Democratic star Elizabeth Warren
The 2014 elections are less than three weeks away. Earlier this year, we called for the Democratic Party to come up with a positive unifying theme for the elections, and suggested “We Have Your Back.” The Democrats never came up with such a theme, although the Democratic Party’s list of accomplishments and values is impressive. Moreover, 2014 is not a presidential election year, and there is no transformative or historical figure running on the Democratic ticket to get Democrats excited. For example, Elizabeth Warren, perhaps the Democratic Party’s biggest star, isn’t up for re-election for years, and you have to live in Kentucky or Texas to vote for Alison Lundergan Grimes or Wendy Davis, respectively.
Are you one of those Progressives who is disappointed in your Democratic leaders? Think they’re the same as the Republicans? Thinking of staying home this Election Day? Think again! Here’s but a brief list of things the Republicans routinely do, try to do, or stand for, in contrast to the Democrats:
War on Women, including anti-abortion bills, closing abortion clinics and forced ultrasounds (i.e., state-sponsored rape), and voting against equal pay for equal work;
Voter suppression (which is largely a war on minorities);
War on the Environment and climate denial;
Voting more than 50 times to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which now covers at least 10.3 million more Americans with health insurance
Lickng the NRA‘s boots;
Blocking progress by filibustering in the Senate and failing to bring legislation in the House up for a vote, including the Jobs bill, the infrastructure bill and the Veterans bill;
Bankrupting America’s public services to pay for more tax cuts for the rich;
Wasting time on fake hearings from Fast and Furious to I.R.S. to Benghazi;
War on Unions;
War on Workers, for example, blocking an increase in the minimum wage;
Privatizing public services from the military to education;
Government shutdowns and Sequestration cuts;
Voting to continue tax breaks for companies that offshore American jobs;
Installing Supreme Court Justices who rule against workers and less powerful Americans in favor of corporations and guns;
Following media hatemongers such as Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity as their spokespeople.
So if you aren’t bowled over with excitement by many of the Democrats running for office this year, we can understand. But what we would not understand, and what future generations would never understand, is if you didn’t stand up to these destructive Republicans this year, and just stayed home on Election Day.
Photo by Tim Pierce, used under Creative Commons license. https://www.flickr.com/photos/
