A party that realizes the electorate has been beaten and is bloody and deserves a long and healthy dosage of respect can capture and hold the White House and both houses of Congress.We get no respect! Its true. We are the Rodney Daingerfields of the Milky Way Galaxy, except no-one is laughing at our attempts of humor. Instead the audience is overcome with pity and shame for us. We are the abused. The party that can run on “Respect,” can win over the populist vote, the angry vote, the “sick to death of it . .” vote.
To us in the Democratic Party and those of us who are true liberals and progressives, our relationship with the current administration is as if we are the scrawny book-worm neighbors, abused by the six foot six inch, three hundred pound beer-pounding brute who moved in next door five years ago. The arrogant lummox throws his trash over the fence into our yard, he steals anything we leave outdoors. We get no respect from this new guy. We must be cautious of this buffoon next door. But living in fear with excessive steps of caution distract us from our lives, our own growth. The effects of the disrespect ripple through the life of the neighbor as his own messages are lost in the turmoil, his family is frustrated with his frustration expressed as yelling fits, and four hour stops at the local pub after work.
The arrogant and obnoxious neighbor can’t be reasoned with, as there is no critical thought from the hair down, and so there is no point in attempting to explain the complexities of concepts such as community and sharing, courtesy, or why playing a positive role in the neighborhood is better than his negative role.
On all sides of the American political spectrum respect has been blatantly absent from the neighbors that are the Congress of the United States. Lead by Republicans, the One Hundred and Ninth Congress, and the Senate of Two Thousand and Four, may be the most corrupt in our short history. Often in secret and with blatant disrespect, they ignored our best interests to cater to the desires of credit card corporations, of pharmaceutical corporations, and of health insurance corporations, military contractors, and mining companies. The President and the White House administration has disrespected our constitution on multiple counts. Our Bill of Rights and our Articles of Confederation, had been written with respect in mind and they have been abused.
The left wing of American politics can be the Respect party. Respect for the Labor that (truly) drives our economy. Respect for the education’s of all Americans choosing to pursue intellectual growth for the benefit of all. Respect for the necessity of affordable health care for all Americans. Respect for our environment and the maintenance of our free lands. Respect for privacy. Respect for the single email or letter or the phone call from a voter in the district, a respect tied down with chain that can not be raised and counter weighted on a giant brass scales by satchels of gifts, golf trips, and private jet flights.
Above all the new respect our nation needs from government must be based upon a philosophy which defines government, stated by a Liberal president who happened to carry the label Republican:
On all sides of the American political spectrum respect has been blatantly absent from the neighbors that are the Congress of the United States. Lead by Republicans, the One Hundred and Ninth Congress, and the Senate of Two Thousand and Four, may be the most corrupt in our short history. Often in secret and with blatant disrespect, they ignored our best interests to cater to the desires of credit card corporations, of pharmaceutical corporations, and of health insurance corporations, military contractors, and mining companies. The President and the White House administration has disrespected our constitution on multiple counts. Our Bill of Rights and our Articles of Confederation, had been written with respect in mind and they have been abused.
The left wing of American politics can be the Respect party. Respect for the Labor that (truly) drives our economy. Respect for the education’s of all Americans choosing to pursue intellectual growth for the benefit of all. Respect for the necessity of affordable health care for all Americans. Respect for our environment and the maintenance of our free lands. Respect for privacy. Respect for the single email or letter or the phone call from a voter in the district, a respect tied down with chain that can not be raised and counter weighted on a giant brass scales by satchels of gifts, golf trips, and private jet flights.
Above all the new respect our nation needs from government must be based upon a philosophy which defines government, stated by a Liberal president who happened to carry the label Republican:
“ . . . government is the coming together of peoples as a group or as a whole to accomplish together what they could not, or would not, as individuals.”
Abraham Lincoln
The respect afforded the populace by adherence to this philosophy is paramount in maintaining the honor of the government. Each program or spending allocation must meet the justification, included in this statement, and respect will follow and the electorate will know they are respected. It is an evidence based logic that dictates government actions following this philosophy. No opposing factor will be able to dismantle, for example environmental protections, without showing evidence that the states, or cities, could effectively manage the cause of problems by themselves, or that those problems effect none of their neighbors. Respect must sweep from the farthest ocean ports, to the distant islands of all of the United States.
Two Hundred and Thirty years ago a rather exclusive group of liberal thinkers, men of imagination, men of aspiring dreams felt disrespect from the throne of King George. Servile positions to a monarchy across the sea did not allow them accomplish as small groups of peoples (the colonies) or as individuals what they strongly felt they could as a large group, unified against the disrespect.
James G. Mason
Sunday, April 30, 2006
