*Please... Cut the Crap

A Progressive Manifesto

One problem progressives have these days is our horrible sense of PR. 

Most people, meaning the moderates and swing voters we must reach in order to have any sort of electoral success, agree with us on a number of issues. But we do several things that poison us in their eyes. We label them as something we think of as pejorative, like "centrist" (gasp!). Then, we get really wonky, to the point that we obsess over silly details, such as whether or not they "believe" in climate change. Ten, we obsess over more silly details, like whether or not people should use the terms "global warming" or "climate change." We are so obsessive with irrelevant details (to the people we're talking to) we don't even get around to discussing possible solutions to problems.

Put simply, most people already understand the aspects of the problems we face, because they live them every day.  They want to vote for people who'll solve the problems, even if they don't know or care about them as much as you. We have to engage people with solutions, not constantly reiterate the problems. 

The End of War

First of all, I’m sorry for not being around much lately, but there’s something about being the parent of a soldier that makes you feel really helpless when something happens. As many who read this blog know, my son Tim was deployed to Afghanistan this past August. He’s serving his country in one of the most dangerous areas of one of the most dangerous countries in the world, just so he can better afford to go to college.  But that’s another column for another day.

About a week ago, my son and the others he serves with were scouting for IEDs, and one of them went off, a little too close, and he was thrown back. From the way he describes his symptoms, he’s definitely suffered a concussion, but it’s difficult to tell if it might be worse than that. Tim has this tendency to “not want to worry me,” and still hasn’t figured out that it’s not what he tells me that worries me, but what he doesn’t tell me. 

So, for the last week, I’ve been trying to go through channels to speak to a doctor, and talking to him via instant message and email as much as possible, trying to gain any information I can. This is my baby we’re talking about here. I’ve raised him by myself since he was an infant, and the very thought of losing him to a “war” that should have been over years ago really pisses me off.  The former Vice President, Dick Cheney, made me want to reach through the television screen and slap him when he accused our current president of “dithering” last week.  What in the bloody hell was HIS administration doing for seven years, if it wasn’t “dithering”? For shit’s sake, folks; our mission over there was to wipe out a couple of thousand scumbags who were behind the terrorist attack that killed 3000 of our people. We had them cornered eight goddamn years ago; why are we still there?  Oh, yeah; it’s because we stopped in the middle, and started a war with another country not too far away; one that was a pain in the ass, but which didn’t attack us at all. That’s not dithering? Roosevelt and Truman beat the Nazis and the Japanese in half the time that it’s taken to wipe out a small group of people who are apparently so lacking in weapons that they had to use four of our airliners and box cutters as weapons when they got here.