(editor note: this ran in the Press Enterprise and is republished with permission of Bill Hedrick)
By BILL HEDRICK
Recently, Congress approved a budget package designed to put families first by pulling America out of recession and jumpstarting the U.S. financial system.
However, the budget continues to come under attack from the radical right wing of the Republican Party — a segment of the party completely out of touch with the needs of working families.
In attacking the budget compromise, hyperpartisan loyalists use venomous rhetoric to frighten Americans and create a viciously polarized political landscape.
This is accomplished through delusional assaults against fictitious evils. Note the overuse of the word socialist.
In the real world, independent-minded Americans have little patience for excessive partisan wrangling. They are too busy working to provide for their children or elderly parents.
In the real world, parents are more concerned with finding affordable, accessible medical care for a sick child than with the meaningless diversions of well-insured politicians.
It is simply not right that a child’s critical illness or injury should bankrupt a hard-working family. Good health care should not be a commodity, available only to the well-employed or well-heeled. The budget adopted by Congress takes a first step toward ending this immoral inequity.
In the real world, parents want schools that educate children for the 21st century. They want high standards but expect a wide range of opportunities for their offspring — not just the basics but art and music, too.
George Bush federalized our schools through the No Child Left Behind Act. It is time to return control of our schools to our local communities. With luck, the Obama administration will move to do so promptly.
And I hope to see the day when out-of-control tuition expenses are rolled back or subsidized so that more families can send their children to top-notch universities like UC Riverside.
In the real world, Americans understand that when people call for fiscal common sense, they really mean shifting the cost of governing from the wealthiest among us onto the backs of working families.
As for so-called socialist spending, the very same voices denouncing the current federal budget are the first in line to reap rich government contracts for their buddies. The same funding practices that financiers promote to rescue financial institutions suddenly become socialist schemes when they rescue Joe the plumber. In the real world, that’s called hypocrisy.
Americans are not concerned with whether we have small government or big government — but they do expect effective, responsible government. They want health care for their children. They want access to good public education.
They want jobs to stay right here in America. They want fair trade with those who share our values, rather than free trade with dictators. Most important, they want to see families, not politics, finally put first.
Bill Hedrick was the Democratic nominee last year for California’s 44th Congressional District seat.
“…Hyperpartisan loyalists use venomous rhetoric to frighten Americans and create a viciously polarized political landscape…This is accomplished through delusional assaults against fictitious evils…”
While I admit that the irony of this made me laugh, it amazes me that the hypocrisy of it went completely unnoticed by you and any editors you may have. 100% of those statements were opinion, and all terminology used within the quotation marks above was negative and derogatory. Being as your website and the content within is run only by people of your mindset, it appears to me that it is in fact YOU polarizing the political landscapes.
Re: “the budget continues to come under attack from the radical right wing of the Republican Party.”
Is there another wing of the Republican Party? Not here in Orange County!
Ryan — what’s the fictiocious evil Democrats are delusional about? You seem to forget the rules set up by the Republican/Conservative Right. Republicans rule by fear, Democrats by hope. Bush inheirited a nation that was at peace and economicaly propserous. He left a nation bogged down in two wars, an economy in shambles, and aour status in the world diminished. Its going to take a long time to clean up his mess.
I’m with Dan on this one.
Yeah, his writing is obviously written by a Democrat, yes it’s his opinion, but I don’t see empty rhetoric here designed to bully me or scare the bejesus out of me, nor do I see an attempt to polarize people.
Looks to me like a desperately needed request for the restoration of common sense and the notion that, perhaps instead of trying to score political points by beating people into submission, our elected officials should try and figure out what it is people really need to get through these tough times.
Thanks Mr. Hedrick.
I really liked the fact that Mr. Hendrick didn’t just go after every single Republican in his Op-Ed. Obama won several districts here in Republican-controlled OC and if I remember correctly Mr. Hendrick also won lots of Republican votes so there has to be at least SOME reasonable Republicans living here.
I hate it when the Republicans simply brand every Democrat as a socialist. Therefore, I can also appreciate a Democrat who doesn’t label every single Republican as a fascist.
Show intelligence! Too bad he’s not in my district because he sounds like a smart guy.