11.04.2006

 

It Could Be a Wonderful Life



Remember the scene in It’s a Wonderful Life where George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) is wooed by the evil and greedy Mr. Potter and offered a job on the Potter team? Potter hands Bailey a cigar, plops him down in a cushy but very low chair, and tries to convince George to come to work for him—he even offers George a huge bump in pay, more than George ever imagined making in his lifetime. You can see Stewart’s mind imagining all the wonderful things he could do with that money—a better house, an easier life, an end to scrabbling from paycheck to paycheck. All he has to do to get this better life is to abandon his principles, close down the Building & Loan, and let Potter gain complete control of Bedford Falls.

The lure of the promises is almost too much for George Bailey, who, it’s been shown, has an active imagination and dreams of travel and exotic locales. Potter promises trips abroad and adventures and financial independence and…suddenly the shoe drops as Bailey realizes all he’d have to give up in order to get a nice house and a few trips.

He’d have to give up fighting for the little guy, the small businesses, and the families of Bedford Falls. He’d have to give up his own family business. He’d have to put his Uncle Billy out of a job. He’d have to stand idly by while Potter wreaked havoc on Bedford Falls and transformed the bucolic town into a slum of neon and disaffected, downtrodden citizens who have lost their way. Finally George tells Potter:



“…the answer's no. No! Doggone it! You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money! Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter! In the, in the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider!”

George Bush is America’s “scurvy little spider,” and his legs consist of the Republican-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate. If the Potter Republicans retain control of the entire government, Mr. Bush will continue to be free to spin his little webs and go on transforming America into his version of Potterville, where the rich get richer and workers lose more and more. He’ll promise you anything your heart desires—tax cuts, jobs, security—whatever you want, as long as you let him keep control. But you’ll have to give up so very, very much in exchange.

If someone tells us that we should look at the man, not the party, we’ll lose the country. If we vote for a Republican because of promises—whether those promises are tempting or not—we’ll lose the country. If we give Mr. Potter/Bush an inch, he’ll take a mile or even a marathon. Republicans care as much about us as Mr. Potter cared about George Bailey. A vote for Steele in Maryland or Lieberman in Connecticut is a vote for the Potters of this world, and against everything that George Bailey’s life stood for: integrity, tolerance, honor, justice, family, and personal responsibility. No matter what they promise us, it simply cannot be enough to justify losing the country.

We need to stand up next Tuesday, like George Bailey, and say “no!” to the Potter Republicans. We want our Wonderful Life back and we can get it if we vote for Democrats.

11.02.2006

 

GOP crooks aren't the only nasty beasts in D.C.


According to a story yesterday on NBC4.com, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. is stocking up on a fresh shipment of lions.

If this makes Republicans or hypocritical Christian leaders sweat, it's only their guilty consciences at work.

Rrrrowr!

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