Every time the Republicans bring up such disingenious and non-sensical
subjects as "moral values" and "patriotism", Democrats should respond
by
simply ignoring them and bring up the issues that really do matter
instead, such as the immoral way that Bush is conducting the war in
Iraq, the need for single-payer health care, the racist
prison-industrial complex, the increasing concentration of corporate
power, and so on.

It's all out war, politically speaking, and THEY are the ones who have
divided the nation with their viscious slash and burn tactics, this is
the way THEY have chosen to do it, so we have to respond in kind, and
give it right back to them, we should not compromise and go along with
them.

John Kerry, unlike Howard Dean, operated on a "Bush-lite" strategy,
and
it didn't work, he compromised our Democratic principles and
positioned
himself close to the Bush camp on the issues, but that didn't stop the
Republicans from portraying him as "the most Liberal politician ever."
You see, it's hopeless to compromise with these rabid loony right
wingers, because they will just demonize us and hate us to the maximum
extent, no matter what we do.

We allowed them to demonize Kerry when it is Bush who should have been
demonized for his terrible record, and for his complete indifference
and
lack of care for American workers and patients and consumers and the
environment, and a tax system that's the biggest dream of all the
oligarchs, and then there's the illegal war and quagmire in Iraq, and
just on and on.

My God! The lists of failures on Bush's part are astounding, he
deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible terms, but we
didn't
do that, and John Kerry practically didn't even lay a finger on Bush.
I
mean the Bush camp were pretty much accusing Kerry of being a traitor,
or being anti-American, or being Satan himself reincarnate, they even
paid preachers to tell their congregations that the Democrats want to
ban the Bible. This is how the Republicans operate, yet all that
Kerry
said about Bush is that "his policies are wrong".

There were so many Bush administration officials (such as Richard
Clarke) who quit the Bush administration and wrote scathing books
about
Bush, but Democrats did not exploit that. We should have used that
ammo
which was given to us, and Bush should have been put on the defensive,
but instead it was Kerry who was put on the defensive. Bush taunted
Kerry during the campaign, for example, there was the Vietnam Swift
Boat
[Veterans for Truth] which knocked out a whole month out of Kerry's
campaign in August and put him on the defense.

Republicans did their research and exploited the so-called "social
issues," the issues that deal with religion, affirmative action,
abortion, and immigration -- all the hot-button issues which the
Republicans know how to manipulate, issues that cater to people's
prejudices. This is their strategy, it's obvious, they don't really
care about moral issues, because they obviously don't practice what
they
preach, their ONLY reason for touting such "moral" issues is to imply
that Democrats have no morals. Therefore we make a mistake of
dignifying them with a response, instead, we should ignore their
issues
and point out their hypocricy. For example, as much as these guys
like
to promote themselves as pro-family and anti-gay, we should shove it
back into their faces and expose their hypocricies, such as their #2
guy
himself, ***** Cheney and his gay daughter. Or even their #1 guy, the
Bush twins and their frequent run in with the law. What kind of
father
would raise his daughters in that way?

Remember, THEY are the ones who decided to employ this slash and burn
strategy. THEY are the ones who are bringing up the moral values
issues, as if they had any. Hypocricy is a fair issue to expose.

We need to rightfully put the Republicans in their place, and at the
same time speak up on those issues that actually do win elections for
us
Democrats -- such as standing up for workers, standing up for Social
Security, standing up for a middle-class progressive tax system, and
so
forth. We need to highlight the contrast between big corrupt
corporate
power and the power of the rest of us good hard working ordinary
people,
and emphasize the fact that us Democrats represent the ordinary
people,
but the Republicans represent the big corrupt forces that are
suppressing us all.

Especially since the corporate controlled media is NOT doing it's job
of
correctly portraying the Republicans for who they really are, we need
to
pick up the slack and get on the loudest megaphones, on the busiest
street corners, or any way we can in any medium (including the
internet)
and announce it to the world, over and over again, how the Republicans
have been leading the corporate crime wave that has looted tens of
trillions of dollars from pension holders, small investors, and
workers
Enron-style.

We should block traffic and protest in large numbers, like they've
done
in Ukraine, the world should know what the Bush Republicans have done
in
Ohio and elsewhere. We need to understand that the point of
resistance
should be exactly where the Republicans exist.

I think there was always a lot of shenanigans before, during, and
after
Nov. 2, in Ohio and many other States. And Ohio was the worst place
for
such corruption to occur. Anywhere that is overpopulated with
Republicans is overpopulated with corruption, that's the formula. In
Ohio they have a Republican governor, they have a Republican Secretary
of State (who is very partisan, just like Katherine Harris in 2000 in
Tallahassee, Florida). They have a Republican legislature in Ohio,
and
they knew it was going to be a swing state. There's also evidence that
before the election, Kenneth Blackwell, the Secretary of State, was
working overtime to try to undermine the minority vote, dealing with
voter registration, etc. And what Blackwell did, even before election
day, was to depress the minority vote and to minimize the number of
voting machines in minority and heavily Democratic areas, this is what
was done in Ohio. Since this is downright illegal, us Democrats
should
not stoop down to the level of Republicans in such immorality, but
what
should happen is that Blackwell himself should be treated as the
treasonous traitor that he is and be prosecuted to the full extent of
the law, we should hold vigils until he is taken to prison for all of
his crimes against our democracy.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt put it very succinctly in a message to
Congress in 1938, asking for an investigation of concentrated
corporate
power, when he said: "When our government is taken over by economic
power, that's fascism." That's the exact word he used: fascism.

Abel Malcolm

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Educate yourself & go to these links:

www.moveon.org & www.buzzflash.com &
http://ww11.e-tractions.com/truemajority/run/oreo &
www.democracynow.org
& http://www.airamericaradio.com/ &
http://oliverwillis.com/branddemocrat/ & http://barbrastreisand.com/