We have nothing to fear but fear itself

If I ever run for president I'm going to hire the TV writers to be my speech writers. I'm going to start this entry and paraphrase the speech given by the President in the movie "The American President":

>>...America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free"... This is a country made up of people with hard jobs that they're terrified of losing. The roots of freedom are of little or no interest to them at the moment. We are a nation afraid to go out at night. We're a society that has assigned low priority to education and has looked the other way while our public schools have been decimated. We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious men to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, friend, I promise you, George W. Bush is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it.
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So there it is. The head of the Republican party wants you to be afraid. Be afraid of change.

Don't make a move during wartime even though the war is now 4 years old and shows no sign of ever ending. I guess when it's still going on in 2008 the argument will be to continue with the Republicans in the executive office because we're still fighting a war and we shouldn't make any changes if we don't have to.

He doesn't say your taxes MAY go up, he tells you they WILL go up. The Democrats are arguing for fiscal sanity. Stop giving money to the people that the government doesn't have. I heard someone say yesterday, "When you're in a hole and you want to get out, stop digging." The Republicans have heavily mortgaged our future and our childrens' future and they have no plan to pay off the mortgage. In fact they want to take out some more mortgages. "Stop digging".

POTUS argues that his agenda will be coopted. That's what checks and balances are all about. Even with full Republican control of the wheels of government, the agenda is mired in the mud. Clinton became a better president when he was forced to govern from the middle after the 1994 elections. I think the executive and legislative branches function best when held by different parties. The pendulum is swinging to the middle where it belongs and POTUS must govern from the middle.

Family values are somehow in peril as well. It's as if Democrats don't believe in God, don't go to church, don't raise Christian families. Since when. Democrats seem more Christian in many ways then the Republicans who preach intolerance and hate. Live and let live. Read my discussion about loving your neighbor. Nobody will suddenly turn gay because they are suddenly given some legal protection.

Terrorists will not up the ante because a Democrat is in charge. They hate our way of life regardless of our political colors. Democrats want terrorists brought to justice. They want the recommendations of the 911 commission implemented (which the Republicans have balked at). They want all shipping containers inspected, they want trials for terrorists. they want to listen in on terrorist communications although they want the courts to sanction it after the fact to ensure that our laws are being followed. There is no delay in that despite what POTUS wants you to believe. They want justice. They want it as bad as the RED team does (maybe more). POTUS somehow wants you to believe that is not so.

Fear is no justification for selecting a candidate to represent you. Study the candidates and listen to your heart. Pull the lever for PURPLE.