Jane Chastain : Politically Direct

Archive for the ‘Democrat Party’ Category

It IS all about the Platform (not the Personality or the Party)

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I find it a bit ironic that leading Democrat spokespeople are now downplaying the importance of their party’s platform, particularly since they spent a good portion of last week talking about the “extreme” Republican Platform.

The truth is this election, and every election, is all about the platform. A platform is to the candidate, what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are to the United States of America. The platform is what each candidate is all about, what he supports and promises to do if elected to assume (or continue in) the role of the nation’s chief executive. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Jane Chastain

September 5th, 2012 at 5:00 pm

Whom do You Trust?

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The question for voters in the 2012 election is not, “Whom do you trust?” but, “What do you trust?” It’s not about Obama versus a Republican candidate, regardless of who he or she may be. It’s about your basic philosophy of government.

Do you put your trust in the free market or do you trust the government to give you a better life?

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Written by Jane Chastain

September 14th, 2011 at 9:00 pm

Who is Raining on Your Memorial Day Parade?

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The Memorial Day weekend traditionally has been the first getaway weekend of the summer.  A chance to kick back, take a road trip or hop or plane and to visit relatives.  Not this year.

It 2008, when the price of gasoline began to approach $4 a gallon, the Smiths complained that they had to take out a second mortgage on the old homestead just to fill up the family car.  In 2011, as gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon, the Smiths are upside down on their mortgage(s).  Dad is working two part-time jobs and still doesn’t make what he did at the full-time job he lost when his company was downsized.  There is no more wiggle room.  The Smiths, like millions of other Americans, will be staying home this Memorial Day weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Jane Chastain

May 26th, 2011 at 12:00 am

Bobble Heads vs. Wing Nuts

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The bobble heads who rule the two major political parties refer to outsiders as “wing nuts,” which is short for “right-wing nuts.”  No bobble head ever views a left-winger as a “nut.”  If so, he or she keeps quiet about it.   To do otherwise might make one appear  “extreme” and the left-wing bobble heads, which dominate the news media, would say or write mean things about them.

Bobble heads are those little plastic dolls that are images of major the political figures. They show up every election year on the dashboards and office desks of the party faithful.  Unfortunately, party leaders, behave in much the same way as these miniature  characters.   With the slightest breeze or movement, the heads of these dolls bob up and down on a spring.  They are incapable of nodding right to left as if saying “no.”   In fact, the party establishment seems incapable of saying “no” to anything proposed by the party’s top elected official, no matter how unreasonable or harmful an idea may be.     Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Jane Chastain

September 23rd, 2010 at 12:00 am