Verbatim

Budget Battles Show Why our Country NEEDS Centrists and Moderates to Rise Up

By Solomon Kleinsmith

via Rise of the Center

June 07, 2011

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

-Theodore Roosevelt

You’ve seen all the headlines… the two major political parties are doing what they have been more and more willing to do in the last generation or so… let our country flounder while they fight with each other for political power, from behind their walled castles of ever more rigid ideology.

The only thing we can do is form an opposition, and fight back. This is what the Tea Party has done — and this is what we need to do.

We don’t need to mimic the Tea Party’s outlandish tactics, and certainly not their extreme views, but we do need to rise up, organize, make noise and push for politicians to listen to us… or else. If we don’t

I know your lives seem busy, and I’m sure they are… but I PROMISE you — if you take time out of your regular weekly schedule to put towards helping grow a centrist/moderate independent groundswell into a movement, you will not miss the one TV show you skipped. Like good ol’ Teddy says in the quote above, it’s the best thing that you’ll ever do.

There are tons of ways to do this… even through just shooting a check to an organization like No Labels, or if you live in a state like Maine, contact OneMaine. No Labels is trying to start local chapters all over the country. Starting groups is a great time, but requires a bit of work.

In a democracy, it is OUR job to represent ourselves. If you have a problem with how our country is moving, it is not the forces on the left and right’s fault that we are powerless, it is OUR fault that we aren’t fighting back… and pardon my frankness, but if you’re not doing anything about it personally, its YOUR fault.

I don’t expect people to put as much time into this stuff that I do… I’m quitting my full-time job next month to put more time into this, and other related endeavors, but seriously… if you can’t make the time and set aside at least a couple hours a month to do your part to help make things better, you really don’t have a place to complain about the sorry state of our government.

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