There’s an interesting (and tragic) phenomenon going on in America as I write this, and it’s been ongoing for the past few years.  Our government has failed to respond to the unemployment crisis in a way that would have prevented the huge numbers of long term unemployed – as republicans argue the debt they created is sufficient reason to ignore millions of Americans who’ve been turned into the “unemployable.”  These “unemployable” potential workers are no longer paying taxes so government revenues are down, yet they still require things like medical care, etc. causing government expenses (and those of the rest of us) to increase while “right” wing politicians continue to prevent increases in taxes from those who are succeeding at an astonshing rate – taxes that would allow investment in things like infrastructure which would create good paying jobs.  And, while all this is going on, more and more of the incredibly rich are moving their money to offshore tax havens so they can avoid any taxes that might “right the ship” in America’s economy.  No wonder so many people are throwing their arms up and saying things like “There’s no hope for America because the corruption in Washington DC is just too pervasive.”  Even the “low information voters” know that it is the politicians in Washington DC who enable all this.

I remember almost as if it was yesterday my thoughts as the “Reagan revolution” unfolded that Ronald Reagan and his supporters were attempting to change America from a “we” society to a “me” society.  And, it appears they have virtually succeeded.  These are the people who have been fighting the “New Deal” of Franklin Roosevelt since the inception of all the “socialist” ideals it put forth.  The FACT that the New Deal fostered the greatest middle class in the history of mankind is irrelevant to those who still worship Reagan as if he was some kind of god.  As I put forth in my previous post, Reagan was actually an informer for the FBI, he was a major hypocrite when it came to “following the rules,” and he believed that the wealthy SHOULD be in control of America’s wealth – not America’s elected government.  Reagan spearheaded the assault on America’s unions which is continuing to this day as we witness a kind of “race to the bottom” regarding the wages and benefits that major employers seem to believe their workers deserve.  The statistics say that worker productivity has increased tremendously in the past 30+ years while wages have remained stagnant, or worse.  The FACT the focus of our government has been shifted to the wealthy could not be clearer as we experience the so-called “sequestration” “cuts” to our nation’s budget.  Already “exceptions” to the cuts are being made for those fortunate enough to travel by air, but – as per usual – “the least of us” (in the words of Jesus Christ) will be “left behind.”

Well before sequestration went into effect I commented that the people at the top would hardly notice it – virtually all the “pain” would be focused around those at the “bottom.”  Well, that wasn’t totally correct as we saw when those who had to wait in the long lines at airports got action from their congress for an “exception.”  Did you notice that it was the congress members who were some of the people standing in those lines?  I wonder how much that affected their decision to vote an exception to their “across the board” cuts.  And, you can pretty much be guaranteed that when sequestration “hits” the department of defense there will be more “exceptions.”  Most of my “railing” on this site has been directed (with good reason) toward republicans.  But it’s almost more frustrating to be forced to depend on the democrats to be the counter force to the republican assault on America’s middle class.  For example (looking away from the sequestration) many democratic populists and many independents (like me) once again got behind President Obama during the last election.  (I pointed out that my vote was AGAINST Mitt Romney and the republicans)  It didn’t take long and Obama was proposing cuts to Social Security (which is absurd) and Medicare (which does need to be “fixed”) – a MAJOR slap in the face to the MILLIONS who got behind him leading up to the election.  To me, this is an obvious attempt by our president to get the republicans to agree to SOMETHING.  However, it also demonstrates his failure to understand that this is an INTERNAL war for the heart and soul of America.  We need to DEFEAT this brand of republicans, not find a way to get them to say “yes” to something – especially at the expense of the signature successes of almost 100 years of progressive battles for “the least of us.”  In a representative government it’s depressing when your TOP representative makes proposals AFTER the election which would have caused you not to support him/her BEFORE the elections.  If I was in favor of cutting Social Security and Medicare Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan would have been the “answer.”

In fact, the so-called sequester was the result of the same kind of bargaining we’re apt to see over Social Security and Medicare.  The benefits will go to those at the “top” while those at the bottom get even more SCREWED.  When democrats start showing a willingness to bargain away the signature victories of the New Deal, well, those of us who are considered liberals (I guess I’m supposed to use the term progressives because the right wing propaganda scheme has vilified the word “liberal”) have to be wondering “where do we turn” for support.  The stark reality of American government is that “we the people” elect representatives and we have to trust them to “represent” us in Washington.  When the “top dog” in Washington shows any kind of weakness he/she can expect to be the recipient of a swarm of special interest money intended to turn a tiny “crack” in the “dike” into a “fissure.”  I still remember during the 2008 presidential campaign Hillary Clinton basing her “claim” on the democratic nomination to her perspective that Barrack Obama was not “up to” dealing with what he was going to get from the republicans.  Over the course of time, I believe he is proving her to  be prophetic.  Instead of bargaining away programs like Social Security and Medicare Obama should be out there FIGHTING the obstructionists in Washington with the hope of turning the House BLUE in 2014.  He should be working on Harry Reid to accept the reality that the Senate’s filibuster rules are archaic and being used by republicans to block anything positive from coming out of the senate.  He should  be publicly BATTLING for the above mentioned “unemployable” members of our society.  (many of them in their 50’s or early 60’s and in danger of losing EVERYTHING they’ve worked their lives for)

The republican philosophy has been to gain power by causing FAILURE in Washington.  They are doing this through procedural methods that the democrats have allowed along with their control of the so-called “liberal media.”  One thing republicans have been up front and honest about since Obama’s election is their determination to make sure that he FAILS.  I really don’t understand why this was not considered heresy and why the democrats have not been demonizing the republicans over this more intently.  75% of America wanted a “public option” when health care reform was in the works.  The special interests prevailed against this (and when “Obamacare” goes into full effect we will understand why the democrats should have found a way to push that through).  Something like 90% of Americans are in favor of background checks and registering guns.  A large majority are in favor of other attempts to control the use of assault weapons.  Again, the special interests are winning the “battle” through their purchase of our legislatures (including democrats).  I could go on and on, but the bottom line is this is all becoming more than nauseating.

When we look again at sequestration, the whole idea was a way to force congressional action in the wake of all the obstructionist tactics of republicans (remember, their number one priority is not the success of America, but the failure of our BLACK president – I’m sure if you’re reading my blog you’re smart enough to put two and two together to understand their motives).  However, as the “chipping away” at the areas of “pain” will show – there will be exceptions which will allow the further steps of this despicable method of governing to proceed (remember, only the first “wave” of sequestration has taken place).  My prediction is that areas like Head Start, food stamps, unemployment insurance, etc. will remain in tact – that is, getting cut – but when the defense department bellows loud enough we’ll have another “exception.”  Or when we find another area that directly affects the congressional leaders who voted for this absurd way of budgeting government in the first place we’ll see another “exception.”  Kind of reminds me of how the congressional leaders who have the so-called “Cadillac” health care policies have no concern for those who have no policy and want to tax working people who are lucky enough to have health care benefits through their employment.  Really, the more you examine America’s present government, the more absurd it gets.

I stated in an earlier post that the first “job” in fixing our nation’s government is to vote out all republicans who support this present day racist tea party philosophy that seems entrenched in their caucus and puts Obama’s failure above America’s success. (remember, republicans didn’t always act and function as they are these days – much of this obstructionist philosophy, I believe, emanates from the congressional days of Newt Gingrich – although, in my lifetime, republicans have been the bastion for America’s remaining racists) Once the republicans have been “purged” the job becomes to get rid of the spineless democrats who are “feeding at the same trough.”  I believe there is one TOTALLY bipartisan issue those of us outside of Washington can agree on and that is corporate money has totally CORRUPTED our government.   Somehow, that needs to change and I don’t think you can change the corruption by relying on those receiving the bounty.  It’s the same as expecting the fox to protect the hen house!

Dwight Eisenhower’s warnings about the “military industrial complex” have morphed into a dangerous reality that continues to make America “less safe.”  It has fostered “moneychangers” who survive by promoting war and violence.  It has given us a bloated defense budget that surpasses virtually the rest of the world combined and an economy that is being drowned in the inescapable debt that is the result of those who believe in perpetual “warfare.”  The latest result, as we scramble to “get our economic house in order” is the sequestration.  That is just a symptom of how difficult it is and is going to be to overcome the incredible force behind this militarism on our nation’s economy.  Combined with the mentality of the republican party and the spineless democrats we end up governing through “sequestration.”  Honestly, I never imagined our country falling to this level of incompetence and corruption, but as I read more history it all seems inevitable.  Eisenhower knew what he was talking about.  I have to wonder: when will our people who are “down and out” become more important to our government than taking care of the “rich” and providing corporate welfare?

I’m presently reading a book – titled “Subversives, The FBI’s WAR on STUDENT RADICALS and Reagan’s Rise to Power” by Seth Rosenfeld – about how the FBI was violating the rights of “radicals” in the years leading up to  and into the 60’s at the behest of J Edgar Hoover – the head of the FBI for many years and apparently a paranoid, closet homosexual.  Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not “bashing” gays, it’s just that Hoover was – along with bashing anyone else who might not fit the bill (in his eyes) of the upstanding “conservative” “loyal” “patriotic” American – all the while why he was in a “same-sex” relationship for years himself.  OK, where have we heard that line before?  The derogatory term used by Hoover and his agents always seemed to have words like “left” or “liberal” connected to it and leading to the word “communist.”  Reminds me of the saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”  This is going to be a hard post to write because the thoughts going through my head are almost overwhelming.  From my own experience and the many books I’ve read, even though McCarthy and his Communist “scare” seem like history that would never be repeated, it seems as if we’re in another of those “deja vu all over again” moments in time (similar to the unthinkable fiasco’s in Iraq and Afghanistan vis a vis Viet Nam).  One thing I’m learning as I continue my attempt at self-educating myself on the “goings on” in my own government – is that the CRAP that’s being hoisted on America by the right wing of the republican party today is nothing new.  It’s just becoming more sophisticated.

The other day I received, in the “snail mail” a brochure from the “National Review” titled “RESIST!”  I’m guessing, from the contents, whoever sent it to me had not read this blog.  Now, it’s true I’ve pointed out that I always considered myself somewhat of a conservative, until the recent 30 years of the “Reagan Revolution” has convinced me (and most people I know) that I’m a “flaming liberal.”  That’s why I found the brochure from the “National Review” to be most interesting.  I’m just going to include some of the quotes: “Obama’s dirty tricks.  Look forward to more administrative and regulatory tricks to circumvent Congress.” (my initial reaction: “Well, duh – I hope so, I mean with a Senate filibustering everything and a House voting for Nothing – somehow, something must get done in Washington)  “The liberal culture.  You won’t surrender to it and neither will we.” (can you see why I was a bit confused why they sent this to me?)  There’s more:  “The fate of America hangs in the balance.  Dim-witted liberals are leading the country half-cocked in dangerous new directions.” (Seriously)  And finally (this one, to me really says it all about the “right”):  “The coming leftist court.  More than one Justice could retire before Obama leaves office.  Look for a replacement who will spark a new era of aggressive leftist judicial activism.”  (are you kidding me? how could any court “out do” the Roberts’ court’s “Citizens United” example of judicial activism)  As I’m reading the present book and getting stuff like this from the “National Review” in the mail, the level of brainwashing that’s going on in America is almost beyond my imagination.  The problem is that it’s not imagination, it’s real.  And, they’ve (the people behind this propaganda scheme) got unlimited financial resources and a lot of technical savvy.  They’ve been at this for a long time and defeat at the ballot box doesn’t seem to affect them – they just “keep on keepin on.”

As I said, this topic makes my mind swirl with probably too many thoughts.  But, I think it goes right to the heart of what’s wrong in America.  Most of us normal everyday Americans have no idea how much power can end up resting in the souls of people like Hoover.  And, I’m certain there’s many more “out there” who would share his point of view.  The irony, to me, is that most of these people will claim that things like “moral decency,” “righteousness,” “honor,” “patriotism,” “integrity,” “less government” and other wonderful sounding words and phrases are what drives them and their thinking.  The problem I have with that is most of these people are just like the rest of us – full of “skeletons” in our “closets.”  Take for example, Hoover apparently living a gay lifestyle while “bashing” gays.  Reminds me of the Republican Senator from Idaho a few years ago who was leading the anti-gay “mission” of the republican party while having same-sex rendezvous in public restrooms at airports.  Or Newt Gingrich attempting to impeach Bill Clinton for cheating on his wife while being a double offender himself.  (I’m still wondering why Gingrich seems to still be a “talking head” of the republican party after cheating on his cancer stricken wife.  We’ll see if the democrats end up in the same situation with John Edwards – I seriously doubt it)  Then there’s Reagan, a “man of law and order,” mindlessly breaking one law after another, often times with the assistance of Hoover and Hoover’s “minions.” (or encouraging others to do so ie Iran/Contra)  Hoover (with the assistance of “informers” like Reagan) managed to destroy the careers of many “liberals” during his purging of “commies” during the years after WW II and, apparently, the political establishment feared him similarly to how the republicans of today fear Rush Limbaugh.  The message is somewhat the same – “liberal” is a dirty word.

Before I continue, I’ve just got to throw in something else quite ironic here.  In the history of the United States of America, virtually all advances that have benefited “we the people” have originated from “liberal” sources.  And, another irony – at least to me, as I’ve so often railed against the so-called “Christian Right,” is that many of these “liberal” initiatives were the result of public activism from Christians.  Yah, you got it right, the Christian movement in America has not always been stuck in this right wing rut that is turning so many (especially young) Americans off to the church.  The push to end slavery, the subsequent (long) push for civil rights for African Americans (which is continuing to this day), the labor movement (which so many in today’s America take for granted as republicans attempt to expunge every last union from the face of the earth), and the idea of a social safety net (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and other social programs aimed at helping “the least among us”) just to name a few, were the result of “liberals” (often times “liberal Christians”) pushing our reluctant government to do the “right thing.”  Some of these campaigns lasted for decades before there was success and those who oppose the idea of a “we” nation have been pushing back all the way.  It’s taken courageous leaders to overcome the “push-back” and it will take courageous leaders to prevent the present day “pushers” (like the Koch brothers, Limbaugh – and his benefactors, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, the so-called tea party, outlets like Fox “news,” and people like Donald Trump and many others) from succeeding.

Much of Rosenfeld’s book centers on the FIGHT generated by the “subversives” (hippies, liberals, anti-war activists, civil rights activists, black activists – including Martin Luther King Jr., and others) who were willing to stand up to the authorities who were promoting the seemingly endless (in America) corporate sponsored control of America’s government.  I remember this time well as I was in college during the mid sixties and remember participating in anti-war rallies (once I realized the “domino theory” was a bunch of bunk).  I remember the passion on both sides of the war issue, the civil rights issue, and the other significant “battles” of the times (Medicare was part of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society”)  At Western Washington State College (now Western Washington University) it seemed as if EVERYONE was smoking marijuana – including many of the professors.  As I read Rosenfeld’s book I had to stop occasionally to think about my time in school during those years and wonder which ones of my acquaintances made it to the various FBI lists which were intended to inform our government which “subversives” should be arrested in the event of a national “emergency.”  (many “identified” through blatantly ILLEGAL surveillance) Rosenfeld spent almost 30 years fighting the FBI over Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documents relating to the unrest at the University of California at Berkeley and the part Reagan played in those years – as well as information about FBI files on others.  His writing is based on over 300 THOUSAND pages of FBI (actual) documents (which the FBI REALLY didn’t want to go “public”).  I really hope many choose to read this book (it’s really a good read – well put together) just because it gives even more information (if you need it) on the damage Ronald Reagan did to this great nation prior to his becoming president. (Not to mention the damage perpetrated by J Edgar Hoover – many of the people today who are claiming they want to “protect” the 2nd amendment gun rights are the same people who have idolized both Reagan and Hoover and apparently have no concern for the 4th amendment)

The part that was really unnerving to me in all of this was all the evidence relating to Reagan’s part as an FBI informant when he was a member (eventually president) of the Screen Actors Guild.  This was during the time of the “Red Scare” years of Joseph McCarthy – who was working on the “outside.”  However, working on the “inside” was Hoover with the help of people like Reagan.  Apparently, this was a time in America when many saw a “Communist” under every rock.  The “fear mongering” was right up there with what we’ve come to expect from our politicians in the “21st century.”  Certainly Reagan and Hoover thought alike in that if someone was a “liberal” that meant they were “subversive.”  I believe the great divide that is causing America, today, to descend toward second tier status in the world began right there.  Many of the people who are leading the “right wing” charge in the United States today came on the scene during the so-called “Reagan Revolution.”  Reagan spoke ad nauseum about “law and order” – he had a quote on his office wall that said something like “follow the rules or get out” – yet, he apparently didn’t think that saying applied to himself.  Reagan affiliated himself, in a condescending manner, to Hoover – who was routinely violating the constitution he was sworn to uphold with illegal unwarranted surveillance (with Reagan’s encouragement), and Reagan carried on Hoover’s tradition (the rules don’t apply to me) through his years as president.  The epitome, for Reagan, was the Iran/Contra “affair” of which he managed to avoid any consequences (lots of “I can’t remembers”), but his “informing” on fellow (and unsuspecting) actors, to me, tells the “tale” of Ronald Reagan.  And, this is no longer conjecture, because it’s all documented in the files Rosenfeld got right from the FBI file cabinets.  Reagan helped ruin people’s lives because he disagreed with them!

Even though I’ve never been in a position to gain “mucho power” I understand how it would appeal to someone who’s ambitious and finds him/herself in the position Reagan was in during the late forties.  He was a successful actor and he became involved in the Screen Actors Guild.  (Now, if you don’t find that ironic you don’t think as I do – I place the major BLAME on today’s republican vendetta against UNIONS right on the doorstep of Ronald Reagan – former union president)  Reagan OUTED a significant number of famous actors and actresses as either “Commies” or “Liberals” during the fifties and sixties which directly led to his rise in politics.  This also led to the ruination, in some instances, of the victims’ careers due to his “information and accusations.”  Honestly, to this day it’s hard for me to think anything good about someone who would do that to his fellow “brothers and sisters” in his union.  According to the files Rosenfeld managed to acquire, Reagan’s informant status with Hoover led to FBI manipulation of events as Reagan was emerging in politics and running for governor of California in the mid sixties on to his push toward the presidency.  Reagan was unhappy with the anti-war turmoil, the Free Speech Movement, and other “movements” (including civil rights) that were originating on college campuses, with Berkeley being at the forefront of the protest movement.  The FBI placed informants into these groups, some who actually urged the groups to violate laws (in one instance an FBI informant supplied weapons to the Black Panthers in an attempt to increase violence and turn public opinion against the protestors).  The disregard for the privacy rights of individuals was pretty much routine by the FBI with the encouragement of Reagan.  In fact, according to the book “Subversives” Reagan’s approach to the campus protests led to more violence and he condoned it by protecting the police officers who shot and or abused protesters. (this was about the same time as the campus shootings at Kent State University and elsewhere)  Ultimately, one of Reagan’s first acts after his election to the presidency was to pardon a couple officers who had been convicted of shooting protesters.  (one innocent bystander was killed and another lost the sight in both eyes when hit by buckshot fired indiscriminately by police officers)  In this instance, as in so many others, Reagan took the position that he could interpret the law in whatever manner he chose despite overwhelming evidence against the officers who were pardoned (And, not even following well established protocol regarding presidential pardons).

The “fallout” from all of this, in my view, is the sorry state of affairs we find ourselves in today.  The so-called Patriot Act, which followed the “9/11” attack compromised our 4th amendment rights in a way that was alarming to people like me.  Subsequent to that, the congress was not able to hold the telecommunications companies, who were illegally providing “private” information to the Bush/Cheney administration, to account for their violation of the FISA law.  The FISA law was the direct result of the “Church Committee” discovering the abuses of Hoover and the FBI during the 1960’s and mid 1970’s.  This was a senate committee chaired by Frank Church of Idaho.  I remember, at the time (during the Watergate years), feeling as if the government was “working.”  However, emerging members of the republican party at that time, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, felt the executive branch was weakened by this legislation.  They were prominent in the Bush/Cheney administration which openly violated FISA and managed to get the Patriot Act passed and the FISA Act modified to allow the government more latitude in “intruding” on the privacy of the American public.  Unfortunately, in my view, Barrack Obama pretty much “sealed the deal” when he “looked forward instead of back” and blocked ALL investigations into the illegal activity of the Bush/Cheney administration.  So, now we’re stuck with a situation where the government (which is really “we the people”) is gathering who knows how much information from the unsuspecting public and it’s not part of the “main stream” of discussion.  Americans are focused on guns (as well they should be).  However my point is this:  The secret actions of Ronald Reagan: the informing, the spying, the illegal activity should drive his legacy.  His role in the degrading trend in America’s government today should not be glossed over with the typical “right wing” revisionist history.  The level of corruption in Washington DC is depressing, and the government response of “looking the other way” can be traced back to the years of Reagan.  Not only our government leaders but also the leaders on Wall Street and in the corporate headquarters are much too confident that they are above the law.  Sadly, people like Eric Holder (our Attorney General) and Barrack Obama seem to be perpetuating this problem, but I feel the “root” of the problem goes right back to the administration of Ronald Reagan.  Read “Subversives” by Seth Rosenfeld and see if you don’t agree.

I was thinking the other day about the outcome of all the “privatization” which has been imposed on America since the days of Ronald Reagan.  If you’re as old as I am the words “Government is the problem, not the solution” is indelibly etched in your mind as either the “root” of all the decline of the past 30+ years (if you think as I do) or the “call to arms” in the right wing attempt to dismantle the New Deal of the FDR years.  (and the New Deal’s aftermath, which included the great work of Eisenhower in creating the amazing interstate highway system and the “60’s” when we got Medicare, the Voting Rights Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964)  America’s great middle class was on the upswing during the post WW II years up until the 80’s with many of us “seniors” today being the beneficiaries of the sacrifices of our parents and grandparents through the years of the Great Depression and the second World War.  Somehow, we’ve allowed ourselves, as a nation, to let the right wing politicians (beginning with Reagan, but moving progressively farther to the right each decade since) to convince “we the people” that the government is not us.

The truth is that “we” are the government and, at least in my case, I continue to watch in amazement at how “we the people” keep electing people into government positions whose main objective is to destroy the very institutions they’re pledged to protect.  Reagan brought in the idea of “privatization” so that now we have private hospitals (up until the 80’s virtually all hospitals were “non profit”), private utilities, private security forces, private schools, private parks, private armies, private war contractors, and private prisons – just to mention a few of the results of this phenomenon.  There are many outgrowths of this type of policy thinking, and in my view most of them lead to further divisiveness in our nation.  That is, further separation of the “haves” from the “have nots.”  And, ultimately, if we continue down this path I believe civil unrest is inevitable.

The issue that brought this topic to my mind was a conversation I heard on the radio the other day (I had to subscribe to XM satellite radio because our local “liberal” talk radio was canceled for another dose of the Fox nightmare) regarding the alarming number of Black adults in the prison system of the U.S.  What was really startling to me was the discussion regarding “private prisons” that caused me to think in a way that would never happen if I was trusting the so-called “mainstream media” to provide me with information.  The discussion I tuned into was about how the operators of the private prisons are able to make sure that inmates are returned to their prison through political deal making with local politicians and law enforcement personnel through incentives that really amount to obscene examples of corruption.  Really, when you think about it, the purpose of prison “time” should be rehabilitation, but with a private prison the incentive is to keep the inmate incarcerated as long as possible because the operators of the prison don’t make money with “empty beds.”  This is crazy to me, just the idea that we would allow this to happen.

The hospital and health care system in America has evolved in the sense that medical procedures have advanced tremendously since my youth, but the availability of hospitals and medical services is dwindling as I write.  Despite the so-called “Affordable Care Act” I find a seemingly endless campaign to try to stop “health care reform” by the very people who’ve lost the last two elections in which health care reform was a major issue both times – the first time (2008) Americans saying they wanted “affordable healthcare” with a “public option” and the second time (2012) the voters saying they want “Obamacare” despite the FACT it is far less than what was envisioned during the initial campaign in 2008.  (I believe it will be painfully obvious how important the so-called “public option” was when this was all coming “down” as we see the private insurance companies attempting to gouge the public as the government “gifts” them 30 MILLION new customers)  I’ve seen reports where insurance companies (who, as I just said, are going to get millions of new customers) are threatening to raise rates even more substantially than they have over the previous 4 years and I’ve heard all sorts of other complaints about “socialized medicine” that sound to me as if they’re (the complaints) coming directly from the mouths of the Fox “news” bloviators or the right wing mouth pieces like Rush Limbaugh or Lars Larsen.  The brainwashing coming from the so-called “liberal media” (outlets like Fox “news,” The Wall Street Journal, CNN, etc.) even have acquaintances of mine who have no insurance and can get no insurance due to their previous medical issues believing that “Obamacare” is a bad thing.  The absurdity of this is beyond palpable.

One of my friends had a heart attack and needed quadruple bypass surgery to save his life.  The bill was over a quarter of a million dollars – an impossibility for him to pay.  Essentially, the hospital knowing that payment was impossible, “forgave” the debt.  A great thing for my friend (although I don’t think the doctor was as gracious – probably leading to some form of bankruptcy) but not so great for those of us who have been (and are) paying for health insurance (and, lucky enough to have it I might add).  I happen to be a person who has health issues and fortunately my insurance can’t be cancelled because I’m a member of a union and we have a large “group” that gets insurance through our employer.  (republicans want to destroy my union as well as all the remaining unions in America – God help us if they succeed)  I was recently in the hospital for around 24 hours for a surgery on my cervical spine.  The hospital bill was in excess of $40 THOUSAND for those 24 hours.  When my first daughter was born – back when hospitals were “non-profit” – my wife had a “C section” delivery (which is a major surgery) and she was in the hospital with my daughter for 4 days.  I had no insurance at the time, but the bill was $3000 which I was able to repay in less than two years (back then the prevailing wage was something less than $5 per hour).

I could go on with a list of examples where the “right wing” would have us believe we’re so much better off because of “privatization” that, in reality, are at best debatable – and, at worst – like the private prisons – a MAJOR sham on our society that is causing grief for the “least of us” (using the words of Jesus Christ) and a lot of profit for the wealthy among us who will do anything for money.  Since the days of Reagan our society has been on a steady course toward measuring success by money.  The result is clearly a widening of the gap between the rich and poor, a disintegration of America’s “middle class,” a disintegration of American families, a widening of the racial divide that so many have worked so hard to narrow, and what appears to me to be the creation of – or the attempt at creating – a permanent underclass through the undermining of the public education system.

The people pulling the republican “strings” are very sophisticated and, in my view, always one step ahead of the general public (and the democrats) in their actions.  When they are saying one thing out of one side of their mouths, it seems to me what they are really up to is what isn’t coming out of the other side of their mouths.  Take for example education, which I have a little knowledge about as a teacher for 20 years.  Once the Supreme Court had anointed George W Bush as president he immediately sought the passage of the so-called “no child left behind” legislation which was supposedly designed to bring all children to the same level of achievement by 2014.  To the unassuming person who believes our politicians are transparent and genuine I’m sure this sounded great.  Bush even got Teddy Kennedy to go along with his scheme (Kennedy realized he’d been snookered before he died, but it was then too late to “fix” the problem).  To educators the absurdity of the legislation was apparent from the 1st day.  For example, it’s unreasonable to expect a student with learning disabilities to be at the same level as a student who is fully capable.  If “parity” between the two different levels of students was realistic then the identifying of “special needs” (like autism, mental retardedness, dyslexia, emotional disorders, etc.) would be unnecessary.  However, the reality is that schools such as the one I work in have populations of “special needs” students with as many as 15 -20% of the students.  With “life skills” students, the teachers are, in some instances, teaching a student how to communicate the most basic of human needs.  These students shouldn’t even be taking tests.  Yet, Bush’s “no child left behind” legislation required EVERY student to be judged based on a single test each year – and, the result of that legislation continues to erode our education system as I type this.  I believe the legislation was intended to erode our public school system – that was actually its purpose. (with the intended result – private schools)

Schools are judged on whether their students are meeting “adequate yearly progress” and the standards, at least for schools such as mine, are virtually impossible for some students to meet.  It’s just a matter of time until my school, and most other public schools – are “failing.”  Yet, I see miraculous examples of students who are coming from generational poverty pulling themselves OUT all the time – so, to me the school I teach in is not a failing school no matter what the test scores say.  I’m not opposed to testing the students – it’s a way for me to measure whether my own students have grown appropriately over the course of a school year in the subject areas I’m teaching – but, the state mandated “high stakes” testing is causing too many schools to focus on test results and not on what is best overall for their students.  Aside from my contention that I believe “no child left behind” was part of the scheme to eliminate public schools and “privatize” education in America (again, God help us if the republicans succeed at this) – which will exacerbate that divide between the “haves” and “have nots” even more – I’ve come to believe that another “offshoot” of the bill could be what I see as the attempt to create a “permanent underclass” of workers willing to work for less – the large number of young Americans who are dropping out of school because of the focus on testing and going to college that apparently makes graduating from high school seem less important to so many.  I’ve got sixth graders who are already “giving up” because they can’t see a “light at the end of the tunnel.”  They believe the testing is identifying them as the “losers.”

Another despicable aspect of this “privatization” scheme and the “no child left behind” legislation which caused virtually EVERY state in the union to have a need for the “high stakes” tests – is that President Bush’s brother Neil is making a “killing” selling testing materials that are required based on his brother’s “signature” legislation.  This is how the privatization scheme works.  As I see it, there’s a shrinking group of very wealthy Americans/foreigners who are in charge of the multinational corporations which, behind the scenes, control America’s politicians who are legitimizing this turn away from the New Deal toward the idea of privatization.  When congress closes down part of the government and gives the “authority” to another private enterprise – this cabal of wealthy individuals who seemingly have an insatiable desire for MORE money – ALWAYS come out WAY AHEAD – while the American public continues to be the ones “left behind.”  They’re even doing this in war.

If you remember, the Bush/Cheney regime privatized a large portion of the FIASCO in Iraq and Afghanistan – “wars” which were seemingly endless – but, wars where the “cronies” of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld – and, they themselves – made HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars (dollars borrowed by the people who are now whining about our horrendous debt).  I’ve read where Dick Cheney’s holdings in Halliburton (a company that moved it’s headquarters to Dubai in order to avoid American legal scrutiny over their corrupt practices in Iraq – with virtually NO BLOW-BACK from our “liberal media”) increased over $100 MILLION during the Iraq Fiasco, Donald Rumsfeld’s holdings increased a similar amount, and Douglas Feith made a huge “killing” as well (no pun intended).  I believe Richard Perle, a former assistant Secretary of Defense and an associate of Paul Wolfowitz – both men major instigators of the invasion of Iraq – started a company which was set up to profit off of no-bid private security contracts in Iraq)  To me this is unthinkable, but evidently in our age of “privatization” any way you can make money is acceptable.  Halliburton and their subsidiary KBR (Kellogg Brown and Root) have a long history of “allegedly” overcharging the government, kickbacks, bribery, etc. and they continue to receive open ended no-bid contracts from the pentagon with no sign that I’ve seen of any accountability for their corrupt practices or their sloppy work.  It just seems that whenever they want to “privatize” something, someone is getting filthy rich as a result – and, “we the people” are always the losers.

I don’t question whether large corporations provide benefits to the American public, but I question the motivation of the people who continue to insist that private business is always more efficient than government.  The reality, in my view, is that there should be no profit in war, hospitals should be non-profit, the idea of “private prisons” is absurd, destroying public education so that the “wealthy among us” can send their children to private schools with public “vouchers” is a not so subtle attack on our students born into poverty, and we DEFINITELY don’t need private militias (like Blackwater) and private contractors fleecing America’s taxpayers with their will for endless “wars.” (actually, I don’t believe either the invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq are officially declared wars)  The people behind this movement for privatization are the same people who support no regulations on Wall Street, they support all the tax havens in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Switzerland, etc., and they are behind the effort to prevent congress from repealing tax loopholes for major corporations which allow many companies (like GE, Microsoft, Apple, etc.) from paying, in some instances, ANY taxes – or in many cases an amount that even approaches the traditional expectation corporations faced for their tax bills (percentage wise) in the years following WW II leading up to the days of “Reaganomics.”  The statistics are undeniable: since the days of Reagan the incomes of the wealthy in America have risen dramatically while the income of the working class (despite huge increases in productivity) has stagnated or declined.  Privatization works for the wealthy and Wall Street, but not for those of us on Main Street.

Honestly, I’m not sure when (if ever during my remaining lifetime) the public is going to become so outraged over the BullCrap coming out of Washington DC, and mostly instigated by a republican party gone so far amuck that they are unrecognizable to someone my age who can genuinely remember the days of Eisenhower and the sixties.  I’ve been railing against “trickle down” economics since the day Ronald Reagan was elected.  It made no sense then, it’s made no sense in the years since, and it makes no sense going forward.  Yet, after another sound thrashing from the (national) polls, here we have the republican party continuing to prostitute themselves to the very wealthy and the corporate elite in America.  The “trickle down” theory was presented as an economic philosophy that would advance the “world” of the working class as the wealthy in America would “trickle down” the tax benefits they received from progressively larger tax breaks through the creation of better jobs and higher wages.  The reality is that this philosophy is really a “trickle up” economic plan that is SQUEEZING as much wealth out of the middle class into the bank accounts of America’s wealthy class and corporate executives as the foolish American public will continue to allow.

Today, in the republican leaders of Congress’s all out effort to prevent their benefactors (pimps) from losing tax breaks that are obscene when you look at them up close (like Oil Companies cashing in to the tune of tens of BILLIONS in breaks while making profits that seemingly break records quarter after quarter) you’ll hear the “water carriers” like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Lars Larsen, Bill O’Reilly (and the like – people who’ll say whatever the Koch’s and the others behind the scenes pushing our fossil fuel economy tell them to say – abusing their place on our public airwaves) tell us the $85 BILLION in across the board cuts triggered by the “sequester” are nothing more than a “drop in the bucket” compared to the size of our economy.  However, the only sure thing I can see about this is that those people won’t feel it at all – the people who will feel the effects of this STUPID form of governing are, again, mostly going to be people at the “bottom rungs” of our economy.  I’m certainly not opposed to cutbacks in our government, it’s just the RIDICULOUS way everything has to happen in Washington DC these days because the republicans are so adamant about holding on to a tax system that clearly favors the wealthiest among us.

I (and many others) have seen this coming for years.  It just keeps getting progressively worst.  The only time I can remember when there was a plethora of jobs being created and a healthy economy for the people in the middle class during the years since Reagan was elected was in the years of the Clinton administration.  However, when I look back on those years I can see the workings of this invisible group of RICH right wing, racist individuals at work chipping away at the foundation of our nation which emerged after World War II and the aftermath of the New Deal – which the Kochs and the others involved in this “attack” HATE with passion.  (I’m beginning to think the only thing they HATE more than the New Deal is having a Black President)  These people are smart, they’ve got UNLIMITED financial resources, and they’ve been at this for well over 30 years and they’re not “going away” until the American public WISES UP!

As successful as many progressive Americans view the Clinton years, two things happened which are compounding our problems almost exponentially as we evolve into the “21st Century.”  First, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has turned THOUSANDS of independent media outlets into a dangerously few corporate GIANTS who are suppressing information in an alarming manner.  Clinton went along with this STUPID law and now we’re all paying the price.  The second MAJOR BLUNDER was the repeal of the Glass Steagall act toward the end of Clinton’s second term.  This was the action that has allowed the so-called “Too Big to Fail” banks to emerge – again with seemingly endless supplies of financial resources which they’re using to manipulate the system and it also allowed much of the exotic trading and speculation that is fueling the financial markets and has turned Wall Street into a glorified GAMBLING Casino.  There is so much wealth on Wall Street now that any push back is met with MASSIVE financial resources aimed at destroying the careers of any politician who would dare to attempt to re-regulate their casinos.

These people have a stacked Supreme Court which burdened us all with the “Citizens United” decision that is the worst case of judicial overreach in my lifetime coming from the people who constantly complain about judicial activism.  The Robert’s Court overturned something like 100 years of congressional attempts to control campaign finance abuses by, essentially, opening the spigots of the bank accounts from people like Charles and David Koch who have BILLIONS to burn in order to protect their fossil fuel empire and other wealthy individuals and corporations who have a stake in manipulating our electoral process.  (Kind of the same theory as the NRA gun lobbyists claiming the way to stop gun violence is to produce MORE guns!)  Citizens United has empowered wealthy elites from outside the U.S. to be able to use their money (surreptitiously) to influence our future elections.  This is ABSURD, yet the “liberal media” (which is firmly in the control of about nine “conservative” corporations) says virtually NOTHING about it from the standpoint of informing the general public.  News Corp, which is run by a right wing Australian (who’s donating MILLIONS to republcan candidates for office around the country) owns the Wall Street Journal, Fox “News,” and many other “news” outlets which are going to broadcast or print a perspective that comes right out of the republican caucus.  Fox “News” is so blatantly ABSURD as a “news” outlet, that it’s embarrassing to me as an educator that the American people tune into that network AT ALL.  The head of Fox “News” – Roger Ailes – is nothing more than a republican operative.  The result of this situation (again, I believe it’s the result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996) is the divisive nature of our present political discourse where we’ve gotten to the point that virtually NOTHING of significance will be accomplished in the next two years.

The solution?  Well, the solution is clearly that one of the two parties needs to be TOTALLY defeated.  While I’ve never felt that “one party rule” is healthy – that is clearly the objective the republicans have been working for over these past 30+ years – as Karl Rove calls it – “The permanent republican majority.”  Well, hopefully, the American people haven’t lost sight of how disastrous that would be.  They fought off the latest attempt to pull this off by defeating Mitt Romney in 2012 despite something like 3 BILLION being spent by the wealthy elite of America to get the Black guy out of the White House.  Obviously, they’ve (the republicans) hardly slowed down since that election.  And, they’ve got the power to stop everything because of their control of the majority in the House of Representatives – hence, the sequester.  Those who want to pin the sequester on President Obama evidently forget that it’s the result of republicans blackmailing the president (and the nation) over the “debt ceiling” in 2012 which led to it.  (which will likely be the next big fiasco as the debt “crisis” comes to a “head” again in the next month or so)  So, as I’ve been saying for several years now, there’s only one solution for people like me who consider themselves “progressive” (OK, Liberal – as I’ve stated many times on this site, years ago I thought I was a conservative – it’s just that compared to these republicans I’m a “flaming” liberal) and that is the TOTAL defeat of the republican party at the ballot box.

That will, if you’ve been paying attention for the past few years, not be easy.  Even though there are a lot more people who identify with the democratic party (certainly with the traditional ideals of the democratic party going back to the days of FDR) the republicans have been VERY BUSY manipulating voting districts (gerrymandering) around the nation in a way where they’re planning to be able to win and keep control of congress and the White House with less than a majority of votes.  (As I write, they’re busy trying to change the rules in some key swing states to take advantage of their gerrymandering – vis a vi – electoral votes – to further strengthen their position in national elections with a minority of votes)  In fact, they actually pulled this off in 2012 in the House congressional elections.  Nation wide democratic House candidates received something approaching 2 MILLION more votes than republican candidates, yet the republicans continue to have a strong control of the “lower chamber” of congress.  I believe the solution is to start targeting the leaders – like Mitch McConnell who is the leading republican obstructionist in the senate.  He’s terribly UNPOPULAR in his home state and he’s due to come up for re-election in 2014.  I don’t have much money, but I’m prepared to start donating to the cause to defeat McConnell once a viable democratic candidate is on the scene.  Then there’s John Boehner, the Speaker of the House.  The guy’s shown signs of alcohol issues, he spends more time on the golf course than in the House Chamber and he comes from Ohio – where, I have to believe there’s someone there who could challenge his position.  There’s many like myself who would donate small amounts that might, in total, allow someone to unseat Boehner.   And, the guy in Wisconsin who ran along side Romney, Paul Ryan – certainly the good people of Wisconsin can come up with a challenge to get him out of office.  (I’ve donated more money to Wisconsin democrats than any place else because I consider the good people of Wisconsin who stood up to the Koch’s and Scott Walker to be ground zero in the fight to repeal this republican nightmare that has been destroying America since the day George W Bush was installed into the White House by the Supreme Court)

You would have thought that after GW Bush was out of the nation’s capital that the American people would have had enough – two unfunded, incompetently prosecuted wars along with an economy in meltdown should have been enough to give us a break from this tax breaks for the wealthy philosophy of government – actually, people who openly profess to HATE government wanting to “run it” so that they can destroy it from the inside.  It’s so crazy that, again, I’m embarrassed that enough American citizens can’t figure this out.  And, it’s true that this latest “crisis” – the sequester – will not directly affect many Americans ( at least in the near term) – the problem that I see is the a large percentage of those affected will be middle class Americans or Americans who are suffering in poverty.  From a cutting standpoint, in my mind, exactly the WRONG place to be cutting.  The only encouraging thing I can think about all of this is that I’m finally hearing rhetoric from the president which implies that maybe he’s now got his fighting shoes on.  This will eventually need to be brought to a “head” and, undoubtedly, the republicans in the House are going to “shut down” the government again – just as they did in the 1990’s when Newt Gingrich was the Speaker of the House.  The reward for all of this anti-government tea party crap needs to come at the ballot box in 2014 – and, my hope is that Boehner and company will inspire the vast majority of Americans who consider them incompetent to focus on removing as many republicans from congress as possible in 2014.  It will be an uphill battle due to the issues I’ve related above – the media controlled by right wing corporations, the gerrymandering of congressional districts, and probably most important the money that will be spent on behalf of the politicians willing to prostitute themselves to the republican sheep mentality due to the Citizens United decision.

Every year going forward that one Supreme Court decision will make it more difficult for “we the people” to actually control who our elected officials are.  I guarantee you, right now as I’m writing this, people like the Koch brothers are regrouping from the 2012 defeat and they’re planning on how to best use their BILLIONS to make it the democrats who are sent packing in 2014 and beyond.   I’ve said this many times on this site – and, somehow I hope President Obama and the democratic leaders in congress read my words:  This is WAR!  It’s a war for the heart and soul of this great nation I love.  (To the benefactors of the republican politicians, America is nothing more than a source for their great wealth!)

I just finished reading a book, given to me from one of my republican friends from church, written by Tony Evans and called “Kingdom Man.”  I almost didn’t read the book because right on the cover it says “Focus on the Family” which is the right wing enterprise of James Dobson.  I’ve been to Focus on the Family’s headquarters in Colorado and I’ve listened to Dobson on the radio many times and, as I’ve been attempting to educate myself to the REAL on-goings of our government since GW Bush invaded Iraq in 2003, Dobson keeps coming up in different books as one of the most divisive people who have a “national stage” in America.  Dobson is one of the leaders in the movement over the past 30+ years to turn the word “liberal” into a “dirty word.”  I’ve also read, in several instances (which I’m not going to go back to find so I can specifically point them out), about Dobson’s behind the scenes involvement in the right wing thrust of the republican party these past 35 years or so that has resulted in our nation crumbling from the effect of the so-called “Christian Right” providing republicans with a block of voters who vote their way without questioning their (the republicans) true agenda.  That all being said, I read the book because my friend agreed to read one book that I will provide him.  (We’ll see on that – I’m going to give him “The Family of Secrets” by Russ Baker – a thorough and provocative study of the “Bush dynasty” – by far the best I’ve read on the Bush family)

Tony Evans is an African American pastor of a Mega Church in Dallas Texas.  He’s the chaplain for both the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Mavericks and his resume, to me, is impeccable from top to bottom.  Evans is a great example of what is possible in America – that anyone can come from humble (or less than humble) circumstances and achieve great success.  And, he’s clear in pointing out that success doesn’t mean achieving at the level he’s managed to achieve at, but being a “Kingdom Man” is a goal all men can (and should) strive for.  I’m not going to get too much into the details of the book other than to say that it is clearly Christian based and that, in my view, it points out some realities about America that are undeniable.  The thrust of the book focuses on the problems created in America by the failure of so many men to live up to the responsibility of being first, a husband and then a father, and it goes on to point out the other responsibilities necessary for men if America is going to actually “change” direction – as so many of us desire.  As I read this book, some thoughts I’ve been struggling with gained a bit of clarity.

At this point I need to add a little about my background.  I’m old enough to have a medicare card, I’m a school teacher nearing retirement, I’m a Christian and I look forward to my time in church each week.  However, that’s where the “rub” starts and, hopefully, where Evan’s book might bring me some clarity in my own thinking.  Ever since I accepted Christ into my life as my “Lord and savior” I’ve struggled with the reality that so many of my good friends from church are part of this “Christian Right” that I mentioned above.  I’ve been uncomfortable being around people who make derogatory comments about “liberals” evidently not knowing I’m a “liberal.”  (actually, I always considered myself a conservative for years, but the republicans have moved so far to the “right” that I guess I’m finally comfortable with the “liberal” tag)  I was offended in 2003 by the enthusiasm coming from my church ( and churches across America) as we invaded Iraq (and pretty much destabilized the entire world).  And, I’ve been discouraged in the years since as I’ve come to realize the large number of “Christians” who vote republican as a block without taking the time to find out the TRUTH about who and what they’re voting for.  This block of voters (I was tempted to use the term “sheep”) has enabled the republican party to chip away at the very foundation of America because very few question anything and the ones who do are quickly considered “Persona non Grata” inside the party.  It has also allowed the surreptitious power-grab by large corporate and wealthy interest groups to gain a stranglehold on the party continually pushing it farther to the “right.”  (Dobson is a part of that  “surreptitious” group – he runs a BILLION dollar plus enterprise)

Let me quickly add that in my “research” of what’s been going on – REALLY going on with our government – the abuses show up on “both sides of the isle.”  I just recently finished a post pointing out my frustration with HARRY REID and the democratic establishment that, to me, doesn’t have the spine to do what’s “right” to clean up Washington DC – so, please don’t respond to anything I say here by saying something along the lines of “But the democrats……..”  I’m really tired of that response to my complaint about what the republicans are doing to America.  It’s abundantly clear that the same “special interests” who have a stranglehold on the republican party have enough excess cash to succeed in buying off a sufficient number of democrats to further their selfish interests.  That’s not the point here.  In Evan’s book, he’s laying out a plan for how by simply calling the American adult males to “man up” so many of our problems could be addressed in a positive way.  And, the reality is that I agree with him.

I’ve been teaching the sixth grade for near 20 years in a high poverty school.  I’ve seen first hand, OVER and OVER, the damage done to young children when they are in fatherless homes, or homes with abusive fathers.  By the time young boys (and girls too, but I’m going to focus on the males here – that’s the focus of Evan’s book) get to the sixth grade the damage is often MAJOR.  As a teacher, I feel that for many of my students I’m fighting for their lives.  I’m often shocked (well, the truth is that not much shocks me any more – but, it used to) when sixth graders at the age of 11 demonstrate “street knowledge” I didn’t have when I was finishing high school.  It is not rare for me to have students who are essentially raising themselves.  My students regularly watch R rated movies I wouldn’t watch myself.  I’ve had 11 year olds bring alcohol into the classroom (and actually drink it there), they’re exposed to all kinds of drugs, and most have no idea what an education might do for them in the future.  In fact, when I ask them what their thoughts about the future are, most say “huh?”  And, then add, “I don’t have any thoughts about the future.”  (Well, there are the ones who are going to be NFL or NBA stars)  I totally agree with Evans that this is a national problem.  Most of these students of mine are in single parent families and education isn’t on their scale of priorities.

The result of this societal breakdown in our family structures – Evans has the statistics about marriage, divorce, etc. and they’re sobering to say the least – is not only undermining the fabric of our nation, it is causing HUGE expense to deal with the results of all these wayward children “down the road.”  Evans has the statistics for that as well, and the costs are in the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars to our society.  All the men who end up incarcerated, all the teen pregnancies and unwanted pregnancies, all the members of society who are performing at a level well below their potential is costly to society.  Yet, it seems to me that we’re not only not doing anything about this problem (I believe you can make a case that it’s the most difficult and most important challenge facing our society – the breakdown of the family structure) it’s not even on the radar screen.  That’s where I got a little bit of a sense of clarity about my own thinking as I read Evan’s book.

I’ve been writing about how the republican party as it is presently constituted needs to be defeated, exiled,  I’m not sure what the correct word is, but it needs to be a thing of the past.  Not because I’m totally against the republican party – over the years of my voting life I’ve voted for many republicans – it’s just that once I started looking into the “inner workings” of the party after the Iraq invasion (keep in mind, I’m from the Viet Nam era – and, I was convinced in my mind that something like that could never again happen in America) I’ve discovered many unnerving things.  From books like “The Family” and “The Shock Doctrine” and “Blackwater” and “Fiasco” and “Crazy for God” and “Family of Secrets” and I could go on and on, you get a picture that’s – well, to me – un-American.  There’s a propaganda campaign going on that is right out of the annals of Joseph Goebbels from the Third Reich where republicans are following Goebbels’ “Big Lie theory” to a tee.  They’ve got a network of “talking heads” who use the same key terms and repeat them over and over until the unsuspecting public believes their lie is actually the truth.  You’ve got to turn to books such as I mentioned previously to get a perspective that isn’t molded in some secret place and spammed onto America’s airwaves in order to control an unsuspecting public – many of which are the members of the “Christian Right.”  I can’t tell you how many people I know who believe what comes out of Rush Limbaugh’s mouth, or Sean Hannity’s, or Bill O’Reilly’s, or Lars Larsen’s (the local, to me, “mouthpiece”), or what they see and hear on Fox News.  I’ve had friends, when I show them the information that refutes what they’ve heard on Fox, crumble the paper (without reading it), throw it on the ground, and say “That’s liberal garbage.”

For starters, it doesn’t take long to identify these aforementioned people as racists.  This, of course, has become painfully obvious since the election of Barrack Obama.  But, anyone who takes any kind of an open minded look at what comes from Limbaugh’s mouth can’t question whether he’s a racist or not.  He’s right up front with it.  That’s why he only lasted one night on “Monday Night Football.”  The racist rhetoric just flows freely from his mouth.  And, this has been clearly the motivation behind the so-called “Tea Party” movement, which pushed the republican party even farther toward total extremism once Obama was elected.  The reality is there’s a large segment of America which is not ready to face the reality that this nation is getting “less white” all the time and that our president is Black (disagree? Then, explain to me why republicans are so open about “If Obama’s for it, we’re against it!” – even when it’s their own idea).  That issue alone has caused me great concern with so many people I know being associated with the republican party.  I don’t see how you can profess to be a “Christian” and associate yourself with racist views – to me, that’s not the Christianity that I believe in.  So, I’m in this quandary of  agreeing with the premise that Evans presents in his well written book, but having the same struggle I’ve had for years – and that’s the association with this “Christian Right” that just continues to perpetuate republican obstruction and divisiveness.  I long ago determined that I’m not going to allow these people to cause me to give up my Christian beliefs – I’ve recognized that, if what I believe is true, then the “judgement” will take place (as to who’s correct) when I’m no longer able to write in this “blog.”

So, here’s what seems to be gaining clarity in my mind.  Evans talks about how the solution to our problems of the family structure and the role of men in our society is a “bottom up” solution and I agree.  But, I also feel it is a societal problem and until our society is willing to address it and to put resources towards a solution (by resources, I mean both financial and intellectual) the slide in the wrong direction will continue.  And, this is where Evans will probably think I’m really off base, I believe the first step is to somehow end this partnership with the “Christian Right” and the republican party.  I’m not in any way suggesting Christians should support the democratic party.  In fact, in my mind neither party as they’re constituted should be supported regardless.  Lately, I’ve been voting democratic, but mainly because I’m voting against the republican agenda.  I would like to see a situation where both parties (or others should they emerge) can’t count on blocks of people who will support them “blindly.”  Without the “Christian” block, I can guarantee you the republican party would have to be more willing to work toward solutions that represent the needs of the “people” over the needs of their corporate sponsors, and the same is true with the democratic party.

Additionally, I believe the “Christian Right’s” affiliation with the republican party has turned more people away from Christianity than most people imagine.  As I study American History, the reality is that many of the progressive programs that came together under the New Deal during FDR’s time originated from Christian sources.  If you read “Crazy for God” you get an idea how the republican party created this disingenuous partnership with Christians (led by Francis Shaeffer and his son Frank – who now regrets his actions) over the abortion issue.  This was their superficial strategy to lock in this huge voting block (the so-called “pro-life” movement – which I could do an entire post on that issue itself) and it has worked.  Most of my friends who blindly vote republican still base their vote on this one issue – with little knowledge of what else they’re voting for.  So, what I’m suggesting is the first step in creating an atmosphere where the vision of Tony Evans might be realized is to break up this unhealthy “partnership.”  If we could eliminate the divisiveness that has been the mantra of people like Dobson, Limbaugh, and so many others on the “right” maybe we could create a dialogue which would actually address the issue of the role of men in our society.

I’m one who was essentially raised without  a father (not totally, but certainly  my father was not a “kingdom man”) and, in my adult life, I’ve discovered some of the damage done during my childhood that has permeated into issues during my adult life.  This is not unusual, but I agree with Evans that the way to turn America around is first in the family structure, and the key to that is men who are righteous (I’ll leave the discussion of what that means to another day).  Children naturally want fathers and when they grow up without fathers there’s a huge “hole” in their life.  This is a huge problem in America and, in my view, it won’t get addressed – it won’t even be on the agenda – in our present climate.  And, I’m not suggesting that breaking up the republican party is the solution.  To me, it’s just the first step.  However, if we can get beyond the intransigence, the divisiveness, and the obstructionism maybe these problems will become part of the dialogue and people who think like Tony Evans will then have a platform that leads to a national discussion and attempts to find workable solutions to this problem.  I’ll end by saying, the sad reality is that this “Christian”/republican “partnership” is fueling the divisiveness in America which prevents solutions to most problems “Christians” should care about.

I have a son who I believe is becoming entrenched into what I see as a “permanent underclass” of disenchanted young Americans who are not able to process why things seem so hopeless.  He’s not the “cookie cutter” young person who’s going to find the socially acceptable “pathway” (which is way too narrow as it is) appealing at all and, despite my efforts to explain what’s “happening” as I see it, motivating him to participate in “society”  is extremely difficult.  He’s one of the MILLIONS of young people in today’s world who gain their satisfaction in the world of video games and obscenely provocative graphic presentations (movies, games, music, etc.) and shows no sign of wanting to join the “mainstream.”  Government, to him, is a misnomer.  It’s true he brings much of his dilemma upon himself, but as a parent, it’s frustrating to feel as if I’m climbing a steep uphill battle as I attempt to convince him he has a part in the future of this great nation.

In our latest conversation he commented that when he goes back to school (I really hope he does that) he wants to learn a foreign language so he can move to a different country.  I’m formulating in my mind how to address this (underneath it all, he’s a very gifted young man – someone who should be able to find a place in our society) when I get an email about how Jeff Merkley, the US Senator from Oregon – one of the few members of the Senate in Washington I feel my son might be able to look up to – got redressed by HARRY REID because of his (Merkley’s) aggressive push to get the senate rules regarding the filibuster changed.  That one was almost too much for me – not only was Merkley attacked (and probably disciplined) by the democratic leadership, but the filibuster essentially was NOT CHANGED!  This news is beyond discouraging, it’s DEPRESSING.

I’ve written piece after piece about the damage being done to our political system by the right wing republican party, but there’s always been the undertone of democrats who lack the spine to do anything about it.  And, now Reid has publicly told us all that if anyone else in the Democratic party wants to push for REAL progressive change, this is what they can expect.  The reality is that Reid is every bit the Washington insider who’s been bought and paid for by the corporate elite many times over.  Just as in 2008, for me, the election of 2012 is immediately being followed by a series of red flags suggesting that the democratic party is not “up to the task” of changing the environment in Washington.  When you think about it, why would they.  Democratic congresspersons are just as likely to hold lucrative lobbying positions once they’ve been “outed” as are republicans.  It just kind of gives all of us who are naive enough to think there might really be a change of direction in this nation a quick dose of REALITY.

Division and dysfunction are proving to be very profitable to everyone who’s got a place on the inside.  Think about it, in the last election media companies were the recipients of BILLIONS in spending on political advertisements – do you really think they want that to stop?  And, the dysfunction seems to be driving America’s wealthiest individuals and corporations to be willing to spend unlimited amounts to protect their interests (no matter whether their interests are in the interest of the rest of us).  Where is that money going?  Well, aside from the political advertising (which is a sufficient threat to people like Merkley because of the enormity of the potential “backlash” as punishment for being truly “progressive” – just ask Sherrod Brown who was hit by almost $50 MILLION in “attack ads” during his previous senatorial campaign as a “reward” for standing up against “big oil” and standing for “single payer” health care in America – the reality of the situation here is sick) which can work for or against different politicians depending on what kind of “stand” they’re willing to take it’s also going straight into the campaign “coffers” of those congresspersons who “cooperate.”  Republicans are very COVERT in their expectation that EVERYONE  in their caucus “toes the line,” (unless, of course, you want a “primary challenge”) but I don’t see the democrats as much better.  We’ll see how this plays out for Senator Merkley, but the clear message is – don’t challenge the party leadership – even if they’re clearly “stuck in the mud.”

Think about the 3+ BILLION spent on lobbying for the “Affordable Care Act.”  Where do you think that money went?  I can guarantee you that if you look closely at the “coffers” of the congress people in the center of that fiasco (republicans OR democrats)  A LOT OF MONEY went from corporate interests into the campaign treasure chests of the people voting up or down on the legislation.  Here’s the bigger rub:  We all KNOW what’s going on, many of us want this corrupt system CLEANED UP, yet this crap just keeps happening OVER AND OVER.  Now, not only do those of us who consider ourselves “liberal” feel we have no one to turn to (the republican response to Reid’s actions regarding the filibuster was: we’ve defeated the liberals again!), but we’ve got another two years of watching republicans block EVERY attempt to move America back toward the New Deal with one filibuster after another.  The word I used earlier is still appropriate:  DEPRESSING!  (here’s another part of this that just shows how sick our “system” is – as with the so-called “public option” element in the Affordable Care Act the repeal of the filibuster garners public support from about 3 out of every 4 American voters – yet. our congress doesn’t hesitate to thumb their noses at “we the people”)

I keep telling my son that this corporate raid on our government is nothing new.  It happened in the late 1800’s, the parallels with what’s going on in America today and what was happening in the 1920’s are startling, and I believe we will, as a society, evolve past this and end up in a better direction.  It’s just that we also have histories of “lost generations” and I’m trying to get him to understand he’s got to fight his way out of the depressing state where you feel as if you have no future.  I just can’t bring myself to believe America will ultimately choose the way of Ayn Rand over the way of Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln.  And, no, I haven’t read “Atlas Shrugged” beyond brief summaries, but I don’t see America as a “me” society.

In the 1980’s I could see this present dilemma  on the horizon.  Even though Ronald Reagan was far from what I guess you’d call a “Randian” he ushered in the “Young Republicans” who have evolved into today’s Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff, and others who seem willing to do or say anything provided it moves the selfish interests of their wealthy donors forward.  I remember thinking back then, “these people are all about ‘me’ and turned off by ‘we’ when they talk about the role government should play in a society. (One thing I’ve found very curious over the years is that – from what I’ve read – Ayn Rand was an atheist – yet, many of my acquaintances who seem to have leanings toward her thinking are Christians)  In fact, Rove and Norquist seem to be the leaders of the group that professes to hate government – yet, wants to control it.  The only thing I can take from that is they want to make sure they squeeze as much wealth out of the “system” as they can “while the gettin’s good.”

Here’s another part of the scenario that makes it seem depressing.  These republicans just lost another national election – they’ve lost 5 of the last 6 national elections (remember Bush v Gore – Gore won a substantial majority of the vote) – this despite a HUGE advantage from the money standpoint.  But, the people behind this movement have been losing elections for many many years (we’re talking now about the Koch Brothers and some of their peers).  They won’t even slow down to take a breath.  The amount of financial resources at their disposal is unending.  And, they’ve got sufficient control of the “liberal media” that it’s unlikely the general public will wise up to what they’re doing anytime soon. Additionally, they’ve become EXTREMELY sophisticated.   They’re not only making a play in the national scene, but they’ve got their fingerprints all the way down to local municipal governments.  The damage being done across the nation to unions from right wing governors who are working somewhat covertly from the nation’s attention (except for Wisconsin and Ohio) could be damaging for many years.  I even went to a “free” presentation on the economics of poverty – presented as professional development by my school district – designed for teachers to take back into the classroom – that was put on by one of the offshoots of the Koch’s Heritage Institute.  I was the only person in the room of about 35 teachers (mostly high school) who even questioned the reliability of the presentation – which came across to me as propaganda.  The Kochs (and others of their ilk) are finding very creative ways to get their message out on an unsuspecting public.  I would have had no problem with what they were doing had they only been willing to be up front with who they were representing (according to the presentation, there is essentially no poverty in America – because our “poor” are so much better off than, say, the poor in Africa).

As stated above, unfortunately, those of us who want this LIBERAL push-back to the previous right wing movement America has experienced in the past 30+ years have to depend on people like Harry Reid to make it happen – and, that’s not an encouraging thought.  It’s like everyone in Washington DC espouses “change” but they all seem terrified of it.  I’ll end this by saying:  Harry Reid’s reluctance to end the filibuster is just a symptom of the bigger problem.  And, the “bigger problem” is very complicated and will never get resolved with intransigence on one side and fear on the other.  The saddest part to me is watching so many gifted young Americans essentially saying screw it – there’s no place in this society for me.  Without a concerted effort to fight back from the “left” the Ayn Rand thinkers will continually get closer to their goal and there will be more “riff raff” thrown away along the road.  What I don’t think they realize is that eventually their philosophy will be in direct conflict with Marxism.  And, eventually, people like my son will be saying “there’s way more of us than there are of them” and the “lid” could “blow off.”  I hope it never gets to that but people like Harry Reid need to figure out who’s side they’re on.

I just posted another in my long line of rantings about how the republican party, in my view, is undermining this nation.  Those in the background of that party, the ones “pulling the strings,” have little interest in anything more than their own wealth.  This has been clear for years, but they have such a stranglehold on the “messaging” that takes place in America, that they’ve literally gotten away with “murder” over the years.  I’m saying that as I read “A Family of Secrets” for the second time, a book following the “Bush dynasty” as none other I’ve read, and while documenting the life of George HW (Poppy) Bush it sheds enormous light on the machinations of the American government’s “insiders” over the past 60+ years and leaves an alarming concern in my mind as to the “real” United States of America.  This book gives what appears to be a well thought out scenario of how the CIA, the oil industry, the eastern “elite,” and a group of right wing thugs have steered America in a direction that is almost opposite from what they’ve been able to foist on the public through the so-called “liberal media” and a Goebbels like propaganda campaign.

People like George HW Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and others (many no longer with us) keep “popping up” and essentially making themselves wealthier and more powerful while spinning a sham on the rest of us that may never be totally uncovered.  The evidence, as I see it, is overwhelming that HW Bush spent the first half of his adult working life (after his Yale “Skull and Bones” years) as some type of agent for the CIA.  As opposed to Valerie Plame, it appears that “Poppy” Bush has managed to avoid being “outed” by the above mentioned “liberal media” that seems devoid of real investigative reporters.  As you read this book it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that both JFK and Richard Nixon were victims of our own CIA (which has been “connected at the hip” with the oil industry since its inception) – not to mention Martin Luther King, Jr. and RFK.  While it was hard for me to understand how they would “out” Nixon, the outing of JFK was not hard to understand.  In fact, the way that murder was “covered up” – officially with the anemic Warren Commission (which was stacked with Kennedy haters including, of all people, Allen Dulles who Kennedy had fired as CIA chief following the Bay of Pigs fiasco) shows that the problems with our investigative journalists goes way back farther than I had imagined.  When you see that Dulles (who was a certified Kennedy “hater”) was leading an investigation into an assassination that was probably pulled off by the CIA (which he had been in charge of) you can see why the murder is still “unsolved.”

The shocking part in all of this, to me, is the role that “Poppy” Bush seems to have played in this assassination.  And, more shocking is how he managed to cover his “tracks” to avoid scrutiny – and, as I think of the years following, how he has managed to avoid even investigations in subsequent untoward adventures that include CIA skullduggery.  I have to believe, for example, that Bush was right in the middle of undermining Nixon along with the Iran/Contra scandal of the Reagan years and hardly faced a question regarding his role in that illegal scandal.  This country has a history of allowing an elite group of people to operate outside the law for years, and I believe it continues to this day.  With the acquiescence of Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama I believe both Bush 41 and Bush 43 will never have to answer for their misdeeds – along with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, David Addington, and I could go on and on – these are the “contemporary” members of this elite group of lawbreakers.  It’s like a government mafia (In fact, there’s ample evidence that this cabal – and their associates, many who are still probably totally covert – have many times enlisted the help of true mafia personnel to “handle” some of their more “unpleasant” duties – like assassinating foreign leaders such as Fidel Castro (obviously they failed on this one) and other “leftists” – with many “successes,” for example – Allende, Trujillo, Iran’s Mohammed Mosaddegh, and others  [click here for an alleged list of CIA atrocities] – beyond the shores of Cuba)

Another “must read” in my mind, Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine,” gives a stunning accounting of the number of people who have disappeared as the result of alleged CIA actions and the methods of this “cabal” that is now operating on our own country.  Clearly, the CIA was set up to “fight fire with fire” in response to the KGB of the Soviet Union post World War II, but it has gotten so far out of control that we (Americans) have inherited the role of the Russians of the cold war – I guess in the name of national security.  Kind of the same mentality as what I heard today from the head of the NRA in response to the aftermath of the Connecticut massacre of small children by a person brandishing an easy to purchase assault weapon:  “The way to stop ‘bad people’ from killing with guns is with more ‘good people’ having guns.”  I’m not kidding you.  Also, it’s been suggested that teachers be armed and trained with guns.  I’m a teacher.  Are you kidding me???!  This, I believe, is the mentality that says that the CIA going around the world assassinating leaders who are “unfriendly” to the U.S. –  especially when they have natural resources that we want to usurp from them, or they have a business climate that doesn’t support American corporate interests – is acceptable. (not to mention mind altering experimentation of “expendable” people – what does this remind you of?)  The same mentality that says torture is OK in the name of “national security” – which, of course, has become the “stock” excuse of every U.S. administration in my lifetime for actions which they wish to keep from the public domain.

The CIA has become, almost since its inception, “aligned at the hip” with barons of the oil industry and the military industrial complex which Dwight Eisenhower so prophetically warned this nation about as he was leaving office.  The Bush family, led by George HW Bush, has been connected to the CIA since before its inception.  Prescott Bush, HW’s father, was affiliated with “intelligence” before it was officially a government bureaucracy and showed his willingness to put profit ahead of principle as he was selling armaments to the Nazi’s prior to our involvement in WW II.  In fact, the only thing that stopped him was a strong reprimand from FDR.  His grandson, George W Bush, showed us again that there are many in this “upper echelon” of the secret society who are more than willing to profit handsomely from war (people like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Feith, and others in the Bush/Cheney administration made HUNDREDS of millions from the Iraq fiasco – their “no bid” buddies like Halliburton and KBR made BILLIONS)  We’re talking here about the insiders who’ve gained a stranglehold on the republican party over the years and I can guarantee you they won’t “let up” until they’re forced out of “power” by the voters.  (They’re so incredibly rich at this point, that it will take years to make them go away – if that’s possible.  This recent display of “conservatism,” to me, is eerily similar to the late 19th century and early 20th century of the so-called “Robber Barons.”

The Bush “dynasty” represents only one of the elite “eastern establishment” families who seem to feel enabled to live above the law and believe the rest of us should be thankful for whatever “scraps” come our way.  In my mind, they confuse “The American Dream” with the possibility of getting rich as opposed to simply owning a home and being a functioning member of a strong middle class.  A perpetual society where families feel they’re part of a structure which gives their children an opportunity to do a little better than their parents – but, in the process, never losing their empathy for the less fortunate.  Being driven by a sense of empathy and thankfulness as opposed to greed.  Never losing track of the connection between whatever level of success they achieve to the society which makes it possible – and, in the case of extreme success, the obligation to give back to that society.

Many of these “rich” families, in my mind, have been more than willing to profit off of the great national infrastructure which was created post WW II, but seem to be unwilling to do their part to maintain that very infrastructure which, as I’m writing this, is crumbling in many parts of this great nation.  During the “Bush 43 years” the estimates I remember, to bring our infrastructure “up to code,” ranged in the 2 plus TRILLION range.  A daunting figure, yes, but also an opportunity to put so many unemployed Americans to work fixing the problem.  And, as I’ve seen in my lifetime, a sound infrastructure allows for a growing economy for all.  The special interests of the families (and people) mentioned above center on oil and defense spending.  And, as most people have come to realize, the American government is pretty much at the mercy of the lobbyists who are each fighting for the American taxpayer’s dollar (many while complaining about how much they despise the government – go figure) and busy buying off one politician after another.  This is why the struggle to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” is so difficult – first, it won’t happen without republicans violating their “Grover Norquist” pledge and second, there’s always someone to argue against “cutting spending” because of the plethora of lobbyists who seem to determine the “bottom line” legislation coming out of Washington DC.

For some reason, the debate has turned to issues such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, food stamps, etc. when the republicans are talking about spending.  How often do we feel obligated to put defense spending “off the table” when these people are talking about reduced spending and put the focus on the programs the help “the least of these?”  Yet, we’re a “Christian” nation, right?  The “fiscal cliff” debate will continue to “show its ugly face” in different forms as long as we allow the republican party to be run by these right wing, greedy corporate elitists who seemingly have no limits on how much wealth satisfies them.  When you consider that people like the Bush family have been pilfering our society for at least 3 generations with absolutely no consequences for their greed and misdeeds, and you look at the others at the “top” who are squeezing every last penny they can from America’s taxpayers – all the while claiming how bad government is – it’s hard to feel positive.  The sad reality is that those who are perpetrating this fraud on our nation won’t be deterred by a few election defeats.  We’ve (with the complicity of the Obama administration) allowed the Bush/Cheney administration to get away with torture, war profiteering, lying to congress, outing a CIA agent, undermining established government agencies after allowing the misdeeds of the Reagan administration.  The people behind this “movement” believe the “liberals” don’t have the “stones” (as Bill Clinton puts it) to hold them legally accountable, and I’m thinking they’re evidently correct.  JFK warned us that the only way this nation could be undermined was from “within,” and these right wing republicans are proving him prophetic.

In my post 2012 election thinking I can’t help but ponder the years of the “21st century” and think of how the United States is at a defining point in our history.  Obviously, there’s a significant portion of our electorate having a difficult time accepting the FACT that someone who’s not “white” belongs in the “White House.”  That’s the only way I can imagine how a man like Mitt Romney, someone who prior to managing to get the republican nomination for president, was somewhat an outcast from the viewpoint of those on the “right.”  I look back at the primary battles and wonder how the republicans were able to feel so confident going into the election.  However, the reality is that they almost pulled it off.  And, the “permanent republican majority” as envisioned by Karl Rove and others was “oh so close” to reality.  Again, their problem was a candidate who needed to be kept away from any impromptu discussions with the press or any REAL town hall type atmosphere because of what  would likely spew from his mouth.  Kind of a reenactment of the George W Bush years.

In Bush’s case, unfortunately, they – with the support of the Supreme Court – managed to swindle the 2000 election (I can still hear Donald Trump calling for revolution when he ignoramusly prophesied that President Obama was going to win with a plurality of the votes – of course, he said nothing when Bush not only trailed Gore by a similar margin as to what Obama ultimately tolled against Romney – but, it took the Supreme Court to participate in the Florida voter suppression which turned the tide in Bush’s favor) and, with the help of voter suppression in Ohio, circa 2004, unleashed the Bush/Cheney fiasco on America which was the first time republicans were oh so near their nirvana.  And, if I’m being too coy for you – that nirvana is control of the courts, the media, the congress, and the White House – which, along with the Citizens United Supreme Court decision would be the finishing touches on their plan to completely remove any vestiges of the “New Deal” from the American scene and make it, to them, part of America’s history they’d like to remove from the history books.  Here’s the rub – if anyone out there thinks they are done with this plan – think again.

The power brokers behind people like Rove, Grover Norquist, Rush Limbaugh, Fox “news,” and essentially EVERYONE in the republican “upper crust” have been trying to squelch the New Deal since before it was enacted.  They’ve been operating surreptitiously for many years and I believe they thought they had it “made” when Bush/Cheney managed to get control of the White House along with a republican congress – but, they had no idea what a buffoon George W Bush would turn out to be – and, Cheney is such a despicable person that by the time his term was FINALLY up, his “approval rating” was nearer to ZERO than to the previous all time low of any incumbent VP.  Yes, the policies that emanated from the “Project for the New American Century” were disastrous and the people insufferable, but their HUGE bankroll along with their cunning “stacking” of our court system, corrupting of the Justice Department, their control of our “liberal media,” the undermining of our traditional government agencies, and an incredible willingness to lie (even to the extent of lying us into a “war” which cost America TRILLIONS in dollars and untold treasures in lives – not to mention all the lives and destruction to Iraq) put them on the precipice of a complete stranglehold of America’s government. Hence, as Rove put it – “a permanent republican ‘majority.'”

Even my wife is unnerved by my anti republican passion as I’ve always been an independent (until Bush took us into Iraq and I started to read about things you don’t find in our “liberal media”).  However, I will not discontinue my small part in attempting to bring the real intentions of the republican party to as many people as possible until I see a purging of these puppets that publicly represent their party from the scene.  Even one of my friend’s son works for our local republican congressperson back in Washington DC and he’s a great kid.  His Dad is an educator and a republican.  As far as I can tell, it’s because their family have always been republicans.  So was mine (at least on my father’s side) back in my youth.  I would have to say that, from all I’ve read, next to FDR my favorite president would be General Eisenhower although I have my qualms about him as well.   He would not be welcome in today’s republican party.  All you have to do is look at the map of the “red states” from the last election and do a little research and it’s easy to see there’s a strong racist wing to this party and until they get beyond that they will become more irrelevant –  or, at least I hope so – as time moves on.  As I think these things with any certainty in my mind, I’m brought back to the thought that Mitt Romney got 48% of the vote and I’m reminded that they’ll spend 5 or 10 BILLION next time if they think it will accomplish this goal. (the goal, by the way, our founders – who republicans love to quote – went out of their way to make virtually impossible.  The greatest fear of the founders?  Exactly what the republicans are attempting to pull off – control of all parts of government, including “the fourth estate” – which would negate the “checks and balances” they worked so diligently to put into our constitution)

Speaking of the constitution, there’s bound to be an intense discussion about the 2nd amendment in the near future and there should be one about the 4th amendment.  In each case it will be intransigent republicans and innocuous democrats who will likely prevent much progress.  First, and an issue that should be on everyone’s mind is the 2nd amendment and “gun control.”  I’m a school teacher in a high poverty school and the tragedies that continue to happen in schools are alarming.  While I constantly wonder what would compel someone to shoot kids, it seems to be happening over and over again.  I can sum up why nothing will be done to reduce the availability of hand guns and assault weapons by just writing: NRA.  The NRA has a stranglehold on the republicans (OK, many democrats as well) and the money they’re getting will continue their mantra “guns don’t kill people, criminals kill people.”  This has made me sick for years, and the tragedy that happened just this past week in Connecticut brought tears to my eyes.  Primary students for God’s sake.  And teachers (I’ll wonder if the vilifying of teachers plays a part in this kind of tragedy) – this is over the edge stuff for me.  In my own community (I live close to Portland, Oregon) just a few days prior to the Connecticut massacre there was a shooting incident at a local mall with 10,000 people Christmas shopping.  In that one “only” two were killed – I can’t believe I’m writing that – but, this issue is one that is tearing at the fabric of our nation.  The 2nd amendment was not intended to arm people to the hilt with assault weapons.  And, it’s clearly not a problem for “criminals” to acquire weapons in our society – even little middle school kids are brandishing weapons.  Yuk!

Then there’s the fourth amendment.  Guaranteeing the right to privacy.  Well, ever since 9/11 our government has been chipping away at our right to privacy.  One of my most egregious disappointments in President Obama is (and has been) his lack of follow through on his promise to “fix” the FISA bill that he so unexpectedly supported in 2008 during his run for president (that bill enabled companies like AT&T and Verizon to continue providing access to their “data” in the name of national security).  At the time, I wrote to his campaign and was assured that he would “fix” this bill once in office.  I’m convinced that not only he hasn’t followed through on that promise, but almost the opposite.  I believe our government is continuing to collect “data” through the compliance of the telecommunication companies and our phone conversations and emails are subject to government infringement at all times – this, of course, in the name of fighting terrorism.  I’ve claimed since 9/11 that if we continue to give up our liberties because of 9/11 then Osama bin Laden accomplished exactly what he was intending.  In both of these cases the impetus for societal decline comes from republicans with, unfortunately, democratic acquiescence.

I recently had a conversation (via email) with an acquaintance who lives on the other side of the nation from myself who believes the second amendment should be abolished.  I “get” why he and many others might think this, but I believe a push to do that would be even more harmful to “liberals” than the present situation.  The sad reality of 21st century America is that the number one manufacturing business in this country is weapons related.  There is enough money at stake that the special interests (gun lobby) could pull off the same sham, in my view, in regard to recruiting republicans as happened in the late 70’s and 80’s when the “Christian right” was fooled into thinking that by voting for republicans as a block they would stop abortions.  Of course, the reality of that fight is that should Roe v Wade be repealed abortions will continue to happen, just as they were happening prior to that Supreme Court edict – so as President Obama has proposed, the challenge with that issue should be to reduce the demand for abortions.  I would hate to see the republicans pull off their “takeover” of our government (that they profess to hate) through a backlash from an attempt to repeal the 2nd amendment.  However, a national dialogue about how to remove the abundance of assault weaponry and hand guns from our streets and neighborhoods would be welcomed by millions of Americans.  If that doesn’t happen after the tragedy in Connecticut then I don’t know when it will happen. (and, I can guarantee you it will be republicans and gutless democrats who  block this dialogue from initiating legislation)

In our capital money talks.  That’s the sad reality.  I’m sure the lobbyists far outnumber the legislators – and, many of the lobbyists are the legislators who lost their last election – but, know first hand how to manipulate the system.  I believe in the constitution, but I’ve come to realize that the politicians and their benefactors have been secretly cheating the American public for many years.  The illegal eavesdropping which  was accelerated by the Bush/Cheney regime is at an alarming level and, obviously the gun issue is way out of control.  The republicans will continue to support the wrong side of both of these issues in lock step.  That is why they need to be soundly defeated as their party presently exists.  And, until the likes of Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Grover Norquist, anyone named Bush or Cheney, and I could go on – the present day leadership – are totally removed from ANY position of authority, you can’t believe one thing that comes from their mouths.  They’ve been hoisting a lie on the American people for so long that, I’m sure, in their own minds their lies amount to the truth.  (Read “Family of Secrets” if you want to get a good pulse on republican lying – I’m presently reading it for the second time and believe it should be required reading for any American who wants an idea on what the CIA, FBI, eastern aristocracy, oil lobby, and republican elite have been hiding for the past 50- years from the American people)

While the republicans are being purged, the democrats need to rid themselves of the members who don’t believe in the fundamental values of the New Deal – the era which turned America into a world leader.  The reality is that the wealth and power gained post WW II has been too much for most of our politicians since then.  But, the republicans since Ronald Reagan have seemed hell bent on turning this nation back to second class status (actually, this all started prior to Reagan, but he was the one who brought the “right wing” assault on America to the “mainstream”).  The truth is that this is a two party government (from a practical point of view) so those who think along similar lines to myself have only to hope that the democrats will get some “stones” (as Bill Clinton puts it) and quit patronizing this republican agenda.  Let the republicans take us over the so-called “fiscal cliff” and trust the American people to support the “right” response to whatever that might bring – which will hopefully be less republicans in Washington DC.  And, start the dialogue about the issue of criminals armed to the teeth and the absurd availability of assault weapons and hand guns.  The personal freedom that needs a “boost” is the American’s right to privacy (not the right to own assault weapons) which I don’t believe many understand how deeply this has been infringed on since 9/11.  As with all other progress that has been made in this nation’s history which has advantaged middle class Americans the push for all of this will have to come from “progressives.”  And, the way our system is working today, the only way to get progressive change is to continue defeating republicans at the polls.

As the 2012 election votes for president were counted I forced myself to watch Fox “news” to get their “take” on what was happening, although I was switching back and forth from them to MSNBC.  Before I get to my thoughts about what I saw on Fox, let me be clear that neither outlet for “news” is “fair and balanced.”  However, what I saw on Fox was the beginning of all the “Monday morning quarterbacking” which is certain to follow a defeat which was funded by BILLIONS of dollars from Wall Street and the Oil and Gas industry.  (If you’re a skeptic, read this article)  Some estimates I’ve read have put the number of “Super PAC” TV adds opposing Obama and democrats at over $3 BILLION – which is both unbelievable and depressing to me.  I knew “Citizens United” was a bad thing, I just didn’t know how bad.  And, this is unlikely to change based on what I heard as I listened to the Fox “reporters.”  What was interesting to me was that Karl Rove as a MAJOR republican operative,  in control of somewhere close to a BILLION (or more) of those dollars,  was sitting at their table as part of their “news” team.  Talk about your pot calling the kettle black!

The tone I got from listening to the Fox anchor person was that the House of Representatives remains firmly in republican control and “why would they want to do anything different from what they’ve been doing for the past two years?” (which, of course, is obstructing President Obama at every turn)  Republican “pundits” were suggesting the problem with Romney is that he isn’t a “true conservative.” (this was bound to come out should he lose) Charles Krauthammer suggested the solution to the republican problem with the Hispanic community would be solved by nominating Marco Rubio – not even suggesting their (the republicans) policy positions is what turned off most of the Hispanic voters.  To me, it’s that attitude which makes me feel that today’s republican party should become irrelevant. They can’t seem to bring themselves to accept the fact that “non white” and non male voters can think clearly before entering a voting booth.  Apparently their barrage of negative political advertising (propaganda) was more effective with the white voters than the non-white. I’ve been discouraged by the number of my peers (older white voters) who accepted the lies perpetrated by Rove, Romney, Ryan, Fox, etc. without “fact checking” the integrity of the individual claims.  In my previous post I linked to a website that documented most of Romney’s lies and it took two pages of the website.

As I watched President Obama’s acceptance speech I was reminded that I’ve come to look at his speeches as pure empty rhetoric – he proved in this election that he’s the consummate politician.  His organizational skills overcame the effects of Citizens United, but I can virtually guarantee you that the right wing republicans will continue their push for the so-called “permanent republican majority” Rove has so often referred to.  The obstruction will continue and the republicans are already blaming President Obama for it.  This right wing, monied, group that is in the background financing the republican “machine” MUST be defeated and we are depending on Obama to lead the way.  Mitt Romney’s gracious concession speech showed a side of him which was undetectable during this long campaign.  I believe that’s because he had to first get the republican nomination and then keep the “base” in line.  That’s the problem republicans face going forward – and Rubio won’t solve it – how do you keep the fringe element of the party happy and still get votes from the “middle.”  Believe me, there were many more “progressives” (liberals) besides myself who were disappointed in the direction chosen by Obama, but for me I was fired up to vote against Romney.  Had Romney been able to show himself during the campaign as he did as he conceded, that might have been different.  (of course, he mentioned the importance of honesty as he conceded, but didn’t follow his own advice as a candidate)

It’s clear to me that a significant majority of Americans want to preserve the ideals of the “New Deal” and are tired of the “I’m going to lower your taxes and balance the budget” mantra of the republican party – but, they also long for leaders who will fight for these principals.  Barrack Obama now has four years to lead this fight.  If he continues to pander for republican “bipartisan” support, his legacy will be forever tainted.  It just seems odd to me that so many of those of us out in the “heartland” can see this and Obama has not been able to do so.  I can tell you, from my perspective, I’m watching carefully those he chooses for his cabinet.  I’m assuming Tim Geithner will be replaced – I hope that it’s not another Wall Street insider as Secretary of the Treasury.  We’ve had Robert Rubin, Hank Paulsen, and Geithner in the past 12+ years and it’s been a “what’s good for Goldman Sachs” mentality at the Treasury department.  That has to end and it would be better if it was “sooner rather than later.”  I’m hoping Hillary Clinton remains as Secretary of State, but I’m guessing she’s about “worn out.”  Her replacement will be critical.

I have seen many signs that the “fight” is far from over.  Here where I live, within days of Obama’s victory, the local “progressive” talk radio station “changed its format.”  To Fox of all things (even though it’s sports).  We are now subjected (those of us who listen to this stuff) to right wing lying or nothing – yuk! Actually, I was surprised this didn’t happen sooner because the reality is that right wing corporations own 90+ percent of America’s airwaves and I’ve been surprised they “put up” with people like Ed Shultz, Thom Hartman, and Randi Rhodes – to name a few “liberal talkers.”  For me, I’m going to figure out how to get my satelite radio working in my car, but it’s clear to me the idea is to begin the “suppression of ideas” right away – they’re already thinking of 2016.  Keep in mind, this right wing cabal so many of us understand is “out there” but don’t know for sure who they are (the Koch brothers, the DeVoss family, the Coors family, the Walton family, etc.) have been fighting against the principles of the New Deal since World War II and they have BOATLOADS of money to spend in order to return things to “as they were.” (that is – before the uppity union workers managed to gain workers’ rights for MILLIONS of Americans, Social Security, Medicare, voting rights, health care, etc.)  They tried to suppress the vote in the 2012 election and that BACKFIRED, so now they’re going to try to suppress the available information available to progressives.  Prediction:  the internet is the next target.

I’m not trying to sound “doom and gloom,” I just want people to understand that these right wingers have been “pushing” this agenda since the days when maybe 10% of America would listen to them.  I believe the reality that a Black person could win the presidency has put them on “high alert” to the point where, as the idiot Donald Trump said, they believe it’s time for a revolution?????  Are you kidding me???  To point out how ridiculous Trump is – he was ranting about the electoral college and how President Obama was going to win that while losing the popular vote – when, at final tally Obama had over a 3 MILLION vote advantage when all was said and done.  What Trump probably doesn’t want to talk about is that George W Bush was the recipient of republican voter suppression tactics in Florida, circa 2000, and with the Supreme Court’s help won the White House with something around the “majority” Romney had over Obama with the popular vote.  These people will take any FACT and twist it to their purposes with NO REGARD for the TRUTH. (and, of course, that manipulation of our democracy lead to huge deficit spending, Iraq, torture, outing a CIA agent, lying to congress at will, undermining the very departments they were in charge of managing – ie FEMA and Huricane Katrina – I could go on)

Trump is still calling for Obama to release his college transcripts (did he do this with Bush? or Romney?) and suggesting that Hawaii was not part of the United States when Obama was born – or, maybe even still promoting the theory that he was born in Kenya.  Now, John McCain WAS born in Panama, but there was no outcry there – can you guess why?  It took less than 24 hours after Romney conceded and the Limbaugh’s and others like him were already spewing their racial hatred.  Can you just imagine how difficult it must be for them to realize that the “demographics,” as our population was referred to after the election, is only going to get worse for the republican party as it exists today.  If you look at the electoral map of the election, Romney won almost the entire south (I believe his choice of Paul Ryan cost him Florida where there are enough retired Americans to provide enough of a backlash to Medicare vouchers to defeat the voter suppression tactics of Florida’s right wing governor) and the Midwest as it stretches into Idaho – the land of the white supremists – a friend of mine sent me an email that showed that the top ten educated states (by number of college graduates over the age of 25) voted for Obama and the bottom ten (mostly in the south), with the exception of Nevada, voted for Romney.  Does that tell it all?  And, the sad reality is that the sections of the country voting for Romney show little or no signs of changing – in a way that would improve the lives of their own people.  Have you ever wondered why republicans are always promising to eliminate the department of education?

Here’s where progressives need to take a sober look.  Many are pointing out that people like Karl Rove, The Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adleson, the Wall Street bankers, the oil and gas industry, etc. WASTED BILLIONS trying to get what they perceived the proper puppet, Mitt Romney, elected.  Guess again!  They’ve got piles of money they haven’t even thought about.  People like me have a difficult time even imagining the fortunes of the richest elite in this nation.  Koch industries has annual revenue in excess of $100 BILLION!  The net worth of the two brothers is over $50 BILLION and growing – they can’t spend it fast enough on politics to hardly make a dent in their economic fortunes.  They’re not going away.  And, they’re already regrouping to figure out how to move FARTHER to the right and still brainwash America’s public into voting against the self interest of the middle class.  They won’t reduce the pressure on their congressional employees – that’s right, the tea party faction knows where their money is coming from – and the Kochs are only a small part of the wealthy elite in this nation who look upon us “little people” as exactly that.  The WAR for the heart and soul of America won’t end until the republican party, as it’s presently composed, becomes a distant memory.  And, they’re not going away easily.  Those of us on the “left” (I always thought of myself as a conservative on most issues until these modern republicans came along) had better take a deep breath and then brace for the next part of the fight.

My suggestion (as I stated before the election) is that we pressure President Obama to have the resolve to push back against the bullying tactics of the “tea partiers” in the House of Representatives.  Beyond that, the democratic party (unfortunately, that’s the only viable option available to those who oppose what the republicans are doing) needs to begin the process of finding strong candidates to challenge republicans at every step of the 2014 election.  To me, it was unthinkable that John Boehner had no opposition in 2012.  My family’s from Ohio originally, I know the people of Ohio don’t believe in Boehner’s agenda – it’s a true blue collar, “hard working folk” state.  The democratic party should make sure people like Boehner, Ryan in Wisconsin, Cantor in Virginia, and others have to defend their outrageous positions with the voters of their districts.  I believe in “life,” but this idea that Christians will vote republican because of the abortion issue is absurd to me (I’m a Christian).  In my mind, you aren’t “pro life” if you vote against pre-natal care for poor pregnant women, Medicaid (as a teacher in a high poverty school I see the benefit of health care for poor children all the time – their poverty is not their fault!), programs like child care assistance, food stamps, housing assistance,  Head Start (statistics say children do 75% of their learning by the age of 5), and national health care.  I’ve heard the republican positions characterized as “love the fetus, hate the child.”  Combining this with the republicans anti worker, anti union positions and their support of corporate welfare and lower and lower taxes and those who can afford the most – and, you can see their success will depend on a HUGE acceleration of their propaganda scheme.  Progressives didn’t gain much in 2012’s election, they just didn’t suffer the terrible potential of that “permanent republican majority” being imposed upon America.  The fight for the heart and soul of this great nation, therefore, continues!  President Obama’s legacy hangs in the balance – progressives need to push him toward greatness!

I started following politics closely in the late 1960’s as several of my high school classmates became victims of the Vietnam fiasco.  During the 30 or so years from the end of that terrible blunder until the Iraq blunder I found myself frustrated with the direction of American politics but pretty much silent about my feelings.  Additionally, during that time span I decided that Jesus Christ was a much better guide for my life than what I had managed on my own and I became a Christian.  So, I found myself often surrounded by people who were studying the same book as me but who had extremely different views on politics.  I didn’t (and still don’t) bring up the subject with most of them because, for whatever reason, most of them would fall into the “diehard” republican camp as far as their political preferences go.  Based on my observations over the years, that “partnership” is based on the “belief” by most of these Christians that the republicans are “pro life.”  I’ve gotten to the point where I get a queezy feeling in my stomach even as I write that.  I’m explaining this to preference my remarks (as they might find their way onto this post) as I’m pondering the state of this nation I so love – 4 days before what I feel is the most important election of my lifetime.

My red flags started waving in 1980 when the first “fringe” republican succeeded in winning national office with the election of Ronald Reagan (still seemingly considered a deity by most of today’s republicans).  I recognized that the political operatives who first came to light (at least to me) during the Nixon years were certainly mastering their trade (this included people like Roger Ailes who now plays a prominent role in the propaganda scheme which republicans seem to have mastered – the “big lie” theory of Joseph Goebbels of the third Reich – as Ailes is the head of Fox “news” – I always put “news” in quotes because you don’t have to look very hard to realize that they are anything but a news outlet).  The insiders in the republican “scheme” have become very adept at what they’re up to and their arrogance has amazed even me as I watch this 2012 election come to a close.  These people schemed to get Reagan elected in 1980 by backing “liberal” republican John Andersen’s third party bid (which took precious votes from Jimmy Carter) and by making a “deal with the devil” (Iran) to make sure the American hostages weren’t released until after the election.  In my mind, America’s “liberal media” still has not brought to light the significance of that action – let alone the other illegal actions of Reagan and his surrogates regarding Iran/Contra.  Republicans either own or have intimidated this “liberal media” to the point where none of their deception is “called out.”  In the years since Reagan’s time I’ve come to loathe the republican party as it has moved dangerously far to the “right” and has increased its willingness to follow the “end justifies the means” theory of politics – now to the extreme.

I believe this has been allowed to happen because their methods are so un-American that most of us can’t even get our minds around that they would have the “brass,” as Bill Clinton put it, to implement their present strategies.  The lying and unethical practices continue to grow and our aforementioned “liberal press” continues to lack the courage to call it what it is.  Fox “news” has succeeded in convincing way too many Americans that they are “fair and balanced” (again, do a little research and check out the “big lie theory” – it should be sobering for you) and they’ve turned the word “liberal” into something that seems almost like a “dirty” word to many.  I’ve even heard this word referred to in a derogatory manner by many of my Christian brethren despite the CLEAR evidence that Jesus Christ would be a “liberal” by the accepted definition of that term today.

With all this as background I’ll get to what inspired my thoughts for today.  I was driving to town and allowed myself to listen to an add from Mitt Romney.  I instantaneously reminded myself that he makes me as sick to my stomach as Rush Limbaugh – who I used to listen to when he first hit the airwaves in the 1980’s.  It took me a while to realize what Limbaugh was “up to” but it wasn’t hard for me to figure out that he often made racist comments.  That was what originally turned me away from even listening to him – but, occasionally I would give it another try and, as I began reading more to educate myself better on how our nation’s government was “really” working it would rarely take more than a few minutes before I’d be saying to myself (usually as I would be driving around) “That’s a lie” regarding one of his “assertions,” and “he’s a paid republican shill.”  Limbaugh’s lying prompted a couple books by Al Franken that called him on the lies and which should have reduced his audience – but, probably increased it instead (Franken, of course, is a liberal).  Then I thought, when Limbaugh only lasted one night on “Monday Night Football” because of his inability to hide his racist beliefs, certainly that would diminish his standing with Americans who I thought were moving away from racism – but, he’s continued to play to a huge audience.  Of course, with the 2008 election of Barrack Obama, Limbaugh has been on a mission since – to make sure that President Obama “fails.” To me his almost continuous OVERT racist comments are disgusting – and, it’s discouraging that his audience continues and his sponsors support him. (I’ve often thought that a good idea for a website would be one that identifies the sponsors of the political “talkers” on the airwaves – with a subsequent movement to support or boycott them based on the messaging of the “talker.”  Somehow, there’s got to be accountability for people like Limbaugh and the others who are part of this republican propaganda scheme)

Well, Romney seems to be cut from the same cloth.  Now, at times I’m sure Limbaugh was not a “fan” of Mitt Romney – but I have no doubts this is a “black and white” election for him.  However, Romney seems to have the same ability to lie without a second thought which must seem to be a strength for Limbaugh.  Today’s lie was him blaming the “gridlock” in Washington DC over the past four years on Obama.  I believe he’s suggesting that if Obama’s reelected that will continue because there’s no way the republican senate will stop their 24/7 filibuster strategy to make sure the president can’t pass anything he wants through congress (in fact, there was no mention of the record 380+ filibusters of the last four years in the senate – by republicans).  He’s now reportedly claiming that Chrysler, which was saved by Obama’s administration, is planning to move it’s operations to China (my first thought when I heard that was I wonder if that means Bain Capital is purchasing a controlling interest in the company?) – so far, I’ve heard two of Chrysler’s top executives openly refute that (one saying Romney’s “full of sh#t”) – but, he continues to say it to the unsuspecting voters of Ohio and Wisconsin.  Additionally, Romney has spewed out enough “code words” in this election cycle to make his racial attitude obvious – but, save for Chris Matthews of MSNBC I haven’t heard anyone who’s in a position to matter calling him and his surrogates on this.

The sad reality of this election is that it will be decided on where America stands on the race issue.  Unfortunately, this is an issue that many of us thought was FINALLY going to be headed toward the scrap heap of history – but, no matter how this election turns out, it’s obvious to me that race continues to be a major issue in this nation.  I’m presently reading “Bonhoeffer – Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy” by Eric Metaxas about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian pastor who led the German opposition to Adolph Hitler from the time he gained power in 1932 until Bonhoeffer’s death when he was executed for his part in an assassination attempt on Hitler himself.  I have to admit that it’s a rarity I would read a book recommended by Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee, but this is, for me, an I can’t put it down book – and, I’m sure there must be something I’m missing in this book because Beck and Huckabee, to me, at least to the part I’ve finished so far, are part of what the book is warning about.  It was the Christian church in Germany that allowed itself to get tricked by the Nazi’s into helping them gain a stranglehold on Germany and turn the fledgling German democracy (the result of their defeat in WW I) into a dictatorship.  It’s exactly the government/church/corporate partnership that I see Bonhoeffer opposing – that could be on the horizon in America today (and the sad reality is that it’s the republicans who are claiming Obama would be the – you name it – socialist, Maoist, communist, fascist … fill in the blank – If you don’t understand their [republican’s] tactics – look up the meaning of ” political projection” by clicking here).  The republicans have virtually “enlisted” the so-called “Christian Right” as a voting block which allows them to do a plethora of “un Christian” things politically, and get away with it – because many “conservative” Christians seem to be willing to blindly believe the liars like Romney, Limbaugh, Rove, Hannity, etc.

I can’t even imagine the words “President Romney.”  (this man has 137 Cayman Islands tax shelters – not to mention his Swiss Bank accounts and tax shelters in Bermuda – that alone should make him unqualified to lead this nation – without even considering his racist attitudes – don’t believe me, click here to find out about racial code words in Romney’s strategy AND he’s the biggest liar to run for president in my lifetime!) I’m sick of the republicans in congress putting their selfish interests ahead of the interests of the nation.  And, I think the worst part of it all for me is that they couldn’t do anything without the blind support of the “Christian right.”  (personally, I call it the “Christian wrong.”)  If you read this between when I post it and election day and you agree with me, try to encourage someone who might not vote to go to the polls.  In my state, Washington, it’s been reported now that republican operatives are going door to door, in democratic leaning areas, “volunteering” to hand deliver ballots to the polls (two guesses where those ballots are ending up).  UNBELIEVABLE – yet, in Oregon republican operatives have managed to gain positions counting ballots and have been caught “red handed” filling in republican votes into places on ballots voters left blank.  The voter suppression tactics have been widely reported nationwide and recently it was revealed that the Romneys have a vested financial interest in one of the main voting machine companies.  The CRAP just continues to show it’s ugly face!  Republicans managed to get a Supreme Court which passed the Citizens United decision (millions of Americans are still unaware of the impact of that decision – despite the flood of anonymous adds hitting the airwaves this year) and, while a Romney victory won’t cause me to lose my own faith – history will show that America’s “conservative” Christians of 2012 could parallel the German Christians of 1932 if Romney wins! (The German leaders played off of hatred toward Jews while the American republican leaders are playing off of hatred toward Blacks)