Monday, October 11, 2004
"John Kerry and the LIBERALS in Congress"
Coming down to the wire and it's time for desperate people to indulge in name-calling. I know the Preznit twice said that the National Journal called Senator Kerry the most LIBERAL member of the senate during the last debate and at least two of his latest ads refer to Kerry as LIBERAL. OOOOOOoooooh, he's a LIBERAL, ohmygod, let's lynch him... LIBERAL bad, George Bush good.
With this appeal to the neanderthal mindset (and its collective faulty memory), I think it's time to remind Americans of all the terrible things that LIBERALS have done:
LIBERALS brought us Civil Rights in this country, ending legal segregation, legislating voting rights to millions of Americans who, because of their skin color, were frequently and institutionally denied their right to vote in parts of this country that were controlled by, um, non-LIBERALS.
LIBERALS exposed the sham of "separate but equal" and destroyed that sham so that American children, no matter their skin color, could attend any school they chose to attend.
LIBERALS brought us Social Security to give Americans a safety net after they've retired or become disabled and unable to work.
LIBERALS gave half of Americans (women) the right to vote and prevented states from legislating choices those Americans may make regarding their own bodies.
LIBERALS created Medicaid so that elderly and impoverished Americans could have health care.
LIBERALS prevented businesses from exploiting child labor.
LIBERALS pulled this country out of the Great Depression by making those Americans who were fortunate enough to not be crippled by the depression to pay their fair share and then using that tax revenue to put millions of Americans to work.
LIBERALS insured education for all children, created programs for poor children to get a leg up on that education (with pre-school programs, making sure they eat a good breakfast - Head Start) and gave poor children a place to go after school so that the working poor would not have to worry about those children.
LIBERALS created a minimum wage and mandatory overtime wages so that workers would not be exploited by unscrupulous employers.
LIBERALS made guaranteed government student loans and grants available to poor families so that they too could attend college.
This is just a brief list; I could go on all day about the mischief LIBERALS are guilty of perpetrating to make this country just and commensurate to the ideals it was founded upon. LIBERALS continue to fight to insure that our air and water is clean, that our National Parks are protected, that our food is not poisoned, that our drugs do what they say they do, to hold corporations accountable for financial misdealings and lost jobs, etc., etc.
Ask yourself if you support most of these things that LIBERALS have done and if you can say "yes", then you must call yourself a LIBERAL, the sort of person who George W. Bush holds in contempt. Likewise, if you refuse to call yourself a LIBERAL then you must ask yourself what it is you do support.
I've heard it said many times that most Americans are LIBERAL and I believe that. I'm confident that if the government ended the programs and progress listed above, most Americans would react quickly and with anger. Yet, non-LIBERALS have played a game of fear in order to taint the label of LIBERAL with misrepresentations so that they can push our country back to a time when LIBERAL was pejorative - the 19th century.
It's time to take LIBERAL back as a label that all proud, patriotic, progress-minded and right-thinking Americans are willing to wear. If fear is the emotion that non-LIBERALS play on, then maybe that's the emotion LIBERALS need to appeal to as a means of taking back the power of the word. So, if you enjoy the guarantees of Social Security, a fair wage, education for all Americans, freedom and equality for all Americans, if you like you air clean and breathable, if you like your water free from poison, if you are proud of the progress that America made in the last century... you are a LIBERAL and you must vote for a LIBERAL. Anything less is un-American.
With this appeal to the neanderthal mindset (and its collective faulty memory), I think it's time to remind Americans of all the terrible things that LIBERALS have done:
LIBERALS brought us Civil Rights in this country, ending legal segregation, legislating voting rights to millions of Americans who, because of their skin color, were frequently and institutionally denied their right to vote in parts of this country that were controlled by, um, non-LIBERALS.
LIBERALS exposed the sham of "separate but equal" and destroyed that sham so that American children, no matter their skin color, could attend any school they chose to attend.
LIBERALS brought us Social Security to give Americans a safety net after they've retired or become disabled and unable to work.
LIBERALS gave half of Americans (women) the right to vote and prevented states from legislating choices those Americans may make regarding their own bodies.
LIBERALS created Medicaid so that elderly and impoverished Americans could have health care.
LIBERALS prevented businesses from exploiting child labor.
LIBERALS pulled this country out of the Great Depression by making those Americans who were fortunate enough to not be crippled by the depression to pay their fair share and then using that tax revenue to put millions of Americans to work.
LIBERALS insured education for all children, created programs for poor children to get a leg up on that education (with pre-school programs, making sure they eat a good breakfast - Head Start) and gave poor children a place to go after school so that the working poor would not have to worry about those children.
LIBERALS created a minimum wage and mandatory overtime wages so that workers would not be exploited by unscrupulous employers.
LIBERALS made guaranteed government student loans and grants available to poor families so that they too could attend college.
This is just a brief list; I could go on all day about the mischief LIBERALS are guilty of perpetrating to make this country just and commensurate to the ideals it was founded upon. LIBERALS continue to fight to insure that our air and water is clean, that our National Parks are protected, that our food is not poisoned, that our drugs do what they say they do, to hold corporations accountable for financial misdealings and lost jobs, etc., etc.
Ask yourself if you support most of these things that LIBERALS have done and if you can say "yes", then you must call yourself a LIBERAL, the sort of person who George W. Bush holds in contempt. Likewise, if you refuse to call yourself a LIBERAL then you must ask yourself what it is you do support.
I've heard it said many times that most Americans are LIBERAL and I believe that. I'm confident that if the government ended the programs and progress listed above, most Americans would react quickly and with anger. Yet, non-LIBERALS have played a game of fear in order to taint the label of LIBERAL with misrepresentations so that they can push our country back to a time when LIBERAL was pejorative - the 19th century.
It's time to take LIBERAL back as a label that all proud, patriotic, progress-minded and right-thinking Americans are willing to wear. If fear is the emotion that non-LIBERALS play on, then maybe that's the emotion LIBERALS need to appeal to as a means of taking back the power of the word. So, if you enjoy the guarantees of Social Security, a fair wage, education for all Americans, freedom and equality for all Americans, if you like you air clean and breathable, if you like your water free from poison, if you are proud of the progress that America made in the last century... you are a LIBERAL and you must vote for a LIBERAL. Anything less is un-American.
