Sans Spine

There is a fellow who is a facebook friend whom I only know peripherally.  His sister and I were contemporaries in the 6 floor apartment building I grew up in until age 10.5.  At the time the facebook friend was a pipsqueak. Not sure he was able to walk by the time we moved away.

So I don't know him well, but I love his posts on facebook.  Today he wrote,

The party without any balls lost to the party without any brains.

In sports, whenever a team plays passively, defensively and is unwilling to stand strong they will lose.  John Madden the former football broadcaster commented regularly about the so called, Prevent Defense employed by NFL teams.  In football, the Prevent Defense is implemented when a team is ahead in a game and plays a passive defense hoping that there will be no quick scores against them. However, this passivity almost always costs them.  Madden famously quipped, "The only thing the prevent defense does, is prevent you from winning.

Throughout the country this fall the Democrats campaigned gutlessly.  The democrats were passive as opposed to proactive, and the result is that some people who probably would like to reconsider the virtues of slavery are now in office.  

The Democrats were afraid to be who they are, fearing the public did not like who they were. They distanced themselves from Obama because everyone supposedly disliked Obama.  Er, ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama won two elections with a name like Barack Obama in a racist country.  Barack Obama mobilized the masses to vote. Barack Obama stood up strongly when a bunch of whiny petulant irresponsible bullies SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT.  Hello.  That was all of about ten months ago.  They cost people their jobs, they cost the taxpayers millions, but they were upset because they lost the election and everyone now has access to health care. Barack Obama stood up to them and made them back down.

Where were the Democrats in this campaign?  They were busy hiding the family jewels is where they were. 

 "Ohmygosh, let me try to outconservative conservatives.  I'm not really for women's rights. Not really so much in favor of the affordable health care act (Who could be for affordable health care?) Some of my best friends are rednecks. Guns aren't all bad."

Meanwhile the stock market is at 17, 4 something. Unemployment is down.  Interest rates are absurdly low. And everyone has access to health care.  So, let's not run on our record.

Consequently we now have the likes of that great American, Mitch McConnell still in the Senate. Just great.

You may recall that there was a stretch when the main verbal weapon for Republican candidates was to call a Democrat a liberal.  And if you really wanted to ice an opponent claim that she or he hauled around an American Civil Liberties Union card. 

 Instead of fighting back and saying, Damn right, I have the card.  Civil liberties means citizens' freedoms.  And yes in a democracy one should support such freedoms. The Democrats wussed and shied away from acknowledging that yes, they were liberals.  Sans spine.

I don't agree with my facebook friend's assessment of Republicans. They do have brains.  And some Republicans are very good people with whom I sometimes agree and often disagree.   

But some are not very good people who attempt to fool the blue collar worker that the GOP is concerned for them.  A riot, that. And many Republicans, pure and simple, are racists who can not stand that a black person is in the White House.

My facebook friend, however, is right about many of the Democrats who ran during this campaign. They did not stand up for who they are.