Resurrection

Hello friends!  It has been a while since I have posted, mostly because my Facebook account was hacked in early January when someone posted some porno on my site and Facebook shut me down.  I have just now gotten back on, which is why many of you have been getting friend requests as I try to rebuild my little network.

So, what have I been thinking about lately?  Well, you all are probably familiar with my predilections for topic choices, so maybe I can be a bit more circumspect in my choices and take a perhaps a less strident tone.  But there is no denying the fact that our country is going through a dark time with regard to truth, conspiracy theories and political comity.

Take the recent Supreme Court hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, as
an example.  We saw a broken system of hearings where selection has become completely partisan.  This is really tragic and worrisome.  What used to be 'advise and consent' with a nod toward acceding to a sitting President's right to nominate and confirm a candidate he or she chooses, has turned grossly partisan, into utter disrespect for the President's choice and the nominee's credentials.  What was so insulting in the end to Jackson's confirmation, was the Republican party's choice to snub the newly confirmed Justice by walking out of the chamber when the confirmation vote was affirmed.  How rude.  How tawdry.  How completely indicative of the degenerative failure of political comity and respect by a US Senator.  What seems so hypocritical is that almost to a man, with the exception of people like Cruz, Hawley, Graham, and Blackburn for whom there is no hope for any kind of unifying instinct, all other Republicans spoke only highly of the candidate, extolling her credentials and character.  Then they all proceeded to vote against her, and then in a final demonstration of their lack of character, simply walked out on her and sullied the moment.

I consider myself politically an Independent.  But as I survey the landscape of our political choices that are coming into focus for the 2022 midterm elections, I am amazed by the apparent dichotomy between the parties' motivations and objectives.  Is it just me, or does the Democratic party seem to be behind all kinds of measures and policies that the majority of the public approves and basically are in support of people, and trying to find ways to help them, while the Republican party seems to be against all of that and really doesn't have any policy initiatives that are in support of people but only seem to be trying to restrict opportunities to help people and promoting fear and slander? (Did I imagine that many Republicans labelled democrats as pedophile lovers if they voted to confirm Jackson?)  

Republicans support denying women's reproductive rights, voting rights, trying to restrict medical support and enhancement of the Affordable Care Act.  They vote against environmental initiatives, climate change initiatives, child care support, pharmaceutical industry controls on pricing.  And, they vote as a bloc on all these issues with rare independence as exhibited by Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney.  Democracy seems to be an impediment to this political party.

So as the upcoming election comes into view, I would urge all of you to look at the individuals who are up for election.  Do they still espouse the Big Lie that the election was stolen?  Did they stand in the way of our democratic process for electoral decision making?  Did they reject the peaceful transfer of power?  Are they supportive of measures that help the common folk and try to reduce tax burdens on them and restrictive regulations?  Are they interested in trying to reduce adverse climate trends?  

If you are deliberate in your own attempt to analyze the candidate's moral center and belief in our system of government, then perhaps our republic will last several more years.  If you blow it off and subscribe to 'fear, suspicion, and conspiracy' theories which seems to be the only real policy of one of our parties, then we are headed down a dark alley for sure.