I caught roughly 45 minutes of the debate between Senator Kelly Loeffler and Reverend Raphael Warnock last night. They’re both set to compete in the Georgia Senate runoff election on January 5, 2021. Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Senator David Perdue are vying for the other Georgia Senate seat. The two were supposed to face off in a debate on Saturday evening, but the coward Perdue was a no-show. Instead, Ossoff debated an empty podium.
We all know how vital this runoff is, with control of the Senate hanging in the balance. The moderators at the Loeffler/Warnock debate tried their best to get answers. I thought Warnock came across as genuine, decent, and thoughtful. Considering the attacks that came his way, it says a lot about the man.
I’m going to take some liberties here, for purposes of this post, and give you an idea of what most of Loeffler’s responses were. Whether asked if the current president was wrong to call the Governor of Georgia to try and have him throw out the election results or whether Senators should be trading stocks, it didn’t matter. She repeated the following refrain, over and over:
“The radical liberal Raphael Warnock,” “Beware of Socialism,” “I’ve lived the American dream,” and “I work day and night for the people of Georgia.” That’s it, folks. She’s not much more than an empty pantsuit. But she had her talking points and got them out there, I suppose.
It’s the first talking point, though, that struck a nerve with me – radical liberal. What the hell does that even mean? We’ve heard the current president and many on the other side using that phraseology all the time. There’s nothing radical about Raphael Warnock, and to say otherwise is ridiculous. But to the uneducated or low-information voter out there, all you have to do is repeat it, and it sticks. They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t think it worked. There was one radical on that stage, and it wasn’t Warnock.
That said, am I a radical liberal because I believe every single American citizen has a right to health care? Because I believe climate change is an existential threat to our very existence on this earth? Because I think a woman has a right to choose what she does with her body? Because I believe we need to have comprehensive immigration reform? Because I wear a mask to protect me and others from the possibility of being infected from Covid-19? Because I believe we need to increase our minimum wage to $15 an hour? Because I think we should have free or dramatically reduced tuition for college? Because I believe we need common-sense gun safety regulations?
Ok, then call me a radical liberal – guilty as charged. The truth is, these ideas aren’t crazy. I’d go as far as to say that they’re mainstream in that most Americans agree with these concepts, at least to some degree. Frankly, if you want to call any group radical, it’s the current Republican Party – or, if you’d like, the Trump Party, because that’s what they’ve become.
These are the folks who are radical, and it’s time to start branding them that way. Yes, let’s start calling them the radical right from now on because: they do NOT believe health care is a right; they do NOT believe a woman has the right to choose; they do NOT believe in comprehensive immigration reform; most of them think Covid is a hoax or not that big a deal; they do NOT believe in a minimum wage; they do NOT believe in climate change, and they certainly do NOT want any gun safety reform.
Let’s also not forget that the majority of elected Congressional Republicans do not think that Joe Biden won the election and do not dare to say so if they do. That’s radical. Biden won – period. Is it also not radical that most of them refuse to condemn the current president for his pathetic and dangerous assault on our electoral system?
The other day, the House passed the MORE Act. This bill aims to decriminalize cannabis, remove it from Schedule 1 status, and pave the way for social reforms and economic opportunity. 97% of Democrats voted for it – 97% of Republicans voted against it. Well over 50% of Americans now believe cannabis should be legal and regulated. We know the bill is going to die in the Senate because radical Mitch McConnell will kill it. Again, who’s radical?
Finally, they do NOT want you to vote. Oh, they want some to vote — not anyone who might vote for a Democrat, though. Whether through gerrymandering, reducing voting locations, or throwing people off the voter rolls, they’ll do whatever it takes to keep their tenuous grip on power. They wouldn’t do any of these things if they thought they could win over the American people with their policies and ideas. Guess what? They can’t because they’re out of the mainstream and stuck in 1955. I’d call that radical, wouldn’t you?
Mitch McConnell, aka Moscow Mitch and The Grim Reaper, remains the number one obstacle for getting things done for the American people. It’s time to start labeling him Radical Mitch and the rest of his party the radical right. Right now, some in the media want to blame Nancy Pelosi for failure to pass any Covid relief. Bullshit. She passed Covid relief months ago, revised it down, and passed it again, only to have it sit on Radical Mitch’s desk – just like the hundreds of other bills he’s never even brought up for debate.
So let’s put an end to this ridiculous branding to those of us on the left who want to do what’s right and start helping the American people. We can disagree on specifics, but make no mistake, there’s one side standing in the way of meaningful progress – and it’s not the so-called radical left.
It’s the radical right who’s responsible for the gridlock. Never forget that. Say it whenever you talk politics to anyone. Write it on social media or whatever platform you can access. It’s way past time that we start to brand these people for who they are.
On The Fence Voters 
Leave a comment