Democrats, let's live in the present.
Today, Ohio's economy is in crisis. Basic social services are being reduced every day to try to make up for terrible planning during the 13 years Republicans have been at the helm of our great state.
The national and worldwide economies aren't much better. Bush is targeting 150 government programs for elimination or cutbacks because he can't manage our money (The Post, Feb. 7, Bush budget plan tried to limit spending). I'd love to say this is new, but you can never trust a Republican with your money. Not one Republican president ever has balanced the budget in the past 30 years.
Today, Ohio's schools are funded unconstitutionally (read: illegally); the Ohio Supreme Court has confirmed this four times. Unfortunately, Republicans today and in recent history control our state legislative bodies, refusing to fix the problem.
Today, Ohio's secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, is infamous as an obstacle to freedom, as he repeatedly and undeniably continues his world-renowned voter-suppression tactics. In my opinion, disqualifying voter registration forms because of the thickness of the paper on which the forms were printed seems, in the best possible interpretation, archaic.
Instead of education, we see crime embraced by the Republicans allowing school funding to continue illegally.
Instead of election reform, we see the Republicans pass a bill to increase the amount of money individuals may contribute to political campaigns by four times. Most people would never donate $2,500 to a political campaign-previously the largest sum allowed. Now, rich neoconservatives will be forking over $10,000 each to finance campaigns until they are well beyond the influence of a middle-class, blue-collar worker who cares about her state's future.
Instead of an exit strategy, we see the Republicans trying to confuse Americans about the situation in Iraq over and over. Here in Athens, Eric Penkal of the College Republicans suggests, ...in terms of progress in Iraq
we should ask how we can win not how can we leave (Feb. 7, Democrats need to live in present).
What about mission accomplished? Oh, we didn't win then?
Let me, a Democrat, tell you how we can win in Iraq: with an exit strategy.
Sorry if this is the past, but I thought that (once Republicans started admitting that there are no WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam was not a threat to the U.S.) the war in Iraq was about bringing freedom to the people of an oppressed nation.
Freedom is knowing you'll be safe, even if others don't like what you have to say. Freedom is knowing you'll get home after worship, even if you worship something different from your neighbors. Freedom is love, respect, help and even solitude.
Freedom is NOT being subjected to the military forces of an occupying country enforcing alien laws under the only form of social contract not requiring two signatures: war.
To the College Republicans, I say don't worry so much about the future of my party. I'm excited enough for both of us.
Instead, I might suggest considering the future of the College Republicans at Ohio University -no wins in 2003, and a bleak outlook for your 2005 municipal races. Plus, their most recent speaker (filmmaker Mike Wilson) didn't have one solid point, let alone a thesis. Bush won, but not here. With only Jimmy Stewart's, R-Athens, fruit laws to rally behind, one can hardly blame them for living in the past.
-Mark C. Gaffney is the vice president of the Ohio University College Democrats. Send him an e-mail at mark.gaffney@ohiou.edu.
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