[AGL] Fwd: Bob Herbert

[Wayne Johnson]

yup!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harry Edwards" <laughingwolf at ev1.net>
To: "ghetto survivors" <austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 7:54 PM
Subject: [AGL] Fwd: Bob Herbert


> Bob Herbert absolutely *nails* the Dimmercrats.                   twisty
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>> From: Dave McQueen <dmcqklaatu at NETSCAPE.NET>
>> Date: May 11, 2006 6:43:05 AM CDT
>> To: GHETTO2 at LISTS.WHATHELPS.COM
>> Subject: Bob Herbert
>> Reply-To: Remembrances of Austin Ghetto <GHETTO2 at LISTS.WHATHELPS.COM>
>>
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> May 11, 2006
>> Op-Ed Columnist
>>
>> Where's the Beef?
>>
>> By BOB HERBERT
>>
>> "You can't think and hit at the same time." ? Yogi Berra
>> "One must be something, in order to do something."
>> ? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
>> 
>> Enough already with the analyses ad nauseam of the strategies and 
>> tactics and philosophies that the Democratic Party should pursue to 
>> regain power in upcoming elections.
>> We've been listening to this armchair chatter for years: The Democrats 
>> need new ideas. They need big ideas. They need to move to the center. 
>> They need to wave the flag. They need to go to church. They need the 
>> soccer moms and the Nascar dads. They need to run from the blacks. 
>> They need to run from the gays.
>> I have no more patience with this perennially pathetic patient, this 
>> terminally timid Democrat who continues to lie cowering and trembling 
>> on the analyst's couch, wondering why the Demolition Derby Republicans 
>> control virtually all of the levers of power in the United States.
>> The Democrats are thinking too much and doing too little. This is a 
>> party in need of a moxie transplant. It's time for the patient to 
>> climb off the couch, walk outside and mix it up with the gang that has 
>> made a complete and utter mess of the country that was entrusted to 
>> it.
>> The polls tell us that the G.O.P. is ready to be routed. President 
>> Bush's approval ratings are at the lowest levels of his presidency. 
>> The war with Iraq is now widely ? and properly ? viewed as a disaster. 
>> Respondents to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll said they 
>> believed the Democrats would do a better job on nearly all of the 
>> major issues facing the country.
>> Now would be an excellent time for Democrats to pounce, to show 
>> genuine leadership. This is not the time for yet another round of 
>> thumb-sucking, for more mind-numbing nonsense about narratives and 
>> framing, for more abstract talk about how to define the party. The 
>> public needs to know what you plan to do about the war. What's your 
>> energy policy? How should we deal with Iran?
>> What the Democrats need more than anything, with midterms coming up in 
>> the fall and a presidential election two years later, are personable 
>> candidates of strong character who have at least some measure of 
>> political courage and are willing to stand up for what they truly 
>> believe. This is the stuff that leaders are made of.
>> In 1948, when Harry Truman had already been dismissed by the political 
>> geniuses as a certain loser, he got on a train and took his case to 
>> the American people. Truman told his sister: "It will be the greatest 
>> campaign any president ever made. Win, lose or draw, people will know 
>> where I stand and a record will be made for future action by the 
>> Democratic Party."
>> There are no Trumans in sight in this Democratic Party. Democratic 
>> candidates and potential candidates are still agonizing with their 
>> analysts over exactly what to say about this issue or that. (They're 
>> trying to figure out ways to talk about the war, for example, that 
>> will offend neither hawks nor doves.) What's almost funny is that the 
>> patient has been doing this for years, and keeps losing election after 
>> election.
>> Why not try something new and liberating, like the truth? Forget the 
>> theorizing and strategizing. Tell the truth about what's happening 
>> now. Let the electorate know how much the Iraq war is really costing ? 
>> in human treasure, loss of influence around the world, increases in 
>> gasoline prices and cold, hard cash. Tell the truth about the 
>> monstrous buildup of state power by the Bush crowd, which has 
>> undermined the freedom and privacy of innocent people here at home, 
>> and angered many conservatives.
>> Talk straight about the unconscionable assault on working people in 
>> the United States.
>> I remember all the chatter about moral values after the last 
>> presidential election, and how the Democrats would have to pump their 
>> values up if they were ever to win again. I never bought it. The 
>> Democrats didn't lose the last time around because they lacked virtue. 
>> They lost because John Kerry was a lousy candidate.
>> If the Democrats don't know what they believe in yet ? if they're 
>> still figuring that out ? they don't deserve to win. Politicians are 
>> supposed to lead, and the U.S. has seldom been in more desperate need 
>> of leadership than now.
>> It's time to climb off the couch, Democrats, present yourselves to the 
>> public, and take a stand. If you're personable, and possessed of just 
>> a little bit of courage, you're halfway home.
>> 
>> 
>> 
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