Finally, A Democrat with Balls

Tonight, I had a glimpse into history. I felt the way I imagine Abraham Lincoln felt when he finally discovered a general who actually could fight.

After years of watching his generals fail through disorganization, incompetence, and mostly, through simple failure of nerve, generals who consistently grasped defeat from the jaws of victory, he found Ulysses S. Grant, a real fighter.

He was told Grant was a risk, a drinker who was often drunk at the height of battle.

"Then I would like to find out what it is he drinks," Lincoln said, "And give it to my other generals. He fights!"

And so it was tonight, when Jackie Cilley, Democratic candidate for Governor of New Hampshire came to a meeting of Hampton Democrats.

She had spoken here before, but she was one of a half dozen Democratic hopefuls, and she was not given much time.

Tonight, she spoke alone.

She began by saying she would not take "The Pledge," to never seek a New Hampshire state income tax. She won't do it on principle, because she says her first priority is not avoiding an income tax for New Hampshire, though she would try her damndest to avoid it. But her first priority is to get New Hampshire the government it needs, and the Pledge is a Republican ruse to divert attention from what they are trying to do, to change the subject from governance and values to taxes.

She spoke for about twenty minutes and the first question came from some old codger up front who said, "So, if I heard you right, you're for a state income tax?"

She took a deep breath. This was obvious not new for her. She likely had been through this before dozens of time. She talks about what the Republicans are doing to dismantle public education, to legalize guns in the state legislature and in school yards, to shut down every government service except for those which protect private property, and all some people hear is, she's going to bring in an income tax for me to pay.

She said she would not apologize for wanting the state to spend money on education. The Republicans and their Tea Party allies and their wacko Free State Project Utopian off the grid crazies want all children, ideally, to be home schooled or sent to private schools, but no public money for schools.

She would not apologize for wanting contraception to be available to New Hampshire women, because it's cheaper to prevent unwanted pregnancies than to deal with all its consequences and because it right for women to have contraception. She noted the Republicans are now saying there is no difference between contraception and abortion and oppose both and clearly oppose spending public money on either.

She would not apologize for wanting to protect collective bargaining and she would not apologize for supporting the unions which help build a middle class, while the Republicans canonize the Republican governor of Wisconsin who has tried to destroy every union in Wisconsin.

She would not apologize for wanting to protect the lakes and seashore which are the basis for the biggest industry in New Hampshire, not to mention the great joy of its citizens, while the Republicans make environmental protection into a public enemy.

She came out swinging because she knew where she came from. Her father worked in a factory, and carried a lunch pail to work and never drove a car. He had too many kids to afford to send any of them to college, but Jackie went to the state university and flourished there and saw the good a public education could do, saw how it could help kids from working class families take a step up in economic status, helped grow the human resources of a nation.

And she talked about the Republicans and their co conspirators, the New Hampshire Free State Project, as pernicious and scary a lunatic fringe as has ever invaded the Granite State. And the Tea Party paranoid schizophrenics who believe the only good government is a dead government.

She is one tough cookie.

She made me believe.

If only we can expose the Republicans, just let everyone know what they are actually saying, what they actually believe in. The worst thing for a really bad product--good advertising.

So there is hope for New Hampshire Democrats.

If we can just figure out how to pin those stars on her collar.