Thoughts on Diversity and Conformity

There are many things which separate Democrats and Republicans. Perhaps one of the more fundamental of these is our feeling about diversity and conformity.

Diversity in thought, or conformity in thought. Diversity in society, or conformity to narrow concepts about who is a real American. Economic diversity, or protection of the privileged. Hope....fear. Future....past.

Democrats/Liberals embrace diversity and civil rights and civil liberties. Republicans/Conservatives fear these things and seek shelter in conformity to a set of beliefs about who should be in charge and what the social order should be.

Liberals welcome open intellectual discussions, where all beliefs and ideas can be freely aired. Conservatives fear these things and run to the safe harbor of anti intellectual conformity.

Who is strong and who is weak?

The fear enveloping the Right is clearly based on weakness, masked by the strength of conformity. They march in lock step, and seek to destroy or denigrate all who do not agree with their narrow views.

Will we allow them to take us off the cliff? Will we move forward or will we slide back?

Much will depend on what you, and others like you are prepared to do. We, on the Left, need to be proud of what we believe in and we must also stand together against the threats to our society that are presented by Right extremism.

Will live in scary times, and this leaves fertile fields for fear to dominate. When people are scared, they often seek the safe harbor of conformity and yearn for an idealized past. This explains much of the beliefs and tactics of the Right.

What do we believe in? What do we stand for? We are, of course, a big tent Party, and we welcome the diversity this brings. We are multi racial. We support women’s rights and women’s health. We support gay rights. We support civil rights for all. We stand for economic and social justice. We stand for a clean environment, and seek a sane and sustainable energy policy. We believe in science. We stand for and speak for the underprivileged and disenfranchised, because it is the right thing to do. We stand for a culture of “we” instead of a culture of “me”. We understand that we can only be a strong democracy when we strive for and approach equality.

We understand the meaning of what Justice Louis Brandeis said long ago: “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

I am so proud to be a Democrat and proud to stand with people looking to move this country forward. However, because of our embrace of diversity in it’s various forms, it is hard for us to speak with one unified voice. Yet this is what we must do. We must come together, we must work together. We must support one another and we must say to the Right...you shall not prevail. We must turn our words and beliefs into deeds.

If we are to survive and thrive as a diverse and open society, we must be an active society.

So please consider talking to your neighbors. Financially contribute to the causes you believe in. Stand up for your values. Join with us to roll back the Tea Party/Republicans in 2012 and beyond. We need you. The country needs you.

Our future depends on it.

Doug Ballard, Chair
Coconino County Democratic Party
 

Unity

As the Republicans march in lock step to dismantle programs for children's education, assistance for working families, and Medicaid/Access, they have accelerated their efforts to also dismantle the entire middle class, for the benefit of the wealthy. The recently proposed flat tax by the Republican dominated State Legislature will significantly raise taxes on working people and significantly lower taxes for the wealthiest Arizonans.

Please take a moment to see where you fall on this new tax table. For example, if you make less than $100,000, your taxes will be going up. The less you make, the greater the percentage of tax increase. If you make more than $100,000, your taxes will go down. The more you make, the greater the percentage of tax decrease.

Flat Tax Winners and Losers
Income #; current tax-flat tax; % chg

Under $10K; $1 - $201; 19,900%
$10K-$20K; $67 - $303; 352%
$20K- $25K; $165 - $358; 117%
$25K- $30K; $262 - $463; 77%
$30K-$40K; $414 - $610; 47%
$40K- $50K; $603 - $778; 29%
$50K-$75K; $894 - $1,072; 20%
$75K-$100K; $1,392 - $1,532; 10%
$100K-$200K; $2,549 - $2,228; (12.6%)
$200K-$500K; $7,194 - $5,059; (30%)
$500K-$1M; $20,617 - $12,027; (42%)
$1M-$5M; $60,372 - $32,965; (45%)
More than $5M $546,314 $299,202 (45%)

-- Source: Arizona Department of Revenue

How do you feel about this? Is this the type of State you want for yourselves and your children?

What is to be done?

The one real advantage that the Republicans have is their unity and single mindedness of purpose. We, on the progressive side, must unify and coordinate our efforts to be as effective as we can possibly be to fight for the people. There is no choice. We are the big tent party, but we cannot afford to squabble over any differences we might have amongst ourselves. We must come together and be loud and proud of what we believe in. We must energize, we must mobilize. Without this, how can we expect people to vote for our candidates. Without this, how can we attract candidates who will stand for us.

In keeping with these thoughts, CCDems will be reaching out to all of the progressive groups in Northern Arizona and ask for their advice, and for their help in building a coalition to fight for people and to fight for the restoration of reason. We will be asking these groups to help form a committee to identify key issues we should all be concentrating on, and to help develop a coordinated strategy to advance our values and our mission to stand for every Arizonan.

Please stay tuned as this effort progresses.

Republicans Up the Anti

Make no mistake...there is a battle underway to change America, and Republicans have upped the anti, and here is how:

- Anti Public Education - The Republican controlled State Legislature and the Republican Governor have slashed funding for schools, with more cuts to come. They cynically do this while, at the same time slashing taxes for corporations. On the Federal level, the GOP is planning on slashing the budget of the Dept. Of Education. Many of them want to limit it altogether.
- Anti Public Broadcasting - Republicans want to eliminate all funding for NPR and PBS. From their perspective, Fox News (contradiction in terms, no doubt) is the only source in news and information that the American public needs.
- Anti Healthcare - They want to eliminate healthcare reform, re-establish pre existing conditions, and ironically, increase the National debt by $210 billion by eliminating the saving realized by reform.
- Anti Women - slashing funding for Planned Parenthood and other programs for women, thereby drastically reducing HIV testing, cancer screenings, birth control, and other services. They’ve also been long term opponents to equal pay for equal work.
- Anti Science - Their positions on Global Warming and Climate Change, the science of Evolution, even the geologic age of the earth harkens back to the Dark Ages, when it was a given that the earth was flat, and the sun and stars circled around us.
- Anti Social Security - They have been trying for years to eliminate the last major program of the New Deal. Imagine where you would be Bush and Rove had been successful in privatizing Social Security, resulting in your retirement future being linked to Wall Street and your 401k. They’re trying again!
- Anti Environment - They are proposing massive funding cuts to the EPA and the gutting of Clean Air/CO2 regulations.

In fairness, “anti” nature of the Republican Party briefly and incompletely discussed here, does not give a balanced picture. They do stand FOR things also:

- For Tax Cuts for the Wealthy top 2%
- For Increased Corporate Influence in our Democratic Processes
- For Guns in Bars and Guns in Schools
- For Massive Government subsidies for Big Oil
- For Eliminating Medicaid assistance
- For Tax Breaks for Corporations shipping Jobs Overseas

Do you share their vision? I certainly hope not and hope you’ll do all you can to counter this lurch to the right. Get Active - Get Involved - Make a Difference. Your future depends on it.
                                          Doug Ballard, Chair
                            Coconino County Democratic Party