I'm a politically moderate (slightly left-leaning) Christian who believes that government should provide some socialist programs such as Medicare and Social Security for the elderly. I also believe that government should make sure that all citizens receive healthcare. It is a God-given right – not just a privilege.
If you are truly a follower of Christ, you know he taught nothing like the ideas that the rightwing believes in: like not providing services to the poor, increasing the income inequality gap by giving the most tax cuts to the top 2%, lessening banking regulations and allowing banks to run rampant on the average fiscally undereducated citizens, not giving healthcare for people who can't afford it, hating undocumented workers, exploiting children in foreign countries economically and socially for their goods and services, supporting child slavery through money sent across the globe to get things done your way, strapping guns on to intimidate, or torturing anyone.
Jesus taught just the opposite.
If you are truly Christian, be still and listen to the voice of Jesus preaching love for God and love for all your neighbors – including those whom you dislike. Read and soak in the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. Stop listening to rightwing politicians tell you that God is on their side. They are lying.
A viral video, based on Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" from the 2008 primaries, was inevitable. It was edited to include Minority Leader Boehner screaming, “Hell, no you can’t!”
I'm not sure anyone needs to write or create anything further about American politics in 2010. This pretty much says it all.
New Will.i.am video: http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=5158255
And here is the wonderful 2008 Will.i.am video for your pleasure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
YES, WE CAN!
Showing posts with label Yes we can. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yes we can. Show all posts
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
We are one nation
America eventually comes back around to and lives up to its ideals. It is so thrilling to be alive to witness one of those moments. This election was a referendum on the neoconservatism that has guided American politics since the age of Reagan. Indeed, future historians may well view Barack Obama's victory as the end of the age of Reagan and the beginning of something new.
America can justifiably claim that the election outcome was a clear repudiation of conservative economic ideas and absurd claims that a more egalitarian* approach to growth constitutes "socialism." This rejection of far right ideology, the failures of the Bush administration, the shifts in public views on the economy, and the Iraq war have led to this watershed moment.
Unlike Ronald Reagan in 1980, though, Obama didn't run on an ideologically distinct platform. His victory is not a mandate for a new era of neoliberalism. Obama ran on tax cuts. Although he will end our presence in Iraq, he did not campaign on taking U.S. foreign policy in a dramatic new direction – he has been as hawkish as John McCain on Afghanistan. He did not advocate bold new social initiatives. He did not propose a leftist philosophical approach to governing, unless, after living eight years under the Bush philosophy, you consider competence to be revolutionary.
Obama’s win does not represent an embrace of neoliberalism, but rather a repudiation of the Republican Party’s harsh, far-right leaning conservatism. The far right neoconservative rulers and their wealthy friends have been sidelined. Obama will strive to govern from the middle and be everyone’s president.
The president-elect magnanimously reached out to bruised and battered conservatives in his victory address, quoting Abraham Lincoln, "We are not enemies, but friends." If Republicans will accept his extended hand of friendship, we now have an opportunity to rebuild a government tuned to the people – all the people, not just a selected few.
“… this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln
We are one nation, under God. We are not enemies. Let’s end the division and work together.
Yes, we can!
*Egalitarian: affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people.
America can justifiably claim that the election outcome was a clear repudiation of conservative economic ideas and absurd claims that a more egalitarian* approach to growth constitutes "socialism." This rejection of far right ideology, the failures of the Bush administration, the shifts in public views on the economy, and the Iraq war have led to this watershed moment.
Unlike Ronald Reagan in 1980, though, Obama didn't run on an ideologically distinct platform. His victory is not a mandate for a new era of neoliberalism. Obama ran on tax cuts. Although he will end our presence in Iraq, he did not campaign on taking U.S. foreign policy in a dramatic new direction – he has been as hawkish as John McCain on Afghanistan. He did not advocate bold new social initiatives. He did not propose a leftist philosophical approach to governing, unless, after living eight years under the Bush philosophy, you consider competence to be revolutionary.
Obama’s win does not represent an embrace of neoliberalism, but rather a repudiation of the Republican Party’s harsh, far-right leaning conservatism. The far right neoconservative rulers and their wealthy friends have been sidelined. Obama will strive to govern from the middle and be everyone’s president.
The president-elect magnanimously reached out to bruised and battered conservatives in his victory address, quoting Abraham Lincoln, "We are not enemies, but friends." If Republicans will accept his extended hand of friendship, we now have an opportunity to rebuild a government tuned to the people – all the people, not just a selected few.
“… this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln
We are one nation, under God. We are not enemies. Let’s end the division and work together.
Yes, we can!
*Egalitarian: affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)