I urge you to take 5 minutes and, instead of making your case in a dkos comment, write a letter to the editor of your local newspapers. These letters reach thousands of eyes every single day. We are a community of writers. And our greatest talent is our writing skills: we know the arguments and we know how to frame them.
Write Letter To the Editor. I do this constantly - it's easy. My letters see the light of day on a weekly basis in several local papers.
- Get the address of your local paper online. You don't need to read the paper or respond to a specific article.
- Write a letter or copy one of mine right here.
- Send it in with your name and town and phone.
This is enormously important free press for Obama. Here's some samples. Use them. Free of charge.
On Reality:
It is not a mistake that most of us pay more and get less from our health care plans than we did ten years ago, or 30 years ago. It is no mistake that we have worse pension plans. Or no pension plans. It's not simply by chance that we have almost no alternatives to oil It's not a fluke that labor unions grow weaker every single year - it's by design. It's not just ironic that our national debt is at an all time high, while President Bush and John McCain execute and plan more tax cuts for the the most wealthiest among us and the corporations they run.
This is all what happens when we vote for politicians who are running on an ideology that may have made sense in 1980 - politicians who simply do not share in the common interests. It's time to take back our government. It's time to put Barack Obama in the White House because he's the only candidate who will represent us properly.
On The Bridge To Nowhere:
John McCain and his running mate often claim a great success in preventing federal spending on the "Bridge To Nowhere" in Alaska. Their story has a two major problems. First, Sarah Palin and the Republican controlled Alaska government supported the funding of this bridge until it was clear that it was going to be rejected. So Palin's opposition to this spending is factually inaccurate. Worst of all though, this bridge was set to cost about a quarter of a billion dollars in federal funding. Our government spends roughly that much every 12 hours to fund the unending war in Iraq. So for all of John McCain's bragging about this great savings, his vote to authorize the war in Iraq has resulted in the equivalent of one bridge to nowhere being funded every half day.
On Fiscal Responsibility:
The biggest problem with federal government today is their wreckless spending. Our country is in more debt today than at any time in our history. The Republican Party claims to be the party of fiscal conservatives but they look more like fiscal fools. George Bush has tried to fund a massively expensive unending war with tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. If you're thinking this makes no sense then you're right. John McCain has promised to continue both the war as well as tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. In contrast, Barack Obama has promised drawn down our presence in Iraq, saving us billions of dollars every single day. In turn, he'll give the middle class the tax relief that the Bush Administration has denied. It's time for a real fiscal conservative - Barack Obama.
On Drilling:
Today's energy crisis is not shaping up to be a passing threat, but rather a permanent reality that our society must solve in order to sustain itself. Drilling for oil, at best, seems to offer little more than to appease us for a few years or maybe a decade. It is the classic duct tape and bubble gum solution. Worse, it is a step backwards because it will encourage demand while discouraging the development of renewable energy. It simply pushes the problem back a few years, onto the shoulders of the next generation. That's certainly not a solution and it's definitely nothing be proud of.
Leaving aside nuclear energy, which has become a political and ethical mess, there is just one true solution to our energy crisis: the research, development, and mass production of technology that can capture the infinitely renewable energy produced by the sun, the wind and the oceans. While drilling for oil domestically may complement these efforts in the short term, we should not pretend it will provide anything more. Renewable energy on a massive scale must happen - there are no short cuts. So let's get to work.
On Age:
John McCain turned 72 years old last week. This means that he would end his first term as a 76 year old man. Would you be concerned if your school district hired 76 year old teachers? If your airline began hiring 76 year old pilots. Maybe. Maybe not. But a 76 year old President of the United States? Much less a 76 year old President who has almost no expertise in anything except military affairs. And based on his still unexplained decision to authorize an unnecessary, preemptive war in the heart of the Middle East while ignoring Afghanistan, I can't even consider him much of an expert on the military either. I see no reason to elect a 76 year old man with questionable judgment to a position that requires more foresight and more energy than any other job in the world.
On Mccain:
John McCain claims to be a conservative Republican. Or perhaps he aspires to be one. Because all I see John McCain doing is spending our nations capital quite liberally with no return on investment. According to the White House, we spend at least $12 billion each month to maintain our position in Iraq. Yet McCain has not offered a long term solution for this other than to stay the course.
I gather that McCain's desire to continue this war at the current costs are because waging war is what he is familiar with. However, in 2008 I'm looking for a President who sees the economic value of $12 billion (at least) each month. I'm also looking for real diplomacy and for long term solutions to our constant need to maintain a presence in the Middle East. McCain seems to have very little vision. He provides little hope for change and almost no hope for true conservatives who do not happen to exclude war spending when considering overall government spending.