Herding Cats

Lets talk for a bit about herding cats. It’s not easy. Cats are independent souls determined to go their various directions. But confronted with a deep chasm in front of them, they will always go left or right. They won’t stand there and wait for trouble to push them over the edge. They don’t go to the Right because experience with real trouble from the Right has been awful. They go to the left. And they go as a GROUP of individuals.

Okay. People are not cats. But I think we can love diversity and still connect when it counts.

Democrats, like our rhetorical cats, have strong urges toward independence. Some are not happy with leadership decisions. Some want to reject all sources of funding that look like Big Banks. A few worry that the leadership is too old. Some feel that being Progressive means accepting no alternatives. Some are worried about being too partisan!

In the current political atmosphere Democrats must demonstrate that when it comes to votes they must also dig togetherness. It will take togetherness to Turn Bucks Blue. Squabble, wait and see, demand all or nothing, and the Right will push us right over the cliff. Connect, and as one we safely turn away from the precipice.

What is the “better” message? The message of the Democratic Party has always been pro-union, pro education, pro-health care, pro-civil rights, pro-environment and pro-cooperation with our friends here and everywhere.

All of us know the message on the Right. Does anybody not get favoritism toward the rich, pro-nationalism, public indignities toward people of color, immigrants, women, and sexual diversity? How does the right explain their public resentment toward programs and policies that benefit the public good? Please!

It’s time for Democrats to link arms and move the whole bunch in the same direction regardless of various independent sensibilities. Moving together will elect our candidates for local government, school board, judges, and for offices in the County Courthouse. Like cats, Democrats will always have independent streaks. But Democrats don’t put friends in danger by freezing in place or leaning right. Nobody wins by casting aspersions on those that have always put the best message first .

Democrats have always had the best messages. Who doesn’t appreciate Medicare, Obamacare and Social Security? Has any working man or woman not realized that organizing gets results in wages and benefits? Who doesn’t remember the March on Washington, the Civil Rights Act, the local and state benefits that Democrats put there for the needy? Does anyone not remember the grace and dignity of President Obama? Who wants the tweeter–in-chief to continue to push politics right into nowhere? Pull together, Democrats, and watch those on the Right pitch headlong into political oblivion.

Ann Melby Shenkle

Doylestown

10/22/2017