PAYING ATTENTION!Click
the Devil to
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Democrats Must Look in the Mirror
Republicans do not care
about children. They don’t care about the elderly or
the poor. They don’t care about working families and
they certainly don’t care about people with cancer.
That’s what Democrats were saying at the North
Andover Democrat breakfast earlier this week.
The bombastic rhetoric and negative attacks were so
outrageous that it became a contest of who could attack
the Republicans with the most outlandish accusations.
Apparently they think this is what grassroots Democrats
want to hear.
Gubernatorial candidate Steve Grossman, told the crowd
"Republicans stick their fingers in the faces of
teachers and say they are to blame for the problems in
the classroom, we have to spend more money on education
and the republicans are not willing to do that."
Really? The school budget for the city of Lawrence ($110
million) is 100% funded by the state and federal
government under The Education Reform Law. All of those
millions have done nothing to increase the quality of
education for those students. Increased funding rarely
equates to increase in results or educational excellence.
Louis Pines, candidate for Lieutenant Governor, said
"Jane swift cut breast cancer research and funding
to eliminate prostate cancer." Shannon O’Brien
echoed that concern saying, "Jane Swift saved her 77
press reps. but she cut funding for cancer
research." So, I guess the point here is that those
evil Republicans are in favor of cancer, unlike Democrats
who have a monopoly on "caring about people."
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich said, "The
Republicans are responsible for the gridlock in the
Commonwealth. We have to postpone the tax rollback that
the Republicans have imposed on us." Imposed on us?
Besides being an outright falsehood, this is a slap in
the face of anyone who follows politics in Massachusetts.
Maybe Reich spent too much time in Washington because it
was the people in Massachusetts who voted for a tax roll
back. That is, against the wishes of the Democrat party
leadership who said last year that people would be
starving in the streets if it passed.
Congressman John Tierney beamed as he launched his verbal
attacks, "The Republicans are like Enron (the energy
company that stole millions from investors) they only
care about the people at the top, they are only for those
who have. We are the party that cares about
everybody." He then attacked Vice President, Dick
Cheney noting that Enron executives "put in a call
to Dick Cheney" purposely leading us to believe that
Cheney acted inappropriately when in fact, Cheney gave no
favors to Enron officials.
If awards were given out for the most ridiculous,
demonizing speech of the day State Rep. John Slattery
from Peabody would have won hands down. "We are the
party that cares about people, we are the party that
cares about children. We are the party that cares about
seniors in the nursing homes... Republicans are all about
living in the past. Republicans only care about those at
the top of the ladder. We can’t have quality
education with Republicans in office, they’re the
reason we’re in this mess, " he said. I guess
that means the Democrats share no blame for the hideously
mismanaged Department of Education under Democrats Robert
Antonucci and David Driscol. I guess kids just can’t
learn as long there is one Republican in office.
What’s scary is that this is what the leaders of the
Democrat party think the average Democrat wants to hear.
Most people want government officials who put aside the
partisan insults and finger pointing and get something
done. What the leaders of the Democrat party need to do
now is look in the mirror and take some of the
responsibility for whatever mess they are addressing. A
sentiment expressed beautifully by candidate for
Lieutenant Governor, Sarah Holden the only democrat who
spoke of real issues. "We have to stop bashing the
Republicans and look in the mirror. After all, we are the
majority party in Massachusetts," Holden said.
The Democrats also control the Treasurers office, the
Secretary of State’s office the Auditor’s
office and both houses of the legislature. And it’s
the Democrat candidates themselves who show the height of
hypocrisy when it comes to addressing real money issues
and prioritizing spending. Democrat candidates say the
Republican people in Massachusetts do not care about the
elderly, children or cancer victims because Governor
Swift has offered a budget, which cuts some of the money
for these programs.
Even if you are silly enough to believe that throwing
money at something solves the problem, you cannot deny
that the Democrats are the party pushing to spend
millions of your dollars for the so called clean
elections law. This white elephant takes millions of
dollars from education, nursing homes, and yes even
cancer victims to give to (of all people) the politicians
themselves to run their political campaigns and stay in
office.
One of the few who did not engage in the malicious
attacks was State Rep. David Torissi. Maybe that’s
because he refused to cosponsor a bill last year that
would provide air conditioners for bedridden nursing home
patients in the summertime. Torissi said it was because
he was concerned about the cost to taxpayers. But he was
not so concerned when it came to spending millions of the
taxpayer’s dollars for campaign literature and TV
commercials for politicians.
If the Democrats truly believe that increased funding is
the only way to solve a problem, then setting aside 50
million dollars for political campaigns instead of
funding air conditioners for nursing homes must mean (by
their own definition) that Torissi and the Democrats do
not care about old people in nursing homes.
Now, you and I both know that’s not exactly true,
but that’s the point here. You cannot measure how
much someone cares about people by how much money they
are willing to spend on social programs. Just because
Republicans do not want to blindly spend millions of
dollars on education without oversight and
accountability, doesn’t mean they don’t care
about children. The rhetoric of class warfare, attacking
the motives and morals of Republicans and pretending
Democrats are the only ones who care is a repugnant game
that the voters should soundly reject.