All you anti-everything shouters should read this.

[WilliamPitt]

Yes, you. You righteous ones. Read the email I just got from a truthout reader:

===

Mr Pitt,

I am one of the Bush "victims", a veteran working now in the housing field, who up untill the current administration could make a "decent" living, and afford medication for my disabled,terminally ill wife. Now we are on the brink of losing our home, struggle to meet the bills, and constantly worry. This is all just a preamble to tell you I totally agree with your Thursday Feb. 19 piece in Truthout; but you should have added one more line to the article. " Now you must be the hero, do what is nessessary, get out and vote. Only you can restore America to it's former high standards."

===

Remember this man when you 'sit on your hands,' or 'stay at home,' or do whatever it is you do to pretend you are pure and righteous in this mudfight. Remember this when you log on to DU and post your misdirected fury at our candidates. Remember this man, for he will haunt you in November should you fail to do what needs doing.

He will haunt you if you fail him.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. I'm anti-that man! He's just using appeals to emotion to get me to be ABB

as if the policies of George Bush and his administration wouldn't already be enough! :D

[Guaranteed]

2. Who wouldn't vote for Kerry? He's Mr. Electability!

That's why he's our nominee, right?

[Bozola]

32. He certainly has the right hairstyle

You can't be electable if you aren't sporting the latest in "Hair Club for Christ" fashion styling.

[AP]

3. Everyone should read this. And think about him when you're weighing

your single issue litmus tests too.

Sometimes it's important to step out of your world and realize that there are people on the margins for whom your decisions have a huge impact.

[liberalhistorian]

4. Indeed. And we should also remember him

when Shrub and the Bushistas start blathering on about how much they "love and support the vets", how much the vets "mean to them", (yeah, as sacrifical pawns for their imperialist agenda and insatiable political ambition),bragging about all that they do for them, (does that include forcing them to stay beyond their enlistment, drastically cutting their benefits, charging them for food while they're recovering from injuries, etc.?), and viciously questioning the patriotism of any vet who disagrees with them.

[LuminousX]

5. LOL.. god I love the guilt trips, so scenic.

[WilliamPitt]

7. This is a veteran

who is about to lose his home, who cannot afford medicine for his wife. Denigrate the message as you will. He's there, and you're wherever you are. I hope you're comfortable.

[democratreformed]

6. Thanks for this dose of reality. n/t

[lovedems]

8. What haunts me is that there are thousands like him out there.

He isn't an exception to the rule these days and that is frightening. I don't want 4 more years or I fear this will all just get worse.

Edit: Is he a vet from Iraq or Afghanistan?

[Sandpiper]

9. I feel like I've been visited

By the Ghost of Christmas Present.

[ibegurpard]

10. A few questions

Was every Democrat in congress standing in unison against the Bush policies that made this man's situation the way it is? Is John Kerry going to stand up to the political pressure brought by a hostile Republican congress to continue these policies?

[WilliamPitt]

12. No and yes.

Kerry will, or Edwards will, or whoever the nominee will. They will do so especially if we stand with them, and push them, and fight.

[hedgetrimmer]

16. You hope.

[WilliamPitt]

18. Or put another way

over my dead body will another Democratic President fail to do the people's work. I'm one person, though, and could use some help.

[hedgetrimmer]

26. if you are aking for help to keep a democrat president in line then,

I'm rolling my sleeves up.:)

[WilliamPitt]

27. That's the idea!

:toast:

[VelmaD]

35. Yay! Hooray!

Another convert. :toast:

I'm constantly amazed at the power of this simple and fundamental idea. I can hardly believe that people had forgotten that it is at the heart of democracy. We elect someone and then WE control what they do. They owe US. We have forgotten that and it's so much fun to watch people wake back up. :-)

[democratreformed]

37. Me too

And I'm a verrrry hard worker.

[BootinUp]

11. Powerful message Will thanks

[MuseRider]

13. This is so sad.

A guilt trip? Nope it is reality for an awful lot of people and it will get much worse if we do not get rid of Bush*. So sad, tragic.

[bobbieinok]

14. nitpicking question on the linked article - what's with the weirdly

placed question marks?

[WilliamPitt]

15. Good question

No idea.

[buddhamama]

17. but, i am anti-poverty

isn't this a good thing?


after retiring from the Navy, my mother had to work two jobs
to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table.
guess what, she wasn't able to the majority of the time.
i saw her bust her ass as a Union Rep to squeeze a few more pennies from her employer, and some insurance.
things haven't changed much since i was a kid.


times may have been good before Bush took office,
and i'll vote for the eventual nominee,
but dammit, i am tired of the collective sigh
that over takes our country
when things start to look up,
people's memories of the struggle/s
they have endured begin to fade.

[frank frankly]

19. my mother is a Social Worker at a VA

we are both quite ANGRY
we are both quite motivated to end this BushCo scurge
BushCo hates veterans

[Armstead]

20. The chickens came home to roost under Bush....

...but the Democrats helped grow those chickens too.

We should not settle for allowing the candidates to get in office and not do anything of substance to help people like that guy.

If it takes being "anti" to get them to take things seriously, then anti we should be. No more "V-chip politics" please.

I am ABB. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to do better at this point while the people still have bargaining power.

[homelandpunk]

21. What!!? Kerry will restore this country "to it's former high standards"???

Kerry has NOT said, and will not say, that he will dismantle the Homeland Security Department. He has not said, and will not say he will repeal the Patriot Act once in office. He has NOT said, and will not say, he will allow the Patriot Act to simply terminate after it's "temporary" legal power is up. My best guess according to his vote, i.e. his intent, is that it will be renewed, during a Kerry term, along with PA2. Not having dismantled the Homeland Security Office, he will add his tweaks to it, rather than ignore it. These will enhance it.
Total Information Awareness has transmogrified, chamelionized, and only diluted its visibility, and Kerry will dare not look its way.
It was indeed LIHOP or MIHOP, and Kerry will not seek the answer.
The boys MAY come home under Kerry, but the Miltary Industrial Complex on Bush-funded steroids will remain as the BFEE intended it to become.
I could go on. The point is, with no options left, the OTHER option is what one is faced with.
This all may be irrelevant, since I believe Cheney did not dig an impregable bunker under "his" house just for the heck of it. I am 50/50 on the theory that the there is another shoe and it will drop before November.
But regardless whether my paranoia is prophetic or pathetic, if elections take place in an uneventful way, and Kerry wins, we are stuck with what they accomplished these last 3 years, and the only thing Kerry wants to fix is his vision for the Iraq occupation, and jobs blah blah. If he will tell us that he intends to abolish HDS, TIA, PA1&2, will pull out of Iraq and hand over to UN, THEN he might get me to hold my nose for him. I say hold my nose, even with the things I mentioned being said and promised by Kerry, because it is still a historical fact, this man, our candidate, let a fucking moron, whose moron-hood is apparent to anyone with any good judgment, compromise his integrity. And that will continue to stink to my nose, no matter what he promises now.
The man is fatally compromised.

[Mairead]

22. Will, you forgot the most important part: that people need to look

at what's actually being offered by whom. Because Bush, too, claims that all will be well. And we know as a baseline value that that's crap. But we need to turn up the gain on our BS detectors when we look at the others, too, because we need to know who's going to deliver and who's going to earnestly tell us the time isn't quite right yet for any real change.

Fancy words put no bread on the table.

[WilliamPitt]

24. Do you honestly think

that any of the Dem candidates will continue with what Bush has been doing?

I don't.

[Mairead]

25. Yes, I do. And so should you because they've already said so.

There were quotes here yesterday or the day before. Didn't you see them?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

29. Factually innaccurate insofar as the subject matter of the thread goes

Democrats voted to increase benefits for disabled vets of which there will soon be more and Clinton increased Veteran's benefits to their highest levels in 20 years.

[Guava Jelly]

23. To me Voting third party kicks this man dead in the crotch

I have read so many divisive threads on du I am a bartcopper for the last 2-3 years and decided to check out du.
So far I am pretty sickened by the third party threads.
Candidate a's supporters freeperesqing candidate b and visa versa.
I am not saying i myself am totally innocent. As i respect many of the candidates running there were few I thought could actually defeat bush.
right now I believe only 1 of the candidates left can beat bush.
the coined frontrunner.
Now this pisses off supporters of the remaining candidates a well as a few whose candidates have dodged out.I supported Wes Clark FYI.
I just wish people would state why their guy is better then the other guy instead of why your guy sucks @$$.
If the democratic party nominated a Ham Sandwich to run against Bush and I was a Vegan...I would vote for the ham sandwich because what is left is far worse then the ham sandwich could ever be..
There is one talking point from dubya in the 2000 election that i would love to prove true.
"I am a uniter not a divider"......... dubya
Yes he is I am united with the record numbers of voters in this primary who wish to send bush back to texas..
"you are either with us or against us"...

[David Zephyr]

28. I Guess You Are Blaming Ralph Nader For This Man's Woes?

I think that your post is "misdirected fury" at fellow Democrats...and a very cheap shot blaming them for this man's sad situation.

[Guava Jelly]

31. ralph nader well yes

now he is thinking about doing it again.
An many pissed of dems will support him despite the fact w will get a second term...ewwwwwwww you naderites showed us...but guess what you get to breathe the same air we do.
Nader and third partys are spoilers not winners..

[WilliamPitt]

33. Yeah, that's it

:eyes:

[Kanary]

30. That man is not likely to be helped by the DLC candidates

And neither am I. They left the compassionate arena a long time ago.

So, if you consider that "self-righteous", then you haven't a clue who I am.

Those of us in the same shoes as that man can see through the fluff, and know what's likely to happen with another "business as usual" candidate. And it certainly ain't pretty for us.

Kanary, tired of lectures that have no insight into what I'm about

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

36. Once again

Factually innaccurate insofar as the subject matter of the thread goes


Democrats voted to increase benefits for disabled vets of which there will soon be more and Clinton increased Veteran's benefits to their highest levels in 20 years.

"There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anyth

[pansypoo53219]

38. PURITY GETS YOU NOWHERE

the choice is and always will be the lesser of two evils for the leftie. we let them choose george last time. we could have stopped it, but we sid.ok.
we vote for a democrat or we get the WORSE OF 2 EVILS.

and look at where the evil one has taken us.

how many more have to die before you guys get it????

ABB ABB ABB ABB ABB ABB ABB ABB ABB ABB ABB

[incapsulated]

34. Yes, well...

I think a lot of this anger and threats to not vote/go third party are because nerves are still raw right now.

When Clark dropped out, I wanted to puke anytime I saw Kerry and I wanted to punch anyone in the face that started up that ABB shit. Look, I think we all know the score, and come election day most of us will do the right thing.

But we don't want to be reminded about it because it makes us think of what could have been, you know? Pulling the lever for the guy you believed was the one, not the guy that you have to settle for, again?

[Moderator]

39. Locking.

1. If you start a thread in this forum, you must present your opinion in a manner that is not inflammatory, which respects differences in opinion, and which is likely to lead to respectful discussion rather than flaming. The moderators have the sole authority to decide whether a thread topic is inflammatory. Extremely inflammatory or inappropriate topics will be deleted rather than locked, and the thread's author will receive a warning.

Thanks,

DU Moderator