Dear DNC

Dear DNC,
  We want our peace signs back.
Sincerely,
The 60s

I am a person without a political home. The political landscape in the United States is a turgid cesspool. Elected representatives openly shill for big money at the peril of an overwhelming majority of the electorate. Meanwhile the Democratic National Committee incessantly spams us for campaign contributions.

I'm weary.

In a thinly veiled fund-raising questionnaire the DNC asks,

What would you say to another Democrat to inspire them to get involved with or contribute to this organization?

What would I say? I'm running on empty.

In fairness President Obama has been dealt an awful hand:

A nincompoop-infested, right-wing extremist House of Representatives - dishonorable men and women bank-rolled by the highest bidders. 

The President deserves credit for trying to do the right thing. By all reputable accounts, Barack Obama has been a reasonable, consensus-seeking centrist. Who could have predicted how insanely intransigent House Republicans would be?

Sadly the childishly-stubborn and counter-productive behavior exhibited by House Republicans will not deliver a Democratic majority because American voters don't pay attention to public policy. Many American voters are not critical thinkers. Many Americans' opinions are influenced foremost by fear and secondarily by what they perceive to be their self-interest superseding the Common Good. Some American voters allow their opinions to be deftly manipulated by the fact-averse drivel that is broadcast by hate-filled, right-wing media. For an overwhelming majority, day-to-day living is a proposition of lose-lose and lose some more...

after corporations automate or outsource your job and fudge-pack your sorry ass into poverty.

There is not much for progressives to get charged up about. The rich fleece the middle class and the poor get third-world poorer. Income inequity grows unabated.

I am unsure how we turn the tide. I suppose the Democrats could use more stalwarts like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders.

I would like Democrats to focus more on JOBS and much, much less on elective military incursions into global civil wars and much, much less on electronic snooping into the private communications of its citizens.

Shared Sacrifice Sounds About Right

Bernie Sanders is a mensch. And he's dead-on bringing Shared Sacrifice into our national consciousness.

At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.
~ Bernie Sanders, US Senate

What's Fair is Fair

This week more than 80,000 Americans, signed Senator Sander's Shared Sacrifice Letter to President Obama.

Senator Sanders urges President Obama to stand with the tens of millions of Americans struggling to survive economically.

It is time for the privileged and moneyed - comfortable millionaires and billionaires - to pitch in their fair share.

Cutting taxes while engaging in two elective wars is unprecedented. The under- and middle- classes have shouldered the burden of two unnecessary wars and beared the brunt of budget-busting, misguided nation-building. For two decades the middle class faced stagnant wages and declining economic opportunity. Sorely needed public institutions and programs are crumbling and are chronically underfunded.

Habitual focus on tax cutting has DONE NOTHING to create economic opportunity. The benefit of whatever economic growth the US has seen in the past decade has been skewed to the wealthy.

There is a war going on in this country...I am talking about a war being waged by some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country against the working families of the United States of America, against the disappearing and shrinking middle class of our country.
~ Bernie Sanders

More Tax Revenue

We are done with tax cutting. The tax cut mantra is destroying us.

It is time to increase tax revenue. Closing corporate tax loopholes is NOT too much to ask. Fair-minded legislation requiring the top 1-2% to pay some extra tax cheddar at tax time is NOT too much to ask.

He can have no right to the benefits of society who will not pay his club towards the support of it.
~Benjamin Franklin

Lets demand shared and equitable contributions from the economically privileged.

Shared sacrifice will prove to be a seminal slogan. Shared sacrifice sounds about right.