Exactly
This great letter to the editor in the Times caught my eye. I thought it deserved to be shared.
Amen brother. The Republicans represents the richest handful in the country, and no one else. (Nope, you evangelicals and gun nuts and racists might thing they represent you, but you're being duped worse than anyone. They haven't done a thing for you, and never intend to.)
How I Became a Left-Wing Weenie
I didn’t used to be one. I grew up with a set of beliefs, a balanced budget, smaller government and non-interference in our private lives, which used to be called conservative. I have since found that I am a left-wing liberal. For instance, I believe in a balanced budget. I feel that a responsible government should balance its books and not print and spend money like some banana republic. Today, only liberal weenies like me think that the budget should be balanced. I also believe in smaller government. But once again, I am out of step. The non-defense portion of the federal government under Bush is growing at almost twice the rate it did under Clinton. A bigger federal bureaucracy is suddenly conservative!
I also believe that government should keep its nose out of our business as much as possible. Alas, I have once again joined the ranks of the left-leaning rabble. Although my beliefs haven’t changed in 40 years, what was conservative in the 1970s has become identified with the liberal left of today. Ironically, the policies of 1960s radicals, a bigger, more intrusive federal government and deficit spending, have become the litmus test of modern conservatism. I suppose that if I just sit tight my brand of conservatism will come back into style eventually.
Paul Walliker
Galva
Yet some Dems, like the Democratic Leadership Council, seem to think the only way the Dems will succeed is for them to cow-tow to corporate interests and pander to the God, guns, and gays crowd. I don't think so. Former Republicans like Paul here are just ripe for the picking. IF the Dems don't ignore them in their haste to suck up to Southern red-necks and working class whites who have been hood-winked by the right wing into thinking the right better reflects their views.
Dems don't get this demographic by perpetuating and playing to these false premises and the ignorance of these people. They succeed by showing them how they've been mislead and how the Dems are and have always been closer to what they want for their country and their families.
posted by The Inside Dope @ 4/11/2005
6 comments
6 Comments:
To Paul,
Contrary to what the DOPE said about the Democratic Leadership Council, go to www.dlc.org or .com and you'll love their issue positioning. Former President Bill Clinton helped start the DLC to push the national Democratic Party away from being captive to special interests. Also, the DLC pushed Clinton toward strong positions on fiscal responsibility, civil rights, job training for dislocated workers, investments in health care technologies, more police on the street and so on.
The Dope sadly has not done his homework. Check out their website.
The DLC has led the fight against corporate welfare and tax breaks for the coporations that send jobs overseas.
Check out their website.
The host of this fine site wasn't really listening to Paul's letter.
He advocated smaller government, balanced budgets and a less intrusive government.
That is part and parcel of the Democratic Leadership Council's message.
Quit setting up them as a straw men when no one made those arguements.
What the author of that letter really said is that he is a traditional Republican in the Ronald Reagan-Tom Railsback-Jim Leach-Bob Michel mold (balanced budgets, streamlined gov't), but his party has completely abandoned its principles now that it has all the power and pork.
That's the message; this has nothing to do with the DLC!
Welcome to the fiscally responsible Democratic Party, Paul!
It may have had nothing to do with the DLC, but I did see a relationship to them as I explain in the post. I still am convinced that the DLC is an organization on the way out and is increasingly in disfavor with a majority of Dems.
There are any number of serious writers out there who are remarking on the increasing irrevelence of Al From and company.
The day an organization like the DLC, which brought us two-termer Bill Clinton and helps guide mayors, state reps, state senators, congressmen and presidential candidates to stand up for Democratic values and smart policies to back them up -- the day they become irrelevant I am afraid the day our party becomes irrelevant.
The DLC helped guide Bill Clinton and our party to two terms in the White House, combined with a balanced budget, reductions in crime, etc.
The DLC has been in favor of the horrible Bush bankruptcy bill that turns people with debt due to health problems or divorce into wage slaves to creditors for life, while including loopholes that allow people making over $300,000 a year to shelter their assets if they go bankrupt, they support numerous other Bush measures that would make most Dems cringe as well.
I just don't think that's the way to go. Sorry.
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