Congressman Grayson’s clip above is positively existential. It’s hard to believe it’s coming from a Member of Congress. Of course, it’s hard to believe there’s a Member of Congress of Alan Grayson’s calibre. And I get the feeling there are an awful lot of people in the Orlando area who know just how lucky they are. On the other hand, Alan has drawn a veritable circus sideshow of opponents, each one fringier and more insane than the other. Tomorrow is primary day in Florida and we’ll be watching with interest as a small number of disheartened and disillusioned Republicans pick over the 4th and 5th tier candidates hoping for the nomination– from Patricia Sullivan who (publicly) claims Sarah Palin as a role model, Dan Fanelli who proudly (and publicly) flies his racist flag for everyone to see, to the kook, Ross Bieling, whose platform is impeaching President Obama and the hate talk radio guy, Todd Long, who was found passed out drunk one morning in front of a local elementary school to a state legislator, Kurt Kelly, who disgraced himself last month by interpreting Rep. Grayson’s efforts to bring the troops home to safety as wanting them to die and then to the feeble fave of the Establishment, Dan Webster, who’s best known for pushing a radical religious agenda that has included ending the right of divorce and introducing the legislation that started the whole tragic Terri Schiavo debacle. And on top of that the Florida TEA Party has nominated Peg Dunmire, someone even nuttier than that crew — well, not nuttier than Fanelli — running as well.
And then there’s Alan Grayson, probably the most beloved and effective champion of ordinary working families of any Member of the House. Today’s the climax of a moneybomb his campaign launched a few days ago. Blue America has our own goal for Alan’s campaign, an even $50,000. As you can see from the thermometer on the right, we’re more than two-thirds there. I hope you watched the video up top. It knocked me out. Here’s some of what Orlando’s greatest gift to America had to say:
There are two groups in this country right now. I call those groups Us, and Them.
We want more jobs, better schools, better health, better pensions, and we want to keep our homes. We want not just jobs but jobs that mean something, jobs that pay a decent wage. We want to live a good life.
And then there’s them. They simply have one goal and one goal only. And that is to destroy the government. They’re not conservatives. They’re anarchists.
I don’t know why they want anarchy. In fact, they don’t know, either. Even they don’t know what kind of inner darkness causes them to seek wars without end, to burn the planet, to welcome poverty for so many, to leave the old and the sick helpless, to cheer oil in the Gulf. I’ve spoken to enough of them to be able to tell you that they themselves don’t know why.
But that’s what they want. So, now we have to decide who is going to run this country. Is it Us, or is it Them? And what’s at stake is the future. The future in a country that my five children will live in, that your children will live in, that you’ll live in for the rest of your life.
Are we going to have a country with a decent middle class life for everyone– jobs, health care, roads, schools? Or, are we going to have poverty, cheap labor, helplessness and hopelessness? The choice is yours.
I think President Obama feels much the same way. I wish he had the guts to say it the way Alan Grayson does. Please, if you only contribute to one campaign this year, it’s Alan Grayson who has earned that honor. Please join us below in the comments section to participate in a love blogging session with Congressman Alan Grayson.
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