I have been wondering what happened with Cenk on MSNBC. I noticed that Al Sharpton was working during his time slot. I thought Cenk was on vacation but since I haven’t been really watching much of MSNBC this summer, I didn’t really know what was going on until I came across this video today. http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/cenk-uygur-explains-his-departure-msnbc
I’m not writing about Cenk being canned at MSNBC. I’m more concerned about something he said in his video. Like many people that think like I do, he states in the video that President Obama is a Republican. I’ve been saying this for a long time. However, what really got me was that he basically said he knew this because he was once a Republican himself.
The Democratic Party was infiltrated by these Republicans, probably because they lost their own home in their own changing party. As the Republican Party moved more right, so did the Democratic Party because of the shift of these people from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. I always have found it strange that people like Ariana Huffington and Markos Moulitsas were speaking for my party. They both were Republicans before they were Democrats. I could never understand how this happened in “my” party. Who would have ever thought that both Governor Perry from Texas and Representative Bachmann from Minnesota were once Democrats?
Yesterday I read something over on Hullabaloo that just made me angry. http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/donkey-in-room.html
Now I want to disclose here that I haven’t really associated myself with the Democratic Party since they stole my vote during the 2008 primary. I consider myself to be an FDR democrat. In fact I passed out flyers for Michael Dukakis long ago. So when I say, “We Democrats!” this is what I mean. It seems that we Democrats, are supposed to keep carrying water for President Obama because he’s the best we’ve got. I never got on that ship to begin with, so when it’s sinking it’s not my job to bail out that water. If President Obama wants to get my vote, he needs to stop modeling himself after GW and start reading books about FDR, protect the programs FDR helped create, and get us out of these wars. In the article that I mentioned here, there was much talk about “progressives”. I just want to state right now that I have come to hate that word. It’s bullshit really. In my own life, I consider myself to be liberal in my politics. That word has been so libeled by the media that people are afraid to admit their liberal. I think of liberal as being “mind expanding, open minded”, and not closed off to new ideas. Essentially, I am liberal because I believe in letting people make their own choices in life. While I am rather conservative in my social values, I believe that everyone needs to be treated with respect and that includes respecting their choices. I personally don’t believe who people are sleeping with, or their religious choices or non choices needs to be a part of politics. This is why I can still be deeply disappointed with what John Edwards did to his family but still understand the politics when he said he wanted to be a voice for the voiceless. I am not moved by the scandal story of the day that is probably put out there at some opportune time to get rid of certain politicians that aren’t quite “falling in line”, much like Cenk at MSNBC.
My politics speak more about social justice than anything else. I find it, yes, morally offensive, when my government decides it is more important to feed and clothe the wealthy than to take care of the least of its people. I know that sounds rather religious in tone but truthfully it is about being human and compassionate. How can a real human walk by and ignore suffering that they see? Too many times I’ve heard conservatives use those words, “They should just pick themselves up by their bootstraps.” The problem is what if they have no boots, little education, and no hope? When we can provide all three, a pair of boots, education, and hope, we should do it. In the end, everyone will be better off because that person will become a productive member of society who could potentially be the next person to give a hand to someone else.
A few weeks ago, I saw part of an old movie, Spencer’s Mountain, with Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara. The movie is about a family. The dad is a miner and he comes from a family of miners. His oldest boy is the top in his class and the family realizes that this is an opportunity for their son to create a better life for himself and potentially the rest of the children by going to college. Yes, I know you can remember the show, “The Walton’s”. In Spencer’s Mountain the father’s dream was to build some grand home for his wife and family. However, he eventually gives up that dream for the real dream which is his family, and helping them have a better life. Here is the most important part to the movie and it is the point I want to make here.
As a person who really has the heart of the real Democratic Party in her soul and is not some come to the party lately person, I think our country should be helping those at the bottom elevate so they can have dreams too. I’m not talking about letting people sit and do nothing. I’m talking about helping people get a good education, find a good job, and fulfill their dreams and even help them get dreams. As an educator, I think we must fund quality education for all. Job creation should not be a problem. There are plenty of things that need to be done in this country. Instead of building roads and bridges in Afghanistan, we could be building and fixing them here. We have an infrastructure that is failing from our road system, to our electrical grid, to even some of the old schools that need to be updated. There is plenty to do here. Some of our big cities look like war torn zones. We could go in and fix these as well. We should be thinking about the future. What is going to draw business to your state or my state? It seems to me that as a government we aren’t doing much here in our own country which is leading to not only a failing economy but also a failing of our people.
We should all be frightened by these two current parties!
My sister and I were talking last night and we both felt that the American people weren’t worried about some terrorist coming in the night and yet the American people are being terrorized by high unemployment, high prices for everything from gas to food, and now the latest threat, losing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The terrorist in our lives happens to be our inept government! The politicians have all swung so far right that they have lost touch with the American people. I live in a Republican community and I have to say on any given day when I really talk with my Republican friends they aren’t that far away from my own thinking. It seems that most of us want to be able to raise our children in peace and know that there is a good future waiting for them when they become adults. That is the American dream! We may have different ways and ideas about reaching that dream, but truthfully that American Dream is being threatened by a two party system that essentially has turned into a one party system. Our government has swung so far to the right that they have forgotten that most of the American people are more concerned about their own personal families than anything else. For years we were threatened with the” imminent” attack that awaited us from Osama Bin Laden. I can remember many police sessions at my school where I was informed that it was an ideal place for a terrorist to show up because it was so unexpected. We have been prodded like cattle to get on a plane or attend a political rally and we have given up the very freedoms that we proclaim to love so much. Now, in addition to those freedoms, we are expected to give up those standards of American life, like Social Security, that we have paid into for all of our lives, to once again, stave off terrorism. We have to pay for all of the things that we cherish like more money for defense, more money for homeland security, more money for politicians to run their offices, less money for education, less money for the arts, less money for Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. Yes, for those of you that don’t understand sarcasm, I am being facetious here. The politicians from both parties are telling us if you want to feel safe at night, this is what we have to do now. I’m not buying it. If this were all true they shouldn’t have taken 2% out of my payroll taxes and kept the Bush tax cuts in place last December. Once again we are being sold a bill of goods. While it appears that the two parties are so far apart that they are at an impasse, don’t buy it. Something will happen and they will get a plan. Unfortunately, it will not favor the majority of the American people. We will once again be told that we all must share in this “sacrifice” when the only ones doing the sharing will be you and me. I don’t have the answers but I know our two party system is broken. We need to get rid of both of these pathetic parties and get fresh people in Washington that are not bought and paid for, that care more about the promise of America than the promise of their next election. We have been told for years that we are stuck with the two party system but we have to change this government. We need people in office that are not loyal to either party but loyal to the American people. I cannot understand anyone in a party that would sign an oath to a person such as Grover Norquist. The only oath they should be taking is one to the American people.