8.17.2009

Show Them Who They REALLY Work For

The current debate on Health care Reform has opened the eyes of many in America to the true nature of the elitist inhabitants of our current representational republic. I make a point here in strictly defining America's government in its true terminology - "representative republic" - because I believe that our government is now broken and does not function the way the founders had intended.

Take, for example, the recent comments by New York Democrat Representative Eric Massa (New York's 29th Congressional District). Mr. Massa was addressing an intimate gathering of Net Roots activists during a round table discussion at the annual Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh this weekend.

He is adamant that he is not going to have a town hall meeting in his district to discuss health reform, nor is he going to vote against any proposed health reform legislation, regardless of the wishes of his district, which he categorizes as "one of the most right wing Republican districts in the country".

For me the whole health reform debate has thrown open the door to the most pernicious practice in American congressional politics: allegiance to your political party and its leadership rather than representing the wishes of the people who sent you to Washington. The House of Representatives should be exactly that: a body consisting of individuals who have been sent by the voters in their district to be their voice in Washington, and to vote on legislation in the manner that the voters - the people for whom the Representative is actually working - instruct him to.

It's obvious to everyone that this is no longer the case; that party loyalty is more important than the wishes - and the voice - of the voters. Mr. Massa has made this abundantly clear when he states that he has no intention of voting with his constituents, but rather with the wishes of his party's leadership in Washington:



The national approval rating for congress before the 2008 election was at the lowest level since polling began. Yet Americans saw fit to return their representative and senator back to Washington. It's obviously some other government hack's fault, right?

Wrong.

What Mr. Massa and others like him need to understand in 2010 is this: if they don't truly represent their district, the voters in their district will throw them out in 2010. Tell him so on his website: http://massa.house.gov/index.html. Find your representative's website here and make sure they know how you feel.

My fear is that the political memory of the average American is only about a month long. My hope is that the anger of Americans will surpass their limited memory and that the 2010 election will truly be a watermark in American politics; a message sent loud and clear: you work for us, not for your party.



-

8.05.2009

Jokers Wild

Have you seen this picture?



According to news reports it began showing up on streets and highways in Los Angeles over the past weekend. Since then it has made appearances in other cities in other states.

Well, in LA the poster is causing "quite a stir." Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson went to far as to say, "Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery. It is mean-spirited and dangerous."

At the time of his weekend statement Hutchinson was evidently unaware of this image, which appeared in the July 29, 2008 issue of Vanity Fair:



Yes, it's George W. Bush. And yes, it's the same Heath Ledger Joker character. Read the comments after the brief Vanity Fair article.

One of Earl's friends must have tapped him on the shoulder... "ah, Earl..." because now Hutchinson is trying to spin himself out of the hole he dug with commentary posted today in The Huffington Post. He claims that, contrary to his comments from the weekend, he supports free speech and decries censorship; he even makes mention of the Bush Joker picture (something of a mea culpa, but obviously insincere) in a vain attempt to paint himself as a anything but an Obama boot-licking hysteric.

Part of his strategy in the Huffington piece is to downplay his weekend screed by comparing it to his own over-wrought depiction of the Right's response.

    ...when this writer and a handful of other critics had the temerity to brand the Obama Joker poster as a demonic and mean spirited slur of President Obama, the Obama loathers went into a manic tail spin.

Of course nothing could be further from the truth. Once again the Left is caught making vitriolic statements about those who have the "temerity" to depict their leader with such a "vile" characterization, yet condoning through their silence the exact same image used against their political opponent, George Bush.

The American people aren't stupid, and they can certainly see through this charade, which in part explains why more and more people are fed up with the Left in America and are starting to stand up and be heard.

Hutchinson repeats in his Huffington op-ed the same demand he made this past weekend:

    "We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."

The man obviously needs another tap on the shoulder. Not only is the Obama poster itself publicly available from zazzle.com, you can also get t-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, mouse pads, and bumper stickers with the same image!

Isn't America great?



-