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How the Republicans Can Win (and Deserve It)

I sincerely hope that Cindy Sheehan will bludgeon Nancy Pelosi with Pelosi’s massive capitulation to Wall Street… that — in a supreme irony — Republicans managed to defeat. There is nothing California can do for the rest of the nation more beneficial than send Pelosi home and elect Cindy.

As for my Rep, David Price (D-NC), he voted for the Wall Street bailout, even as the vast, vast majority of constituent calls were against it. This is the most astonishing unmasking of the ruling class politics of the United States in many decades. And I plan on spending election day at my polling place with a sign that says, “David Price votes continued funding for an illegal war, and he votes to bail out Wall Street speculators. Republican opponent William (BJ) Lawson opposes the bailout, and the war. Vote Lawson.”

I suggest the same for everyone. Call out their names if they voted for this theft.

Here’s my suggestion for ambitious Republicans facing Democrat opponents who voted for the bailout. Say no to the bailout, loud and clear. Call out your Democrat opponent for his/her support of Wall Street. And here’s the real winner…

Say that the war has gone on long enough. Use whatever bullshit rationalization you need to explain why you haven’t opposed the occupations up until now; and even use your best imperial racist demagogy (those awful Iraqis have taken advantage of us, etc.) if you feel compelled. But declare that you will vote to cut funding for the war when you are elected, if there is not an immediate withdrawal. These two positions will give you the margin you need to win; because you will win the straight-ticket Republicans; you will capture a lot of pissed off Independents; and your promise to let Wall Street carry its own over-filled slop jars; and the promise to defund the war will wind the left pole of the Democratic party as well as most left independents. These two issues are guarantees for the Libertarian votes.

Lawson, in my district, is about to give Price a run for his money.

Listen up, Republicans. Abandon the Bush legacy, and confront the Dems on war and Wall Street; and you’ll be working in Washington by January.

STAN GOFF is the author of “Hideous Dream: A Soldier’s Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti” (Soft Skull Press, 2000), “Full Spectrum Disorder” (Soft Skull Press, 2003 He is a Methodist and an organic gardener. He has written about the military and militarism, and about masculinity-constructed-as-conquest. He can be reached at: stan@stangoff.com

 

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