I’m driving in stop-and-go traffic, looking at the American flag and ribbon on the car in front of me. Another Bush lover, waving the flag, supportin’ the war and just feeling like a super-patriot. I’m thinking - what a jerk! Then it hits me: Who’s the real jerk here? How did they get this deep into my head? I’m mentally conceding that the American flag stands for right-wing things. How come when I saw that flag I didn’t think of Lincoln freeing the slaves? I didn’t think of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence or Tom Paine’s Common Sense. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” did not come to mind. How did the American flag come to stand for their things? Because when the battle for the American flag was taking place, progressives were silent.

There are millions of liberal Christians in this country who believe in the separation of church and state, who want to help the less fortunate, who preach toleration and respect for all religions as well as for atheists and agnostics, and who pray for peace and not conquest. How is it that when people think of Christians they see right-wing fundamentalists preaching their hatred, intolerance, and love of this insane war? Because when the battle for Christianity was being waged, progressives were silent.

Anything that ever happened in this country “worth a bucket of spit” occurred because liberals fought for it over the objection of conservatives. Whether it be freeing the slaves, defeating fascism in World War II, Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Civil Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid or going to the moon, liberals led the charge over conservative opposition. Sadly, liberalism is out of fashion. The word liberal is not used any more. Why? Because when the battle for the heart and soul of liberalism was being waged, progressives were silent.

This is one progressive who will be silent no more. Words matter. We’ve all heard the expression “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Empires have risen and fallen based upon words. When words are coupled with courage and conviction, their power is limitless. Jefferson knew this and labored mightily to produce the soaring rhetoric of the Declaration. The beauty, courage, and intelligence in the letters exchanged between John and Abigail Adams are inspirational even today. Thomas Paine, seeing the tyranny of King George, urged the colonists to revolt and overthrow their oppressors in his rabble-rousing pamphlet Common Sense. Failure would have meant hanging in the village square along with the other Founding Fathers. Yet they risked everything for an idea in which they believed. They had courage, they had conviction, and oh yes, they had words.

Today there is another King George ensconced in the White House. He claims dictatorial control unheard of from previous presidents. He asserts the right to disobey laws in his signing statements; he has suspended habeus corpus; tapped phones without court review; and waged an insane unconstitutional war without purpose, dignity, or justification. One looks in vain for common sense to prevail but it does not. The shameful cowardice of the opposition party shows us just how small we’ve become. Will they hang in the village square if they vote not to fund the war? No. Some might lose their next election. They would rather cling to their precious seats than to their convictions. The conservatives would say “you don’t support the troops.” Just five words. But five words that make these small individuals cower.

King George has convinced Congress through his fear-mongering that these are the most dangerous of times and we must be willing to sacrifice some of our liberties for security. Just words, untrue words. It was a much more dangerous world when Russia had the ability to annihilate every one of our cities in 20 minutes. We didn’t give away civil liberties then. Consider the powerful words of Ben Franklin: “Those willing to sacrifice their liberties for security, deserve neither.” Our leaders are small and we are responsible. We put them there. The good news is we can change it. Let’s change it. Over the coming months CommonSense2 will chart a course to make America a great progressive country. Because we love America, we’re patriots. We don’t claim to have all the answers. We’ll need your input. Join with us to chart a course. We’ll start with words, because they matter.

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