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Speaker John Perez:
All Fight, No Opportunties |
California Assembly Speaker John Perez gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention on September 5, 2012. Like many guests, his remarks would expectedly come and go along with the rest of the long wave of unapologetic (yet sorry) progressivism which defines the modern Democratic Party. The policy changes so offended one keynote member, Bishop John Tobin of Rhode Island, that he switched to the Republican Party. Not just for booing God and nearly rejecting Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Democratic National Party platform now endorses abortion without restrictions and recognizes gay marriage.
How Speaker Perez can represent the more popular chamber of the Golden State should confuse as much as offend any resident.
Here are his remarks from that evening, with the truth and challenges to his feigned optimism. Perez punched out "fight" and "opportunity" throughout his pointed talking-point speech, all of which expose a party whose energy to change everything has only deprived as opposed to revived Americans' hope.
Good evening Democrats! I am so honored to join you tonight.
What honor does Perez have, other than previously serving as a labor relations bully and an openly gay member of a state legislature? Oh, and he's former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's cousin.
Certainly, this close to the election much of our attention is focused on the nuts and bolts of victory—how we'll prevail in the swing districts and battleground states. But this convention gives us the chance to discuss something much more important than how or where we fight. It gives us the chance to reflect on the question of why we fight. And the answer to that fundamental question can be summed up in one word—opportunity.
Regarding the nuts and bolts, the Democratic Party gained the victory in a cinch. Without throwing any wrenches into the mix, Obama's ground game swept the field strong.
Regarding why Democrats fight, this question has stumped Democrats lately. Why promote an insurance mandate which has mandated part-time employment, strained health care facilities, and a marked decline in access and quality followed by sickening rises in costs and rationing? How can the Democratic Party claim to champion the working man when labor unions are breaking with the White House, severing away from each other, and losing members in the wake of a sluggish, post-industrial economy?
Opportunity is why we fight. Across the country, there are parents who want nothing more than the opportunity to have a job, and the ability to put food on the family table. We fight for them.
Opportunity is a four letter word where Democrats control the state government. No, Speaker Perez, your party's taxes and spending, regulations and frustrations fight against working families. The liberal political class jumps for unions, bureaucrats, and marginal interest groups, costing many hard-working families, who migrate to job, faith, and family friendly states, like Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.
In too many states, even some folks who have a job wake up every morning in fear that they will lose that job simply for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. We fight for them.
Would the Speaker care to list the states where gays aren't so gay? Is there any record of LGBT employees losing their jobs because of their sexual conduct? His push for transgendered students to use school bathrooms has writhed division in the state and derision across the country: "What are people in California up to?" Not fighting for the best interests of our students, certainly.
And speaking of which. . .
On our nation's campuses, students are seeking the opportunity to go to college, earn a degree, and find a career that will unleash their potential. We fight for them.
Governor Brown signed the DREAM Act, which benefits three thousand students out of the hundred thousand or more who graduate without finding gainful employment, who broke no laws, and who did not deserve to be slighted with Brown's half-measured amnesty. College tuition has increased in California, and the once-affordable UC-CSU systems have become systematically unsustainable and unaffordable. Californians of all ethnic backgrounds opposed this law, as well as the recent provision to permit illegal immigrants to obtain a California Drivers License.
Women are fighting for the opportunity that comes with equal pay for equal work, and the respect that comes with having control of their medical decisions. We fight for them.
Equal pay for equal work: sounds nice, a perfect talking point, but fundamentally flawed. Any junior college (or high school) student will attest that adding up and averaging every person's wages will indicate a disparity among all men and women. With a more accurate study, comparing similar occupations, the number of hours, and the life-style choices of career men and women, statistics bear out the truth that men and women are paid comparably.
Inmigrantes de todo el mundo llegan a los Estados Unidos buscando una oportunidad para darles una mejor vida a sus hijos. Nosotros luchamos por ellos.
Mi respuesta: Inmigrants llegan a los Estado Unidos para el estado de derecho y la opportunidad, y ninguno do les dos estan en la California quando los Democratas tienen poder.
Yes, we fight for them. And we fight for President Obama. And we know President Obama fights for us. President Obama has fought to renew opportunities for Americans every moment of his time in office, to protect the opportunities that already exist, and create new opportunities for all Americans.
All this talk about fighting stirred the animal spirits in Charlotte, North Carolina. A visit to Southern California will debunk any notion of Democrats fighting for anyone but their own political hegemony. Nineteen businesses fled the state after Prop 30's passage. Governor Brown must evacuated low-level criminals to ease California prison overcrowding, and a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) strike has reminded Democrats that unions pick the winners in California, and can help make them losers.
When the jobs of autoworkers, were threatened in 2009, some said "Let Detroit fail." But president Obama said failure is not an option. And today, American autoworkers can sleep securely, knowing their jobs and the opportunities for a brighter future exist because the president fought for them.
Detroit had failed: the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history now defines the straitened circumstances of Motown, now "Mowed Tow", a Democratic power bloc represented by liberal malcontents, with feral dogs packing streets lined with hollowed out, abandoned houses, where 4% of kindergartners are at reading level, and 73% are single mothers. Detroit's cultural problems are the hear of the Democratic Party program of accommodation, bitterness, and entitlement at someone else's cost.
President Obama has reformed student loans, cut out the banks and lowered the cost of education for millions of students. And he's fighting for new investments to extend that opportunity to millions more.
No Obama has not. Just ask a college student at Cal State Long Beach or UCLA how he or she plans to pay off the exorbitant loans.
He repealed "don't ask, don't tell," giving LGBT Americans the opportunity to proudly and openly serve our nation in uniform. And he's standing up for the right of LGBT Americans to say, "I do."
Identity politics has been a strong suit for the empty suited Democratic Party. How removing DADT offers opportunity to our fighting men and women remains unanswered.
He has fought for policies to unleash the opportunities that come with 21st century jobs that will remake our economy and restore prosperity for the middle class. President Obama is leading us through a challenging era by recognizing that the strength of America is measured in the opportunities everyone has to work hard and succeed.
No. Forty-three million people on food stamps. Unemployment hovering in and around the double-digit mark, with underemployment greatly underreported. Whatever opportunities Speaker Perez was speaking about, Americans will not find them spreading forth in Democratic strongholds like California or Illinois.
That is the spirit of our party, and the guiding principle of President Obama. This election is our opportunity to rededicate ourselves to that commitment. Our pathway to victory is to fight for everyone to have the opportunity to live for their American dream. To fight for our proud national tradition of ensuring that our children will always enjoy more opportunities than their parents had.
The youth in our country are pessimistic about their options, if not their opportunities. Occupy Wall Street stormed civic plazas and suburban locales, only to dissipate with as much as haste as first pressed young people to demand action. Yelling at Big Banks and Big Labor, the Occupy Movement neglected to indict Big Government, well-represented by the corpulent Assembly Speaker John Perez.
To fight to ensure that every person has the opportunities that come with being treated with dignity, respect, and equality in the eyes of the law. We fight to restore opportunity across this country, because as Democrats, we understand the poignancy, the power and the truth of Ralph Waldo Emerson's observation that "America is another name for opportunity."
Opportunities mean nothing without the rule of law and individual rights, and President Obama has no respect for either. From refusing to enforce our nation's immigration laws, to forcing young people to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty, to enforcing international spying on our allies as well as our enemies, and even our fellow-citizens, President Obama has fought for nothing but an amalgam of half-truths, media-hyped pretensions, and a declining credibility.
Opportunity is why we fight for our country. Opportunity is what our president fights for. And in 61 days, opportunity is why President Obama will win a second term. But we have a lot of work to do between now and then, so let's get to work! Thank you.
As for the Democratic Party, including Speaker John Perez and his Sacramento Supermajority, their ranks have provided no opportunities to show for their fighting. President Obama's second term has turned into a train wreck of scandals, stalling, and in-fighting, all of which have drained what little political capital he siphoned off from a bruising reelection, replete with expansive social media, billion dollar campaign contributions (and contributors) but with a nation more polarized, with less opportunities, and less fight to face the challenges to come.
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