Tom DeLay is an exemplar for the way of Republican congressmen.
Michael Brown and Harriet Mier are perfect examples of the right wing's approach to finding the best in America.
At the big picture, national level, the right wing, republican world is a chaotic mess. It would seem that they would be in big trouble for the 2006 round of elections.
There's a great opportunity to beat these sellouts to "we the people" who are more loyal to fascist theocrat egomaniac-run mega churches and mega-corporations. But it will take research and organization that it is not likely that the Democrat party will carry out. We know, from the last several rounds of elections, that the democrats believe in the money theory for candidates. If they can raise money then they are viable. If they can't, screw them and let them die on the vine. If they don't have money, the dems bully the candidates into become mouthpieces for the DSCC or the DCCC, with limp, tepid talk that almost insures failure.
The late Paul Wellstone proved there's another way that is based on people-powered grass roots organization. That means that YOU need to get involved at the congressional district level. You need to work on congressional and US senate campaigns. It does help to contribute money to them, but you can also help by holding house parties, offering to volunteer to do other work that needs to be done, by writing letters to local papers and local political-beat reporters.
Electing candidates you can get enthusiastic about
If you let the candidates be chosen for you, by the powers that be""democratic committee people, leaders of the DLC, members of congress or the senate from other states""then you won't be very happy with who you get. You may not even feel it's worth volunteering for them when election time approaches. It's important to encourage the best people to run, to let them know that they will have your support. It's important to tell the "powers that be" that you won't settle for their weak, republican-look-alike, DLC choices. You may have to go to a town, county or state Democratic committee meeting to make your opinion known. So do it. Go!
There are a lot of people who are just comfortable with leaving things the way they are. You need to shake them up. You need to get research on how their right wing congressmen and senators voted against them, against the US, voted FOR the war, for Bush's stupidities.
Some of these people will be the ones who have said, "I know there were no WMDs, but I'm still glad we got rid of Saddam." A lot of those people's certainty on Saddam is flagging. Confront them on the soon to be 2000 American dead and 15,000 wounded, the 150,000 plus GIs who have come back with post traumatic stress disorder. Confront them on the chaos, on the civil war that is going on in Iraq, how the Bush administration sold out the women and sold out democracy in Iraq" how the right wing is still failing to provide proper armor and equipment, how they wasted their intelligence resources on searching for WMDs, to cover bush's butt, instead of digging up intelligence on insurrection. Ask them if they think Michael Brown is the only incompetent crony placed in jobs that require real ability, experience and leadership""jobs where appointing cronies have endangered the people of the US.
Then, finally, if necessary, deal with the pro-life issue. Acknowledge that we all want to stop abortions and unwanted pregnancies. But reframe the issue. Supporting Republicans because they oppose abortions means you are opposing many other pro-life issues.
Talk about how the damage the Republicans have done to the environment, to deregulating food quality and toxic elements within foods, like mercury, kill and deforms tens of thousands of children and causes illness in hundreds of thousands.
Talk about how the un-Christian withholding of basic health care benefits from close to 50 million people leads to huge numbers of unnecessary deaths, illness and suffering.
Discuss the environment and the utter disrespect these right wingers have for what God has created as a gift to mankind, or, to be politically correct, humanity.
We can throw the right wing rubber-stampers out of congress, including political hacks who have been selling out their constituents for term after term after term. We can make serious progress in taking back America, taking back democracy. We can do it without the help, or hinderance of the Democratic party. It means YOU have to get active. If you did it during the presidential election of 2004, time to dust off your walking shoes, to exercise your dialing finger. If you have awakened to the danger the right wing presents to America and the world since the election, then you need to reach out, do some digging and find the local progressive organizations that are really working to turn the tables on the right wing. If you can't find an organization, then start one. A lot of the organizations that ARE in existence have only been around a year or less. It's not too late. Get going.
