(no subject)
Nov. 5th, 2008 01:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leticiaDo you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light.
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind the plough-share,
They will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward.
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring*
When tomorrow comes...
Tomorrow comes!
*as long as no one starts another war, declares martial law, and refuses to relinquish power in an orderly fashion.
No, but seriously: Obama wasn't my candidate to start with, though obviously I was willing enough to vote for him instead of my first choice. I'm not happy with his lackluster response on a number of social issues which are very important to me, but John McCain wanted to actively roll back progress. Obama is not a superman. He is not a messiah. I think that we can hope, however, that he is enough an ordinary man to do his best to make good on his promises.
I am not enthralled wih the Democratic Party. I am not happy with their piss /poor/ performance at facing Bush. I do not believe that having a technical majority in congress and the white house will mean dramatic changes to the laws to actually help things.
I do believe we can take this as a mandate from the people - not only taking the white house, but broadening the margin of majority in congress - to make some changes. Let's not call it a mandate, though. We've given our politicians their marching orders:
Lift up our lower classes. Decriminalize brown skin. Break the cycle of poverty and crime that condemns whole generations of our minorities. Repair our infrastructure. Protect our environment. Rebuild our economy. Tax the damn rich. None of us got as far as we are in life on our own, and all of us deserve to give back commesurate to what we have received. Support our troops, by not burning their lives wastefully. Fix immigration to be fair to our southern neighbors. Stop importing skilled, but low-paid workers to undercut Americans who've paid the insane price of American college, while you block immigrants who want to do work no Americans will do. Provide equality in fact as well as lipservice to everyone, regardless of whether they have ovaries or testes. Regardless of which they want to have. Respect the religious beliefs of all americans. Respect the rights of all humans. Stop making us look bad in front of all the other countries of the world. No more torture. No more imprisonment without charges or trial. No more warrantless tapping. Provide our veterans with medical care. Provide our children with medical care. Provide us all with medical care.
Prove to me that democrats really are different. You have a majority, a president, and marching orders from the population. Are you going to do what we've hired you to do, or is it going to be business like usual?
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light.
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind the plough-share,
They will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward.
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring*
When tomorrow comes...
Tomorrow comes!
*as long as no one starts another war, declares martial law, and refuses to relinquish power in an orderly fashion.
No, but seriously: Obama wasn't my candidate to start with, though obviously I was willing enough to vote for him instead of my first choice. I'm not happy with his lackluster response on a number of social issues which are very important to me, but John McCain wanted to actively roll back progress. Obama is not a superman. He is not a messiah. I think that we can hope, however, that he is enough an ordinary man to do his best to make good on his promises.
I am not enthralled wih the Democratic Party. I am not happy with their piss /poor/ performance at facing Bush. I do not believe that having a technical majority in congress and the white house will mean dramatic changes to the laws to actually help things.
I do believe we can take this as a mandate from the people - not only taking the white house, but broadening the margin of majority in congress - to make some changes. Let's not call it a mandate, though. We've given our politicians their marching orders:
Lift up our lower classes. Decriminalize brown skin. Break the cycle of poverty and crime that condemns whole generations of our minorities. Repair our infrastructure. Protect our environment. Rebuild our economy. Tax the damn rich. None of us got as far as we are in life on our own, and all of us deserve to give back commesurate to what we have received. Support our troops, by not burning their lives wastefully. Fix immigration to be fair to our southern neighbors. Stop importing skilled, but low-paid workers to undercut Americans who've paid the insane price of American college, while you block immigrants who want to do work no Americans will do. Provide equality in fact as well as lipservice to everyone, regardless of whether they have ovaries or testes. Regardless of which they want to have. Respect the religious beliefs of all americans. Respect the rights of all humans. Stop making us look bad in front of all the other countries of the world. No more torture. No more imprisonment without charges or trial. No more warrantless tapping. Provide our veterans with medical care. Provide our children with medical care. Provide us all with medical care.
Prove to me that democrats really are different. You have a majority, a president, and marching orders from the population. Are you going to do what we've hired you to do, or is it going to be business like usual?
no subject
Date: 2008-11-05 01:55 pm (UTC)Amen and cross fingers.
Tax the damn rich.
But the middle-class are so much more numerous! Let's call them "rich" so we can tax them! (More seriously, that's one of the places where I'm not sure my ideas of equitable and at least fringie-Democrats' idea of equitable meet. I don't want people left without safety nets -- but I don't really want 80% taxes when I don't have a mansion, either... Mind, they can tax, say, Bill Gates as much as they like. >_> )
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 04:59 am (UTC)You should see the WSJ articles suggesting that those who make 12000 a year and thus may not have to pay ANY tax at all1111!!!! are 'lucky-duckies'. 'Cause, you know, keeping /one/ person alive on 12k a year is fun and easy and certainly lucky. Let alone raising a family. Why, that's such a blast!
I'm in the 15% zone myself, for now. When Brian and I are married, if we file together, we MIGHT get pushed into 25%. But if we're making more than 70k a year, I don't think I'll bemoan it too hard. That's not 25% of 70k; that's 25% of what we'd theoretically earn /over/ 70k.
When the current tax cuts expire, rates go up from 3-4.5% in each bracket.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-07 01:24 am (UTC)What's WSJ?
no subject
Date: 2008-11-07 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-05 02:57 pm (UTC)*hugs* Yeah. It's time to 'let the Democrats be Democrats'-- or, more hopefully, 'let the left be the left'. We may not have the "full sixty", but there have to be a lot of Republican senators eyeing 2010 nervously. I hope to God that spine meets principle here, and we see the world get better.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 04:57 am (UTC)