Attention democrats!  There’s an opportunity sitting right in front of your noses and if you can pull yourself away from the corporate lobbyists long enough to figure out that this is a potential critical time in our history you can marginalize the combative rhetoric FLOWING from the “right” and turn the direction of the “ship of state” back toward the true republican values of our founding fathers.  It seems remarkable to me that it’s not obvious to you (democrats) that the people are longing for a strong stand against the corporate greed of the previous 30 years which has resulted in discontent that is truly bipartisan – that is, from both the “right” and the “left.”

Republican values?  Of course, that does not have anything to do with the present day republican party.  That refers to the values put forth by Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Hamilton, Franklin, and the others who were there at the infancy of this nation.  And, just for clarity’s sake, let me get this off my chest for starters – in case any of the “tea partiers” somehow would happen onto this site (I mean, somehow Lars Larson showed up recently) it’s time for someone in our government – and, it appears it’s going to have to be the democrats – to remind the people of this great nation that this country was founded on the principle of the separation of church and state.  The people who came here originally from Europe (yes, the ones who killed most of the “Native Americans”) came here to get away from religious intolerance.  And, as a Christian myself, I am continually grieved by all the people turned off to the teachings of Jesus by the Christians who for some reason believe they have an obligation to cram religion down other people’s throats – and, worse than that, they want to do it through  a self-righteous intolerant government!

Yes, I’m advocating for our leaders to remind EVERYONE this nation was founded on the principal of religious freedom.  OK, there’s another issue that seems a bit over the edge lately.  Immigration!  The reality, as I see it, is that virtually every “American” who’s advocating that we need to somehow deport something like 12 MILLION undocumented workers is an immigrant themselves.  I teach 6th grade history, and based on the history books, virtually everyone in this nation is descended from an immigrant.  Does the fact that my family came here in the 1600’s (on my father’s side, they did) make me less of an immigrant than the students I have who’s HARD WORKING parents came to America less than 15 years ago – or even people who have come in the past year?  Are the opponents of immigration saying that we should close our borders because they no longer want this nation to be built on the premise (or, promise – if you will) of opportunity?  Or is their real message that they want to preserve a majority of “white people?”

I recently heard the governor of Arizona claim that the recent law passed in that state which MANDATES that police officers stop anyone who they SUSPECT might be an undocumented worker and demand their “papers,” with the public having the right to SUE the police if they believe they’re (the police) not doing a good enough job of this, is not promoting “racial profiling.”  Are you kidding me?  Remember the old saying, “I might be dumb, but I’m not stupid?”  Well, I’m constantly feeling as if the people running various parts of our government just assume we’re all stupid.  I certainly can’t bring myself to believe that the people of Arizona are that stupid.  Isn’t it obvious this law is aimed at people who are non-white?  Like, especially Mexicans?  Isn’t that racial profiling? Or, am I going to have to produce my “papers” if I travel to Arizona?  Honestly, I don’t know what papers I’d have to show them.

They don’t believe Barack Obama is an American citizen in Arizona – despite the FACT he was born in Hawaii.  Obama even went to the absurd length to post a picture of his birth certificate on his website which wasn’t good enough for them.  How am I to know if my birth certificate would be enough for them.  I can tell you, I’m not going to go to Arizona to find out – plus, the truth of the matter is that I don’t carry my birth certificate with me when I travel (actually, I don’t travel that much – but, when I do, it won’t be to Arizona).  All of a sudden, Arizona feels like a different country to me.  I have to admit, after getting a close up and personal look at John McCain during the previous presidential election, I had my doubts about Arizona then.  The guy rivaled George W Bush in his PROVEN incompetence, but I guess his years in a prison camp during Viet Nam “trumped” the FACT he was in the BOTTOM 10 of a class of almost 900 at Annapolis – in fact, the only reason he got into Annapolis in the first place was that his father was an Admiral in the Navy.  And, what McCain proved to be adept at while in the Navy was WRECKING PLANES!  According to my sources he crashed 5 planes, including the one which landed him in the Viet Cong prison camp.

Now, I have a lot of respect for anyone who serves in our military (including McCain), especially in combat (I actually signed up to do so myself during Viet Nam, but it didn’t work out), but that doesn’t qualify them for a leadership position on a national scale as far as I’m concerned.  One of the first things McCain did upon entering the senate of the United States was to help facilitate the banking crisis (savings and loan) of the late 1980’s (along with George W Bush’s brother – are you seeing a pattern here?).  And, since then – as of this writing – McCain has proven to be a “flip flopper” extraordinaire – seemingly more adept at changing positions than even Mitt Romney – if that seems possible.  Now, I understand that over the course of time people are going to change their minds on things – but, McCain seems to have changed his mind on just about everything.  I even remember seeing him in the last election being interviewed by Rick Warren in front of Warren’s “mega-church” (along with Obama) and putting on his “Christian shoes.”  It was interesting listening to McCain telling a story – I don’t even remember the details at this point – about a prison guard and a “cross in the sand” or something along those lines.  The problem I had at the time was that I had already heard essentially the same story before, and McCain wasn’t in it.  He made it up to impress Warren and his congregation, and it worked.  Because, it seems, no one on the “right” wants to fact check what McCain (or any of their other “leaders) was saying.

So, democrats, if you can get out of the “good ole boy” mentality which seems to permeate the senate of the United States, isn’t it time to take the offensive.  We’ve got guys like McCain and Mitch McConnell (the subject of my previous post) as leaders alongside Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and (ughhhh!) Sarah Palin (thanks again John) leading the “party of NO” as they attempt to block Wall Street reform, blame someone besides themselves for the environmental disaster which is bearing down on the Gulf Coast, along with blocking a comprehensive energy bill, and I could go on and on.  Simply put, as Limbaugh has so clearly articulated oh so many times, their agenda is simply that President Obama would fail.  Considering that, does the Arizona bill aimed at Mexicans surprise anyone?

Here’s what I think.  Statistics say that it won’t be long and a majority of Americans will be “non-white.”  For the white supremicists this is intolerable.  All you hear is “we want our country back.”  I’ve been wondering for some time, back from who?  Well, just as I teach my students to “read between the lines,” I’m asking you to read between the lines.  OK, I’ll do it for you.  Demanding our sitting president provide his actual BIRTH CERTIFICATE before he can be placed on the ballot in Arizona?  Ordering cops to haul in “suspicious” Mexicans?  Are these guys afraid of competing against Blacks and Mexicans in the future?  My “read between the lines” is telling me this could be so.

  Is this the America we all want as a consequence of 9/11?  If you’ve ever read the book “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein, you will understand what I’m about to say.  If not, you should read that book – in my mind, it should be required reading for all American adults.  For years, the republican party has been using disasters or trajedies to push their agenda.  Mostly, it was their “free market” agenda in South America and Eastern Europe.  Tricking countries into giving up their natural resources in return for our “help” following some kind of trajedy (some of which we caused for them ourselves).   Well, the time has come when many of these countries are no longer being fooled – remember GW Bush?  “Fool me once……….”

9/11 was the springboard for Halliburton, Dick Cheney, and George W Bush to push for the invasion of Iraq.  I’ve read something approaching 20 books on the subject of Iraq, and the one thing that is clear (well, there’s a bunch of things that are clear – but, this is the most startling to me) is the Bush/Cheney White House was simply looking for a reason to invade Iraq from the day they took the oath of office.  They were so focused on Iraq, that they were willing to allow Osama bin Laden to “get away.”  Now, if there are any right wingers here (yes, that would be you Lars) explain to me how that has been “keeping America safe.”  Really now – we’re stuck in an endless occupation of Iraq which is going to cost more than it would to pay for universal health care for OUR OWN PEOPLE three times over!  And, to top that off, we’re also still STUCK in Afganistan plus bin Laden is still at large!  There’s enough evidence for me to believe that when the CIA and the Afgan’s Northern Alliance had bin Laden (along with his al Qaeda fighters) cornered at Tora Bora – the Bush administration didn’t “seal the deal” by sending in the troops necessary to kill or capture him because they wanted to invade Iraq and capturing bin Laden would have taken away their “excuse.”  Makes me sick every time I think about this (my son’s about to join the military).

9/11 also got us the “Patriot Act,” warrantless wiretapping, the suspension of Habeous Corpus, torture, extraordinary rendition, and the loss of respect from virtually the rest of the world.  Well, it wasn’t 9/11 which caused us to lose respect, it was the republican reaction to it!  And, now we’re all depending on the democrats to stand up and be ADULTS!  Stop taking the money from the corporate lobbyists and make us all proud of y’all!  Quit “kissing up” to these republicans and go on the attack.  I did notice that Harry Reid decided to give the republicans the opportunity to talk “all night long” regarding their objection to the financial reform, and that ended the “filibuster” right there.  Even the republicans aren’t stupid enough to do that.  We haven’t really seen a real filibuster in years.  Democrats – it’s time to allow the republicans to actually do a REAL filibuster every time they object to something.  Let them get out the phone books and start reading them – and put cameras in the senate so all of us “little people” can see what is really going on with our leaders.  But, make no mistake about this;  There is an opportunity for democrats to lead, and they won’t be successful caving in to republicans.  They caved in to republicans enough for a lifetime, as far as I’m concerned, during the eight years of George W Bush.