Michael Moore recently published this pledge in the Los Angeles Times. I applaud each of these twelve points:
1) We will always respect you. We will never, ever, call you “unpatriotic” simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.
2) We will let you marry whomever you want (even though some among us consider your Republican behavior to be “different” or “immoral”). Who you marry is none of our business. Love, and be in love — it’s a wonderful gift.
3) We will not spend your grandchildren’s money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It’s your checkbook too, and we will balance it for you.
4) When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home too. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on some amateur Power Point presentation cooked up by men who have never been to war.
5) When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you too will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that afflict you and your loved ones, we’ll make sure those advances are available to you and your family too.
6) When we clean up our air and water, you too will be able to breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water. When we put an end to global warming, you will no longer have to think about buying oceanfront property in Yuma.
7) Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.
8) We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.
9) We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren’t much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, take up another sport. In the meantime, we will arm the deer to make it a fairer fight.
10) When we raise the minimum wage, we will raise it for your employees too. They will use that money to buy more things, which means you will get the money back! And when women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage too.
11) We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don’t practice those beliefs. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs (“Blessed are the peacemakers,” “Love your enemies,” “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” and “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn’t just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism — starting here at home.
12) We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and break the law. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side first. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.
"We promise never to send your kids off to war based on some amateur Power Point presentation cooked up by men who have never been to war."
The use of the UN Veto power has encouraged the Israelis, who know that they can literally get away with murder, knowing that the United States will back their right to oppress and kill Palestinians in the name of war or security. Both Democrats and Republicans have had nearly identical policies in this regard since 1948. The recent elections in the US will not result in any change of policy in regard to the Palestinians and their right to exist.
Israeli policy has always been aimed at driving out the Palestinians from their land. In late 1947 the UN partitioned Palestine–which only angered both sides, who wanted all of it. The difference is that it was not the Palestinians who immigrated to Europe to take over land owned by Jews. It was the other way around.
While it is certainly true that many Jews purchased land in Palestine in an honorable way, it is also true that once they came into power, they began to seize land in every way conceivable. As Jewish author Robert Friedman reports in his book, Zealots for Zion, it often happened that a Jew offered to buy a Palestinian's land. If he refused, the Jew would simply forge a bill of sale, and then show up one day with military force, and evict the Palestianian from his land.
It has always been the unofficial Israeli government policy to make life as miserable as possible for all Palestinians, so that they will leave on their own accord. Once they leave, they are forbidden by law ever to return. Most Palestinians stay, of course, mostly because they have no other place to go. And so Palestine continues to compete for the title of Most Wretched Place on Earth.
Some do fight back, of course, and these are then labeled "terrorists." How dare they fight back! Do they not know that the Israelis have a right to security and self-defense? Those who fight back are thus used as "proof" that the Israeli policies are necessary to keep law and order and to keep Israeli citizens secure.
The most recent Israeli incursion into Gaza is just another of a long string of war tactics designed to kill more Palestinians, keep the pot boiling, and ensure that more Palestinians will finally lose all hope. Out of despair and hatred, they will turn themselves into suicide bombers, which in turn will provide the Israelis with more "proof" that they were right all along.
With such a policy of expulsion by oppression, the world looks on aghast at America's partiality toward the Israelis and cannot understand how we can talk about human rights everywhere except in Palestine. Our partiality in judgment shows the world that we are a hypocritical nation that bases its foreign policy on the idea of Jews being God's Privileged People.
Christians {both liberal and concervative} do not care about anything other than the single idea that the Jews are God's Chosen and that they are fulfilling Bible prophecy to set up the conditions for the second coming of Christ. They are so focused upon this goal that they do not care about the means to get there. They do not understand Paul's statement in 2 Tim. 2:5 that "a man is not crowned except he strive lawfully."
Winning is not everything. You can win all the races ever run, but if you violate the rules, you are disqualified and will not be crowned the victor.
Those who do not believe that Jewish terrorists were vital instruments in the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948 ought to read Prime Minister Menachem Begin's book, The Revolt: Story of the Irgun, published in 1951. They should read Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's book, or Ariel Sharon's book about the massacre at Kibbya that he was ordered to do. These books are not written by Neo-Nazis, but by Israeli Prime Ministers. Most ignore them or do not even know that they wrote their own biographies.
I did my homework, and I actually believe what they wrote. Read how they bombed bridges and buildings, invented letter bombs, poisoned Palestinian wells with typhus, stole land, and drove out the people of the land by terrorism. The Christian town of Birim, for example, was told by the Israeli military to evacuate for a few days for security reasons. They were never allowed to return. Soon their houses were demolished, and nearly every trace of its existence was eradicated. A new Jewish settlement was built in its place. The Christians there were not terrorists, but this is how they were rewarded.
The hypocrisy of the Democrats is equal to the hypocrisy of the Republicans, at least in this respect.