The third-party stump speech we need
“This is one columnist’s stab at what a candidate might sound like if he or she were trying to appeal to the majority of voters in the middle of the electorate who feel both parties are failing us.
“My fellow alienated Americans:
“How’s this for something different? I want to raise your taxes, cut spending on programs you like, and force you to rethink how we run our schools, banks, armies, hospitals and elections. And I want you to cheer when I’m done. Because if you embrace the “decade of renewal” I’m calling for, we’ll emerge with a more competitive, sustainable and just America — the kind of America we all want to leave to our children.”
I read Miller’s column in the Washington Post. I see his appearance on Bill Maher’s television program. In both instances he sometimes seems to be too Libertarian for my comfort. However, he has never said anything that causes me to believe he is willing to let the uninsured die, the poor remain uneducated and hungry, or that the Christian right should be allowed to take over our government.
Today’s Democratic Party is not the party of Wilson, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, or even LBJ, the party that I grew up believing placed people before business. The extreme left wing of today’ Democratic party has become a tangled ball of special interests with low numbers but enough funding to assure that their views remain in the public’s field of vision. If there was ever a home for anti- Zionist, anorexic vegans who think animals deserve the franchise, who oppose vaccination against communicable diseases because the causative bacteria or viruses may be harmed, who persist in believing that autism is pharmaceutical house product, it is in the 2011 Democratic Party.
Nor is the Republican party of 2011 a party that had leaders and member who valued intellect and which place nation, at least to a degree over sheep-like followers and leaders who care only for re-election and unbridled greed. If anti-taxation, anti-Semitic, pro-Israel, pro-slavery, anti-intellectuals who oppose vaccination for communicable diseases because it isn’t ordained in the King James edition, who oppose abortion but encourage capital punishment, who will happily allow the poor to starve rather than allow government to house and feed them, have a political home, it is in the teavangelist wing of the 2011 GOP.
Frankly, both parties have exceeded their usefulness. The Democrats lack the integral courage to oppose Eric Cantor’s childish tantrums. The GOP lacks the integrity of a flatworm and personifies parsimony, and hypocrisy while growing ever fatter and richer by allowing unethical interactions between government and business to destroy the global economy at the expense of most of America’s citizens’ economic and social futures.
Miller’s proposed speech is not that different from proposals already offered by Obama. It demands changes that would reduce the funding sources for both parties to begin another round of mindless screaming in blind opposition to actions that would outrage the outer wings of either existing party. I could stomach Obama making this speech, but it will never happen. His party lacks the balls to support him in Congress.
The GOP’s teavangelist wing would continue to oppose Miller’s suggestions simply because Obama might support them. They hate him so terribly that they will see the country destroyed before they support anything he might support.
I’d vote for Miller’s proposed 3rd party. Honestly, I’d be tempted to vote for anyone running in opposition to either the Democrats or Republicans just to see them all thrown out of office. I’m 63 years of age and I’ve never been able to vote for a candidate for POTUS whom I honestly felt was an honorable, worthwhile candidate, more concerned with our nation and its citizens than with defeating the opposing party and winning re-election.
Give me that candidate; give most Americans that candidate, keep the churches, the drug companies, insurance companies, energy companies, and other lobbyists out of the election; and I’ll vote for that third party. Most of us might. Anything but the status quo may possibly be an improvement.
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