Blog For Arizona

OORAH, MARINE!

Retired Marine Steve Brozak declares war on Bush in New Jersey.

Brozak is another Republican who has decided that the Republican party has abandoned him. He charges the Bush Administration and Republican leadership of contempt for the armed services and the American public, as well as gross and willful negligence in the pursuit and execution of the war in Iraq. I could not agree more.

Brozak has received a lot of attention for opposing Mike Ferguson in what was thought to be a safe district for Republicans - as a newly minted Democrat. He's fiscally responsible and concerned for our military readiness and the well-being of our troops and their families, demonstrating that, as the Republican party eats its own children, the Democratic party is swiftly becoming the party of true conservative values.

Brozak is running an aggressive, in-your-face campaign, as a Marine officer should: on the attack on every front and sapping his opponent's every weakness, from Ferguson's brazen corruption, to the ballooning deficit, ideologically-driven stem-cell research restrictions, and, of course, the bungling of the war on terror and the elective war on Iraq. I don't forsee him giving his enemy any quarter or mercy until they flee or are completely destroyed.

You see, Brozak is concerned about the preservation of American society. He, too, sees the Neo-Cons and Wrong Wing of the Republican party hammering away at the seams of our society, culture, and government. From the speed and thoroughness of the collapse of Yugoslavian society into barbarity, he's witnessed first hand how frail civilization can be. And he is determined to defend ours from our barbarians within. Brozak said, "It showed me how fragile societies can be. Make no mistake. Our society is very fragile."

Make no mistake, Brozak is no 'liberal'. He bristles at the notion that he is any sort of ideologue or an 'irrational Bush-hater' in the parlance of the current media spin of all opposition to Bush. Brozak barks, "What do you think, I'm a liberal? I'm a friggin' Marine, and on top of that I'm a businessman."

As you might expect, Ferguson is rolling out the mud to defend his throne from this determined veteran of another sort of campaign. But there is little to stick to on this squeaky clean Marine turned hi-tech investment banker. If you have any dough left at this point, and have hit your caps on local and Presidential contests, send a few bucks to Steve Brozak for Congress to help him give 'em hell.

In normal times, Brozak would almost certainly be on the other side of the aisle; but the Republican party has no place for a mind like his anymore. Active. Independent. Demanding answers. Demanding respect. We'll have to provide good, honest Conservative men and women like Steve Brozak with asylum in our own party, even as cretins like Miller slink off to the other camp, until they can recolonize their own party after the fall of the cabal at the helm of the GOP.

I'm happy to do it. America doesn't work without a healthy and vigorous opposition party, as we have too often lamented over the past few years. The polarization of America is not driven from the left. It is not driven by irrational hatred of the man who soiled the American electoral process in 2000, and stained the eternal honor of our nation and armed forces at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. It driven by those for whom a stain or soiled blue dress is more important than the business of our nation. Our polarization is driven by the extremists of the right for whom conservatives like Brozak, patriots who treasure genuinely conservative values, hold nothing but contempt. I look forward to the day when Democrats will once again be able to step across the aisle, and shake the hands of people like Brozak as honorable members of the opposition party. Then, no matter which party was in power, all could rest assured that our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor were in capable and trustworthy hands. We have no such peace of mind these days.

posted by Michael Bryan @ 9/30/2004 06:17:00 AM