Two Great Democrats: Bill Clinton and Jim McDermott:
Clinton on the differences between the Republicans and Democrats:
“[I]t’s really just a narrow sliver of the Republican party that has run this whole country for the last five years–it’s basically the most ideological, conservative wing of the Republican party, dominated by people who sound like me. You know . . . white southern Protestant guys and their ideological soulmates.”
“They honestly believe that the source of America’s greatness is in its big companies and wealthy elite, and we believe the source of America’s greatness is in its middle class and the promise that everybody who works will be rewarded for it.”
“They favor a government that is secretive, unaccountable, and constantly increasing excecutive authority. . . . We believe in a government that is open, accountable, and empowering.”
“They favor ideology, we like evidence.”
“Because they have already got their minds made up, they think argument is the province of weak minds and they prefer attack. So they attack to support their ideology and we argue to support our evidence.”
“They just decide what they want and make up the facts as they go along. It may work for them, but it doesn’t work for you.”
“The most important thing is – if you look to the future, the 21st century, [then you realize] an ideology that condemns you to indefinite deficit spending. . . . that’s not very well suited to solve the kind of problems we’ve got.”
On Republican governance:
“Their number one priority, more than homeland security: to repeal the estate tax for the less than one percent of American people that are covered by it. You know what it cost? $250 billion over a decade. $25 billion a year . . . more than 25 times more important for them to give estate tax relief to less than one percent of us . . . than it was to provide homeland security for 300 million of us. That is ideology not evidence. You need to stand against that, talk against it, and explain how we can do better.”
Finally, on what the Democratic party is about:
“The Democrats are for a clear energy future, healthcare reform, raising the minimum wage, restoring the cuts in the college loan program, helping out the kids who lost money that went to my tax cut.”
And I suspect if you listen to the podcast, he doesn’t mumble or fumble the pronunciations of half his words, either.
<sigh>