Our Officers
Lavon Brillhart, Chair
228 W. Morse St., Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-2860
Louise Bruce, Vice-Chair
616 E. Center St., Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-4467
Jane Maddock, Secretary
P.O. Box 1386, Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-2548
Richard Turner, Treasurer
335 S. Dakota St., Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-6247
January 20, 2010
A year ago we were almost giddy about the election of Barack Obama as president. But many of us have been pretty disappointed in the changes made by his administration so far. White House advisors like Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and Tim Geithner seem more interested in placating big-business interests than in reforming them.
In the Democratically led congress, the health care legislation limping its way through isn't nearly what most of us hoped for. A handful of bought-and-paid-for Democratic senators and representatives have forced pro-corporate and anti-woman compromises.
And now that a Republican has replaced Ted Kennedy in the Senate, the chance of even this watered-down health care legislation passing seems slight.
The set-back in Massachusetts demonstrates that Democrats are lacking in enthusiasm while the tea-party types [see below] are fired up. Yeats' words, from "The Second Coming," seem especially apt:
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
Dark days lie ahead for us Democrats and, I fear, for the country. We Democrats were punished in the sixties for passing civil rights legislation. That's when poorly educated and mainly Southern whites fled the party to become Republicans.
Of course, this switch in party allegiance occurred locally, too. Many white Montanans who were once Democrats left the party when blacks were given full civil rights.
A similar back-lash is occurring today. Especially non-college-educated whites are fleeing the party because it is taking baby steps toward progressive change (successfully branded "socialism" by the right-wing propanda machine).
Friends, we really have our work cut out for us.
One of the first things we need to do is get word to Democratic office holders that we don't want them running scared. They've got to stop worrying about what Republicans are going to say about them. For all of our sakes, they need to heed Virgil's adage: "Fortune favors the bold."
For a humorous take on this go to Youtube.com and check out "Balls Beer for Health Care Reform."
"Democrats can be assured that Republicans will attack them, regardless of what they do. Democrats could eliminate the estate tax permanently, slash the capital gains tax, repeal the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, invade Iran, and pass a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, and Republicans would still attack them -- with exactly the same vehemence and vigor that Republicans have now." (Jonathan Bernstein, on the futility of trying to appease Republicans)
"The problems of incompetent, corrupt, corporatist government [are] incompetence, corruption, and corporatism, not government." (Jerome a Paris)
