Too Progressive

Two weeks ago the Democratic party held their convention in Denver, Colorado and spent an entire week offering up real solutions to the myriad of problems facing our nation.  Last week, however, Republicans met in Saint Paul, Minnesota and spent the entire time distorting the positions of the Obama/Biden ticket (more on that in a moment), smearing those who dare disagree with their regressive “platform” and doing their best to somehow separate themselves from Republicans currently serving in Congress and especially the failed Bush/Cheney policies of the past eight years.

Following the conclusion of the Republican convention, California Senator Barbara Boxer issued the following statement in response to fellow Senator John McCain’s acceptance speech.

Last night at the Republican National Convention, John McCain used the word “fight” more than 40 times in his speech.

In the 16 years that we have served together in the Senate, I have seen John McCain fight.

I have seen him fight against raising the federal minimum wage 14 times.

I have seen him fight against making sure that women earn equal pay for equal work.

I have seen him fight against a women’s right to choose so consistently that he received a zero percent vote rating from pro-choice organizations.

I have seen him fight against helping families gain access to birth control.

I have seen him fight against Social Security, even going so far as to call its current funding system “an absolute disgrace.”

And I saw him fight against the new GI Bill of Rights until it became politically untenable for him to do so.

John McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007 and 100 percent of the time in 2008 — that’s no maverick.

We do have two real fighters for change in this election — their names are Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The distortion of facts by Republicans last week (most notably, in my opinion, Mike Huckabee and VP nominee Sarah Palin) was actually so bad that the Associated Press accused the party of stretching the truth.  In fact, while guest hosting Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann on Friday night MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said the distortion of facts (and clever yet extremely deceptive wording of the speeches) was so bad that it amounted to flat out lies:

Also, I wonder if the McCain campaign would care to explain why he (McCain) wasn’t wearing an American flag lapel pin Thursday night.

This doesn’t make any sense. If I can’t walk right into a public school and get a job without the proper credentials, why should I be able to educate my own kids (if I had any) without any special training or qualifications?

The California appellate court that recently appeared to outlaw home-schooling in California has now agreed to rehear the case, raising hopes among home-schooling supporters that the court will revise its ruling.

I’m sure there are some people who can teach their kids just fine, but do we really want to leave the education of our nation’s next generation up to someone who lacks qualification? The American education system is already falling behind the rest of the world as it is. I’d like to see the California courts uphold this decision and I’d like to see similar legislation introduced here in Virginia.