Hate Liberals?

Is that you?

You hate "libruls"?

They're--we're--libtards?

Really?

"Liberals got women the right to vote.

Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote.

Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty.

Liberals ended segregation.

Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act.

Liberals created Medicare.

Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act.

What did Conservatives do?

They opposed them on every one of those things...every one!

So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor."

--Matt Santos, character in The West Wing

Conservatives, also, under the George W. Bush administration, got us into two, count 'em, two wars and crashed the economy, too, by the way. And by economy, I don't just mean the US, national economy, I mean the world economy. There was very nearly a global, economic meltdown.

More.

“If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.”

--President John F. Kennedy

They, Liberals, are for the people, first and foremost.

So yeah, call me a Liberal.  I'm good with that. 

Link:  150 Achievements Of Liberalism

The Two Political Parties are NOT the Same

Sure, campaign contributions can and do buy government representatives in the US in all states on every issue, definitely. If anyone gets that, it's me. I've been writing for a few years on how we need to kill campaign contributions.

But the fact is, if anyone in the US looks coldly and honestly at our US Congress, the representatives there and what they've written and done and who they've represented and defended and fought for, it's clear the Republican Party and their operatives have fought for and still are fighting for the wealthy and corporations far more than that other party.

Far more.

The CATO Institute and the Heritage Foundation and the Koch brothers and Waltons and others aren't all aligned with the Republicans and the Right Wing of this nation because they're fighting for the working man or the average man and woman on the street or the middle- or lower-classes. Not a chance.

And for proof?

Look no further than this list of things for the people, for the nation that the Democrats wrote and created:

• Social Secuity
• Medicare
• Medicaid
• The GI Bill
• Endangered Species Act
• Environmental Laws
• The Space Program
• The Peace Corps
• Americorps
• The Civil Rights Movement
• Earned Income Tax Credit
• Family & Medical Leave Act
• Consumer Product Safety Commission
• Americans With Disabilities Act
• Freedom of Information Act
• Women's right to control their reproductive future
• Allowing citizens to view their own credit records
• The Internet
• Balancing the federal budget
• The Brady Bill (5-day wait on handgun purchases for background checks)
• Lobbying Disclosure Act
• "Motor-Voter" Act
• The Voting Rights Act
• Unemployment Insurance
• Medicare/Medicaid
• Food Stamps/WIC
• Social Security
• Peace between Israel and Egypt
• Peace between Israel and Jordan
• The Department of Education
• The Department of Energy
• The Department of Transportation
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Labor Laws
• The Marshall Plan
• Winning World War II
• Food Safety Laws
• Workplace Safety Laws
• The Tennessee Valley Project
• The Civilian Conservation Corps
• The Securites and Exchange Commission
• Women's Right to Vote
• Universal Public Education
• National Weather Service
• Product Labeling Laws
• Truth in Advertising Laws
• Morrill Land Grant Act
• Rural Electrification
• Public Universities
• Bank Deposit Insurance (FDIC)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Public Broadcasting
• Supporting the establishment of Israel
• The United Nations
• NATO

And the Republicans and Republican Party were against virtually, if not actually, each and every one.

 
Now? 

The Republicans are against the Voting Rights Act and are, instead, trying to disenfranchise Americans and keep them from being able to vote. IN Texas alone, in the last election this year, it's been estimated that the Republicans' Voter ID laws--very Jim Crow like--kept 600,000 Texans from being able to vote.

Very American, eh? Very "Representative government" right?

So don't say the two parties are the same. 

They're anything but.

More than 10 million Americans got health care insurance in the last couple of years, due to Democrats.

They're not the same. 

No way.

I'll grant you, the money spent in and on elections makes them too similar but the differences, the wide differences, are still very much there.

And just now, Republicans are working on destroying Social Security. And Medicare. And Medicaid.

Finally,we need to stop seeing fellow Americans as "us vs. them." We need to all be Americans, working together for the benefit of America and Americans, all of us, and decidedly not just the wealthy and corporations as too many things have been in the last few decades, at least.

Link: What Have Liberals and Democrats Ever Done For Us?

Lessons and Messages from Last Night's Academy Awards, Part II

“We know that the Voting Rights Act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now in this country,” John Legend said.   http://politi.co/1BamNyq

And it's the Republicans and their Republican political party that are doing it, bringing back very Jim Crow like laws, all under the guise of "voter ID laws."

John Legend and Common get political at Oscars

The Insanity of that Right Wing Political Party

And the hypocrisy

On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington

Things that need to be remembered today, on this anniversary:

The Right Wing and Republicans who wrap their arms so squarely around Martin Luther King now--or, at least, his legacy--seem to be doing so extremely conveniently given that so many of them and their political party are now fighting for voter ID laws which disenfranchise, largely, minorities, including and especially black Americans, Hispanics, the poor and elderly in this nation.

It's also so contradictory and hypocritical of them because they and their political party have come out against continuing the Voting Rights Act and because they have, time and again, come out squarely, oh-so-strongly and vehemently against affirmative action.

And now, today, on the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, so many years ago, Rachel Maddow so rightly points out the following on her blog and Facebook page:

Why didn't we hear more Republican voices at today's event on civil rights?

It's because GOP leaders didn't accept the invitations to speak.

A partisan advantage at the Lincoln Memorial

Former President Bill Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Jimmy Carter, and President Barack Obama

From the article:

If you've spent any part of the afternoon watching the event honoring the 50th anniversary of the March of Washington, you may have noticed something most of the political speakers had in common. They were, well, Democrats -- and I don't just mean those who celebrate democracy.

Viewers and attendees heard from Democratic presidents, lawmakers, governors, and even mayors. So where were the Republicans? Drudge whined, for example, that the King family "blew it" by "allowing no one with different political beliefs on stage."

And while I suspect this will soon become the conventional wisdom on the right, it's worth noting that many Republicans were invited, but declined for a variety reasons.

Republican congressional leaders were absent from Wednesday's 50th anniversary event commemorating the March on Washington.

The offices of Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Speaker John Boehner both said they were invited to the event, but were unable to attend due to previous scheduling commitments.

Boehner participated in a July congressional ceremony in the Capitol to mark the anniversary and Cantor participated in a pilgrimage earlier in the year to Selma Alabama with civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis. Cantor's office says they only received an invitation 12 days ago, and his calendar was already full.

Boehner, for the record, is on a 15-state bus tour, raising money for conservative Republican lawmakers. It's not clear what Cantor had scheduled for this afternoon.

The Wall Street Journal added that both Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were invited, but both declined citing poor health. (The younger Bush, you'll recall, is recovering from a heart procedure.)

It's not that the King family "allowed no one with different political beliefs on stage"; it's that Democrats were better able to accept the invitations to participate.

____________________________________________

I say again, why any woman, black American, Hispanic, gay person or elderly in America would vote Republican--unless they're already wealthy--is beyond me.

So don't be too quick to pat yourself on your back, America. We still have a long, long way to go for anything remotely close to equality of any kind, let alone social, economic or socio-economic.

US Economy Leaving Record Numbers in Severe Poverty

Poverty in America: 4 out of 5 adults struggle

The strange--really strange--priorities of the Right Wing

And this is a good idea somehow?

 

The South says they're not racist and don't discriminate any more

There was testimony yesterday, at the Supreme Court, by some Southern legislators, saying they either don't discriminate any longer or the do it less so, hey, that same court should do away with the 1964 Voting Rights Act.

Right.

Got it.

Except look what news just broke today:

Openly Gay Mayoral Candidate In Mississippi Found Dead

 From the article:

Mississippi police are investigating the death of Marco McMillian as a homicide after the body of the state’s first openly gay mayoral candidate was found Wednesday near the levee in Coahoma County. The 34-year-old McMillian had declared his candidacy for mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi.

ABC News is reporting that authorities have a person of interest in custody, but that person has not been formally charged. McMillian’s sexual orientation opens the door for the case to be charged as a hate crime, but so far it appears it is not being investigated that way.

Hey, the fact is, given that he's both gay and black, I'd think they'd look into it being a possible "hate crime."