A well done Christmas message from the Bidens to the country

[karynnj]

Hard to believe it was only a year ago when messages like this from the Obamas and Biidens were hardly noteworthy - as we had gotten used to their classy, genuine messages at times like this.

Link to tweet

Here's hoping that as 2018 approaches, we realize that the Democratic party thrives in its diversity and is stronger with many people, elder states people as well as new leaders and even future leaders all speak out on the issues that matter the most for them. It is not true that we need ONE leader at this point.

At this point, heading into 2018, it seems better that we have people like Hillary Clinton speaking out on women's and children's issues - including health insurance, John Kerry and Al Gore speaking out on the environmental issues ranging from climate change to protecting the oceans to fighting the EPA eliminating regulations - some from as far back as the 1970s, President Obama and Eric Holder speaking on many issues including voters' rights and improving the justice sytstem , Presient Obama and John Kerry speaking of successful diplomacy, to Bernie Sanders and others speaking of income inequality and people's needs-- something the tax bill increases enormously. Listen to the issues that the Bidens speak of in that link. These are the issues that each of these people often speak about with passion. I'm sure many people could add issues and their champions to this list written with little effort to be comprehensive. I purposely listed just the people who can be consider elder statespeople, though that will not preclude them contributing in the future. The point is that no one person will be the "best" on every issue. We do not have a sitting President or a nominee that we have lined up behind.

This also gets to something said on Meet the Press by Chuck Todd that really annoyed me. He questioned if the Democrats were "just" anti Trump. Look at the list - incomplete as it is on the issues that I described people as speaking out about. They really are the same issues that the Democrats have pursued for decades. While true that, given the issues facing the country and the nominee at the time, some were given more weight at some points than at others. The "just anti-Trump" is as deplorable an attack as "just anti Bush" was in 2004 ... and I don't recall Chuck Todd ever bemoaning that the Republicans were "Just anti - Obama" - even when many voted against bills that were reasonably close to legislation they had actually sponsored in the past. The fact is that now, as then, Democrats did not even need to read a platform (or even look at a nominee's web site) to know the issues that Democrats stood for .. and stand for now.

It is not to our interest to allow the media or Republicans to drive wedges that attempt to prevent us from seeing that every Democrat out there agrees on more with every other Democrat than they agree with any Republican. That is how polarized things are. We need to accept our diversity and to realize that - on most issues - the majority of the country agrees with us.

[pangaia]

1. I am glad that 'visible' dems are speaking out about the issues.

I ALSO wish they would RIGHT NOW speak out LOUDLY and consistently about the existential fascist threat to the US of A and the REAL coup that is taking place...

[karynnj]

2. President Obama very prominently did just that - going so far as to bring up the rise of Hitler

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20171206/BLOGS02/171209933/invoking-the-specter-of-nazi-germany-obama-warns-against-complacency

This was early December. I think it was perhaps a shot across the bow. If Trump were to end the Mueller investigation in any way, I would expect that many others will follow. It is significant that a former PRESIDENT said what Obama did. I can not think of any remotely comparable statement by a past President.