Seeds

July 27, 2010

Conservatives are chomping at the bit in the hope of acquiring more governmental powers. They did a good job at deceiving the American people away from President Obama, who has done the best that anyone could do against such odds.
    They don’t seem to realize that their constant pushing of the envelop, their steadfast insistence of noncooperation and saying no to everything, has taught liberals how to become effective obstructionists as well. Extremism on one side breeds extremism on the other side. They could not act like statesmen, and assumed instead the default position of lies, threats, anger and paranoia among our citizens – essentially turning America into a place of constant political contention.
    They are counting on defeated liberals to act more civilized and not adopt their tactics. In effect, they count on liberals to be better persons than they are. While conservatives whine and complain like spoiled children, they recognize most liberals as responsible grown-ups who will do what they can for the best of the nation.
    But at the same time they are teaching liberals how to engage the dark side of politics. How to race-bait. How to edit speeches to present the opposite of what they mean. How to disrupt town hall meetings in such a way as to make them meaningless. How to say no to everything as the minority party in order to make the majority look incapable. It could very well be that their short-term evil intent is about to completely cripple the nation.
    Conservatives! Don’t talk to us about patriotism until you at least try to exemplify it. That means being truthful and respectful toward other Americans. Don’t proudly recite the Pledge of Allegiance one moment and talk secession the next. Don’t identify with and support a particular partisan television station that purposely tell lies. Don’t try forcing your religious views on the rest of us. America rejected that kind of power play when we broke ties with England. Don't tell us you represent the American people. You represent a minority in this country, which is why you have to use such underhanded tactics to garner support. Don’t condemn deficit spending when it is forced upon government to do because of failed conservative deregulations. You are the ones responsible for it. And your tax cuts for the wealthy helped to make it what it is. Why should the wealthy pay more in taxes? Because they benefit from our way of life more than most of the population. That’s why. Simple logic.
    Why don’t you consider respecting equality for all, seeing that was one of the first American principles, and set us apart from all other nations at the time. Stop picking on minorities, and then have the gall to resent it when they call you bigots. If you aren’t racists, stop acting like them. You might also consider getting quality candidates who are good for the nation, rather than intellectuals light weights who just know how to play a crowd. You know who I mean.
    Liberals! Why aren’t you calling these conservatives out for their malevolence? Why not say it as it is. The war, the deficit, the economic break-down, the deregulations that contributed to the oil spill and mining disasters, are all the result of conservatism. Instead of wallowing in shame and changing their ideology for the better, they blame you! Why do you put up with that? Why not hold a television special that reveals the truth? Or remind the American people of it daily, while Tea Partiers do their best to make you look like the problem?
    As for adopting conservative tactics, I don’t know what to tell you. It seems right to fight fire with fire, but then you become like they are, a small-minded party that no one can trust, that cares only about itself, and would run everything just out of spite.
    But what choice do you have given the insidious enemy that besieges you?

July 24, 2010

I find it amazing how quickly the media took aim at President Obama for the Shirley Sherrod scandal, in which a conservative blogger purposely played sections from her speec hcompletely out of context.
    They know who the real pulpret is, or rather who the real cuprets are. Conservatives who show no regard for truth or honor or compassion in their never-ending battle to turn our government into a cobal of bigots who will say and do anything for power and prestige. But the conservatives point to Obama, and the cameras turn with them
    We have to uniter as a nation and concemn the liars who tried to destroy this poor woman just to hurt President Obama. When they and their Tea Party minions complain about the deficit, let's remind them why that deficit was necessary — to save the nation from conservative deregulation practices and their "family values" of unmitigated greed. Lets remind them who deregulated Wall Street and Coal Mining and Oil Well regulations. Every disaster we have, from the wars in the Middle East to poluted waters in the Gulf, are because of them and their disdain for the environment and for the value of human life. Face it. They don't want Roe v. Wade overturned. Abortion laws provide them with almost unlimited, unquestioned support from the well-meaning but uninformed.
    These are the people who would withhold civil rights to whatever minority that are aiming at today. Is that American? They have no conern for the uninsured, only their own bank accounts. Remember, the uninsured have less freedom than the rest of us. They are more subject to disabling diseases and unhealthy life-styles. Those who love and respect freedom will advocates for the kind of liberty that a single payer system would provide. Conservatives think otherwise, and will lie cheat and steal to make sure that progressive issues are nullified before they ever take effect. They make no bones about saying that would take away Medicare and Social Security, unless their audience is elderly of course. They then tell the lie that Medicare is not a government health insurance.
    Are these the quality of people we want in office? Hell no. We just have to wake up their followers to the truth. Scandals like the victimization of Shirley Sherrod help us reveal conservatives for who they really are, and there are many such opportunities, but not if the media looks elsewhere. Look at the Acorn scandal. Did the media do its job to explain how that was rigged by conservative stormtroopers as well? No, but they sure got a lot of traction when they thought that the accusations were real.
    There is no liberal bias in the main stream media anymore. THey merely look liberal compared to Fox News, which is so far to the right that the middle has been misplaced.

July 19, 2010

Liberals and moderates!
    Why are you allowing, much less accepting, conservatives complaints about President Obama? They are not making any more sense than they did before. Could it be that the mindless repetition of false claims still works at brainwashing people over time?
    When you think of it, that seems to be the conservative modus operandi. In the beginning, we kind of laughed at what they were saying. If they could do better than that, why don’t they just go home and shut up. It was embarrassing to watch.
    But as months go by and their refrain continues, more and more people turn toward them and listening. It’s like hypnosis. You keep hearing the same lies over and over again, and they work into your subconscious.
    Look, Obama is nothing like a socialist. In fact, he is far more conservative than he should be. He did not start the wars in the Middle East. Think back. That was Bush, who also bailed out the banks.
    The huge national debt was also Bush created. Clinton had us going into a surplus. The money Obama has to spend now is to remedy the failed policies and deregulation of the conservatives.
    The healthcare reform that conservatives condemn was modeled after Republican suggestions from the Clinton era.
    Poorly regulated business practices, like coal mine safety and the gulf oil crisis, came directly from lack of government oversight and a business community built on greed. Conservatives who support the vice of greed cannot be considered moral people, even though they claim to be. They claim to be patriots too, even as they lie and do everything they can to divide the country. If they had a spark of decency at all, they would not pledge allegiance to the flag anymore. The words do not match their deeds.
    We hear about tyranny from the party who gave us Bush and Cheney. We hear about the government taking away our guns, without the slightest proof or hint of veracity. We hear about death panels and false birth certificates, without coming to the conclusion that these people cannot be trusted at all.
    They talk about smaller government and lower taxes. Obama lowered their taxes, and they protest and condemn him for raising them! Republicans will never create smaller government, and we all know that. They have proved it over and over again. And when they say lower taxes, what they mean is higher debt, as the Reagan-Bush tax cuts proved. Hypocritically, they condemn the very debt that their own policies created.
    But it is not what they do, it is what they say that convinces people to vote for them. Time and time again they are given their chance undeservedly, and time and time again we have to suffer and put liberals into office to fix things. We then blame the liberals.
    It would be interesting to see what sort of impoverished third world nation we would be today if McCain and Palin were at the helm. Maybe that would have opened people eyes to the truth. Conservatism does not work in the modern world. It needs a medieval setting where peasants did what they were told and aristocrats divvied up the profits.
    What bothers me most is that intelligent thinking people know better, and they are still being swayed into the conservative camp. The clichés and political mantras work over the long run.
    But always keep in mind that this is not how a democracy is supposed to run. We are losing what is best about America, and we are losing it to the ridiculous likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, with Tea Party candidates who guarantee that America will fail at the most basic levels.
    Always remember: The primary concern of conservatism is to protect and propagate conservatism itself. In this respect, and the belief that economics should determine what is true and false, it has much with Marxism and many other totalitarian regimes.

July 16, 2010

There is a certain amount of pathology associated with saying the same things over and over again, even when you learn they prove that they are false and even dangerous. It brings about a cognitive separation from truth, allowing the person to lie and cheat with clear conscience, and continue to lie even when the falsehood is obvious. Hypocrisy then becomes quite acceptable. Corruption is just fine as long as one simply denies it later.
    There are many clinical terms that apply to this pathology, but it is best known as it calls itself: conservatism – at least conservatism as we see it today. Using unfounded fears to manipulate people is just another means of getting what one wants. This is their modus operandi. If they say that Barack Obama is the worst president ever, one can be sure he is one of the finest. Remember who they would prefer. The likes of Sarah Palin! What more proof do we need that this is a terrible illness?
    Our founders viewed this nation and its government to the people as the last great hope for humanity. Why? Because they believed that educated, virtuous citizens would always honor truth and do what is morally right for everyone.
    Conservatism has turned its back on this. Their constant appeal to ignorance, bigotry, paranoia, and emotional jingoism makes that quite clear. As committed enemies of truth, they would not only destroy everything good that this nation was founded upon, they would destroy the world itself. Why? Obsessive pathologies don’t need reasons based on fact or moral dictates on their road to self-destruction. The question then becomes, how many of the rest of us will they take with them?
    How should we respond as they trample every ideal we believe in into the ground, or redefine them into their opposites? Shall we regress along with them, out of sheer complacency? Or loudly speak out with truth and undeniable facts, until their insanity subsides and the contagion is quarantined?
    We do nothing because liberals want conservatives to make fools of themselves while rocketing toward extremism. Partisanship suggests that it will be to their advantage, even as the general debate regresses and lies permeate the Internet, radio and cable television. They think that conservatism will just burn itself out, but they are playing with fire and our democracy suffers because of it. They are gambling with our very existence by not educating people about what conservatism really is. What’s worse, the disunity and incompetence of today’s liberals repeatedly places conservatives in power. They actually allowing conservative madness to define the debates.
    Conservatism and its equally strange cousin, libertarianism, suffer from an abbreviated definition of freedom that is disconnected from the purpose of freedom. They believe that their limited definition of freedom, which usually limits itself to tax cuts for the wealthy and disregard for one’s neighbor, is the end-all of the great experiment that our founders initiated. Freedom has no purpose except for acquire wealth. Conservative freedom is based on greed and to hell with everyone else. This is freedom gone bad. It is freedom devoid of conscience.
    In a liberal democracy, freedom is supposed to allow and even help each person rise to his or her full potential, while protecting the welfare of us all. Why should it be anything less? Should we be slaves to their myopic definition of freedom? The logical conclusion would be that we are not free at all. If conservatism refrain us from moving forward, which it has no qualms about proving on a daily basis, it is truly the enemy of freedom. If it tells us that we cannot have healthcare reform, and that is what the majority want, and those who do not have health coverage can enjoy more freedom because of it, exactly what are conservatives defending? Nothing less than the enslavement of us all to their outdates ideology.
    We need to educate people as to what is going on, and not stop until the nation gets back on track. This enemy in our midst is too dangerous to let them shape our world according to their obsessions.

July 15, 2010

It seems that Republicans are now scrambling to prove just how radically conservative they are. Someone opend the doors to the carzy house.
    What does that mean for the rest of us? Having to listen to a lot of nonsensical talk about out-of-work people being lazy in worst recession in 80 years. It means hearing about de-regulation of the financial and oil industries after their previous deregulation efforts led to one national disaster after another.
    Simple mathematics seems to escape them as they talk about tax cuts while preaching against the deficit. Do they really think that cutting taxes for the wealthy is going to boost out tax revenue? Obviously yes, despite historical evidence to the contrary, and simple logic.
    Every time conservatives re-entrench themselves in their archaic ideology, they sound more out of touch. That's because the world is moving forward and learning from mistakes, when all conservatives can do is regurgitate failed policies from an ever receding past. They are like broken records from long ago. They fear change in a world of change. They reject science in favor of emotionalism, even as science continues to prove itself right, and conservative paranoia ends up as nothing.
    But people do listen to them and are guided by their principles. Why is that? That is the mystery, and it does not bode well with that section of the American public who cannot see beyond the rhetoric.
    Our founders believed that education made for a successful democracy, and that a nation of people had to pull forward or be left behind. Well, it seems that our educational system is failing a sizable number of people. Still a minority, conservatives are certainly plentiful enough to influence our nation's polices down the toilet. Unjustified wars, recession building policies, pollution that more and more threatens our health and maybe even our existence. They make no qualms, as recent events remind us, about showing outright contempt for the majority of Americans. Only the successfully rich matter in their minds, and throwing diversions to the rest of us so that they can generate just enough support to stay in office.
    How could anyone vote for the likes of Sarah Palin, or Michele Bachmann, or so many other conservatives who live in a totally delusional world of conspiracy theories, communists and tyranny from Washington? They can wave flags and call themselves patriots all they want, but let us be thankful that they were not part of the Constitutional Convention, or the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, which they praise and deride at the same time.
    That conservatism exists as it does in this day and age tells me that something is terribly wrong, and we have to do something to fix it.

July 8, 2010

Almost like clockwork, conservatives have gone back to doing what they do best. Insulting jobless Americans as being lazy and preferring unemployment benefits to actual employment. They find it easy to typecast anyone that they find it expedient to target. Gays. Minorities. Non-Christians. Immigrants.
    What they don’t like is when they are then labeled as bigoted, ignorant, mean-spirited, racist, and responsible for the Great Recession and the wars in the Middle East. The bear with it though. Wish fulfillment fantasy is a major component of the conservative mindset. They can make Afghanistan Obama’s War just by saying so. Even though their followers were certainly around when President Bush sent our soldiers there, and ignored Afghanistan so he could unwisely invade Iraq, it is enough to blame it all on Obama. Same with the bailouts that Bush originated. Rush Limbaugh now blames the recession on Obama because he wanted reparations for blacks because of slavery. Why anyone listens to that fool I’ll never know, but it says much for the intelligence of his listeners – or the lack thereof.
    We expect nothing more from conservatives.
    What bothers me most is how fast-food liberals and moderates complain about the present administration for not accomplishing enough during these hard times. They are paving the way for a conservative takeover which would truly devastate this nation. We have yet to recover from their last series of debacles. The answers they offer are the same that got us into trouble in the first place. Can’t liberal critiques see how conservatives are doing their best to make Obama look bad for their own sick benefit? They are the ones throwing up lies and roadblocks.
    That George W. Bush was elected president twice tells us that Sarah Palin can also be sworn in, despite her obvious deficits. Is that what liberals want to make possible?
    President Obama needs us to help him, or we will indeed suffer the terrible consequences of a conservative takeover. And it will not be like previous conservative reigns of terror. Conservatism has pushed out moderate conservatives and replaced them with wide-eyed fanatics who would start wars all around the world and pollute the planet beyond hope of restoration. We might not become a theocracy, but we will be heading in that direction as school books become ideological propaganda tools.(happening now in Texas under conservatives), racial profiling insults every American of Hispanic decent (happening in Arizona under conservatives), corporations control elections (as the conservatives on the Supreme Court just allowed), and guns will be everywhere (so that the fear-mongering, conservative NRA can sell magazines).
    Never believe that ignorance cannot win out over truth. It was the greatest fear of our founders, and we see it gaining ground every day.
    Democrats are famous for destroying their own chances for success. We must turn that around. We must ceaselessly point out the lies and paranoia that conservatives thrive on, and joyously applaud liberal successes as being valuable. In other words, liberalism needs to get a life.

July 6, 2010

I’m not one to defend BP about anything regarding the Gulf problem caused by their leaking well, but all the clattering that I hear from all corners is leaning toward ridiculous.
    Wake up, America! We have a problem that no one knows how to resolve. That’s the simple truth of it. In our hubris, we crossed a line several decades ago and now we are suffering the consequences. President Carter told us in no uncertain terms that we had to decrease our dependency on oil. He was right, and we knew it then. The trouble is, we preferred the feel good, deregulation, wishful, sunshine thinking of President Reagan instead. We shut off our minds to the truth, and now we want to blame someone else. BP merely reflected the stupidity that most of us willingly embraced.
    You want to blame Obama for not magically stopping the leak? You should be thankful he is not a conservative, or we would be apologizing and subsidizing BP while deregulating them to do more damage. Obama doesn’t have the answer to this problem because no one has the answer. At least with him we have an honest, intelligent broker who is doing his best. We should be thanking rather than blaming him.
    If you think the oil situation is bad, wait until global warming really hits. If any good comes from the spillage it will be that we become more proactive in avoiding catastrophic events before they happen, and take the actions necessary like rational, responsible human beings should.
    An image haunts me, of the last conservative, a dying man on a scalded desert planet speaking his last words to the memory of his hero:

“Rush! We finally won! We denied global warming to the end, and there just ain’t no liberals left to threaten anyone with their mamby pamby, bleeding heart concerns.”

That’s what I hear when conservatives apologize to BP when President Obama protects our interests. That’s what I hear when they want to deregulate the industry more than it is. That’s what I hear when they decry efforts to save the economy, or deny civil rights to fellow citizens. A stubborn ignorance, un-American to the core, that threatens to destroy us all from within our own country.
    Why do I call it un-American? Because without truth, without a respect for reason, without compassion for other people and for the future of our planet, there can be no American Dream – and conservatism has proven itself to be just that very enemy in our midst.

June 25, 2010

It really bothers me to see how people fall for junk political rhetoric.
    I heard someone on the news the other day wishing that we could return to the days before the New Deal, as if prior to World War II we lived in some kind of paradise.
    60% of the population lived in poverty then. Oh, but they didn't know that they were in poverty, which implies that they were happy nonetheless. Well, I think today we would know when we are in poverty, and I don't see those people lamenting the loss of the past voluntarily giving up all their possessions to find a room with an outhouse to live in. They don't mind if we live in poverty. Just no t them.
    And then comes the crowning glory of paying medical bills through bartering. What doctor nowadays is going to take chickens from his patients in lieu of cash? So, what can we barter with, oh great profit of the 21st century? The cost of medical care is so high you would have to give away your house and car for any real medical emergency, and then you would have nothing to barter with at all
    Is that what we want in this nation?
    How is it that such idiotic ideas are taken seriously?
    Consider the argument against universal health coverage. Opponents (most of whom are insuraed already) consider it an infringement of their freedom.
    If they want to know what a serious infringement of their freedom really is, they should experience a catastrophic or even chronic illness without proper medical coverage. Maybe, just maybe, that would awaken them to what they are really saying. Medical coverage is a source of freedom for many of us, maybe all of us as we grow older. To say otherwise for political gain is just a crime.
    I wish free-thinking people would speak out.

June 7, 2010

As we all know, Arizona recently passed a law mandating that police had to stop and question anyone who "looked" like an illegal immigrant. That person had to prove legal status or be arrested. Police who failed to do this could be sued.
    Chalk one up for conservatism. Under the aegis of combating illegal immigration, any American citizen who looks Hispanic, a sizable portion of Arizona's population, is now subject to police scrutiny for just walking down the street. No crime needs to have been committed.
    A lot of American's agree with this new law. The trouble is, when you open the door to conservatism, more comes out than initially meets the eye. The floodgate of conservative bigotry has on the upsurge lately, as Republicans court more and more extremist views, and turn their backs on their moderates. The Civil Rights legislation of decades earlier may have changed the law, but the bigotry never went away. It just quieted down for a while, waiting for the opportunity to rise again.
    Some of these people grew out of their twisted view of racism. Others did not. They bought guns instead, and formed militias and white supremacy groups. Judging by some of the posters I've seen at demonstrations, many joined the Tea Party movement, and are trying to "take back" their country.Take it back from what? From the American ideal of equality, of course. Every small victory, like the on ein Arizona, makes them believe that they are winning, which encourages more outrageous demands and behavior.
    Creatures like Ruch Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin thrive on this angry, paranoid segment of the population. They will work feverishly to keep the door open so that as many demons will come out as possible, wrecking havoc with our way of life. Having ruined the economy, postponed energy independence by decades and brought us into an unjust war was not enough for them. They want Americans at each other's throats.
    An elementary school in Arizona, for example, had a mural painted on one of its walls depicted the actual faces of their students. Two of the faces were minority children, one African American, the other Hispanic. Nothing wrong with that, right?
    Not from the conservative extremist point of view. Emboldened by the sudden push for a conservative police state, the bigots are running wild, shouting racial insults at the school every chance they get, showing their real basis of their hatred. They consider this the conservative version of free speech, further dragging the high ideals of America down into the gutter. We've grown to expect this of the extreme right, they people that Republicans court and cater to, and are giving more power every day. They are a national embarrassment to us all.
    The shouting got so bad that the school capitulated, and decided to "white out" the minority faces on the mural. It seems that evils of conservatism won out again. The state of Texas is presently re-writing history books to whitewash conservative actions of the past, like slavery and religious intolerance, and make the liberalism that our nation was founded on look bad. Their governor, who so proudly speaks the Pledge of Alligiance, talks about secession. We see how much his pledge his worth. (So much for "...one nation, under God, indivisable, with liberty and justice for all.")
    For the most part, while all this is happening, the rest of us remain silent, like passersby about to view a train wreck. We forget that we are on that train

Note: Immediately after uploading this blog, I learned that the elementary school in question had changed its mind about re-painting the mural. Enough sane voices spoke up, I presume, and ome American idealism was protected. We can make a difference. Conservatism is a minority position in this nation. The problem is that they are a very loud, obnoxious minority bent on getting their way. It is time for the majority who believe in equality to counter their enthusiasm with enthusiasm of our own.

May 30, 2010

I'm not sure what critics of President Obama want him to do about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Call in the Department of Deep Water Oil Drilling Disasters? We don't have one. Get one of our submarines to torpedo the site? That would only make things worse. Send Navy SEALS down with a plug? It doesn't work that way.
    Let's face it. As much as we want to blame someone else, this is not Obama's doing. It is ours. All of us. The "drill baby, drill" crowd especially—those who thought they could laugh at potential risks, as they continue to laugh at global warming now with the same kind of maniacal, suicidal disdain. Wait until they see how helpless we are at turning that around, thanks to their foot-dragging, childish denial.
    We thought ourselves gods in the way we treat the environment, gods of greed who could disregard the risks, scientific data and common sense. We preferred holding tea parties to get our way, lying and complaining like spoiled brats who were not getting their way. We thought freedom was our ultimate goal, not what we did with that freedom. Ugly partisans who want everything their way, no matter what the cost to sanity and virtue.
    The hypocrisy is unbelievable. Keep government small. Let states take care of themselves. And now, suddenly, it is where's big government to bail up out of this disaster? And in the background we hear the ignorant, frat boy echo of McCain and Palin, "drill baby, drill."
    It seems that the earth has had enough of our hubris. As bad as this is, it is a minor warning of things to come. We need to grow up quickly and send these unruly children into timeout. Kid's Day is over. It's time for the grownups to takeover.
    As for the media, it has betrayed us all. It has taken the lowest among us, those of arrogant ill intent, and raised them to influence the rest of us away from reason and decency. Don't blame Obama for that. Blame the real culprit. Insatiable greed. How much proof do we need to see that market dynamics cannot replace moral virtue?
    We are being punished for our own myopic behavior. And there will be more to come.

May 22, 2010

The thing that bothers me most about conservatism is their relationship with truth. They will say anything to promote their ideology, and turning that ideology into one based on lies does not bother them a whit. In their blind religious fervor, they forget that Satan was called the Father of Lies, but fail to see how they are part of that. The hypocrisy is so think, I am surprised no one holds them accountable.
    The Texas Board of Education has just ratified placing a whole new spin to American history, one based on conservative propaganda, and is to my mind as un-American as it can get.
    They feel that conservatism is under reported in the history books, but that in itself is the biggest lie of all. They just aren't looking back far enough. The Middle Ages was their time, when the Church reigned supreme, slavery abounded, science was something to fear and reject, and and everyone knew their place. No need for social programs then. Life was short and miserable, and completely conservative.
    I wonder how they would feel living back in those days. I wonder if they would then welcome the liberalism of the Enlightenment that broke people chains, denied religious monopoly, and allowed people the freedom to build their full potential.

May 20, 2010

Richard Blumenthal has always served the people of Connecticut well.
    So, what di I think of his claims that he served in Viet Nam when he did not?
    I find myself less offended than when I hear conservative politicians call themselves Christian when they are not, or patriots who actually want to divide the nation, or representatives of family values, or heterosexuals, when they are quite the opposite.
    Blumenthal's straying from the truth, his fantasy of combat service, has brought harm to no one but himself. When conservatives lie, they hurt a lot of people, and make a mockery of our whole political system.
    Blumenthal has done a superb job for Connecticut in the past, and will probably continue to do so as a senator. Why should we lock him out when so many who do so much worse continue to thrive?
    Seems to me that he is worth 100 John Boehners.

Wow! Watching Rand Paul trying to explain his views on the Rachel Maddow Show was wonderfully revealing of how conservatives or libertarians do their best to appeal to the worst qualities of human nature while making believe they are far above them.
    While stating quite categorically that he is against discrimination, he opens the door for racists to hope that segregation can be made legal again. Sort of the best of two worlds, where he can entice the bigot vote while hiding behind political correctness.
    Of course, Mr. Paul's vision of the world will never take hold of the American conscience. What is does is still insidious, however, in that it projects and legitimates bad qualities into mainstream discussion, restraining positive discussions of issues that need our focused attention. Conservatives are very good at that. In the year 2010, they make it seem like Marshal Obama is telling them that they can't bring their guns into Dodge. Suggestive lies supply Rush Limbaugh and his ilk a hearty source of unpatriotic income.
    I hope the American people are growing tired of this game, for it really reflects poorly on American ideals. Die hard conservatives don't care, but the rest of us should.

May 19, 2010

I don't know what made me think of this yesterday, but the Pledge of Allegiance came to mind.
    Conservatives are quick to claim the title of being patriots, but their speed amounts to little more then unworthy usurpation.
    They will make an issue of the lately added words, "under God," and completely ignore the heart of what they are pledging: they are pledging allegiance to not only the flag, but to "the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
    Every time they deny someone equality, or talk about seceding from the union, they break that solemn pledge that they otherwise make believe is so important. Just as they ignore how the Constitution gives Congress the power to see to the welfare of the people, and hold that State's rights cancel out everything that does not fit their archaic agenda.
    They should be called out on this in no uncertain terms. The next time the Governor of Texas so much as intimates secession, he should be asked publically if he has ever spoken the Pledge of Allegiance. It should then be pointed out that he has broken this solemn pledge (I wonder how many times he has made it?), and should not speak it again without being called a liar.
    Political strategists who promote division should also be judged by this same criteria. These are not patriots. They are truly the enemy within.
    If we are not as good as our word, if our leaders will say and do anything to sustain their ill begotten power and corruption, then what are we as a people?

May 10, 2010

I am reading a wonderful little book about Abraham Lincoln, by George McGovern, and was shocked to see some of his quotes that easily describe today's conservative attitudes toward President Obama.
    Complaining about those who would secede from the union if he were elected president, he said that they followed a "rule or ruin" philosophy. "You say you won't abide the election of a Republican President. In that supposed event, you say, you'll destroy the Union and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be on us."
    "Let us not be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us."
    Back then the political ideologies were somewhat reversed, with Republicans fighting for equal rights and Democrats trying to maintain a sorry status quo that defied the heart of American freedom. He pointed out that 21 of the 39 signers of the Constitution had at some point supported regulating limitations of slavery in the territories, the same as he did. His opponents, so called patriots, were self-righteously willing to tear down everything against a threat concocted in their own minds. And they tried. First with their foul rhetoric, and then with their guns. Even as hundreds of thousands of Americans died in that Civil War, they stubbornly fought against American ideals that were just and good.
    They may have lost that war, but their hate and anger and nonsensical rhetoric live on. Today's conservatives, like those of the antebellum period, are actually pre-American in their values. Equality and honesty never made it into their philosophy. They just want to win, no matter what the cost.
    On the bright side, I think it is great having Abraham Lincoln on our side in this. No one has better articulated American ideals than hi,

May 9, 2010

Chris Wallace recently interviewed John Brennon, the President's Advisor on Counterterrorism, on Fox. I only saw the tail end of it, but was unimpressed by the character of the questions thrown at him.
    The latest failed terrorist attempt to strike New York has become another tool for conservatives to bludgeon President Obama. I don't know what they think we are dealing with. We are, after all, at war, and the enemy is trying to strike back at us any way they can as we systematically destroy their organization around the world. Thousands have been killed, and yet for some reason these conservatives think we can engage in this war risk-free. What is the president supposed to do? Place spies on every citizen in the United States? Even if we resort to racial or religious profiling, Timothy McVeigh and Jihad Jane and our own home-bred, religious militia groups would have been ignored to our peril.
    They might as well blame Obama for tornadoes and hurricanes, even though the responsibility for climate change lays directly on their own heads.
    These are just distractions and rabble rousing.
    Now they are harping about giving Miranda warnings to terrorists, even when they are American citizens. This is such a non-issue, designed to make conservative paranoia look tough, that it I can't believe how it is getting any serious attention at all. Look. Everyone knows we have the right to have a lawyer present, warning or not. You can't watch a television cop show without hearing Miranda warnings! We have them memorized in our collective psyches. Even naturalized citizens are well oaware of them!
    Miranda warnings are just a formality. People like McCain are really scraping the barrel of stupid politics on this one, and the empty-headed media, always willing to generate contention, no matter what the consequences, refuses to ask the obvious questions, such as why get upset over telling a charged criminal something that he already knows?
    When are we going to stop this petty, self-defeating game and take our responsibilities as citizens in a dangerous world seriously? Are there no grownups in the Republican Party? Are the Democrats so fearfully defensive that they can't state the obvious?
    What about the rest of us?

May 6, 2010

The question is, are we going to learn from our mistakes when they blowup in our faces? Or take the conservative route and keep repeating them?
    We’ve been talking about the threat of carbon emissions for decades now, and scientists now show proof that global warming is occurring as predicted in the 60s, and is damaging our climate.
    That wasn’t enough for conservatives. They could just use their collective ability to stick their heads in the sand and deny what is happening.
    And then the tragedy in West Virginia, where 38 coal miners were killed.
    Most recently, the explosion of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, releasing untold barrels of crude into the delicate ecosystem of our ocean and shoreline.
    Maybe, just maybe, with all these hazards being realized, we should take a way a lesson from this, and commit ourselves to cleaner sources of energy.
    We thought that our military might would intimidate our enemies in the Middle East. Who needs diplomacy? Let’s not invade just Afghanistan, but Iraq as well. Eight years later, with thousands dead, huge deficit spending, and terrorism still occurring, some conservatives would like to try it again with Iran. They have learned nothing. But that is almost the definition of ideological purism. You stick to the sound bites and learn nothing. When things go wrong, simply get louder and more insistent, and maybe bring guns to rallies to make you feel like a rootin’ tootin’ cowboy. How else would you intimidate those who disagree with you?
    One of the lessons of the Great Depression was that our financial system needed to be regulated to avoid economic disasters. The regulations worked quite well for decades. Thanks to conservative pressures, these regulations were relaxed not too long ago, leading to our latest debacle of a Great Recession. We need to get those regulations back in place. How did conservatives respond? By complaining about the costly measures that were needed to save our whole economic system. They would obviously preferred that our nation fall completely apart, and the poverty level increase to 60%, like it was before the New Deal.
    So, where are we now?
    Conservatives are going about their business as usual proposing deregulation once again, while they complain about everyone else being un-American, leaving it up to liberals and moderates to the grown up thing. After a moment of silence and introspection by their more intelligent members, they are slowly resurrecting their chant of drill baby drill. Even as the oil spill approaches the eat coast. They still deny global warming, dancing in the streets like fools whenever winter brings a snowfall. Some want us to invade Iran, as if our military funding was unlimited.
    So, the definition of conservatism should not only be the fear of change, but the inability to learn from one’s mistakes, which understandably explains their fear of change.
    Our only hope of ameliorating the far right’s takeover of the GOP is to make sure that they do not gain seats in Congress this year. It appears that they must lose what they have before the sane ones realize that they are going in the wrong direction. It is the only way to help them learn from their mistakes.
    Loss of power and influence has an incredible affect on politicians.

May 3, 2010

Sarah Palin offers us a telling glimpse into the heart of today's conservatism.
    Imagine her for a moment, as we've seen many times, standing at the podium before her enthusiastic audience. Imagine her smug smile, the gleam in her eye that relishes her celebrity status and the millions of dollars she is raking in from it. She knows that she can say anything, no matter how ridiculous, and the crowd will cheer. She's tested that many times already. Talk about confidence.
    After the usual monologue of divisive sound bites, she winds up for one of her favorite clichés, a real crowd pleaser of thoughtless banality that we have come to expect from her, and that conservatives everywhere love to rally around and chant. Her shrill, whiny voice spits it out.
    "Drill, baby, drill."
    With that, the crowd mindlessly roars.
    We've seen it so often, we remember it well. But now the scene of a burning offshore drilling platform comes to mind.
    "Drill, baby, drill."
    The oil slick widens in the Gulf of Mexico, and heads toward our southern states.
    "Drill, baby, drill."
    We can't seem to stop the escaping deluge of millions of barrels of oil as wildlife suffers and the smell drifts over to New Orleans.
    "Drill, baby, drill."
    These conservatives don't have to think about right and wrong. They immediately side with whatever is opposite to liberal support. For some reason they don't think there will be any negative consequences for doing that. Kind of a stupid policy, don't you think? Of course that's the beauty of stupid sound bites. They don't encourage you to think. They encourage you to rally and support stupid policies with the coherence of a lynching mob.
    "Drill, baby, drill."
    They oppose anything deemed liberal, by which they mean intellectual, scientific, protective of the environment, or compassionate to our people.
    As the emergency in the Gulf continues, we don't hear Palin's "Drill, baby, drill" very much. She's been relatively quiet. As well she should be if she is capable of an ounce of shame. She is just another low brow political flash in the pan trying to make money at the expense of everyone else. If Rush and Glenn can do it, so can she. They think that their kind of greed is American, and the hell to al the rest.
    So, conservatives, haven't you gone far enough for a while? You have polluted our air have done your best to keep it that way. You have ruined our oceans, started terrible wars, built incredible deficits, and deregulated our economy into a tailspin that we have yet recovered from. You have used fear and ignorance to divide our nation whi eleading our government into unprecidented corruption.
    Why not sit one out for a while so that liberals and moderates can repair thing unabated.
    You can always blame them later

April 25, 2010

There is a great difference between fighting for independence from a foreign power, as our founders did, and fighting for independence from our own representative government which our founders and Constitution created.
    We should take steps to change things for the better. There was and is a lot of corruption in Washington politics.
    Where I take leave with the Tea Party is that I thought we had started that important reform when we voted a significant Republicans out of office. Remember? Things seemed to be changing for the better over night. I think I speak for many Americans in saying that under this president, we really are reclaiming our nation back from a lengthy Republican push in the wrong direction.
    Under George W. Bush and his Republican Congress, political corruption had reached its zenith. Remember Jack Abramoff? The hypocrisy of Republican family values could not have been more blatant with one sexual scandal after another. They lowered taxes for the wealthy, and increased spending, leading to today’s huge deficits, which they are trying to blame on this new administration. They deregulated Wall Street which created the Great Recession that we still suffer from. Two wars in the Middle East, one justified, one not, both completely mishandled, were Republican creations as well, that still haunt us with unnecessary death, maiming and national debt. Relationships with our international allies were strained to say the least. The world looked at us like some kind of unpredictable monster.
    Under President Obama, we are slowly recovering from this conservative madness. And now we have Dick Army’s manipulated Tea Party fanatics fighting to bring it all back.
    Is this insane? I sometimes think that conservatives are committed to destroying our great nation because their anachronistic ideology keeps proving itself wrong, but they just can’t live with anything better (you know, like honest majority rule, civility and compassion for others). Time to get out the guns – and sure enough, they are. Guns and the anarchy of pontless revolution, versus the democracy and civil values that our founders created. Here we have the contest described as it really is. That they dare to call their side patriotic and the rest of us not turns the world upside down, which is why to them, their arguments make sense.

__

It seems that global warming might be responsible for the increased activity of volcanoes. The melting of the ice caps are taking away the weight that was keeping them from erupting..
    This might be a good thing. Conservatives have made it clear that they will fight to keep global warming going, as long as they can show how independelty stubbord they are. After all, why be concerned with a slow broiling of the environment that will hurt our descendents more that it does us? Conservatives are not about conserving the planet Earth. All they care about is conserving conservatism, which is not in its most ridiculous form.
    But volcanoes are a different matter. Not so much that they care about volcanoes and the people who might suffer from them. But if it means the inconvenience of missing a flight to or from Europe, they will most certainly respond.
    Of course, that means admitting that global warming exists. That means a problem among conservatives. Many of the smarter ones know that it exists, but just refuse to admit it for their own greedy purposes. They may have to make an about face on this in order to avoid inconveniences of volcano ash.
    Unfortunately, the other conservatives, those who were duped into denying global warming will feel betrayed by this sudden turn around.
    Dilemma, dilemma. Every once in a while dishonesty comes back to haunt you. It looks like the conservative elite will have to stay quiet about this issue until their talented think tanks figure out a way to spin this.

April 25, 2010

My complaint with conservatism is not so much that I disagree with its ideology, which I usually do. My complaint is that it's political strategy poses the greatest threat for democracy that there can be.
    Our founders feared democracy because it would lead to mob rule - a just concern. As time went on, and more and more people became educated, suffrage was extended and applied to the elections of more offices. Our republic became a democratic republic.
    Now, democracy only works well when people are given the truth, have the capacity to understand it and their individual autonomy as citizens is respected.
    Republicans look at democracy as a race where the winner of the slightest majority wins all, and they will do anything to get that slight majority, including lie and foment the very mob mentality that our founders most feared. To me, this is the very opposite of Americanism. I don't care how many flags you wave, or tea bags hang from your hat, or clever arguments you make to define patriotism otherwise. You are destroying the very ideals that America is all about.
    They obstruct the legislative process just to impede our president and Congress from doing their jobs. Is that patriotism? They lie about bills and policies, and feed the populace with paranoia, and then say that the American people don't want what they themselves have tainted. Is that honest statesmanship?
    They need heated, full time propagandists like Rush, Glenn and Sean (whom I each view as evil incarnate) because without their constant influence, their ideology, if we can call it such, would simple disappear without them. Conservatism cannot survive without its stylized, manipulative preachers. Without them, reason and good will, the hallmarks of any democracy, would assert themselves and we would indeed have our nation back.
    But they don't want that. As long as they can foment anger and fear, no matter how unwarranted, they continue of their mad crusade, and we are all the worse for it.

April 23, 2010

It breaks my heart to see what our American ideals have produced in recent years. Our idea of freedom has been so degraded, so exploited by the greedy and the ignorant, that creatures like Glenn Beck flourish and mislead a sizable portion of our citizenry toward madness.
    Creatures like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have been setting them up for years, of course. For money and celebrity, that have reduce conservatism to a nasty selfishness, and redefined liberalism into fodder for the paranoid, that our founders would have listened to with outrage and disbelief.
    Freedom without ideals, without a higher purpose, freedom based on greed and used to generate lies, does not elevate humanity. It degrades it. Glenn Beck shames us all as Americans. That Tea Party fanatics praise and follow him makes one wonder where America has gone wrong. That even his media critics compliment his talent as an entertainer is like praising Joseph Goebbels for his singing voice.
    The truth is, we do need revolution in this country today. We need to revolt against the likes of those ridiculous conservative/libertarian fanatics who would deny us majority control.
    They claim to be trying to take their nation back. What does that mean? A nation without taxes? A nation that honors its military, but cannot fund it? A nation that turns its back on needy citizens, and foregoes civil rights to whatever group it doesn’t like today? A nation run by corrupt minions of corporations, deregulated so that that vast majority of our people live in abject poverty, like before the New Deal? No Social Security and Medicare? Some preacher in charge of the thought police? School boards dumbing down America to make us compliant to corporate interests?
    Is that what American freedom is all about? Read the words of Thomas Paine, George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Their expectation of freedom was the elevation of humankind, not this coarse degradation led by buffoons that we call conservatism today.
    We need to resist this chicanery with all our hearts if we hope to regain and preserve this expectation. Freedom is a sacred thing. Today’s conservatism has blasphemed it beyond recognition.

April 17, 2010

The gun fanatics are trying to goad liberalism into a confrontation. Or rather, they are trying to goad Rush Limbaugh's fantasy liberals, who just do not exist. They are waging a war with phantoms of Glenn Beck's twisted mind. No one is threatening their need to hide behind guns. We wouldn't dream of it. As long as they believe these boogey-men are out there, however, the conservative media and conservative politicians can keep up the anger and paranoia that they profit from.
    Don't bite, liberals. Ignore them, like you would the tamtrums of spoiled children. This is a wonderful opportunity for conservative fanatics to see how they have been led to their anger, feart and hate by smoke and mirrors. Meanwhile, liberals and moderates go on with life, enjoying the many freedoms that this nation guarantees.
    I wonder how long it will take these fanatics to realize that they are just wasting their time? Or are they so indoctrinated that they will continue to tilt toward windmills for the rest of their lives?

According to the latest polls, the members of the Tea Party are more educated than the average American. This implies that they are more intelligent. I compliment them on how well, in their humility, they so effectively hide this. I certainly would have thought the opposite, judging by the terrible spelling I have witnessed on their rude and crude placards. It also seems strange how they would choose popular leaders like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, who are not up to their supposed level.
    Intelligent people would not be so easily deceived by conservative lies, or so drawn into baseless paranoia. The would be more prone to reasoning with people of different opinions. And why would they be afraid of so-called "elitists," or who the rest of the world calls thoughtful, educated people? Would they be among them? Would they reject global warming after seeing all the proof that is available? Or evolution? Would they degrade themselves by all the racial epithets in these demonstrations, or drown out discussions at Town Hall meeting?
    Even simple logic seems to escape them. Their taxes go down, and think they have gone up. Like the rest of us, they witnessed how conservative policies nearly destroyed the American economy, and yet they blame liberals who are doing their best to rescue it. Indeed, they can't wait to resurrect those fatal conservative polices again as soon as possible. Republican strategists are quite thankful for that.
    I wish these educated people would use their brains as our founders intended, and focus more on government coorrurption and the influence of wealth that contend with the well-being of us all. United, we could make a real improvement. Thanks to the perverse diversions that they cling to, however, they are distracting the nation from doing what must be done, while the bad guys continue to prosper.

April 15 , 2010

In the past, I have been guilty of impugning the reputation of the Republican Party, on the national level, for trying to purposely subvert the American system with lies and misleading emotionalism. Between death panels and birthers and the complete distortions of the health insurance reform bill, along with the latest claims about financial reform, it seemed pretty obvious what they were doing. Even the latest praise of the Civil War by the Governor of Virginia seemed of evil intent. I was never quite sure if these people were just crazy ideologues caught by their own rhetoric, or if they were doing it for the kind of power and money that unscrupulous corporations would give them.
    I may have to apologize to these Republicans, and their fever-pitched Tea Party offspring.
    I am starting to believe that it is unlikely that they are as guilty as they seem. It is hard to believe that anyone born in America could really be so evil.
    Mitch McConnell's latest comments about financial reform, echoed by John Boehner and the Devil's minions at Fox, seem to suggest that it might be possible that their constant lying might be far more innocent. They either have trouble comprehending what they read, or they don't really read the material they are commenting about, but rather some distorted summary given to them by lobbyists. These Republicans may be victims here of some deep corporate plot.
    We know that conservatives don't like what they elitists. They don't like well educated people, or experts, or people who keep up with what is going on in the world. Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann are only the latest examples of conservative lack of respect for the truth. That Republicans would even consider someone like Palin for Vice President suggests that their dislike of intelligence could be rated a national threat. Conservatives in the United States have tried to modify textbooks away from science fact and documented history, making ours the only modern, western nation to do so. Even they way they present their political arguments pulls away from the use of reason. Truth is obviously expendable to conservatism, and that, more than anything, makes them a threat to all humanity.
    I don't know if we can mandate Republican politicians in Washington to take reading lessons. Maybe just their future candidates? Our founders (elitists all) were well aware of the value of education. Jefferson said that we must build on the intelligence of the past just to keep where we are, and surpass it if we want to move forward. Conservatives want to discard it altogether for the Palin-esque sound bites of a winky cheerleader obsessed with her undeserved celebrity who somehow thinks that guns have to be injected in every conversation.
    So, they may not be evil. They may just need to be educated for the 21st century. Of course, they might interpret this suggestion as an attempt to force liberal brainwashing, a classroom version of what their own propagandists do on talk radio. Somehow those concentration camp idea keep coming back.
    I guess there is just no way to win.
    I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of having to deal with them. I wish they would just grow up.

April 10 , 2010

Flipping through the channels last night, I got to see Sean Hannity interviewing Newt Gingrich, while Bobby Jindal gave a speech at some southern convention. Here we had three conservatives: a current governor of Louisiana, a former house speaker, and a media rabble rouser all trying to make President Obama look bad. Such non-stop verbal exercises are meant to draw attention away from all the failed conservative policies that lie at the root of most of today's social, international and economic problems. They cannot laud their own accomplishments, seeing the mess they got us all into. They cannot present their usual conservative ideas, since the wounds are still raw and people might remember who is to blame. And so they build a series of lies and complaints meant to rouse popular anger and fear. That's really all they have. And they know how successful that can be.
    What struck me as I clicked back and forth between the two channels is the quick succession of blatant lies they spewed. How well concerted they were with Sarah Palin's of the night before. Outright falsehoods. They know that reducing the number of nuclear weapons is the right thing to do. Despite Palin's idiotically ignorant comment to the contrary, Ronald Reagan proposed pretty much the exact same plan.
    Are we to believe that having only 1,550 atomic warheads somehow leaves us vulnerable to nations that don't have any? Well, that's what they want us to believe. And they are counting on us being stupid enough to agree with them.
    They claimed over and over again that the President's promise of not using atomic missiles on nations that do not have such weapons somehow makes our huge military might impotent. Like asking the neighborhood bully to punch us in the face! They said that this leaves us vulnerable to North Korea and Iran, when specific verbiage in the bill deals exactly with that problem, leaving the use of nuclear weapons open to us.
    They simply lie. They lie and they lie, and they poison people's minds, and no one seriously calls them out on it. The so-called liberal press should present just as many hours of discussion on their lies as Fox News presents them. Better still, they should double the time, and do their best to protect the American people from this distorted view of thinking that is committed to creating its own reality.
    We should not have liars in public office. We should not have liars filling prime time television or radio with hateful propaganda. Yes, we have free speech, but media moguls are supposed to have some integrity as well. It would be nice if Republican strategists did also, but I think the time for that is long past. Conservatism has evolved into something vile, the latest father of lies, and we need to reject it completely before it is too late.
    My wife asked me once what it will take before this growing insanity turns around. I told her that the American people will have to be awakened to the full ramifications of this evil and, unfortunately, that means something really bad is going to have to happen first. Another conservative bombing of a government building. Or a string of lynchings. Or the wholesale murder of police, like the anti-government plot that was recently thwarted.
    Until then, the evil inches its way forward, threatening revolution, bringing guns to intimidate honest Americans everywhere, filling the minds of the gullible with the ravings of Glenn Beck.
    If only the good guys would get their acts together before tragedy strikes.

April 9 , 2010

You'd think that the political party that caused all these social, economic and military problems would be silent and hang their heads in shame.
    Not so. The Republican Party is redoubling their effort and using every trick in the books to impose their policies and cultural engineering on us all. They would rather the nation be destroyed than admit that their pathological outlook of the world might be wrong.
    I imagine the last conservative's dying thought as a dark, devastated planet dries up and all life is on the brink of extinction. "Good," he says proudly. We won. We won't have to worry about them damn liberals anymore. Rush, I wish you could've lived to see this day. You'd be so proud. Ughhhhh-argh."
    Conservatism demands blind faith. Even though a policy seems contrary to reason and has never worked in the past, they still believe it is worth fighting for. Blind faith has no problem thinking that free thought is a threat to freedom despite the inherent contradiction, or that fighting for freedom means denying it for others. Blind faith nods when charges of socialism are raised against a policy or person that does not fit the definition of socialism at all. They fail to see how wrongly conservatism paints everything as evil that it disagrees with it, even as it propagates evil on everything it touches.
    The truth is, conservatism would hardly exist if not for the intense and constant propaganda of conservative talk shows, cheerleaders like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann and the willingness of an entire political party to align itself with lies. It takes that much brainwashing of public opinion for their polices to garner significant support. Why would anyone go to so much trouble? Look at the money their leaders bring in. Look at the adulation from the blind faithful.
    And so the fight goes on, and we are all the victims.

April 8 , 2010

The Republicans feel confident about the mid-term elections. They have spent more than a year convincing voters that liberals are not only responsible for all our problems, but are inept at handling them.
    For this reason, Democrats have to remind the nation that it was conservative Republican policies that made the Great Recession happen, and Republicans are so unwavering in their conservative ideology that they will make it happen again. They have learned nothing from their previous failures other than how effective lies and propaganda can be. They claim thay can do a better job at managing this nation, and they time after time they prove themselves wrong. They would have let our banking system fail, and millions more would have been unemployed with no viable system to get things running again.
    Republicans are the ones who got us into two wars in the Middle East, and botched them both. They failed to bring enough troops in Iraq to finish the job, and allowed insurgents to gather strength to fight back. In Afghanistan, they turned away from final victory in order to attack Iraq and for all the wrong reasons. This allowed the Taliban to regroup and prolong the war indefinitely. Thousands of young Americans died needlessly for this lack of vision. Do we really want them in power again?
    Republicans then threw away their legitimacy as statesmen in order to make sure that the Democrats would not enact a healthcare insurance reform bill, even though most of the particulars were devised by Republicans during the 1990s. They simply refused to do their jobs. And now they want us to bring more of them into office?
    They use scare tactics to make their followers think that the president is a socialist, or Muslim, or foreign born - all of which are lies! Do we want liars as our representatives?
    As an Independent I say that we need to keep a strong Democratic majority in office just long enough to put conservative failures behind us and save the nation from total ruin. That means more Democrats, and not conservative ones either.
    We need to point to the facts. Conservatives are responsible for our recent economic collapse, and for the wars that have been sapping our youth and taxes. Our huge deficits are their fault. President Obama would not have had to spend so much of our money if it were not for conservative policies - pure and simple.
    Why blame the physician who cures the disease, costly though it may be, rather than the germs that cause it?
    Why stop the treatment before it is complete?
    Why invite the germs to return even more virulent than before?
    The Republicans want to avoid a blame game, and for good reason. The blame is predominantly theirs, and the solutions they provide are the same as those that caused the problems to begin with.
    We have to hold them accountable, or suffer more of the same in a conservative resurgence, one that is more insane then the last.

April 6 , 2010

The mainstream press is all aflutter about Michael Steele using the race card when answering a question about race by an interviewer.
    This is an example of how the news is twisted by both sides. One wonders how else Mr. Steele could have answered the question and still be truthful, and still they jump around with their gotcha attitude.
    When things like this happen, progressives willingly place themselves at the level of conservative talk show hosts who do things like this all the time. That they do not do such things anywhere nearly as often as conservatives doesn't matter. Do it once, and their moral legitimacy makes them as "just as bad" in the eyes of many people. "They all do it." And what will be their defense? "You did it first?"
    Conservative extremists, and there are many, have placed themselves at war with the sanity of our nation. We cannot fight them by lowering to their level. We can only defend sanity by talking sane. We defend reason by talking with reason.
    Someone has to be the grown-up in the room. There is too much at stake otherwise. To the minds of many, one small error on the part of liberals is equivalent to the propaganda machine of Rush Limbaugh.
    On Hardball last night, I heard Chris Matthews compliment Rush Limbaugh as a great entertainer. I was aghast! Rush Limbaugh, more than anyone else I can think of, is responsible for the tailspin in American politics today. There is no telling what bad things will happen in the future because of the anger, hate and insanity he has unleashed. And make no mistake about. Limbaugh does this for money. He is abuses freedom of speech with lies. Calling him a great entertainer is like calling Joseph Goebbels a wonderful choir director.
    After all the trouble conservatives have caused us already, including unjustified wars, the Great Recession, the public lies and obstructionism, you would think that we would take such things more seriously.
    Or is it all really just a game?

March 30, 2010

Christian militias plotting the murder of police in order to start a nationwide insurrection of militias. Are these not terrorists of the first order?
    I think it is safe to say that these people are not liberals or moderates. They are people whose minds have been warped by conservative ideology. We have been watching them breed for decades, while conservatives talk show hosts and conservative politicians feed them with anger, hate and paranoia. We have been watching their preachers excise all that is good from the Christian gospels and replace it with all that is bad, and we say nothing in return.
    Is it a coincidence that this anger and fear come mostly from southern states where it is still legal to physically beat your own child, or your own student in school for misbehaving, or for not excelling as he or she should? 23 states allow this, under the spell of a religious belief that seeks to punish homosexuals and call people who believe in equality unpatriotic.
    Toleration is a good thing in a free republic. But how does one tolerate those who have no toleration, and continue plot against it in others? Is that not the growing seed of our own destruction?
    They speak out. How is it that we do not? Who among us is defending our true American ideals? Look what they have done to Christianity. Do you possibly think that they will not do the same to our ideals of freedom and equality? Indeed, have they not done so already for many of our own people? The irrationality of the Tea Party advocates did not spring to life out of nothing.
    Take heed. Our values are under assault from an enemy in our midst. We cannot turn a blind eye to this any longer. We must speak out for truth, for education. We must challenge their ignorance and become beacons of light.

March 26, 2010

When I hear conservative leaders try to equate the extremist elements of their ilk to those of liberal bend, I want to scream.
    Where are the liberal equivalent of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mike Savage, etc., etc.? What are the liberals lies? (Surely they can't continue to say global warming, as islands in the Indian Ocean disappear.) Where are the liberal threats? The liberal hate speech? The liberal deregulations that led to our present economic disaster? Where are the liberal racists and homophobes? The liberal opposition to making our Constitutional government work? The disdain for intelligence? The unearned, stubborn pride that sees nothing beyond itself? The ceaseless paranoia? The willingness to discard American values at the first hint of an imagines threat?
    It is possible to find liberal extremists, but they are nowhere near the number or threat level of what conservatism generates. Liberal extremists are rare, and relatively benign, or at least well-meaning. Conservative extremists are a threat to everything America stands for. If you doubt it, just ask one what they want. Or read their placards. Or count the increase of their militias.There is no equivalence.
    The national Republican Party has become so dependent upon extremists that they can no longer extricate themselves from their folly. If they could, they know that they would look around and find only a paltry few among their ranks.
    Like the Federalist Party after Thomas Jefferson's inauguration, they are a dying breed, a party of self-destruction that has sold its soul to falsehood and must now pay the devil its due.
    It could possibly save itself, but that would mean rising above their own political rancor and partisanship, which is the very nature of their extreme ideology. They would have to put aside the image of phony preacher/rabble rouser, and take the role of honest, hard-working statesmen. It is just too much to ask. The mental echo chamber of political clichés and dried up slogans is just too loud. A new party must rise to replace them.
    If their conservative ideology were not so destructive, and their tactics so abysmally disingenuous, I would pity them. But I cannot. Indeed, I rejoice in their sudden downfall, for the simple reason that I love my nation and real American ideals.
    I do not count then out, however. They know how to prey on people's fears and prejudices, and manipulate ignorance and anger. They can still cause major damage, and will undoubtedly try. Unable to learn and grow from past mistakes, they are even now proudly dedicated to subverting the work of Congress. Their idea of representing their constituents is to feed their prejudices and produce nothing positive.
    Hardly seems patriotic to me.

March 25, 2010 (Part 2)

I wonder what will it take before these wild conservatives see what damage they are doing to our country? History shows that the popularity of the Ku Klux Klan dropped after the nation became ashamed of the terrorism they unleashed against blacks and their white sympathizers. Violence opened the eyes of the nation, and the KKK has remained a fringe irritant ever since.
    Some of the antigovernment rhetoric slowed down after the Oklahoma City bombing as well. We saw innocent victims, a white conservative in handcuffs, with writing on his shirt like those of many Tea Party insurgents today, and even Pat Robinson was noticeable shaken and apologetic.
    It all implies that anger, hate and the irrationalism of the mob has its limits.
    They claim to be freedom fighters, but they would deny the American people the freedom from healthcare worries that the rest of the civilized world enjoys. Their lies would deny the American people truth, which freedom needs to flourish and upon which democracy depends. Their false love for the Constitution, which boils down to 2 or 3 amendments taken out of context, would bring the Constitution's government to a halt. They would take legitimate national debate and turn it into a food fight. And when they disagree with the majority, they talk of revolution, subvert the process by all means possible, foment violence, and call their opponents enemies of freedom.
    Their placards portray President Obama as Hitler, and yet their own minions are the one's breaking windows and casting threats, issuing racial insults, and agitating the masses with intensely focused propaganda - all tactics of Hitler's Nazism. Funny how they accuse the rest of us what they themselves are guilty of.
    What does it say of conservatism and the Republican Party that their base and mainstay consists mostly of extremists? White Supremacists? People who lie? They are trying to convince us that they are the real Americans, and that the rest of us, who live our lives civilly, pay our taxes, respect each other's rights and hold good will toward every person, we are the enemy! They ask themselves: How dare these liberals (everyone who disagrees with them is a liberal, or socialist, or Marxist) want what is best for the American people! How dare they want the poor to live without fear of devastation? How dare they expect Christianity to uphold its own ideals?
    Their misanthropic prejudices are not the America we believe in. They want to kill freedom by forcing all of us, by intimidation first and by violence if necessary, to their oppressive rule, where conservatism dictates our beliefs, our actions, our values, and a perversion of truth that would reshape history to its advantage. How long would the world survive under their crass tutelage?
    I, for one, will never bow down to such tyranny of ignorance and the mob. The question is, how many others will disturb their complacency enough to stand up to this assault, and make sure that conservatism is seen exactly for what it is, and never given the chance to ruin our republic again?

March 25, 2010 (Part 1)

The Republicans in Congress are blatantly proving their disdain for our American system, and the very spirit of the Constitution that they are sworn to uphold. Like spoiled bullies, they refuse to do the work of statesmen, leaving hundreds of bills in stasis in the Senate, and now limiting the hours that they will meet just to throw a temper tantrum, just because all their lies and tricks failed to keep the Democrats from bringing our nation into the 21st century. They are sabotaging our government, and need to be voted out.
    Conservatism no longer fits into this ever changing world, that conservatives would deny. They are making a mockery of everything that our founders built, and their present actions prove this beyond a doubt. We have looked into their hearts and seen the anger, hate and prejudice that moves them behind phony concerns about fiscal responsibility, that they have never lived up to. The ugliness of Tea Party protests, and Fox News egging them on, reflects poorly upon the nation, and we should make no qualms in saying so — loudly.
    If they have proven anything this past year, it is that conservatism is simply not a legitimate political ideology. It has no core values beyond that of a two year old. It is Glenn Beck. He is a manifestation of its lack of reason. It is the Tea Party, with its racial and sexual epithets. It is corruption, for once a party embraces falsehood and subversion as its modus operandi, corruption comes as naturally as falling fruit.
    I am grateful to John McCain for illustrating the true heart of conservatism for what it really is. Even though he will soon be up for election, he could not resist unveiling the way his conservative values deviate from the core principles of our democratic/republic. He is refusing to do the job of a Senator. He just won't play with the others out of spite. For some reason, like many of his brothers and sisters, he actually thought that the nation agreed with all the extreme conservative principles that radio pundits avow. Well, Mr. McCain (I can't call you Senator anymore, since you refuse to be one), we do not. You fell prey to the loud craziness of extremism and forgot that the rest of the people do not fall in that category. Moreover, you have gone out of your way to make Democrats and liberals look good in comparison. Not just you, of course, but all your comrades whose vision of the world got stuck in the days of McCarthyism.
    From what I have seen so far, President Obama is the best president in my lifetime. I have thought this consistently, even as others fell victim to the noisy rhetoric. I do not expect miracles. I understand that political gains demand timing and compromise. You can't often get what you want right away. He is doing his best, and the results so far have been amazing. He's been in office for only one year. During that time, he has avoided a Great Depression, and turned our economy around. Not fast enough for some? Can you think of something that would realistically work better? It is time we appreciate his for what he has done, and that includes universal healthcare.
    In contrast, to be swayed by the irrational rhetoric of conservatism seems incomprehensible.
    Good job, conservatives. You have certainly proved my own image of you right. I hope you continue to do so right until Election Day, when another surprise is going to hit you.
    Thoughtful Americans are waking up and seeing the light.

March 24, 2010 (Part 2)

Conservatives can't stop themselves from showing their true colors. Frustrated by the democratic process, the veneer of civility slides down and they express who they really are. Even John McCain is now bragging that he will no longer act as a statesman in the Senate, but only as an obstructionist.
    It will be interesting to watch the conservative lemmings as they approach the coming precipice. Is their lock step outrage so strong that they willingly jump off the cliff? Listening to their childish rhetoric, it appears so. They seem pretty energized to rescind the healthcare bill, despite all the benefits and protections it provides the average American, and its increasing popularity.
    Their attachment to extremism has robbed them of common political sense. They hear just enough supportive yelling in the mobs around them that they think they hear the whole of the American people. They are not, and far from it. Most of us watch these Tea Party demonstrations with despair. Although we might share some of their anger, it is directed at the conservative opposition for getting us into two wars, a Great Recession, huge national deficits, and then fighting any remedial efforts to fix things. We shake our heads in wonderment at the crass, ignorant statements, the nonsensical ideas, the ridiculous accusations, and yes, of course, the lies. Why would anyone, other than brain-washed conservatives, support people who depend on lies?
    Unlike the lemmings heading for the cliff, however, conservatives are not really going anywhere, despite the kamikaze rhetoric. They will brood and shout and some will break windows and even commit violence. The conspiracy theories will keep churning, and fools will continue to show their foolishness in public. The war in not over for them. It has just begun. What are they defending? Not freedom, as they claim. They are trying to uphold the error of their thinking against reason and sanity. The louder they get, the more they think that they are winning. They never see the quiet shaking heads who wish that they would just grow up or go away. And so this wasteful war of ideologies goes on. It goes without saying that the extremists will get more extreme. Our only hope is that young people are smart enough to see through the hypocrisy, and refuse to take their places beside them.
    Beware the likes of Newt Gingrich, who project a veneer of quick speaking intelligence. Just beneath the rhetoric lies the same old motives, the same old hate, and the proclivity for twisting truth in order to get applause and funding. His latest chiding of LBJ for the Civil Rights Bill reminds us of where these people come from, and what they hope to resurrect.
    The rest of us must now call out for accountability. The lies we have heard over the last year must be accounted for. That must be our cause. If we allow politicians to get away with lying, our whole system of government will eventually collapse.
    We need to place a sign on the door of all three branches of government saying "Only grown-ups need apply."

March 24, 2010 (Part 1)

When John Boehner yells out that he speaks for the American people, it sent a chill down my spine. At the very most, he speaks for about 20% of the people, who are obsessed conservative extremists. He certainly does not represent me or most of the people I know. To insist that he does, and then try to sabotage the democratic process through Town Hall disruptions, shouting heads, and manipulating people's opinions with lies, is nothing less than an attempted coup for totalitarianism.
    It is clear by any standard that conservatism does not represent the will of the majority of Americans, nor does it represent American ideals. For instance, it has consistently resisted the propagation of equal rights. It tends to be hawkish in a nation that originally had no interest even in having a standing army. It seeks to erase the separation of church and state that made our freedom possible. It insults intelligence and wishes to mold school curriculums in order to push false ideas that support their ideology, when our founders held truth and education to be the hallmark of our republic.
    Our nation was built on the highest ideals and a belief in human advancement, not anger, crass insults, and paranoia. Yes, there were such people back then, but they were not the ones who were leading this incipient nation with a clear vision of the future. They are not the ones enshrined at the nation's capitol, and whose words inspired movements toward freedom from around the world.
    Every political movement has its unruly mob mentality and false propagandists. Certainly Hitler did. And Stalin, and Mao. Liberals and conservatives in the United States also have them, although they are predominantly on the side of the latter.
    Our nation's founding was not based on the likes of John Boehner, or Michele Bachmann, or Sarah Palin. It was founded by civilized people of intellect and utmost integrity, like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and many, many others. On the national level, I fail to see a single conservative candidate worthy of that legacy. Indeed, their obstructionism, hypocrisy, proclivity toward corruption and political antics prove them to be the enemy of what America was built upon. How can a democratic republic survive without truth?
    People like John Boehner, Rush Limbaugh and their many clones and minions are pushing an angry, homogenized ideology that reeks with anarchy and philosophical totalitarianism. It is not a debate between two valid political points of view anymore. It is an attempted takeover by a wide variety of extremists that only the majority rule of average citizens manages to keep at bay. Their response? Armed militias!
    The Homeland Security Department warned about this in their five years projections:

"White supremacists and militias are more violent and thus more likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks on the scale of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing,"

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, they are rapidly multiplying (see map). That's right. The insanity has come this far, right under our noses. While they accuse the rest of us of a socialist takeover, they are the ones actively subverting our system of government, and they don't even try to hide it.
    From now on, when any of these vocal proponents of conservative "lack of values" dares insinuate that they speak for the American people, or for real patriotism, or for freedom, we must all loudly respond to this insult by saying: "No you don't! We want nothing to do with your lies! We believe in the real America that you would destroy!"

March 23, 2010

Now that healthcare reform appears to be a given, it would be wrong to think that the fight is over and we can sit back and relax. Times like this are when conservatives rally behind the scenes and build their long term strategies that eventually catch the rest of us off-guard.
    It is time to hold them responsible for all the lies they used during the healthcare debate. As the American people actually see how benign this reform is, how it has nothing to do with socialism, and that Medicare will not be chopped to pieces, and abortions run rampant, we need to point out these facts incessantly so that all future conservative rhetoric gets the distrust that it deserves. We need to shame them for their boldface lies and subversive intent to cripple our system of government. We have to convince the American people that our political leaders need to be honest brokers, statesmen of complete integrity who honor truth, and have above average intelligence.
    We need to rejuvenate our own ideals. It would do well to constantly extol the American ideals of freedom and responsibility and equality as well, so that the conservatives can no longer redefine them into something hateful and ugly. There is a false image of conservatism out there that people still believe in, and well-paid propagandists working 24 hours a day to brainwash their listeners. People have to see conservatism for what it really is so that the nation can move forward unimpeded.
    We must not be interested in our nation's welfare only part-time. That would leave the power-hungry ideologues to take over again without our notice. Fanaticism never takes a break, and will use every opportunity to sow discord, as has been proven over and over again.

March 22, 2010

When Glenn Beck, conservatism's latest and strangest rendition of the antichrist, tells us that "social justice" is something to fear, and that people should leave churches that mention the term, Satan must be laughing at how easily people are fooled. Of course, a lot of evangelical preachers who have sold their souls to conservatism have paved the way for this latest blasphemy. One of the latest has assigned protesters to rally at the funeral services of marines who were killed in the Middle Eastern wars, because "America tolerates homosexuals." Pat Robinson himself laid the religious groundwork for the Oklahoma terrorist bombing, and then had the nerve to say that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for Louisiana's life styles, and the earthquake in Haiti for some other ridiculous reason. Conservatives have long poisoned the teachings of Jesus with greed and guns prejudice, and condemning one's neighbor. At some point, it just isn't Christianity at all. In fact, their image of God is quite disturbing.
    When Glenn Beck, the man whom Steven King rightly described as "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother" speaks against social justice, what he is extolling is social injustice, something conservatism is quite comfortable with. Fighting against equal rights has long been their strongest rallying point, whether it was against ethnic, religious or racial minorities, or now those of sexual orientation that so many of their leaders condemn, even while partaking in them.
    The movement is so confident of its followers' surrendering of independent thought that it can say or do just about anything as blatantly immoral as it wants, and get away with it. In a sense, they are laughing at their own followers, along with the confusion of free thinkers outside their circle who watch in complete befuddlement. There is evil in the world, and it appears to be winning. It has created its own version of antichrist theology, and anti-American politics, and can rightly claim the title of the Father of Lies, as any of their political rallies will verify. They have no respect for truth.
    How can this be possible? Quite simply in fact. They long ago took John Calvin's teachings to the extreme. Faith is their only salvation. Good works do not matter, no matter what the Epistle of James tells us. As long as you have faith, you can lie and make false and hateful accusations, and be a proud hypocrite, while also being confident of being saved.
    It reminds me of Islamic suicide bombers, who believe that their despicable deeds will launch them into paradise. That's another group in for a terrible surprise. Until then, they pervert religion and bring evil into a world thirsting for truth and goodness.
    I hope that Glenn and Rush and Sean, and all those conservatives hate-mongers who profit on their deceptions enjoy their ill-begotten wealth.
    To whom much was given, much will be taken away.

March 21, 2010

There is no doubt any more that the nation is divided. The question is, which side are you on? Who do you identify with? Which side best represents American ideals?
    Dick Army's Tea Party, a supposedly grass roots movement with strong conservative or libertarian leanings, staged a protest at the Capitol for a last ditch effort against healthcare reform. The vicious placards were present, calling President Obama a socialist, or Marxist, or an undocumented worker born in Kenya, but the frustrated conservative fervor carried the usual rhetoric to reliably conservative extremes.
    They used words like "nigger," "faggot," and violent suggestions like "if Brown can't stop it, a browning will." Do you identify with that kind of talk? Does it exemplify what American ideals mean to you?
    Rush Limbaugh verbally attached a young boy who spoke out in favor of healthcare reform, because his mother died for lack of health insurance. Remember how he made fun of Michael J. Fox's Parkinson Disease? Well, his fired-up clones nearly assaulted a demonstrator who had the same disease, and it was caught on camera. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) was spat on by a conservative protestor. Is that kind of behavior okay with you? Does it represent what America is all about?
    The debate over healthcare reform was dominated by conservative lies about death panels, false statements about socialism, and a healthy dose of the kind of paranoia that conservative leaders use to rouse their base. Do you sanction such lies? Do they reflect the intent of our founders, who based their vision on reason and on truth?
    Remember the Town Hall meetings where rabble-rousers made it impossible for the kind of discussion that our democracy needs? And good old boys, conservatives all, proudly bringing guns to political gatherings to intimidate people? Is this a nation of freedom based on laws or on conservative threats and coercion?
    Instead of preparing America for the future, conservatism works to face the future with blinders on, a sure road to ruin.
    For the last 50 years, conservatives have chosen to fixate on some group of Americans in order to deny them equal rights. They do this today, and will do so tomorrow. Is that American?
    They would deny the American people the freedom from fear and illness that healthcare reform would bring us.
    In Texas, the Board of Education is pushing Thomas Jefferson out of the curriculum, and falsifying history lessons in order to promote their conservative agenda. What is that agenda? Supposedly it is about small (not good) government, and lower taxes (i.e. higher deficits. But there is more to their agenda. See above for an idea of the America they want us all to suffer from. Lies. Threats. A lowering of popular intelligence. An unfounded belligerence that seeks to dominate the nation and, in effect, kill the freedoms we now enjoy.
    It is time to see things for what they really are, and decide which side you stand on. If that horrible farce of an ideology called conservatism fits with your moral belief, then please join them. You have that right, and the rest of us would prefer you there than with us.
    But if you have a conscience, if you think that America stands for something more than anger and hate and thoughtless clichés, if you respect truth and want what is best for people and have a healthy dislike of greed, then join our cause, which is moral cause which all our founders would endorse against the degradations of all our American ideals.

March 18, 2010

Demonstrations between healthcare reform advocates and opponents offered us a glimpse into the inner darkness of conservatism yesterday. An advocate who suffers from Parkinson's Disease sat before the opponents and before long the demons came out to assail him.
    Two men were filmed yelling at this poor man, making it clear, in no uncertain terms, that they don't care about the needs of their neighbors. One threw what looked like a dollar bill at him. The energy was vitriolic, reminiscent of the racial hatred of conservatives whites during the sixties.
    This was no isolated incident. We all remember Rush Limbaugh, Mr. Conservatism himself, making fun of actor Michael J. Fox, who also has Parkinson's Disease. The anger and hatred of those activists who interrupted town hall meetings in 2009 provide more examples.
    Most conservative spokespeople, on television at least, manage a façade of civility while the camera is running, but you can sense the energy that moves them underneath. Righteous anger? Or sheer callousness? Glenn Beck is on a Crusade to remove social justice from Christianity. This is not surprising, as the groundwork was laid out by conservative preachers and politicians who came before him. Listen to Sean Hannity, Anne Coulter, Michael Savage, and all the rest.
    While we wrestle with issues and try to be open-minded, we tend to forget that the inner core of conservatism is anger and hate. This is the world that they are trying to create, the America that surrenders to its inner demons, and throws rationality out the window. This is a world where demonstrators harass the burials of Marines killed in action with complaints about homosexuality. This is a world where the governor of Virginia, in 2010, removes protections against a minority, and the Texas Board of Education downplays the influence of Thomas Jefferson in their curriculum.
    The conservative ideal is a world where allies are insulted and ignored and every perceived enemy is threatened or destroyed, without concern for the number of lives lost. The poor are no longer human beings of intrinsic value, but annoyances to be shooed away. Judging by the Bush years, where Jack Abramov ruled supreme and John Boehner handed out lobbyist checks on the floor of Congress, corruption is just another example of the free enterprise system. There would be no regulations, allowing what amounts to an economy based on piracy. Sexual "perversions" would be illegal, except for political and religious leaders. I could go on, but I'm sure you catch my meaning.
    Conservatism is just a cover for the very worst aspects of human nature concealing itself under the guise of "smaller government and lower taxes." People need to look beneath the clichés to see it for what it really is. They would deny the citizens of the United States the healthcare reform that all other advanced nations enjoy by calling it "big government takeover," or socialism, or the evils of liberalism. They almost bask in the pleasure of knowing how people will suffer without it. Such is the demon of conservatism.
    Is that what we want? It is what we will get if we do not present a united front of people of conscience. Conservatism is growing right in front of our eyes, and our best chance of bringing America back to its ideals is slowly slipping away.

March 17, 2010

In order to get a fresh perspective on politics and patriotism today, let us consider for a moment if the founders of this nation were conservative or liberal.
    During the Revolutionary War, it is said that the American population was roughly divided into three parts. The first, known as Loyalists, wanted to keep their colonial status under Great Britain and forego any change. The second, the revolutionaries, wanted national independence. The third did not care very much either way and tried their best not to get involved.
    The first group, the Loyalists, defended the status quo and sought reconciliation with Britain. They did not want change. They were satisfied with the way things were. They supported state funded religion and persecuted such dangerous cults as the Baptists, Catholics and Unitarianism. Like the Tories in England, they also feared the radical churnings of free thought commonly known as the Age of Reason, or the Age of Enlightenment. Science was to be distrusted, even rejected. Equality was inconceivable.
    Who does that sound like? A liberal? Hardly. It was 18th century conservatism.
    Today’s conservatives like to point at the second group, the revolutionaries, as people who were trying to conserve what they had from British oppression. Being an ocean away from the motherland, they were accustomed to a modicum of self-rule. When Britain tried to impose taxes, they rebelled. While there is some truth in this, it ignores the most significant parts of the revolution, the very foundation of what America stands for.
    If the revolutionaries wanted to conserve what they had, they would have stood down once England agreed to their demands. They did not. Their motivation was something far more radical. They wanted a free and independent nation built as a republic with citizen control. Their ideas were inspired by Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke, from whom Jefferson borrowed freely. For the most part, they recognized the value of religious freedom, and that such freedom demanded a separation of church and state. Even John Adams, originally a supporter of state religion, came around to that conclusion. They spoke of equality, which contradicted the previous regime, and resisted foreign entanglements. They spoke of unity. When it was clear that their original Articles of Confederation were completely impotent, they devised a Constitution that would created a stronger federal government, one that charged Congress to look after the welfare of the people. They wanted an educated populace, knowing full well that a republic representing the will of the people, needed an educated people in order to survive. George Washington wanted a national university. Thomas Jefferson started a university of his own that he based on Enlightenment principles.
    Does that sound like conservatism? I think not. Quite the opposite.
    So, when today’s conservatives take on the mantle of representing the ideals of our founders, and drape themselves with talk of patriotism, and being real Americans, as if liberals and moderates were not, remember what the spirit of ’76 was really about. The recent decision by the Texas Board of Education to force revisionist history upon their students is just one more example of conservative contempt for truth, justice and the American way. They can rally around the Boston Tea Party all they want. The proof of their intent is clear. They are attempting to steer our nation away from free thought, equal rights and responsive government. They are trying to homogenize our people according to their own restrictive, conservative blueprint, which to my mind is a crime against freedom and humanity.

Roger Ailes of Fox News is truly the poster child for capitalism gone awry. His obsession for higher ratings would unleash every evil on the world, and without a twinge of conscience. He actually wants the nation divided into ideological wars that he can exploit for profit. He unabashedly thrives on spreading fear, anger and hate. That he dares apply fair and balanced to the contest between good and evil marks him as the media antichrist, supported by conservative Christians who have already transformed their vision of Christianity to conform with a Jesus of greed and guns. What could be more demonic? And now, Ailes’ latest trained monkey, Glenn Beck, is telling people that they should run away from churches that speak of social justice. One wonders what churches that have anything to do with the real teachings of Jesus should preach about? The answer is obviously. Whatever paranoia that Fox News can exploit.

March 16, 2010

I have said in the past that I believe that today's conservatism is the greatest threat that our nation faces. I am more convinced of that every day.
   The democratic republic that our founders created was intended to be based on certain criteria. Truth. Reason. Conscience. The good will of the people. Education. The kind of religious freedom that only a separation of church and state can give us. Toleration. Equality. The kind of national unity that sets aside regional prejudices.
   The Texas Board of Education, rabidly conservative to the point of moral impingement, has recently demonstrated where the conservative lack of conscience and ethics ultimately leads. They have made "reforms" of their educational curriculum that support conservative ideas that drastically change the truth of American history. Sort of like the revisionist, propaganda-based reeducation schemes demonstrated in communist countries in the past, and in North Korea today.
   It makes me realize that all this fear that conservatives generate about socialism and communism and tyranny is really self-reflection. They see the demon within themselves, and project it on others, no matter how ridiculously.
   They will be downplaying the contributions of Thomas Jefferson, whose words in the Declaration of Independence have inspired countless people to be free and equal — the American Dream itself. They reject his separation of church and state, even though without it we would have been subject to the religious travesties that plagued Europe for centuries. (Evangelicals of his time supported him in this.)
   Civil rights will now be portrayed as the freely given gift of white men to minorities, disregarding the fight of minorities against the southern status quo to be treated justly, and the horrors perpetrated on them by their white brothers. I can understand how Texans would be ashamed of their racist past, but lying about it today just perpetuates the sin.
   This is what conservatism gives us. Lies. False history. Religious prejudice. Leaders who are a national embarrassment. National deficits. This Great Recession.
   What they hope to take away is truth, social justice, Social Security, Medicare, and any hope of the freedom that healthcare reform would give us all.
   If this is not the greatest threat our nation has ever faced, I don't know what it. What kind of people are we if we do not hold a reverence for truth? If we cannot admit when we are wrong and make amends. If we cannot add more freedom to people's lives when they are downtrodden? If the high-point of our civil rights is guns? If free speech means nothing more than the right to express hate toward others?
    Is this what our founders envisioned? Certainly not. To suggest such a thing is a blasphemy against our basic ideals, and against humanity itself. Once again, conservatism proves itself anathema to what America is all about.

March 15, 2010

When our founders debated ideas of how our nation would run, they considered democracy too risky. It would put power into the hands of the mobs, who would destroy everything. That is why they decided on a republic, which has, over the centuries, adopted democratic ways.
   When I see and hear the Tea Party members demonstrating in the streets, tossing around unfounded accusations, conspiracy theories and paranoia, I understand the concerns of our founders.
    When I see birthers and deathers banding together with White Supremacists and Evangelical Christians, all under the umbrella of conservatism and the Republican Party, I am more and more convinced that these groups represent the exact opposite of what our founders intended. The founders would have been terrified to see someone like Sarah Palin running for high office. Many of today’s conservatives find her a viable leader for their cause.
    When I hear the lies about death panels and concentration camps and socialism, and see guns proudly on display at political rallies, and so-called patriots shouting down discussions at Town Hall meetings, I fear we are losing what America was supposedly all about.
     At some point Republican leaders who quietly know better will realize that they are losing control of their strategic madness. They will find themselves being pushed out by fanatics who deem them too moderate in trying to preserve whatever sanity they hold dear. By then, however, it will be too late. We may have reached that point already. The Republican Party has sold out. They have pejoratively labeled intelligent people as untrustworthy elitists, just as the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia. They see enemies everywhere they look. Their idea of freedom is to do exactly as they want – or else!
     People like that cannot lead or run a nation of this complexity. Conservatism did not have a good track record to begin with, having led us into two Middle Eastern wars, raising the national deficit to unbelievable heights, de-regulating the financial industry resulting in our latest Great Recession. What evils would they bring us now? They talk about fiscal restraint and smaller government, but how could we possibly fall for that line again and still have any self-respect? We must not justify the contempt that Republicans have for the intelligence of the American people.
     They are the ones who have sabotaged President Obama’s initiatives, and are tearing apart how the Congress does business to a point that might be irreparable. They think that they can win politically because of this. Another example of their supreme contempt.
     The only thing we can do is make sure that they get voted out. All of them. The Republican Party needs to be replaced by something more in line with the thinking of our founders – a party of reason and good will that represent the will of the people, rather than a collection of the absurd.

March 11, 2010

It saddens me to see how liberals are criticizing President Obama. If they thought about it for a moment, they are criticizing him for not being more like Republicans, who hold no respect for our system of law and separation of powers.
    Obama is actually trying to be president for all Americans. He is trying to include Republicans. Because all they want is contention, they are rejecting him for that. As the Constitution dictates, he wants Congress to make the bills, not the White House. He is trying to heal political wounds and see to the welfare of the people. He is not doing everything at once, because progress in this contentious society needs to happen one step at a time, and not by presidential decree.
    The way he is being treated by conservatives is unconscionable, and serves as proof to their un-American ways and intentions. Daily they prove themselves to be the latest version of the monarchists that our revolution originally threw off. They want a population subservient to their ideology and to the wealthy elite who pull their strings. Their idea of freedom is losing that freedom to anger, fear and hate. This makes them a powerful adversary. It also makes them the worst threat this nation ever encountered.
    They tell us that we cannot have serious healthcare reform, even though the people want it and would benefit from it profoundly. That means that they do not honor the people's wishes, and bow instead to those who exploit us for their profits.
    I am convinced that President Obama has tried his best to do the right thing. What he fails to see is that we are, as conservatives continually remind us, undergoing an ideological war in the nation. The Republicans wish to deny us self-rule in favor of their unnatural oligarchy of corporations and extremists. He hopes that the American people will respond to his fairness and good intentions and rescue this nation before it is too late.
    I fear that the good guys are not prepared or willing to do so. Perhaps they are afraid of the militias, or prefer not dealing with conservatives maniacs, or just cannot believe that our system of checks and balances is failing, as the antics in Congress prove to us daily beyond a doubt.
    Friends. We have a responsibility toward truth and reason and civility — all of which conservatism is blatantly against. If we lose to them, we lose everything. Please note that every modern tyranny has its own Rush Limbaugh, its own Glenn Beck, its own militia groups fanning the flames of prejudice, fear and anger.
    If you think that things cannot get worse, I fear you are wrong.

March 10, 2010

Thomas Paine said it well. I paraphrase his words for today's situation:

One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of conservatism is that nature disapproves of it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an Ass for a Lion.

He was, of course, speaking of the conservatism of his day, that of the "hereditary right in kings." Such conservatives resisted the idea of independence, and leaned heavily for some kind of monarchy even after the nation came into its own.
    Thomas Paine was a radical. In many ways, so was Thomas Jefferson, whom conservatives unconvincingly try to remold into their liking. They were liberals. They loved liberty. They loved free thought and knew that education was the only bulwark we have to protect democracy and make it work. They respected science. In the form of a republic, they also respected law and civility. While they supported the War of Independence, they did so only for the freedom it brought with it, the freedom that a republic has to offer.
    Conservatives were less enthusiastic about these radical "philosophies," that reflected scientific curiosity and Age of Reason idealism. It is no surprise that today's conservatism would have us put Paine and Jefferson aside and return to a Dark Age of tradition, where prejudice ruled, along with jealousy and envy, and used anger and hate to keep the nation from moving forward.
    This is why so many of the conservatives leaders reflect a disdain for science, progress, education and free thought. Where we need the noble courage of lions for leaders, they give us incurious dispensers of shallow thinking, like George Bush, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and so many others who cannot wait to put their ignorance on public display as a badge of honor. People who show little respect for truth, and propagate the same in their followers. They work on our fears instead of our inspirational ideals. They consider stagnation a triumph, and helping our people flourish an abomination. They take pride in saying no to the people's needs, and foul the workings of government as if they did so out of patriotism, of all things. The double-talk of their propagandists fill the airwaves, and sway the innocent. And what have they given us? Everything bad for which they blame liberals. Division. The Great Recession. The huge national deficit, which was born from their increase in spending and lowering of taxes. A first grader understands arithmetic better than they do.
    Here is the party that condemns the remedial efforts to save our economy, and would add more deregulation to make things worse.
    People, do not be fooled by these purveyors of hatred and lies. They would deny you healthcare reform just as they would deny you Social Security and Medicare. They condemn earmarks while greedily grabbing onto every earmark that they can, holding up vital areas of government to do so.
    The enemy invites our response. If there is an ounce of real patriotism in us, we must stand up for our nation's ideals, and take away their power to destroy the real kernal of freedom that our founders planted.

March 9, 2010

Last night, the Rachel Maddow Show did a special report covering the history of the Healthcare Reform Bill. She did us all a favor by doing so, if only we take her message seriously. She reminded us of all the lies that came forth from the conservative extreme during this process, and questioned how democracy can work when lies become mainstream policy of one of the two dominant parties.
    That major Republican politicians came forward to lie to the American people is no minor offense. They should be held accountable. No one should ever trust them again, much less vote for them. And yet they seemed to have no fear of the happening. They are counting on their supporters to either not understand that they are lying, not care, or think it is a good thing. This is contempt for the American people and our system of government and even our history that must not be swept under the carpet.
    Where is the outrage? People seem more upset with the Democrats for trying to fix all the terrible blunders that conservatism has subjected us to. They are actually siding with the culprits! Is this naiveté? Or the result of political weapons of mass deception? I think the latter.
    This must stop, or everything that our nation is based on is in danger of failing.
    Speak our, people. Stand up for truth or we will be overrun by those who champion the opposite.
    Special kudos for Rachel Maddow for saying what we all need to say.

March 8, 2010

The Republicans claim that parliamentary reconciliation of amendments of the healthcare bill will be the end of the United States Senate. Minority rights will have been completely destroyed if Democrats take this action on a bill of this unprecedented size.
    They are very good at steering thoughts away from their own obfuscation and unprecedented political strategies against majority rule. They seem to think that Democrats will have learned nothing from Republican strategy for when their positions of power are reversed. One can imagine a future Republican Senate being hamstringed by a Democratic minority that constantly says no, uses parliamentary procedures to stop things from happening so long that the American people get tired of it, and spreads lies and fears about whatever bill is presented. Instead of using the word socialist, they might use the word Nazi instead. They will be the ones turning to reconciliation whenever possible, as they have in the past far more than Democrats.
    I would like to believe that these Republican leaders know better than to believe their own lies about Death Panels and concentration camps and all the rest. No doubt some do believe it. Their paranoia is easily identifiable. But what of the others? What does that make them? Liars? Manipulators who would deny the people healthcare reform? Which amounts for many to denying them basic freedom?
    The trouble with conservatives is that they have a myopic understanding of freedom. They see it only in terms of money and guns. Explains a lot, doesn't it. All the rest, such as religious freedom, racial equality, security in old age, women's rights, infirmity and so much more, they easily discard. Their idea of freedom is base, and truly pre-American. Indeed, that provides a viable definition of conservatism.

March 7, 2010

It seems plain that conservatives are responsible for the tax cuts and deregulation that led us into the Great Recession that we continue to suffer from today.
    It is plain that they are demonizing Democratic efforts to rescue our economy from these huge problems by making it seem as if the remedial efforts were somehow the cause and not the costly solution. So easy to say let all the banks fail, until one knocks at the bank door and cannot get in. So easy to say let all those teachers and police lose their jobs, and somehow things will right themselves just by wishing them so.
    It is plain that they are responsible for the much of the public negativity on healthcare reform. Their lies and scare tactics and procedural resistance have had their effect on public opinion. And now they tell us straight-faced that the people no longer support it. Well, if that is true, who is to blame for that? I might sympathize with their claims if it was not completely obvious that they were the ones sabotaging the works from the very beginning. Democracy based on lies does not function well.
    It is plain that conservatives are responsible for the Middle Eastern wars we are engaged in, and the thousands of lives lost or maimed because of them. And they still have the audacity to blame Democrats for the deficits caused by paying for these unnecessary wars and the tax cuts for the wealthy that conservative are so pleased with.
    That they pretend to champion Social Security and Medicare while at the same time raising bills to destroy them is truly the height of hypocrisy. Their lack of shame is incredible.
    They talk about taking our nation back and saving it from liberalism. Back from what? The worst corruption we have ever known, as exemplified in the Republican congress under the Bush administration? The 60% poverty rate that existed before the New Deal, which they despise? Foreign adventurism that contradicts our nations ideals? Dissolving Jefferson's wall of separation between church and state? A hatred of liberalism, from which our nation was born?
    Their contempt for Americanism is palpable. Placing more conservatives in Congress or in other roles of leadership will eventually be the death-knoll of our great nation.

March 3, 2010

Is conservatism a cult?
    Let's see. It encourages fanaticism that sometimes borders on violence. It's followers are indoctrinated by charismatic leaders and media personalities. It demonizes all those who think differently than them. It idealizes a past that never was, and fears change as an existential threat. It does not give a fair hearing to divergent opinions. It distrusts educated people. It feeds on emotionalism. It has no problem with telling lies.
    My vote is yes. It is a cult-like ideology based on a form of anarchism. Not exactly what our founders had in mind.

February 28, 2010

We all know how frustrating it is when we watch talk shows and we never hear the question we want being asked.
    Lately, they ask Democrats about President Obama failing to sell healthcare reform to the majority of people, like it was entirely his fault.
    They seem to forget the conservative sabotage that created this problem, spreading fear of death panels and government takeovers in order to sway people away from their own self-interests. Somehow their lies are acceptable today. They can sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labors at the expense of everyone else.
    When will we ever hold these people accoutable for thier lies?
    Now they try to sound so reasonable with their talk about slow, incremental change. We heard the same last August, and we saw what delay brought us. Tea Party anarchists trying to disrupt our democracy and spread even more fear and confusion.
    Now is the time for the rest of us to unite and speak out minds plainly. There is an organized response to the Tea Party fanatics. They call themselves the Coffee Party, and they consist of Americans who actually believe in American ideals, who love their government enough to reform it, rather than throw it in the trash. I recommend people look into this counter-movement for the hope that all of us need.

February 24, 2010

Conservatism as it is today: a stubborn ignorance angrily fighting to sustain ignorance itself in a world that dares to change desite it, a world that conservatives exploit and condemn at the same time.

February 16, 2010

The Tea Party fanatics should be called what they really are.
    Tea Party Anarchists.
    Their idea of freedom is no disjointed, their approach to change so negative, and their vision of the future so nebulous and frightening, that they can only be described as anarchists. If they were patriots, as they pretend, they would be reforming the government that our founders created, and stop supporting the conservatives who seem to ruin everything they touch and insist on rejecting huge swathes of the population.
    All they have to offer is anger, fear and political leaders of the lowest quality. We must stand up against them and save our founders' vision.

February 13, 2010

Sarah Palin said that she wants to rescue Americans from elitists.
    Who are these elitists? Leaders who know the name of the newspapers they read I guess. More precisely, anyone smarter than Sarah Palin.
    Imagine that. A nation led by people with closed minds who disdain intelligence. I suppose she would reject the elitists of 1776 as well, people like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
    These conservatives will do anything to make our nation inoperable. If you think it was bad under George W., wait until you see the next crop of conservative candidates who have been weaned on Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann and consider Sarah Palin as their leader.
    Yes. The Democrats are failing us in Congress. That does not mean we should regress to putting radical conservatives into power. We actually need more Democrats of the liberal or moderate persuasion to override conservative sabotage of everything that needs to be done. Isn't that obvious? The ones in Congress now are fighting an uphill battle, and deserve our support, not our complaints. The other side has rallied and now presents a terrible threat to us all.
    We need to speak out before we lose everything that makes our nation great. We've seen what damage closed-minded ideologues can do. Handing them power once again will be the worst mistake this nation has ever made.

February 10, 2010

It disturbs me whenever I hear conservative leaders like Sarah Palin or John Boehner dare to talk about "the wishes of the American people" as if they were our spokespeople and their obstructionist polices represented what all of us want or need. While they do represent a minority of Americans who have been deceived by conservative propaganda, they are clearly not in the majority. Of those who support radical conservative ideas, many, if not most, are victims of a constant stream of lies. The Republicans know this. They just don't care.
    Conservatives do not represent me, and hopefully never will. They are no friends to America and our hallowed ideals. They are the stuff that the Civil War was based on, and their rhetoric reminds us all of that today.
    President Obama has called the bullies out, and used truth to shame them. According to our better wishes, that should be enough to get them to change and act like statesmen. Unfortunately, it is not. They no longer know how to act like statesmen. They have no shame. Either they believe their own rhetoric, which to my mind makes them incapable to leading this nation, or they are using it to deceive us all, which makes them unworthy to lead.
    We need for them to be confronted by truth every time they speak until they realize that falsehoods will no longer work for the benefit of their wealthy benefactors.
    The American people are not monolithic in their thinking or in their values. Much of this is because of conservatism's shameless, never-ending propaganda machine, but it remains a fact. Democracy is supposed to balance these differences. Unfortunately, conservatives have subverted this possibility. They think they are on the ascendency, but even if they are, what good will it ultimately do? Let's say they use their extremely dysfunctional tactics to regain power. Do they really believe that the Democrats will not do the same to them?
    Of course, they ultimately don't care. The Bush years showed us that in no uncertain terms. As long as they personally profit, the nation can go to hell for all they care.
    Wake up America. Conservatives hate big government, taxes and deficits. It was under the revered Ronald Reagan that the deficit rose the highest (189%), and big government didn't shrink at all. Yes, taxes went down for the wealthy, and the deregulation that followed led us to the Great Recession that we are suffering from today. After Reagan, George W. Bush created the largest deficit, at 89%. His father achieved 55%. The Democrats created far less.This goes to prove that conservatives don't even know what they are voting for!
    They supposedly hate earmarks, yet watch how their leaders grab for them like spoiled children, daring to hold up Senate confirmations in order to blackmail congress into giving them more.
    We have to hold our ground and call them out every time they speak or obstruct. We need more intelligent people like President Obama setting the record straight, and doing it with class, not lowering ourselves to the level that conservatives feel most comfortable at, trading talking points that have no contact with reality.
    Now is the time to fight back, or all will be lost.

February 9, 2010

After fighting a horrendous civil war for four years against fellow countrymen who did not respect equal rights of the constitutional powers of the federal government, President Abraham Lincoln ended his Gettysburg Address with the following:

"…that we here highly resolve that these here head shall not have dies in vain; that this nation shall have a new irth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

It does us well to note that radical conservatism represents a powerful dislike and even hatred for this government of, by and for the people. Like those who decided that retaining and spreading slavery to other territories was well worth succession and 500,000 dead, today's radical right is emotionally invested making in making our government and tearing it down. What would they replace it with? That depends on what power hungry rabble rouser takes control, but in the process we would lose everything that makes our nation great.
    They call themselves patriots despite all the corruption and hypocrisy they brought to congress, and town hall meetings they disrupted. They claim to represent "the people," while in fact they represent only a tiny vocal minority. The rest of us are pushed aside as elitist liberal socialists, no matter what we believe.
    These people represent the same mentality that Abraham Lincoln faced, throwing ideals of equality out the window, talking succession, intimating violence, refusing to cooperate with government processes, placing ideological fanatics in the role of statesmen. History will remember them as such. They try to represent themselves as revolutionaries in the likes of our founders. Yet they fight against not a foreign potentate denying them representation, but the very government that the founders created.
    The anger they so mightily defend should not be aimed at liberalism. It comes from the repeated failure of conservatism that they can neither accept nor learn from. Stubborn pride has replaced reason, and that in itself places democracy in crisis. Without reason, what is the individual's vote based on?
    As Rush and Glenn and Anne and Sean make millions sowing lies and discontent, as Sarah and John and Tom make their big money playing to crowds with senseless, malevolent banter, we are losing the ideals that this nation was founded on. A potentially fatal barbarism is infecting the populace that must be resisted before everything is lost.
    This is not politics as usual. This is an attack on our system like we have not seen since just prior to the Civil War.

February 7, 2010

I always find it amazing how conservatives never seem to learn from their mistakes. Talk about being stuck in a groove. They just keep making them and when they make a huge mess, they blame the liberals. They also fight the liberals who are trying to rescue us, because otherwise it would be like admitting they were wrong.
    After hearing bits and pieces of Sarah Palin's Tea Party Convention speech (I could only listen to a few painful moments at a time), I started to understand why they keep harping on the same old, failed rhetoric. They are simply incapable of thinking beyond them! They value repetition over reason, and would rather the nation fall to pieces rather than admit they were wrong. That is the enemy we face. Fanatics.
    The Queen of Empty Talk wants more than "talk" from President Obama. That was her way of invalidating his attempt to reason with them. The woman who quit being governor of Alaska wants politicians to be more responsible. She talks about the Constitution as being a document mean to limit government, when in face it expanded the role of the federal government beyond the inept boundaries of the Articles of Confederation.
    Today's conservative leaders remind me of the comic book villains of yesteryear. Phony. Two dimensional. Comfortable with lies. Incoherently dedicated to destroying the world even though they would destroy themselves as well. Obsessively hating the good guys. Always conspiring.
    Of course, that is why so many of us don't take them seriously. Comic book villains are basically ridiculous. How can anyone take them seriously?
    History shows us, unfortunately, that these tactics of lies and prejudice, appealing to fear and anger, can be effective. Never think that the radical right and their Tea Party minions will not do this country irreparable harm. They are entirely dedicated to ruining our democracy, and claim to be patriots at the same time.
    If we do not confront them with truth right now, if we do not educate the masses to think for themselves and stop following the self-made tunnel vision of Rush Limbaugh and the rabid paranoia of Glenn Beck, we will lose what America is all about. We were headed in that direction during the Bush administration, and they are poised to continue where they left off.
    We need to speak out loudly and clearly. President Obama did this to the Republican congressional caucus quite effectively last week, but he was alone! The rest of us sat back believing that the problem was over. The fanatics saw how quietly we reacted, and shook away their shame and illogic and re-committed themselves to the course.
    In effect, we've become enablers of our own destruction.
   Good friends, I am terrified that the nation may fall for want of our enthusiasm and courage. Please speak out and defend this president. RIght now, he seems to be our only hope.

February 6, 2010

The question was asked on TV last night, what do you think of the Tea Party movement?
    Well, as a strong proponent of American ideals which I constantly write about, and as a lifetime resident of one of the original 13 States, the Constitution State no less, I completely reject what the Tea Party is doing and what it represents. Why? Because I do not want stupid people telling me what to do, defining Americanism for what it is not, and trying to shape this nation into a mob mentality still clinging to racist ideas.
    What I hear from them is a lot of anger generated from extreme right propaganda which is mostly false. After all the lies we've heard in the past few years, I find it difficult to believe that anyone even listens to radical conservatism anymore, but I guess they do. Their inflammatory rhetoric and many of their placards are, in my opinion, disgusting. That they think that conservatism will somehow rescue us from all the problems that conservatism has subjected us to is patently ridiculous. Their defamation of President Obama and liberalism in general is scandalous. Their leaders are little more than ignorant mob agitators. That they claim to represent American ideals is insulting.
    When I think of the civilization and achievements this nation would be capable of if not for the constant retrograding of conservative fanatics, if breaks my heart. That the voices of sanity and reason does not shout them down at every opportunity, or at the very least speak out with equal tenor, frightens me more. Much has been given to us as a people, and like spoiled children thinking only of our pleasure, we are neither appreciating nor safeguarding our greatest treasure.
    Think about it. The Tea Party was named after an historical act of violence and vandalism that demeaned the integrity of our nation's birth, the Boston Tea Party. A gang destroyed private property while cowardly disguising themselves as Indians, detracting from the high moral demands of freedom and responsibility established by our founders. Today's gang is trying to destroy reputations and progress, while disguising themselves as patriots. I see nothing they should be proud of in this.
    If they have any inking of true patriotism and are just misguided, I suggest that they go back to school and learn the real lessons that our history teaches us. I also suggest that they stop listening to right wing propaganda, and think for themselves (it is difficult if not impossible to do both).
    Our nation is facing a number of serious crises right now, and conservatism has planted itself at the center of them with the sole intent of making them worse. We need real patriots, now more than ever, to resist this insanity before it is completely taken over by ideologues who care not for the future of this nation, but only for the clichés echoing in their heads.

February 2, 2010

I am so discouraged by politics lately that I have withdrawn from listening to the daily news. Despite all odds, conservatives are gaining control and I fear for the safety of our country and the entire world. No doubt this will seriously impact my blog, but I have to retain what sanity I have left.
    To keep ideas rolling, I offer you the following quote from Richard Brookhiser’s wonderful book What Would the Founders Do? I highly recommend it.

What Would the Founders Think about Partisanship?

Sick of attack ads, spinning, mindless partisanship? The founders hated it as much as you do. They also invented it.
    It was with them almost from the start, in George Washington’s first term as president, in the heart of his inner circle, and it alarmed him. In 1792, his treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, and his secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, began abusing each other in the newspapers. The quarrel started with fiscal policy, but soon branched out to character assassination. (Hamilton wrote his own op-eds; Jefferson got friends to write for him) The Jeffersonians thought that Hamilton might undermine the infant republic; Hamilton thought the same about of Jefferson. All the writers used pseudonyms, but everyone quickly figured out who was saying what. Things got so hot the, in midsummer, Washington asked both men what was going on, heard what they had to say, then begged them to col off. He wanted, he wrote in identical phrases to Hamilton and Jefferson, “mutual forbearances and temporizing yieldings on all side.”
    He didn’t get them. The contestants fell briefly silent, then, Washington’s second term, went back at it even more boisterously than before. The public got involved; thee were riots over foreign policy, and an armed uprising over taxes. Washington returned to the topic of partisanship in 1795, in his Farewell Address, in which he decried “the bandeful effects of the spirit pf party.” It “distract[s] the public councils and enfeeble[s] the public administration.” It breeds “ill founded jealousies and false alarms.” It “kindles the animosity” of different sections of the country against one another. It “foments occasional riot and insurrection” (all he has to do was think of he last four years). “[I]t is a spirit.” He concluded, solemnly and lamely, “not to be encouraged.” He was solemn, because he thought partisanship was truly dangerous; he was lame, because he rather suspected that it wasn’t going away anytime soon.
    All the founders disliked arties as much as Washington did. “If I could not go to heaven but with a party,” wrote Jefferson, “I would not go there at all.” John Adams said he would “quarrel with both parties and with every individual of each” before enlisting in either. At most, they admitted that partisan activity might be an emergency measure, necessary to throw a set of rascals out. But once the rascals were gone, parties should go with them. After Jefferson won the White House in an election (1800) even more vicious and scary than the election of 2000, he assured the nation in his inaugural address, referring to the two parties that had almost torn it apart, “we are all republicans—we are all federalists.”

January 31, 2010

Part of the reason for our slow economic recovery is distrust in government. I wonder who is responsible for that? Ever since Ronald Reagan we've heard nothing but calumny against our government from Republicans, even though it was big government that saved us from the Great Depression, and at the time 70% of the people trusted it. Today it is only 17%, and conservative propaganda is largely to blame.
    That's right, Republicans are ideologically responsible for the slow recovery, for people not having jobs. Conservative deregulation not only caused this Great Recession, their scare tactics are preventing us from getting out of it.
    And think of what their plan to save it is. Let the banks and financial systems and large factories close. Let people lose their houses. The invisible hand of the market place will save the day. What rubbish! It's that invisible hand that caused all our troubles. And with all these businesses failing, the unemployment rate is somehow going to come down? How does that make an ounce of sense?

Well, after the Massachusetts and Virginia elections, Republicans feel that they are on the rise and the momentum is there for a significant victory in November.
    This, of course, frightens me to no end. The sheer illogic is mind-boggling.
    Why would anyone put people who do not believe in big government in charge of big government?That's like hiring an atheist to act as your minister. They are invested in making our government fail, while blaming others and personally reaping the benefits!
    The last time conservatives were in charge (not long ago I might add), it resulted in:

• unprecidented corruption
  
• two ill begotten wars with hundreds of thousands of casualties
  
• strained international relationships
  
• huge deficits that fall on all of us to pay
  
• almost a complete meltdown of our financial system that the Democrats were succcessful at halting

And these are the people complaining about President Obama and the Democrats for not fixing the problems quickly enough, when Republicans are the ones who caused them?
    Now, after a solid year of confusing the public over the issues and blocking serious progress, they want to control big government again. And people are responding. I just don't get it. Do the American people have no memory at all? Have the forgotten Jack Abramov? The false claims that got us into Iraq? The tax cuts for the wealthy that started our deficit rolling? Their attempt to dismantle Social Security? Their horrible record on the environment?
    Think of their leadership elite. George W. Sarah Palin. Michele Bachmann. John Boehner. If they can't do better than them, why do we listen to anything they have to say?
    Think of the lies and conspiracy theories they propagate. Death panels, Birthers. Accusations of socialism, and even Nazism. Do we want people in office who have no respect for truth or common decency at all?
    Think of the pre-meditated obstructionism of time wasting filibusters and voting no on bills that they themselves co-sponsored. There is no longer a statesman among them.
    Wake up, America! We have to stop this now before it is too late! While it is easy to blame Democrats for not getting things done, remember, their so-called super-majority consisted not only of liberals but of conservative Democrats as well. Wherever there are conservatives, there will be obstructionism. The Democrats need more of our help if they are to save our nation, not less.

January 30, 2010

It is easy to get frustrated by President Obama's continual overtures to Republicans. I get frustrated too. Conservatives have been so obstinate and dishonest that a fair minded person would agree that they don't deserve to be regarded now that they are in the minority.
    They really don't.
    But I think President Obama sees things differently, and deserves our thanks for that. He is, after all, president of all Americans, and obviously intends to honor that commitment.
    When President Bush was in office, he decided to represent conservatives alone. There was no outreach or even openness to the other side. There was no respect, and the results were both divisive and disastrous. Actions were taken to transform the country into the United States of Conservia.
    With the Democrats in power, many liberals feel that it now their time to enact change without similar regard to the opposition. They expect the president to act just like Bush and the Republicans and ignore a hefty portion of our citizenry.
    President Obama is doing something very different. He is trying to set the nation back on track so that cooperative politics can work again. He is inviting people into the process by dismantling barriers that animosity previous erected. He is calling out extremism for what it is. Like a true liberal, he is using reason, truth and compassion and open arms.
    Conservatives who refuse this invitation, by their own actions, will forever be stigmatized as being un-American.
    Liberals who forget their own ideals out of bitterness will lose the chance to prove themselves right, and will go down in history as reactionaries to conservatism. That's right, conservatism will have defined them.
    Liberals! If you want to represent American ideals and give them life when they are most needed — then what are you waiting for? Do it!
    The principles of liberalism are freedom, reason, and compassion, and from these three principles come the obvious conclusion, that of truth.
    Without truth, freedom loses its purpose and benefit. Without truth, reason cannot function. Without truth, compassion is easily misdirected.
    I know. Conservatives have lied so much that they have completely lost their credibility. They have turned their backs on liberal ideals to the point of being the very opposite of what America is all about. Liberals now hold the high ground. But what good is the high ground if we re-establish American ideals in law and not in people's hearts? Change would lack substance and this useless war of ideologies would continue.
    President Obama did well in confronting the Republican caucus yesterday. He showed the power of truth and reason and civility by confronting the entire Republican congressional membership and answering them point-by-point. He bravely exposed and shamed their lies. He did far more than all the liberal pundits and strategists to strike a blow for truth that has resonance. We need to learn from that.
    Yes. Radical conservatism is like a contagious disease eerily transmitted from the mouth of one fanatic to the ear of its next victim. It has already debilitated the Republican Party. If the contagion continues to advance, it will destroy the entire body politic.
    The symptoms are plain to see: irrational fears, inappropriate anger, the inability to listen, psychotic obsession (seeing communists everywhere, etc.), and a curious addiction to tea bags.
    But the victims of this disease are our brothers and sisters and we cannot forget that (even though, in their dilerium, they would destroy us). We need to heal them by liberating their minds. President Obama has shown us the way to do that, by not backing down, not by acting as they act, but by confronting lies with the integrity of truth and the concern of freindship
    Now it is up to us to do likewise.
    We must become a conduit for truth to express itself. We must not be deterred by conservative bullying, but arm ourselves with the facts and with the kind of self-discipline that can respond without anger.
    Good friends, we have long been heading toward the precipice of disaster, and have to change our course before it is too late. Do not slight President Obama for confronting conservatives and trying to civilized them and bring them back into the fold. Don't give in to the anger. Be proud of him instead. He is just the man we need right now. All he needs is our vocal support.

January 27, 2010 (part 1)

Gouverneur Morris, one of the main authors of the United States Constitution, gave us this prescient warning:

"We should remember that the people never act from reason alone. The rich will take advantage of their passions and make these the instruments of oppressing them."

In these two sentences, he described the modus operandi of today's conservative leadership, a cabal of wealthy elites who sit back and stir populist outrage for their own benefit. They have divided a nation and taken away popular support for President Obama, who has done everything he can to restore dignity and constitutional authority for us all.
    Such warnings from our founders are what liberals need to point out. Conservatives are well adept at reducing and redefining American values to suit their needs. They wave flags that were meant to represent something far more positive and humane than anything that conservatism will ever stand for. And liberals recede in their wake as if they no longer held righteousness in their hands.
    Our enemies know that when you stimulate irrational forces in people's hearts, they take control over them. That is how they always worked, from preserving slavery in the first decades of our inception as a free nation, to resisting the New Deal, which avoided the risk of communism by creating a large middle class, to fighting tooth and nail against civil rights, as they continue to do today. They even try to manipulate religion for their personal gain.
    The truth is that democracy becomes a farce when it is not based not on reason, and surrenders to lies and paranoia instead. When you think of it, farce is just the right word to describe conservative strategies today. Nevertheless, they have proven their tactics effective in ruining the nation and will not stop using them until it is ruined completely. Yet even then, red-faced yet still lacking any shame that would redeem them, they will still blame liberalism—if we let them.

January 27, 2010 (part 2)

Keith Olbermann recently described Scott Brown in very derogatory terms, going on to accuse of him of being a sexist for reasons that did not seem valid. I think this hurt his credibility. Unfortunately, it also hurts the credibility of his cause.
    If liberalism is going to take its rightful place in this country, it has to prove itself far better than conservatism. This would appear to be a simple task, but to conservatives the possibility is not open. All it takes is for liberals to make one mistake, one exaggeration, and they equate it with their own constant flow of false propaganda. In fact, they hold it in far more contempt. As we all know, what they deem as fair and balanced has nothing to do with reality.
    We must not sink to their level, no matter how tempting. We simply cannot win the war of ideologies on their terms, because their terms will not allow it. Once we lie or exaggerate, or go on a witch hunt, we lose the moral high ground and our words become empty.
    What liberalism has is real. Conservatism exists as a negation of reason and compassion, and nothing else. We cannot let them define what liberalism is. The only way we can do that is by raising our voices, loud, clear and often. Real patriotism is in our camp, and always has been. Just because they claim otherwise is no reason to believe it. They can say what they want about our founders. We have facts on our side. Our adherence to the entire Constitution far exceeds their attachment to two or three of its amendments, completely out of context.
    We can fight this war with our heads held high, and make great inroads in regaining the nation's confidence. But we cannot do it by imitating conservatism. Those kind of tactics do not appeal to what is best in human nature, as liberalism always has. It appeals to only what is worst, which has always been the course of radical conservatism. We must play by our own rules, and thereby show what liberalism is all about.
    Keith! Please take a deep breath and return to us intact. I understand your outrage. Most of us feel it as well. How can you not when you hear all the lies that conservatives speak, and the buffoons that represent them. But we cannot lower out standards, or all is lost.

January 26, 2010

Wow. Conservatives want more transparency from the Obama White House. As we all recall, they were previously willing to give none.
    I, myself, feel that transparency is not always a good thing. When Tip O’Neal first brought cameras into Congress, hoping to keep the American people informed, what happened? Republicans started to grandstand to their base, and that’s where the outrageousness we hear from them today started. They saw how popular Rush Limbaugh and all his surely clones were with conservatives everywhere, and decided to imitate them in their speeches. Statesmanship went out the window. The media picked up on this, and encouraged partisan contention on talk shows. Fox News decided that the conservative base was large enough to make a fortune off of, and dedicated just about every word they say to the conservative cause. MSNBC mimics them for liberals.
    President Obama promised transparency as a candidate. He seems to be backing away from that for now and for good reason. If conservatives want transparency, after avoiding it for decades, it has to be bad for the American people. Another way to slow things down in order to destroy them. We know their tactics. Just another opportunity for grandstanding. I’m glad President Obama realizes that now. It is an unfortunate state of affairs that negotiations have to be made behind closed doors, but as long as conservatives cannot be trusted to work in good faith, it is necessary. Hopefully they will grow up at some point and this will change.
    I’m not holding my breath.

January 25, 2010

It is very telling how, after 9/11, when thousands of people were killed by terrorist attackers on these shores, all sides came together in unity. Conservative leaders like Glenn Beck seemed to appreciate that. That occurred under the Bush administration, of course.
    When a failed terrorist attack happened last Christmas, conservatives made it an excuse to condemn President Obama.
    Which is more patriotic then? The liberals who came to support President Bush after he neglected to react to a warning that killed thousands? Or conservatives who used a failed attack where no one was killed for political gain?
    I find these observations remarkable. Conservatives condemn President Obama for rescue our economic system from the brink of disaster, while remaining silent about the conservative deregulation that cause it in the previous administration. They don't like the cost of saving our banks and auto industry that he was forced to save. I guess they feel that we would be better off without banks and car manufacturing, and all our investments were lost. The debt that President Bush created was fine, even though we got nothing out of it. But successfully rescuing the nation by President Obama is something bad in their eyes. It seems they wanted us to fail. What is patriotic about that?
    Let's see. Conservatives don't like the government of the people that our Constitution created, but they say they love the Constitution! At least two or three amendments at least. The part about seeing to the general welfare is certainly not something they support.
    They say they love the Declaration of Independence, but show some hostility in practice when it comes to the part about equality, which is its most famous phrase.
    And now they are licking their chops because liberal Republican Scott Brown from the liberal state of Massachusetts has won a senate seat. They see it as the beginning of the end of the Obama administration, that they have been sabotaging with lies since before he was inaugurated. Good Americans, obviously. They look forward to a conservative majority again, so they can deregulate the economy so that a few of their fellows get richer than they areand thereby destroy it completely.
    I do not see these people of patriots at all. I see them as people frightened by change and willing to tear down everything out of sheer stubbornness. That they have now enlisted disgruntled liberals makes the demise of America that more certain.
    God save us from conservatism!

January 22, 2010

Well, the Supreme Court, with its conservative bias, has proven once again that it is not the protector of the American people. Conservatism is eating away our ideals right in front of our eyes, and the only ones we hear complaining (not about this decision, of course,) are conservatives!
    Activist judges have rejected laws that hindered corporations from taking over American politics yesterday, and conservatives naturally applauded. Their defense of the not-so-hidden oligarchy continues while they worry about the tranny of the rest of us. Here I thought that democracy was what this country was all about.

Ever get stupid conservative emails spouting the usual conservative cliches? Want to answer them back quickly? Check out Responding to Concervative Rhetoric. Your response is just a cut-and paste away.

January 20, 2010

As soon as MSN.com opened on my screen, the question jumped out at me.

"Honeymoon Over for Obama?"

I had to stop whatever I was doing and think about this for a while. When the hell did Obama ever get a honeymoon?
    As he bravely championed the nation to rescue us from serious conservative blunders, including the Great Recession that they created, and the war they completely mismanaged, he has been constantly attacked by the conservative scandal machine. They claimed he was not born in this country, and no proof seems able to change their minds. They accused him of being a Muslim with terrorist ties, for having plans to take people's gins away, and corralling conservatives into concentration camps (hmm). They have called him a Nazi and a racist who is imposing a socialist agenda.
    Well, the concentration camps have yet to appear, people still have the guns, and the agenda of American Nazis still resemble that of conservatism. Sane people now admit he was born in Hawaii, and his church membership denies him being a card-arrying Muslim.
    Apologies anyone? No. All the allegations were purposeful and not mistakes. They were, to appropriately describe them, conservative.
    To make matters worse, before a year of his presidency had passed, and with all the work he had on his plate, liberals were castigating him for not making the changes they wanted fast enough, even though, as Bill Clinton proved, it would have destroyed all chances for healthcare reform.
    I am truly ashamed at how little support he has received, and how so many people are ready to bring conservatism back in order to complete the dirty work left unfinished from the Bush years. Liberals will deserve what happens after that, for no other reason than letting it happen.

See: The Enemy is at Our Gate

January 18, 2010

(Sorry. I've been busy lately. What follows are some thoughts I jotted down since my last blog entry.)

A Collection of Thoughts

Liberals and moderates who think that people will outgrow the craziness of conservatism need to understand the appeal of the irrational. Conservatism has make a cottage industry of appealing to humanity's darkest fears, inner frustrations and need to condemn anyone who they deem as different.

They say that politics makes for strange bedfellows. The trouble is, momentary gain is sometimes not worth waking up the next morning to find who has taken over your bed and house, and has come to stay, inviting the whole family.
    Sane Republicans are now learning a harsh lesson. By legitimizing the radical elements of conservatism, they have sold what considerable integrity they had. That is a shame. Instead of a positive tension of competing ideas, there is now nothing on their side but destructiveness. Instead of dialog, we have media propagandists who go so far as to blacken national assistance to Haiti in their time of need.

While Republicans are saying that the low approval rating of the medical reform plan has become a referendum against the Democratic Party, and President Obama himself, I would like to point out the real source for the people's discontent. Conservative strategies of spreading fear with obvious lies and misleading information comprise the heart of our difficulties. They are responsible for what we see. And they feel proud of their deceit.
    Proud of their deceit against the American people? That's something to think about. They obviously have thrown away whatever moral compass they had. Or perhaps that compass is just broken from misuse. By aligning themselves with willful ignorance, they are defining themselves by their own tactics.
    I do not hear Republicans speaking out against what is happening to their own Party. They do not condemn the lies. They votes lockstep with party policies no matter how unconscionable. They have spine enough to get on television and call for secession, or claim that gay marriage would somehow ruin everyone else's marriage, or carry guns to political rallies, or attack the president on ridiculous charges, or claim that the US Census is a threat to conservatism.
    How is it that none of them have the spine to stand up for truth and civility? How is it that they cannot call a lie for what it is and rescue the integrity of their own party?
    Republicans have given up on statesmanship and are now showing themselves to be the enemy of what America stands for.

The only hope we have today is for liberals and moderates to find their passion in the very ideals that they stand for. They need a voice that will overwhelm the contstant drone of conservative cliches and complaints. Reason and intelligence can win this war, but only if is is applied, and applied constantly.

January 7, 2010

(If you are as tired as I am of conservative hypocrisy, check out this article.)

The attacks on President Obama from the Right are unbelievable. You might think he had raised taxes instead of lowered them, caused the Great Recession, and brought us into the costly wars we continue to suffer from in the Middle East. They portray him as a Nazi, even though he, more than any recent president, judiciously respects the balance of power that the Constitution dictates. The vitriol and insanity simply cannot be explained without pointing to racism.
    Conservative leaders are doing their best to generate fear among our citizens. Why? Because unwarranted fear is the nemesis of reason. They offer nothing of substance to the American people. To win back their power, they need to scare people into blind submission to their cause. They take every opportunity to propagate paranoia, as if the best we can except from Americans is cowardice. They call that patriotism. I call it un-American.
    One might suppose that the recent failed attempt to blow up an airliner had been successful if you listen to the angry rhetoric. They have been waiting like vultures for an attack on American soil just to initiate such a campaign. They infer that they could do a better job, even though 8 years of the Bush/Cheney administration proved itself to be as inept as it was corrupt. Indeed, conservative policy is cause of much of what we suffer from.
    Fear, however, is immediate. It pushes reason aside, which is why we hear so many irrational statements from the Right and their Tea Party splinter group.
    Friends, if we throw reason away, what do we have? The United States cannot represent freedom if it discards reason and bravery and truth, for these were the virtues it was built upon, virtues that conservatives casually discard for a mob mentality.
    We need to speak out. We need to fight this madness before it is too late. Conservatives don't care how their ideology is contrary to everything that America stands for. All they want is to assert their shallow, pre-American values. We must not allow them to destroy us.
    We need to condemn their actions in no uncertain terms, in the security that they are wrong and we are right.

January 6, 2010

My advice to conservatives reflects a traditional belief that true, moral conservatives should value. That advice is both simple and familiar: "if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all." In other words, if all you have are complaints, conspiracy theories, and outright lies, then please SHUT UP!!! You offer the American people nothing but discord.
    Aren't you concerned that you are losing credibility with the mainstay of our citizenry? You know, the people who are sane? Sooner or later, even people who do not pay much attention to politics are going to realize that you are holding back the nation out of paranoia and irrational bitterness.

For those not paying attention, the Democrats are handling themselves far better. They are the ones trying to help people, save the economy, and reduce international tensions. They even tried bipartisan consensus, until Republicans proved ad nauseum that they are unable to negotiate in good faith. Republicans are not just the Party of No. They are the Party of Regression, of tearing down the New Deal, which includes, despite recent rhetoric to the contrary, Medicare, Social Security and unemployment benefits. They are the Party of Aggressive War and Conspiratorial Think Tanks. They complain about the liberal media to distract people from their own gargantuan media propaganda machines that rival those of Nazi Germany.
    Think for a moment. What would the United States look like if conservatives had their way? A small government theocracy that regulated people's sex lives, fought wars all around the world with an underpaid military (due to lowering taxes) and with no allies. They would regulate education to disregard science while encouraging superstition. Corporate CEOs would form the oligarchy government. The only value ordinary people would have would be purchasing goods and services that kept corporate CEOs filthy rich. Pollution would cover the earth and climate change grow more eratic every day. The poor, old and infirmed would be left on the streets homeless and without medical attention. And then, all of a sudden, those who blindly supported radical conservatism will wake up and realize it is too late. They have lost all their rights except gun ownership, and with people carrying weapons everywhere, like in Iraq and Aphghanistan, they will not feel safe at all. Even the Union would dissolve—a conservative goal since before the Civil War. Western civilization will have collapsed. Welcome to the Disunited States of Conservia.

Some Tea Party geniuses want to hold a national strike on January 20, the 1 year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration. Those participating will stay home, not go to work, and will not purchase anything, as a show of economic power. One of them probably got the idea from the movie Gandhi, and somehow equated their cause with his.
    Even thought I abhor their politics, I wholeheartedly ecourage them to hold a national strike. I would welcome having just one day without hearing their nonsensical complaints, or seeing tea bags obscenely hanging from their hats. I would encourage them to extend their strike indefinitely, and maybe move to another country, since they hate this one so much.
    I find it amazing how silent they were when President Bush’s conservative policies brought on all the troubles we are suffering from now, and yet they condemn President Obama for his efforts to fix things. It seems they are completely dedicated to being on the wrong side of history, and they hope to force their views on the rest of us..
    Now, I understand that conservatism manages to continue in this country as a pre-American tradition that just refuses to see what is good about America. Tea Party fanatics amply represent this group, and freedom of speech means that we have to put up with them. Their goal is to make the rest of the population as backward thinking as they are. That won’t happen of course. We still have a lot of people who think for themselves and have sense enough to reject them out of hand.
    Unfortunately, as history shows us repeatedly, the barbarian occasionally defeats a complacent majority, and this is what conservatives are hoping for. Liberals are, by and large, civilized. As true Americans they are respectful of divergent opinion. This places them at a competitive disadvantage. They should not view radical conservative propaganda as just a divergent opinion. Insidious lies do not deserve such respect. They call for truth to overwhelmingly put them to shame.
    Liberals, moderates, Eisenhower conservatives—sane people of all persuasions need to unite in a systematic condemnation of radical conservative lies. If we do not, it is possible to lose everything we have.
    These people hate our government of the people, because the majority of people rely on reason and not conspiratorial fantasies. They hate the balance of power it is based on, and the separation of church and state. They hate having a government large enough to serve a nation as populous and powerful as the United States. Just about everything they stand for is based on hate and anger and a vision of America that is distorted by ideology.
    Freedom calls for better than that.

January 5, 2010

It seems that the news media has become fascinated by Dick Cheney's constant and usually misleading criticisms of the Obama administration. They, and other experts, point out the falsehoods as soon as they are published. While it is unusual for an ex-vice-president to break with the noble tradition of silence that others have upheld for the good of the country, what did you expect from Mr. Cheney? He was horrible for the nation while serving as vice president as well.
    What I find interesting is how moderate Republicans, the real Republicans, are so silent while watching their party being taken over by such conservative radicalism. I used to wonder why so many good and well-meaning Muslims failed to criticize radicals of their own religion who use terrorism to slaughter innocent people. The dynamic seems to be reflective of Republican moderates as well. They are afraid to speak out for truth and justice and safety of American ideals.
    Where are they? The crazies are destroying their party unabated. Are there no Republicans to stand up to them and steer a new course toward sanity? How can they sit back while Republican radicals are eating their own?

January 1, 2010

A New Year has arrived, and we can only hope it is far better than the one that just passed.
    Is there reason to be hopeful?
    Well, I don't see anything that has changed significantly since yesterday. No mea culpa and promise to reform and act like true statesmen from the Republican Party. As for Democrats and liberals, they seem just as disconnected from their original enthusiasm as before. They still have not found their voice. To make matters worse, they have taken tactical lessons from conservatives, which has certainly lowered our expectations for them. I suspect the childish tug-of-war we've suffered from for so long now will continue, and probably get worse.
    Will healthcare reform finally get passed? Will it be something that will help the cause of liberalism? Or will its toned down, surrender to the insurance companies policies lead to their sorry defeat, and place the future of our nation into the hands of conservative fanatics once more? The prospect frightens me.
    Will we make any headway on terrorism and the Middle Eastern wars that were spawned from it? Or will we make things worse just by being there?
    Will conservatives help to change things for the better? Or continue on their quest to make things worse?
    Will people finally catch on to the insanity of conservative talk radio and put agitators like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh into forced retirement? The good that would come from that would be phenomenal. Unfortuantely, as long as there is money to be made by duping people nd playing to their pathelogical anger, they will continue to be around.
    Will President Obama get the support he needs from liberals, who fail to see how positive change takes time and strategy, and whose criticisms right now are working into the hands of rabid conservatives? Only if they suddenly grow up. I'm not sure what would bring that about.
    Will we finally take our heads out of the sand and seriously work with the world community against global warming?
    It does not look good.
    And yet, as I sit here typing, looking at the snowy trees outside my window, I feel a glimmer of hope. This is not the time for despair. The world we live in, the worl of nature at least, still conveys an innocence that we need to defend. We have a dream. We have a vision. We have reason and compassion and a sense of moral justice. All we have to do is activate them and ourselves in the name of humanity to set thing right.
    The question is, is this the year that we will do so? Or will we wait, as the conservatives would want us, until it is too late?
    Time for some soul-searching. The future is up to us.
    Instead of wishing you a Happy New Year, I ask that you work with us to make it happy.

See Blog 2009 for previous entieres.

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