10/31/2010—I agree with Taylor Marsh on Huffington Post. Political differences are real. Cool ironic distance just gets the other person elected.
Here in Pennsylvania there are especially stark differences between Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey. Sestak supported healthcare reform/Toomey wants to repeal it. Sestak supported regulation of Wall Street/Toomey opposed it. Sestak thinks the government needs to keep deficit spending in aid of the recovery/Toomey wants to cut spending—and enact the Bush tax cuts for those earning over $250,000. I wish my neighbors who went to the rally had stayed home and worked to get out the vote or failing that had at least donated the money they spent on the trip to a candidate to help the candidate get out the vote.
It was the tone of the rally I object to the most. One sign reportedly read, “hyperbole is destroying America” (get it?). Will electing Toomey destroy America? Of course not. But it will take us down a road that will hurt a lot of people. His election, for example, will make it almost impossible to do anything about global warming. Do I think unchecked global warming will destroy America? Closer question, but nothing for this woman to sneer at.
The people at that rally think they are smarter than the rest of us. They are saying that what we think so important really is not. I hope they still think so after the new Republican majorities take power. I have a feeling that the people at that rally won’t be thinking it is all so funny in six months.
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I had several acquaintances attend the rally and, in a way, I understand why. It was a semi-snarky way of thumbing one's nose at the Glen Beck's of the world. I do think that snarkiness is a luxury that we can't afford at this time. I spent the weekend and today getting out the vote, but I'm afraid that it won't be enough. I truly wish that W had re-institued the draft. That was the last thing that truly energized the young persons base that seems so apathetic now. I believe that we have been through such a period of lowered expectations that young people don't realize the opportunities and constitutional rights they have lost. And somehow, I just don't have any confidence that the Tea Party is going to "take the country back" to anywhere I want to be.
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