A Subversive Document (aka The 2008 Democratic Party Platform)

McCamy Taylor

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Thu Aug-11-11 01:42 AM
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A Subversive Document (aka The 2008 Democratic Party Platform)

Wanna see something really red? I am talking redder than China, redder than Cuba, redder even than the Koch family�s old benefactor, Joseph Stalin. Wanna read something so far out left that it makes grandma shudder and children cry? A document so subversive that no one in Washington wants to talk about it much less enact it?

I. The 2008 Democratic Party Platform �Renewing America�s Promise�

http://www.democrats.org/about/party_platform

Here are some highlights:

From the preamble:

We believe that every American, whatever their background or station in life, should have the chance to get a good education, to work at a good job with good wages, to raise and provide for a family, to live in safe surroundings, and to retire with dignity and security .We believe that quality and affordable health care is a basic right.

Got that? Our party---the one we voted into power in 2008---our party�s number one priorities were not �balancing the budget� or �overthrowing the government of Libya� or �being bipartisan�. Our number one priority was not even �taking out Osama Bin Laden�. When we went to the polls in 2008 and voted for the Democrat we voted for

1. Schools
2. Jobs
3. Social Security and Medicare
4. Health Care

Here are some of the specifics we (Democrats like you and me) voted for in 2008:

Families and individuals should have the option of keeping the coverage they have or choosing from a wide array of health insurance plans, including many private health insurance options and a public plan.

See. Right there in black and white. A public plan. A real Democrat fights for a public plan. So what does that make all the folks in DC who rejected a public plan?

We reject the notion of the presumptive Republican nominee that Social Security is a disgrace; we believe that it is indispensable. We will fulfill our obligation to strengthen Social Security and to make sure that it provides guaranteed benefits Americans can count on, now and in future generations. We will not privatize it.

Got that? Strengthen Social Security. Not cut it. Not adjust it. We (the Democratic Party) guaranteed that Americans would receive their benefits. You can�t get any clearer than that.

We will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions and fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Oh really? So why six did Democratic Senators including Lincoln, Feinstein, McCaskill, Spectre, Nelson and Carper fight against it? At one point (briefly) we had 60 votes in the U.S. Senate. Why wasn�t this bill rushed through then? Did these Democrats use their copy of the Party Platform for toilet paper?

The Democratic Party firmly believes that graduation from a quality public school and the opportunity to succeed in college must be the birthright of every child�not the privilege of the few.

I think I�m gonna cry. That sounded so good. But what did we get? They have stripped the funding from public schools, fired the teachers and cut back on college grants.

II. Good Democrats and Bad Democrats

When we criticize an elected Democratic official for failing to keep the promises we made in the 2008 Democratic Party Platform, we are not being bad Democrats. We are being very, very good Democrats. We are the party, not some slick politicians who mouthed the words but then decided to take the corporate money instead. And we do not owe anyone---not even a Democrat---our primary vote, just because he or she is the incumbent. To say otherwise is to go back in time over 200 years to before the American Revolution, when we were told we had to honor and support King George, because he was the man in charge, and God would not like it if we questioned his authority.

But there is another and great distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS.

Thomas Paine Common Sense

http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/singlehtml.htm

No single man or woman---no matter how high his or her office---is the Democratic Party. We are the Democratic Party. We have spoken and spoken again, and if no one in Washington wants to listen, then maybe we will just have to make them listen at the polls next spring.