The Middle Class Republican
by matt at 6:00 am on September 29th, 2004 in PoliticsLiberals have done a lousy job explaining both their accomplishments and what they would do if they were in power.
Whatever you think about Michael Moore, he carries the liberal flag high and offers no apologies for it. I respect him for that, which is why I continue to support his films and books even though I don’t share all of his world view.
In fact, until tipped off by a reader, I had never even visited Moore’s website. And even then, the link (sent in by reader J.R.) sat untouched for a few weeks. It turns out that not clicking was my mistake.
The piece, written by John Gray should be emailed to every voter in this country. Gray imagines a middle-class Republican who walks through his life benefiting from legislation pushed through and ideals held by Democrats but flips on conservative talk radio at the end of the day and curses “big government” and considers himself a “self-made man.”
Gray ticks off a litany of programs and protections enacted by Democrats:
and others
It is important to remember that each and every one of these achievements (and others) were strongly opposed by Republicans who preferred letting the market sort everything out.
In this “what have you done for me lately” world, it is natural to say “well, we have all of those protections, we don’t need Democrats writing more laws and regulating everything.” Maybe, but current Republicans (including the President) are hell-bent on rolling back literally all of the protections listed above and then some. And when the Republicans achieve their goal of bankrupting the federal government, there won’t even be enough money to enforce these standards anyway.
Again, radical not conservative.
sam wrote:
actually, Michael Moore labels himself as an independent.
Posted 29 Sep 2004 at 6:03 am ¶
matt wrote:
Sure, as does Bill O’Reily.
But I don’t think there’s any argument that Moore falls on the liberal side of the map.
Posted 29 Sep 2004 at 6:08 am ¶
sam wrote:
oops. sorry. my bad. i get liberal and democrat mixed up. crazy american politics :) of course moore is a liberal, but what i meant to say was that he’d much rather have a third party in the debate.
Posted 01 Oct 2004 at 10:29 am ¶