i know they are out there but they are not the party's elite and they are not the message the party seeks to send ...

today, the party always feels like winning is more important than core beliefs ... perhaps times were easy in the good old days when Democrats held long-term majorities in the Congress ... maybe we are increasingly desperate for a win; that's certainly understandable ...

but i am saddened by what i see as putting greater emphasis on winning than anything else; worse yet, i think it's really bad politics too ... in my view, the way to win is not to "cater to the center" or cater to anyone else ... we should not be caterers who serve whatever meal was ordered ... we should be leaders and warriors who make our case for what we believe ... the greatest political strength, and the last 25 years have demonstrated this all too well, accrues to those who fight the hardest for their beliefs ... appeasement might win a few stragglers in the middle but it will give away our souls ... and in that, there is only the hollowest of victories ... if any ...

great post, TC ... K&R !!!

oh, and one last thing ... thanks for nothing on posting that Sensenbrenner picture ... there's a nightmare in the on-deck circle ... yechhhhhhh ...

or talking to our hearts? I'll choose having my heart talked to any day!

We cannot have out beliefs enacted unless we govern. We cannot govern if we do not win elections. We cannot win elections by trying not to stand for anything. It doesn't work. It's time to embrace the courage of our heroes, and find some of the fire they carried in their souls, and be DEMOCRATS again!

Thanks for the K & R! Next time, no Sensenbrenner, just for you! :rofl:

TC

Greatest post ever.... :)

:applause:

Nice montage, TC.

this was just outstanding..... Thank you.

I'm so glad you all have liked this so much. I am touched and honored by all the kudos from all you really talented people!!!

:grouphug:

TC

It is so amazing that it would be Bobby Jr. to bring the word to this country that election fraud is happening.

....great post!!!

Brava!

:yourock:

A kick for you since it's past the 24 hour window to recommend. Sorry I didn't see it sooner.

Happy to have seen it now!

:yourock: