A Matter of Character

Dear Folks, 

We are wise enough as Democrats to know our party and its reps are not perfect. We are getting a taste of this now in the latest Veterans Department scandal in which some of its places have falsified the number of Vets cared for. Because of our two latest wars and Vets returning we know Vet hospitals and clinics have been overwhelmed. We also know –and have for years—that Vet Care as such has been famous even among Europeans for the level of help, when a Vet is actually there.

However, as a party we have been pure compared to the Republicans. We have not only been more effective. We also have demonstrated more sheer character. There, I have said it: we have more character, because our major concern—not perfect but major—has been for the people and not the wealthy and powerful. Consider what has happened since Obama came to office. Rep Jay Rockefellow said this in Congress yesterday: “Our president is mostly opposed because of “his wrong color.” We simply look at the facts. This present Congress ---with the House under Republican control for the last two years and the two years preceding, when the Senate Republicans filibustered into the hundreds—has been the most ineffective in terms of bills passed in its entire history. Except for Obama Care and fiscal controls under Barney/Frank - and both seriously hampered because of Republican resistance - Obama and his team have been crushed in such vital issues as jobs and infrastructure, unemployment compensation, immigration, minimum wages, and food stamp - all programs which would feed our economy from the ground up: a trickle up, not a failed trickle down from the wealthy, who are the richest people in human history.

Let me add crucial evidence of this issue of character. The same documentary maker, Errol Morris, made “The Fog of War” years ago and the latest “The Unknown Known.” In the former, he interviews McNamara, the Secretary of War under FDR and Johnson. McNamara acknowledged, practically in tears, how sadly he and other democrats misjudged the facts that led to one of our most tragic wars, Vietnam, especially the person of Ho Chi Min, who sought only to lead his country and not spread communism. College students I was then teaching, taught me about this latter fact. Now fast forward to the present and “The Unknown Known,” in which the same person interviews Ronald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of War under Bush and Cheney. Did he feel any guilt about he and his party going into Iraq for what is now clearly, the wrong reasons, especially our need for oil? He shows no feelings of guilt whatsoever. When I went to the website of this movie, I read the following from a l999 paper by the Cornell Prof Dunning who wrote about “incompetent people who suffer a dual burden.” He writes, “Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to recognize it.” A commentator adds: “stupid people do not even know they are stupid.” Such a lack of character pushed us into another tragic war.

This stupidity among the electorate could lead to the loss of the Senate and the failure to recapture the House in November. We know the democrats are mounting a national effort re both Washington and state politics, one in which millions will be contacted not door to door, but Facebook to Facebook, and Twitter to Twitter. Join them by contacting the Democratic National Committee.    

Love, John G