Dark Days

So, are we even surprised?  Another episode in the continuing saga of the “New America” unfolds in all its gory reality.  A chapter unwinding, whose theme is anti-semitism with a ‘forward’ by someone with an urge to decimate all the targets of our President by mailing them bombs; who uses every chance he gets to encourage these kinds of actions and responses from his minions.

We have the dubious honor of witnessing the most horrific massacre of Jews in the United States’ history, and while we are shocked, it is muted by the sheer familiarity of it all.  Is there no escape from this maze that seems without exit?

Our elected representatives are held hostage by the gun lobby, so they are impotent to curb any use, or even the ability to keep weapons out of the hands of mentally unstable people.  Our president suggests that the carnage in Pittsburgh could have been mitigated by armed ushers in the congregation.  (Maybe the local gun shows will start offering tallises with holsters!). 

Our president, who we hoped would lead the nation in compassion and empathy chooses instead to double and triple down on his insults directed at ‘others’ like immigrants and refugees.  Our president, who misses the opportunity offered by these moments of horror to offer solace to a nation, instead aims his vitriol at the media and the ‘Democrats’, or at the victims of these mass shootings and then makes jokes about his hair.

These kinds of occurrences are all too familiar since the rise to power of Mr. Trump and his supplicants.  He equates the evils of Nazi-ism, white nationalism and white supremacism with patriotism and love of country, culture and history.

Over the past two years we have slowly yet inexorably descended into the pit of tribalism and autocracy at the hands of Mr. Trump.  We have watched our system of checks and balances, the rule of law and oversight of the Executive Branch decay day by day at the hands of the Republican party, until at this point, Trump’s ‘base’ believes his incendiary tropes that up is down, or that lies are the truth, or that science and fact are false.

When these despicably horrible events occur, when innocent people die because of the unhinging of behaviors that are encouraged by the crowds of chanting advocates screaming ‘lock her up’, we all die a little bit.

But we can act.  Have we finally had enough shocks to our conscience?  Can we now see why this election cycle may be the last exit before the toll?  Does it now make sense, as if it didn’t really dawn on all of us before, that we must try to change the direction of momentum on November 6^th?  If we don’t succeed at this moment to put some reins on this gangrenous juggernaut of ‘nationalism’, we are destined for darker days ahead.

Amen to This!

And now, for all of those who keep posting how all the 'left' and liberals are the cause of mob violence.....

For the first time in American history a man who is our President has encouraged people to violence and as a result there has been a mass assassination attempt against all the people he rails against at all his 'rallies'.  He would be right at home in 1933 Germany.

Fighting Cynicism with Hope

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I wonder if the amount of cynicism one has is directly proportional to the number of years one spends on earth.  After 71 years it seems like my level of cynicism is off the charts!  It is now just 15 days until the upcoming midterm elections and I find myself simply shaking my head and wondering what country I am living in?

I always thought and believed in the American dream—a dream driven by certain ideals and precepts that I just assumed all Americans lived by.  I have learned that I am naïve and misinformed.

I am a spectator caught in a drama that unfolds on a daily basis that surprises and shocks me at every turn.  I have discovered that 45% of the people who I thought were the same kind of Americans as I am are not really.  They do not honor truth.  They do not honor compassion.  They do not believe that all humans are created equal.  They honor someone who spends every waking hour promoting fear, division, racism, and anger.  They honor someone who does not believe in our democracy.  They honor someone who loves autocrats and makes excuses for murderers because of his own interests.

This 45% of Americans does not understand democracy.  They don’t see what is happening to the precepts of the Constitution they profess to honor….how it is being bastardized and twisted at the hands of people they elected to represent them.

It was Harry Truman who said that the people get the government they deserve.  He was right.

The government in control now is run by people who have no honor.  They believe it is OK to prevent people from having the right to vote.  There is blatant voter suppression going on as I write this, being engineered by Republicans in most state houses across the country.  Georgia, Texas, North Dakota are the most blatant examples we see, thanks to the doggedness of the media.  Do you see any accusations of voter suppression going on by the Democrats?

How does a Secretary of State in Georgia who is running for Governor have the power to simply shelve 53,000 voter registrations and try to prevent those people from voting?  How does a law that penalizes all these people for typographical errors they may not even be aware of get passed, and then get enforced by the same Secretary of State?  Research shows that 70% of those shelved registrations belong to African Americans and other minorities.

How does a Republican legislature pass a law in North Dakota prohibiting voter registration if you don’t have a street address, when the Republican legislature knew in advance that Native Americans on reservations in the state don’t have street addresses?  They consciously chose to try to suppress the Native American vote in North Dakota so that the Republicans in power could hold on to their advantage.  Is that upholding the concept that EVERY citizen in a democracy has a right to vote?

In spite of the Supreme Court ruling against them, Waller County in Texas has done everything in its power since the 1980’s to prevent 8000 students ---black students—attending college in Waller County from exercising their right to vote.  Who elected those people to be able to do that?

The answer to those questions is that the 45% of Americans who honor Donald Trump elected all those people in power. 

Truman was right.

What we have in America right now is rule by the minority.  That is not what a democracy is supposed to be.  It is not fair that Republicans, who are the minority nationally, yet holding two thirds of state legislatures, should be able to redraw voting districts to create voting patterns that solidify their hold on power.  And yet that is what they have done over the past half century.  How is it that during the past 6 Presidential election cycles 2 elections resulted in victory for the candidate without a majority of the popular vote?  Is that democracy?  Not a democracy I understand where it is the RIGHT and OBLIGATION of every citizen to have a vote.

I am a Democrat.  I have been writing in favor of Democratic policy initiatives like health insurance security, compassionate immigration policy, tax relief for the middle class, protecting the environment, belief in science, and the rule of law.  What I don’t see is an aggressive defense of these basic humanistic Democratic stances by the Democratic party.  What is wrong with Democrats?  Why are they afraid to loudly proclaim that those are the things that we should stand for?  Hope and optimism seem in short supply.

With only a couple of weeks to go, they are silent, meek, and not energized.  Why not?  There are some new faces that have some energy and are not afraid to ‘call out’ the Republican surrender to Trumpism.  Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Gillum come to mind.  They are the future of humanistic government and are unafraid to stand up for what the 55% of Americans, of whom I consider myself to be a member, believe.

I am trying to get everyone I know who is ‘iffy’ about voting this year to go vote.  Our future as a democracy is at stake.  If there is no change in the government after this election, there will be no return to the ideals of the founders.  In fact I believe we will see the end of democracy as they saw it back in 1789.  What will come next is anyone’s guess, but I don’t think I want to be around for it.

Help me fight my cynicism with hope. VOTE!

Have You Had Enough??

Have you had enough of an administration that is inept and is in the process of purposefully disassembling governmental protections, and discarding any concern for our national debt?

Have you had enough of a President who never reads?  Who doesn’t care about whether our children inherit a world fit to live in….or breathe in?

Have you had enough of a President who blatantly lies about mostly everything?

Have you had enough of ignorant crowds that are lemmings soaking up Trump’s lies and bleating mocking cries to  ‘Lock Her Up’?

Have you had enough of legislatures that gerrymand districts to insure that only Republicans can win elections.

Have you had enough of Republican legislatures that suppress voter registration and pass laws that restrict abortion?

Have you had enough of the Trump administration’s actions on immigration, denying refugees looking for asylum, incarcerating illegal immigrants, separating them from their children and throwing away the keys?

Have you had enough of misogynistic Republicans in Congress who pay lip-service to brave women who come forward to report sexual abuse and predation, and then who turn around and mock them in a public effort to rev up their ‘base’, promoting the myth that the men who commit these acts are the victims?

Have you had enough of the leader of the free world, our President, singing the praises of dictators around the world?  Think Kim Jung Un, Duterte of the Phillipines, Putin, Erdogan of Turkey, Viktor Orban of Hungary, and most recently Mohammad bin Salma of Saudi Arabia, (the apparent murderer/kidnapper of Jamal Khashoggi, Washington Post journalist).

Have you had enough of the President repeatedly portraying the free press in America as scum, dishonest, and the ‘enemy of the people’?

Have you had enough of the ‘best people’ running our government agencies----into the ground!  Firing lifetime committed employees and replacing them with lackeys bent on reversing regulations made to protect the citizenry?

Have you had enough of sycophantic Republican Congressman who lie down like obedient puppies, to do the bidding of a man with no empathy, no compassion, no real PLAN for how to govern?

Have you had enough of Mitch McConnell??

Have you had enough?

ENOUGH!!

Get out there in the next four weeks and make sure every millenial you know registers to vote, and then make sure they go to the polls.  This may be the only chance left to re-instate some form of oversight and checks and balances.  We have the power to bring people into government that believe in fairness, integrity and honesty.  We have the power to change.   If we do not effect change in this election, you can be sure the next two years will be much worse than the last two.  You may not want to live here after that…..

VOTE!

The Fork in the Road

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In a constantly overwhelming tsunami of discouraging events and negative changes in our culture, it is curious to suddenly see a brief pause in all the craziness.  This whole Kavanaugh/Judicidary episode opened a fissure in the apparently impenetrable Trumpian pall that envelops the nation.

The appearance of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford onto the scene has surgically poked a hole in the constant monotony of endless Republican misdeeds, obfuscation, misdirection and lies.  She made all of us stop and just listen…listen to the clear voice of pain caused by sexual assault.  She opened a window that is usually obscured by our cultural acceptance of white privilege and misogyny.  In fact without accusing anyone other than her assailant, her story ignited a firestorm among the more than 25% of our female population that has suffered sexual assault and the over 80% of women who had suffered some sort of sexual harassment in their lives.  And as simple as it might seem, just two passionate victims in an elevator forced a connection with only one man—Jeff Flake—who was perhaps the only man in America who could and did….finally…..pull us all up short so that we as a nation could take reasonable steps to ascertain the truth. 

This is such an interesting moment in our history.

For the past several years we, the people, have been victims of political maneuvering and shenanigans affecting all our lives, but affording us very little control over those who exert political power.  The power elite in America (the billionaires, the lobbyists, the corporate conglomerates) have been using their vast wealth to influence policy and practice in the form of tax policy, tax rebates, mismanagement of our tax payments, impeding voter registration, making war for profit and on and on.  We have felt powerless to stop it or even to put a small dent in it.

The problem is too big to solve.  It is too hard to get in front of train going a hundred miles an hour and hope to change its course or bring it to a halt, or even slow it down.  And then, suddenly, something like the Kavanaugh moment wakes everyone up to the speeding juggernaut heading for an impenetrable wall.

Maybe that just happened this past week.

The veil has suddenly lifted.  People who self-righteously scream their anger and vitriol are seen for what they really are—shills for anti-democratic propaganda.  Sinister strategies are made visible, and accusations of imagined conspiracies are revealed as the canards they really are.

I would urge you who read this and generally agree with my point of view to watch Fox News for an hour or two.  You will see commentator after commentator twisting the truth and fomenting unrest.  Shawn Hannity and Tucker Carlson are perhaps the worst of the lot.  Then turn the channel to MSNBC and listen to the considered opinions being expressed.  You will hear people talking and not interrupting. 

I know there are those of you who will consider MSNBC the ones who are lying and fomenting conspiratorial behavior, but if you listen closely and don’t interrupt you might begin to understand a viewpoint other than the strangulated one you possess.

All of us watched Brett Kavanaugh the other day.  We all saw the bitterness and disrespect toward Democrats and heard his accusations, presented without any evidence and witnessed his rancorous partisan vitriol.  We had a window into the character of the man that perhaps we wouldn’t have seen if it weren’t for the ‘fly in the ointment’ that Dr. Ford provided.

He certainly can be mean spirited.  He showed traits that are not pretty, and have no place on the highest court in the land.  I submit that the view we got of Brett Kavanaugh was harsh reality, and for once we have a glimpse of the true character of the man.  There can be no doubt that the majority of citizenry of the United States oppose this man being a Supreme Court Justice.  That doesn’t mean we can stop his confirmation.  We have seen that in the minds of the majority party in power there is no “We the People”, there is only “We, the majority party”, and therein is the larger problem.  But it is clear that a biased Justice who threatens, “What goes around, comes around” to any litigant who has ties to the Democratic party will result in a disaster for the Supreme Court.  The integrity of the Court and our system of justice is at stake.

But in watching this moment and seeing the slow realization on the part of the general citizenry that the push for Kavanaugh’s comfirmation has nothing really to do with ‘advise and consent’, but rather with ‘don’t ask questions, just know he will do our bidding’, gives everyone pause.

Is it too much to hope that this is the beginning of a renaissance of thought by our countrymen?  Maybe now is the time when people will stop and think about where all this is heading, and how we might pull back from the worsening state of affairs as we rush toward the precipice.  Our chance for change is coming on November 6th.

On NBC News the other night, there was a report about the discussions that families were having while  the Kavanaugh Hearing turbulence was going on.  The reporter visited a typical upper middle class family in suburban Virginia where there were two children—a boy 12 years old and girl 14 or 15 years old.  The Kavanaugh Hearings were provoking discussions between the parents and their kids and it is turning out to be a teachable moment in families.  The kids, after hearing and seeing Dr. Ford’s testimony, articulated a fulsome understanding of the presence and horror of sexual assault.  They were able to discuss how to avoid it and how to prevent it with their parents.  Frankly it was one of the only times in the past two years where I felt like something happening in the news was a positive experience for our youngsters coming of age to see.  Consider all the bad role modeling we have seen from public officials in the Trump administration and from the President himself.  This is a much better message to impart to maturing teens.

So I warily hope that this moment in time will perhaps be the fulcrum of a turn toward reasonable dialog, toward a growing awareness of the selfish and self-aggrandizing behavior of our elected Republican officials.  The Republicans on the Judiciary Committee this week were unveiled for what they are—mean spirited obstructionists and hypocrites when it comes to the rule of law and ‘fair process’ that Kavanaugh kept whining about.  They want to jam this confirmation through before the elections because they fear the rising tide of Democratic revulsion with their actions.  They want this man on the court because he will fulfill Mitch McConnell’s stated dream to change the balance to a conservative majority.  Trump wants him on the court because of Kavanaugh's position on Executive Power.

I believe that the true majority of this great country will make its presence felt in the November elections.  This is a pivotal election in the evolution of our nation, and the direction we take at this fork in the road will spell our redemption or our destruction.