Sunday, March 12, 2006

Let Us Choose Our Own Candidates

I keep hearing that Hillary is a shoo in for the Presidential challenger and I want to know just who in the hell got to decide that. It wasn't me or anybody I know online or in real life who chose her, so who did.?

I also don't know anybody who chose other "Partei" front runners like John Morrison, Bob Casey, Joe Lieberman. Why is all this accepted as common wisdom way before a single primary has been held?

It is undemocratic and it belies the ideals that I sit at this computer for far too much of my life for. I don't know who decided that we couldn't choose our own candidates before we back them with everything we have, but I am sick and tired of being pushed around in endless power grabs by people who really don't care about me and my family or my neighbors and community either.

I truly believe, and I have the life experience to back it up, that I make better decisions for myself than other people do. I bet that is true of almost everyone with an IQ of 80 or more, so why are we supposed to rely on the wisdom of whoever it is that is calling all the shots here? Who are the people who have chosen John Morrison(who I do like very much) to be our Senatorial candidate and what do they know about him that we don't know?

What do they know about him that his staff doesn't know or won't tell?


That is why I was so happy to fiind this over at eRob's place

If Democratic voters were interested only in return on investment, like the coalition of the well-heeled and the narrow-minded that defines the right wing of the Republican Party, the whole back room, top down, executive decision-making thing might work. But Democratic voters are not looking for tax cuts, earmarks, or corporate welfare; they're not obsessed with controlling the lives of their fellow citizens. What they're seeking, in addition to honest representation, is protection of our Constitutional rights -- like choice, like privacy, like equal rights -- and genuine solutions for our nation's critical problems -- like universal health care, a living wage, and an immediate end to the Iraq War.


That is Chuck Pennachio letting people know that he sees them for who they are, not for who the talking heads want them to be. He proceeds to illustrate the difference between his viewpoint and that of the pre-selected candidate Bob Casey by appealing to our common roots and work ethic that made America great in the first place and he promises to work with and for us as Americans rather than a bunch of spoiled layabouts waiting for the pork to be delivered in the hopes that they can get a bigger share than the next person


Also on Monday, our campaign filed 4212 petition signatures collected by 220 volunteers in 32 counties. No paid circulators, no help from the party bosses; just ordinary citizens who understand that the way forward isn't backward. You don't effect change by giving in; if you want change you have to push back and fight. I'm not going to the Senate to be bipartisan; I'm going to the Senate to be a pain-in-the-ass -- you know, rattle the cage -- on behalf of regular people, because that's what this historical moment demands. Nothing less. Thomas Jefferson often said that each generation must wage revolution anew and, you know, he was right. We've grown complacent. Our government has grown complacent and it long ago stopped representing the interests of the average citizen. Unlike my future colleagues, I have not, do not and will not take PAC money, so I don't need to worry about offending my sponsors. Our Senate has 63 lawyers, a nice assortment of former CEOs and CFOs, but not a single trained historian like myself. And it shows. We need to stop taking short cuts and start taking the long view.

Face it folks, we're screwed up. We're broke, dependent on the good will of other counries that may not have our best interest at heart and almost half of the country has decided that it is easier to be monitored everywhere all the time than face the risk of living full and complete lives when consenting adults could be praying to a God that we don't believe in or sharing their sexuality in ways that we don't personally like.

How did we manage to squander our wealth and the influence that our ancestors worked for generations to achieve for nothing but a false sense of pride and why did we ever buy the line that our prosperity demanded the exploitation of our environment and other people's labors? Do we really believe that we can conceed enough hope, enough public property,enough of our economic security or enough of somebody else's dignity for it to turn out all right? Do we really believe that those concessions will always come from somebody else who really deserves to be shut out, locked up or ridiculed because they are dumb, lazy or sinful?

How have we allowed ourselves to be boxed into a corner that basically sells our children into slavery and may doom their children to extinction because we are afraid of a sports figures doing steroids and few crazed radicals who get to run free while others pay for their crimes and why is half of our country too defensive or fearful to consider the reasons for that. Why have we allowed ourselves to succumb to the learned helplessness about our situation while somebody else makes our choices for us?

The self appointed decision makers have exercised more than their fair share of democracy for far too long now and judging by the state of the party and the state of the nation, it has been a dismal failure to let them. They need to let go of the reins and join us as equals not as overlords.

We need some new ideas and old fashioned common sense. The only way we are going to get it is have more primaries where the candidates let us know why they are better for us rather than taking the talking heads word that we can't do any better.

Bring on the primaries!

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