Nan Hayworth's Radical Right-Wing Agenda

Following today's MHPA meeting, it was decided that we should keep tabs on our various elected officials, starting with our soon to be Congressperson from the NY 19th district, Dr. Nan Hayworth, seen here with House GOP whip, Eric Cantor.

One question that came up at our meeting today was that of what Nan Hayworth stands for and what she will stand for once she is sworn in. Time will tell, of course, but in the meantime, we can hazard some educated guesses.

The website On the Issues gives us some indication, and it is, of course, some bad news for progressives, as well as for the citizens of the 19th district; in general, Dr. Hayworth looks to be positioning herself to represent a swing district while nonetheless taking a series of very radical right wing positions, including supporting the following statements and positions:

*Cap-and-trade has no impact on global temperatures
*Identify constitutionality in every new congressional bill
*Audit federal agencies, to reform or eliminate them
*Moratorium on all earmarks until budget is balanced
*Defund, repeal, & replace federal care with free market
*Taxpayer Protection Pledge: no new taxes
*Adopt a single-rate tax system
*Repeal tax hikes in capital gains and "death taxes"

In other words, an imbalanced political economy that benefits the economic elites!

The website Left of the Hudson has a series of links on Hayworth and her positions. One particular link that caught my attention raised the following concerns.

At last night's Congressional debate, Nan Hayworth refused to denounce the actions of exrteme Tea Party group, Tri-State Sons of Liberty, which notoriously brands Democrats as "socialists" and "communists" and brazenly flies the Confederate Flag at their rallies. She also refused the repudiate the Club for Growth, which is dedicated to destroying Social Security, pushes for a 23 percent National Sales Tax, which really means higher taxes for the poor and middle class and greatly reduced taxes for the rich, and refers to President Obama as "Comrade."

But Hayorth's no fool, she knows that in order to win this election, she needs to fool the Tea Party folks into thinking she's one of them while also working as a double agent for one of their objects of ire, the pro-TARP Wall Street interests that nearly destroyed our economy. This is a precarious tight-rope she's walking.

Clearly, progressives will need to keep up the pressure on Nan Hayworth so as to counter the far right wing proclivities that she has already clearly expressed.

We need to keep the Alliance going

Following Tuesday's election outcome



we might be seeing these two corrupt elitists running Congress and promising a much more regressive direction for the country. Let's keep the Mid Hudson Progressive Alliance, and other local, grass roots progressive organizations vibrant and active, for the sake of truth and democracy.

Saturday event

GOTV 2010 Rivera

"No Compomise", promise the GOP

This article is in today's Daily Kos, in which Republicans let their followers just what's in store, should they win back Congress, i.e., much much more gridlock and ideological warfare.

A Quick Reflection from Howard "Lev" Levin

As a conservative thinker and a full time progressive tinkerer, I am often reminded of my sometimes bleeding hearts. I mean you can only chase your tail in a dizzy so long, before you realize that your extremities,are just as much integral to your life,as the blood pumping and coursing to that tail.

So,why am I waxing poetic?

Simple: to remind all not to retire from our wonderful progressive alliance. Because, at best our alliance is like the blood of harmony that flows between us, for the further development of justice for all.

I believe that progress is developing mindfulness, even in my sometimes conservative thought.

Lev

P.S. Get out and vote!!!

This is a revision of something I recently wrote on the Daily Kos website, which is a website that publishes largely Democratic/progressive posts on current politics, and then posted to Facebook, where, because it generated a lot of interesting discussion, I am now posting here. Anyway, here is what 1st wrote on Daily Kos.

My father was a good man. He was born in NJ in 1929, and passed away from a stroke in 1992, and was living in Florida at the time. My dad was a young guy, in his early 20s, when he served his country in uniform in the Korean War And while he didn't always understand the social and cultural changes taking place in this country in the 1960s and 70s, when I was a kid, my dad was a good man, who tried, ultimately, to understand the world, particularly as it was explained to him by his three kids.


And while my dad - a Democrat to the very end - was a bit more conservative than his three kids, he would likely be disgusted by a the Tea Party and all of their stupidity. My dad also happened to have lived in the district where this piece of right wing thuggery occurred recently.

So when I saw this, I immediately thought of my dad and my visits to Florida to visit with him. I miss him and I wish he were still around. I'd also really like to hear his take on this.

Anyway, there is something of a disconnect between myself and some of my friends and relatives when it comes to politics and it is something that, I must admit, I have a very hard time understanding. It is very hard for me to understand how people who, like me, grew up not living in a mansion and flying off on a family private jet to an exotic vacation but rather with blue collar roots, can support Republicanism, that is, Republican party candidates, Republican rhetorical statements, and Republican media, like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and Fox News. I can't, for the life of me, see how people - who I see as decent, smart, and ultimately, fair-minded - can get behind this. Is it a dissatisfaction with Obama, the Democrats, and the political status quo? I am not entirely satisfied with these things, though I do think that Obama is trying to do his best. Is it religion, or specifically Christianity? If so, I too was raised with a pretty authoritarian version of Christianity, but in spite of this, I never quite saw how Jesus Christ supported violence, free market libertarian capitalism, war and torture, or the hatred of gays. Christianity, like all religions, can easily become distorted and used, as Marx said, as a sort of opium of the masses.


Anyway, I don't think that I could ever support the Republican Party because as far as I can tell the Republican Party doesn't support me or the things - fairness and equality, tolerance for difference, the rights of workers and consumers, separation of church and state, protecting the environment - that I think are important. The GOP as far as I can see has given us cultural warfare in an alliance with the Religious Right and with social conservatives who seem to want to take us back to the 1800s. And they have given us class warfare in an alliance with big banks, investment banks, and corporations (though admittedly, a few too many Democrats have also sought out this alliance, which is why some of their base has grown a bit dejected). The GOP has also played the race card, starting back when I was much younger and Richard Nixon began recruiting in 1968 Southern Dixiecrats into the Republican Party, and then continuing with Ronald Reagan and his code words ("states rights," "welfare queen") and then Willie Horton, Jesse Helms. and most recently the Tea Party and its candidates appealing to xenophobia and Islamophobia. Of course, no one ever wants to admit to their own complicity with racism. Finally, the Republicans also pretty much stood and cheered as Bush and Cheney led us into a costly and illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, which was accompanied by torture and indefinite detentions of people who were presumed guilty before being proven guilty; and during this time, here on the domestic front, Bush engaged in a policy of secret, illegal domestic surveillance; where were the Tea Party protesters, with their stated concerns about obeying the Constitution, when the previous administration was tearing the Constitution to shreds?


That said, and again, acknowledging that everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion, with friends/loved ones who express political views that are the opposite of mine and when they do so in direct response to me expressing my views, my response is to try, via dialogue, to arrive at mutual understanding. Because, I really do believe that there are decent people on all sides of the political spectrum and that we are all in this together. I won't pretend to respect the political party that you support, because I don't respect it, but I can respect and care about those to whom I am connected.


My Letter to the Poughkeepsie Journal

I read the Poughkeepsie Journal everyday and recently had this letter published on the hate filled candidacy of Carl Paladino. What does it say about NY state Republicans who would support this truly loathsome character?

Paladino's actions disqualify him


Sadly, once again we have seen racism and bigotry rear their ugly heads with this year's electoral races. We have seen, for example, a white supremacist running for Congress in New York's 18th District. And in the race for governor, we have the Republican candidate, Carl Paladino, who has displayed bigotry by referring to poor, unemployed people as lacking in hygiene, by referring to a Jewish Assembly leader, Shelly Silver, as an "anti-Christ," and most nefariously, by making blatantly racist jokes.

What does it say about the character of a man who would think amusing, images of President Obama as a pimp, Obama's supporters as dancing African tribesmen, and images that refer to black people using the racist "N" word? Paladino's supporters, seeing him as representing a needed potential shakeup of Albany, are quick to forgive him for forwarding e-mails containing these images, but the fact remains that Paladino has demonstrated extremely poor judgment. His actions were racist, and in the context of his campaign, are confrontationally so.

The rest of us have a choice, which is to stand up to racism and confront it or to tacitly condone it. Paladino's supporters and his fellow Republicans who do not condemn Paladino's racist behavior are themselves guilty of racism, no matter what their reason for support for Carl Paladino. Blatant racism — like a record of political corruption — ought to automatically disqualify one from holding public office.

Tom Conroy
Beacon