Put Your Pie Down, Move Away from the Vitriol and Strike Up a Real Argument

Surfing my blogroll, as I am want to do to read what others are saying out there, I found two links via Jet at God Dem! that were some very powerful pieces.

Slice 1 from Lina Marie:

Only when we counter hateful rhetoric with brilliant ideas is when we will regain the confidence of the majority of American people. Time to put down those pies; let’s talk and really listen.

This one from Barack Obama - aka the Man the reichwing will no doubt try to discredit in a big way:

...In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it—Social Darwinism—every man or woman for him or herself. It’s a tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say that those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford—tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job—life isn’t fair. It let’s us say to the child who was born into poverty—pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life’s lottery, that we’re the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won’t be the chump who Donald Trump says: “You’re fired!”

But there is a problem. It won’t work. It ignores our history. It ignores the fact that it’s been government research and investment that made the railways possible and the internet possible. It’s been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools that allowed us all to prosper. Our economic dependence depended on individual initiative. It depended on a belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity. That’s what’s produced our unrivaled political stability.