Budowsky: A patriot platform for 2020 Dems

Recently Donald Trump, the president who acts like the friend of foreign strongmen and not the leader of the free world and continues to slander one of the greatest patriots who ever served in the Senate long after he ascended to heaven, dared to talk of treason to describe Americans who believe our presidents should be chosen by Americans, not Russians. 

Because the most powerful answer to the big lie is the big truth, Democrats should champion a platform of patriotism and Americanism, on issues foreign and domestic, throughout the 2020 elections.

George Washington warned the nation in his Farewell Address against would-be strongmen and demagogues who would pillage the government for private profit, and intertwine America with intrigues and entanglements from hostile foreign powers that wish us ill.

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Washington would loathe the presidency of Trump.

Democrats should not “pivot” from talking about the Russian attack against America to talking about the Trump attack against health care for Americans. We should talk about both.  

Attorney General William Barr, like John Mitchell who served in his post during the Nixon years, holds opinions about presidential power so extreme that he would effectively place every president above the law. The hyper-partisan Barr now places the Department of Justice on the front lines of an aggressive attack against health care for hundreds of millions of Americans.

I believe Barr plans to release only a partisan, censored and disfigured version of the report from special counsel Robert Mueller designed to cover up, not reveal, critical facts. To prevent this the Gang of Eight congressional leaders, who have the highest security clearance and the sacred trust of defending America from foreign attack, should review the full uncensored report from Mueller — now, today, immediately. This should be promptly followed by public testimony from Mueller and Barr.

A patriot platform for Democrats in 2020 would include a powerful statement about core values of Americanism. Our presidents should be chosen by Americans, not Russians. Government must serve the people by offering them a better life, higher wages and improved health, rather than ripping off the people with a scandal-ridden regime that treats the government of the people as a piggy bank for greed, sweetheart deals, nepotism and insider corruptions.

A patriot platform would champion the time-honored notion that America is a great, good and noble land in which every American is equal and no American is demeaned and defamed by a president who preaches a politics of hate and division from the bully pulpit of the presidency.

A patriot platform would reject a politics that divides our people and champion the right to better health care for black Americans, white Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, male Americans, female Americans, gay Americans, straight Americans and every American.

A patriot platform for Democrats would champion higher wages and a better standard of living for white workers, black workers, Hispanic workers, Asian workers, gay workers, straight workers, male workers, female workers, Catholic workers, Protestant workers, Jewish workers, Muslim workers, jobless workers and all workers regardless of their race, gender, politics or faith.

A patriot platform for Democrats would speak of the America of Washington and Lincoln in which our great, huge, diverse and blessed land belongs to every American, where government serves all of the people, where the cult of the strongman is rejected, where the cult of greed is banished, and where our civic faith is renewed as a nation of tolerance, justice and respect for all members of the magnificent family that is the America we love.

A patriot platform for Democrats would shout from the rooftops the cardinal values of the Sermon on the Mount and the great faiths of the nation that every American, all of whom were created by the same God, deserve freedom from poverty, fear, hatred, and injustice in a nation where every man and every woman of every race and every faith is created equal.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.