It didn't take long for the Republicans in the House to break their own promise to help small businesses.
And it didn't take long for the Democrats to say something about it.
In a new web ad from the DNC Rapid Response team, they hammered John Boehner and Peter Roskam for a pledge that House Republicans broke within hours after their press conference.
The problem is this: If Democrats continue to sit on the sidelines when it comes to media, we are going to lose. We don't have the funding that the Koch brothers have. We don't own media outlets like Fox News or Clear Channel.
But we do have justice on our side, and we do have the truth on our side.
A lie can make it around the block before the truth puts its shoes on. But if we are willing to keep telling the truth, our voices will get through. More importantly, we will be trusted for our integrity.
Because ultimately, it is not about how much money we have. Money can buy access but it can't buy reality. Money can buy attention but it can't buy trust.
Over the past two and a half years since I joined this community, I have come to deeply value the truth-telling, honesty, and integrity of the community. While this online community consists of people who lean toward Democratic party values, we are also fiercely independent and very willing to call out our own elected officials when they stray from the truth or from our platform.
We've got basically five weeks until the election. And while most Kossacks have been keenly aware of the issues facing Congress and the White House, the fact is that most of our closest friends and neighbors aren't really paying attention closely enough. What they do know is that Congress has been unresponsive and the President has been unable to bring about the fundamental change to Washington DC. Partisanship and wealthy special interest groups have combined to stifle the change America needs.
America is still ready for the change that President Obama promised. But our friends and neighbors don't know who to trust.
That's why we matter.
In the next five weeks and two days, we need to be willing to talk to those friends and neighbors, tell them the truth, and trust that the world we see portrayed on cable news isn't the world of real people. It's a lot easier to de-humanize some talking head on the news than it is to de-humanize a neighbor at the grocery store.
President Obama wasn't a political genius because he offered some bold new set of policy initiatives. His approach has been, more or less, boilerplate Democratic ideas with some compromises thrown in to allow Republicans and independents to feel included. The genius of President Obama is not about policy but about process. Obama's understanding that change begins with us, and that democracy has always been about the voices of ordinary Americans, is what made him so successful. President Obama combined that knowledge with online organizing tools and a ground game the likes of which we've never seen on such a national level.
On Tuesday, organizers across the country are meeting to rally together and hear the President make the case for change in 2010. You can find an event, or if you'd prefer, you can still host an event this week.
We are not going to win this election by sitting on our hands and praying that things change. We're not going to win by sitting on the sidelines and feeling superior. We are not going to win unless we talk to neighbors, restore democratic policies, and develop real relationships with real people.
We win because we are real and we tell the truth.
Update 3:09 PM CDT: I've heard from a few people in the comments that Meet the Press had a relatively strong smackdown of GOP Rep. Mike Pence by DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen. Van Hollen hit Pence and the GOP for holding tax cuts hostage and noted that the hypocrisy of the GOP Pledge to America while they block tax cuts for middle class families and small businesses.
Key passage:
Yeah, we think it would be a big mistake to raise taxes on 98 percent of the American people. And I want to go back to this point that Mike raised about small businesses. The president and the Democrats have proposed tax cuts for small businesses to generate new activity. In fact, the President just said that let's provide 100 percent write-off for investments made between now and 2011. And what was interesting was they had this big ceremony for the pledge at a small business site, within hours they came back to the Hill and voted against the Small Business Lending Bill which in addition to increasing access to credit for small businesses, contains significant tax cuts.