"I am asking every voter who reads these pages to refuse to vote for a candidate who will not say the line out loud."
I live in a border state, about 60-70 miles from the border. My city wasn't overrun by illegals, or a crime-infested hellhole, before Trump came into office, and his policies have made it worse if anything. So while I completely agree with this, if I did this, I would never have to vote again.
So Mike, do you suggest that I go ahead and draw the line, and just stop voting altogether - which, if done generally in the swingy state where I live, would result in more Republican victories - or that I continue to vote for the best candidate for each office on an office-by-office basis? At this point, I feel like Priority One is to dismantle the existing regime, and I will vote for anyone who chooses to stand against it and worry about the details later.
Yes, I think more Democrats, and more people in general, should remember the words on the statue the French gave us, that at least some of their ancestors saw when entering this country. I think those words should be emblazoned in 30-foot letters of fire at every American border crossing, readable from both sides. I think that if we can't remember that we are all equal, and are endowed by our creation with unalienable rights, we're not as far above our distant ancestors as we might think.
"It's not my damn planet, monkey boy!"
"No words have said this thing of importance in quite this way. Look at these three words written larger than the rest, with a special pride never written before or since. Tall words proudly saying 'We the People'."
I agree. We must stop demonizing those who come here for a better life and start embracing them. The counter argument is always racism and fear of the “other.”
The immigrants in the country are paying the price for Trump to build his citizen army that he can dog whistle to attack the capitol, the polls, the streets. And why did he pick these people to be his militia? Not because he cares a flying fuck for them but because he knows as we all know now that they were ripe for the picking. For a variety reasons - poor, uninterested in the truth, unwillingness to read beyond headlines, bored with life, tired of being incapable of paying bills, need somebody to blame for their station in life. Was he smart enough to pick immigrants to be the sacrifial lambs. I don't think so. Who is sacrificing him?
"Citizen" army? Lets rethink that part. These folks need therapy for being raised through obedience training, like dogs. They all need to be approached and offered reconciliation and support. Refusal risks deportation, although many are already incarcerated. We need a massive movement to stop obedience training.
A brilliant article. I would suggest, though, that making the good the enemy of the perfect is self defeating. My father once said “ When you’re lost, take the ride that comes closest to where you want to be, and then find another one that will get you closer. You don’t have to wait for perfect.”
💯...Political consultants have given the Democrat Party nothing over the past 30 years (including the Obama elections)...The only thing gained has been consistent political failure, outside of Obama who took the consultants and the establishment and forced them into reason
Now this makes sense. ...that coukd be why it may never get traction in our country, the country that used to revere The Statue of Liberty, welcoming immigrants. Some of my family rode by her as they entered our beautiful country.
Bravo, Mike! You say so clearly much of what has bothered me for so long about today’s Democratic Party. And what is true of immigration and the needed strangers among us is also true of other bedrock principles of this once great republic.
"I am asking every voter who reads these pages to refuse to vote for a candidate who will not say the line out loud."
I live in a border state, about 60-70 miles from the border. My city wasn't overrun by illegals, or a crime-infested hellhole, before Trump came into office, and his policies have made it worse if anything. So while I completely agree with this, if I did this, I would never have to vote again.
So Mike, do you suggest that I go ahead and draw the line, and just stop voting altogether - which, if done generally in the swingy state where I live, would result in more Republican victories - or that I continue to vote for the best candidate for each office on an office-by-office basis? At this point, I feel like Priority One is to dismantle the existing regime, and I will vote for anyone who chooses to stand against it and worry about the details later.
Yes, I think more Democrats, and more people in general, should remember the words on the statue the French gave us, that at least some of their ancestors saw when entering this country. I think those words should be emblazoned in 30-foot letters of fire at every American border crossing, readable from both sides. I think that if we can't remember that we are all equal, and are endowed by our creation with unalienable rights, we're not as far above our distant ancestors as we might think.
"It's not my damn planet, monkey boy!"
"No words have said this thing of importance in quite this way. Look at these three words written larger than the rest, with a special pride never written before or since. Tall words proudly saying 'We the People'."
I agree. We must stop demonizing those who come here for a better life and start embracing them. The counter argument is always racism and fear of the “other.”
The immigrants in the country are paying the price for Trump to build his citizen army that he can dog whistle to attack the capitol, the polls, the streets. And why did he pick these people to be his militia? Not because he cares a flying fuck for them but because he knows as we all know now that they were ripe for the picking. For a variety reasons - poor, uninterested in the truth, unwillingness to read beyond headlines, bored with life, tired of being incapable of paying bills, need somebody to blame for their station in life. Was he smart enough to pick immigrants to be the sacrifial lambs. I don't think so. Who is sacrificing him?
"Citizen" army? Lets rethink that part. These folks need therapy for being raised through obedience training, like dogs. They all need to be approached and offered reconciliation and support. Refusal risks deportation, although many are already incarcerated. We need a massive movement to stop obedience training.
A brilliant article. I would suggest, though, that making the good the enemy of the perfect is self defeating. My father once said “ When you’re lost, take the ride that comes closest to where you want to be, and then find another one that will get you closer. You don’t have to wait for perfect.”
As long as there is Fox News and a Republican Party, we will continue to hate immigrants.
All Mike is saying here is to commit to doing what is right.
The pollsters and consultants say you can’t do that because it doesn’t move the voters.
Maybe it doesn’t move them because no one is telling them that it must be done.
Is that too much to ask?
…. Who wants to emigrate to the US, now?
💯...Political consultants have given the Democrat Party nothing over the past 30 years (including the Obama elections)...The only thing gained has been consistent political failure, outside of Obama who took the consultants and the establishment and forced them into reason
Now this makes sense. ...that coukd be why it may never get traction in our country, the country that used to revere The Statue of Liberty, welcoming immigrants. Some of my family rode by her as they entered our beautiful country.
Thanks, Mike, for writing this!
How good was Obama? Immigration, Iran, Cuba, Israel, etc. A prez you never deserved.
Bravo, Mike! You say so clearly much of what has bothered me for so long about today’s Democratic Party. And what is true of immigration and the needed strangers among us is also true of other bedrock principles of this once great republic.