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Dr. Errington Thompson

The midterm elections are less than a month away. Because of this, some Americans are losing their minds. If you listen to mainstream media, specifically Tea Party conservatives, they are ruling the world. They have all the enthusiasm. They have all the momentum and all we, as democrats, have is a big bucket of nada, nothing, bupkis.

We should throw in the towel. There’s simply no use in our voting. Maybe we should have a big barbecue on the National Mall on November 2. We can bring in some large-screen HDTV monitors and strategically place them around the Mall so that we can watch conservatives vote Democrats and Independents out of office.

I don’t know about you, but I’m simply not ready to throw in the towel. I look at some of the conservative candidates like Christine O’Donnell with awe. She can’t seem to get her education status correct. She stated on one of her social networking sites that she graduated from Oxford. Not really. O’Donnell, who is running for Senate in Delaware, has a long line of crazy things that have come out of her mouth. She believes in witchcraft but not in evolution, and thinks laboratories have created mice with human brains. We cannot forget that we have “weekly” school shootings.

Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee for Senate in Nevada, wants to
privatize Social Security. Haven’t we had this discussion before? Wasn’t
this soundly rejected by the American people back in 2004 when Bush
proposed it?

California’s Republican nominee for governor, Meg Whitman, is trying to
tell California voters that you can’t buy an election, yet her campaign
has spent more than $100 million and there is still a month to go.

Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, wants to
repeal the Civil Rights Act (only a few sections of it) and add a $2,000
deductible to Medicare.

In South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who is more nationally known
for adultery than he is for his policies, has suggested that he may run
for office, again. Nikki Haley, the Republican nominee to succeed him
who is running on a platform of fiscal responsibility based on her
expertise as an accountant, has filed her family’s taxes late for the
past five years and, when she finally paid them, had to pay late fees
and penalties.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Republicans unveiled their Contract with
America 2.0. This is their list of principles that are supposed to
capture the spirit of the original Contract with America unveiled by
Republicans back in 1994. This contract was extremely popular at the
time, but when Republicans gained control of the House and Senate they
did not do most of what they contracted with America. Republicans are
now trying to capitalize on that remembered popularity and the current
sentiment in favor of the Tea Party.

This latest contract, A Pledge to America, was met with a complete and
deafening yawn from America. The Republicans offered nothing new.
There’s no balanced-budget amendment. There is no cap on spending
limits. Basically, they would like to extend the Bush tax cuts and again
have no way to pay for them. If you take President Bush’s State of the
Union address from 2004 or 2005, take out the references to terrorism
and the privatization of Social Security, and condense what’s left down
to 21 pages, you have the Republicans latest Pledge.

I don’t know about you, but when I see Republicans giving me that big
toothy smile, the same smile I saw in 1994 and 2002, I’m really
motivated to vote. I am motivated to support progressive candidates who
believe that winding down the war in Iraq is not enough. We need to
figure out a way to end both wars as soon as possible. We need to figure
out a way to put millions of Americans back to work.

I want a strong progressive who understands that tax cuts would rob the
federal government of much-needed money in the middle of a recession.
Tax cuts for the rich equal dilapidated schools for the poor. I need
progressive candidates. I need liberals who want to rebuild the middle
class. I want progressives who support alternative energy and who
understand that our future lies in developing alternative energies. I
don’t know about you, but I’m extremely motivated to vote. On November
2, I hope that you are motivated too.