Tag Archive | Democrat

When Who You Are is Wrong

Jun18

Uncle Ben’s rice.  Aunt Jemima pancakes.  Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup.  Confederate officers’ statues.  Fort Bragg.  Fort Hood.  Andrew Jackson on a $10 bill.

Like the target for Target, I wonder how many of us actually see the branding any more?  But the minute it is gone, we would notice.  And that’s the point.

The continuing murders of people of color – beautiful shades of brown, honey, caramel, mahogany, and black – never should have begun, much less never stopped.  The protests around the world are hugely peaceful and relentless.  The violent rioting that erupts is minimal and always makes the news.  The point is, changes have to be made.  Reforms have to be enacted.  The world has come together to demand it, and we won’t stop until black lives matter, are kept safe, respected and honored.

It’s incredible that in 2020, this has to be said – again.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted another Bill of Rights for all people, not just for pasty-arsed whites.  Lyndon Baines Johnson enacted civil rights legislation that the southern – confederate – states, are still fighting today through the current Republican Party.  Really, people!?!  Really!?!

But then I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.  With Richard Milhouse Nixon denying us universal healthcare through creation of a for-profit parasitic environment, denying healthcare to and bankrupting our citizens…Ronald Prescott Reagan favoring the wealthy with his lying “trickle down” theory, robbing the Middle Class; his denial of aids and subsequent deaths to a disease that could have been researched early and treated…George Walker Bush faking an excuse to put our sons and daughters in a lifelong, brutal war, taking the economy and tearing it to shreds for yet again, the Middle Class, while keeping the wealthy rich…to the inexperienced reality show male currently squatting in the Oval House…we shouldn’t be surprised that our fellow citizens are being murdered to maintain the elite, white supremacy so convenient and desired by the current Republican Party office holders.

I am an Independent voter, with a record of choosing good people in both the Republican and Democratic parties.  The Republican Party was not always like this, and Republicans weren’t always like that.  This is the party of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, two of the most admired presidents in history.  The year the Republican Party started turning its back on these types of greatness and focused on greed and power can probably never be confirmed.  But the Vietnam War and Watergate in the 1960s and 1970s showcased the direction it had gone.  With the public advent of Phyllis Schlafly writing of and organizing the extreme conservative ideals of suppression and intolerance under the appalling guise of “faith”, the Republican Party has only gotten worse for all but the 1%.

Now as a country, we face daily humiliation for the unethical, bullying and most likely illegal, behavior of a childish, insane male and his cohorts in ethical, moral and legal crimes.  Our nation’s lack of affordable and effective healthcare is 3rd world level.  Our refusal to separate church and state is denying civil and reproductive rights to targeted groups.  The Supreme Court is no longer divided on its legal opinions, it is defined by who is politically liberal, and who is politically conservative.  It isn’t just the branding of products that needs to go to reflect true humanity.  It’s the entire branding of the Republican Party.

Uncle Ben.  Aunt Jemima.  Mrs. Butterworth.  Confederate officers’ statues.  Confederate names of forts.  Jackson’s face on currency.  Donald Trump in the Oval Office.  The Republican Party in the Houses of Congress.   They all need to go.

The  Democratic Party needs to review its own legacy as well and take a lesson from Thomas Jefferson:  Combine the efforts in opposition to the current Republican Party, and create a two-pronged approach.  This country would do well to muster its human values and common sense and come together.  As a united force through a Democratic-Independent Party, humanity and tolerance can overshadow the elite and discriminatory Republican Party.   That is, if the current good, humane Republicans cannot get their Lincoln Party back.

 

There’s a Strong Wave a’Comin’

May23

It is easy and cheap, these days, to become a star.  If you are a believer of the trumped-up image of success, the media will hone in on you like mosquitos on a sweaty arm at a dusk-timed barbeque.

Reporters film the crowds at the trumped up campaign rallies, which are nonstop, often zeroing in on a few individuals for statements.  Because of this global attention, these followers or hired actors have gotten the impression that they are the darlings of the press.  Their message is that we must fear them and their vote.  For a mob temperament that has lived in pain and resentment for perhaps decades, this attention is a heady pill for them.  The sense of power must be mind boggling.  Yet the image is not one that will go the distance.

All this media coverage does is create a bizarre beast of the misinformed, rejectors of facts and science, and self-haters.  Many of these individuals are mimicking the most vile of all behaviors:  bullying, name-calling, assault bragging, and demeaning insults.  Then there are the overweight, over-ignorant who dress in false camouflage and threaten with guns.  These actors and followers are not going to get down off the public stage while we are staring at them with our mouths open and horror on our faces.  They LIKE being in the news.  It’s akin to being in the faces of and giving the finger to those who they blame for making them feel inferior.  The mob mentality motivates them to hang together while we wring our hands and fret our psyches over what is happening to our country.

The truth for most of us is that we know they are a minority and this November 2020, will be scurrying back into anonymity.  It is not their false sense of power that makes us anxious.  We are afraid to acknowledge these fanatics as a hate group because our brother, mother, niece, grandfather, lover, is/are a vocal cult supporter, too.  We “can’t make politics about values”, we declare.  We proclaim, “Everybody has a right to a different outlook!”   “Politics is not allowed in this house.”

It isn’t just our families and circle of friends who are under stress.  Because of the unethical, illegal and abusive manner of this current government, the Republican Party is divided between Republicans and trumpsters.  Ever the polarizing, undiagnosed narcissist, the suspected Putin-backed Donald has inspired the majority of the currently elected Republicans to split off permanently from its home base.

Well, let me make a prediction. It will be impossible to go back.  Where the Democrats and Independents have been digging in to their shared foundations, the Republicans who are thoughtful, compassionate, gracious, and honorable, find themselves without a party.  Not only will they have to oust this squatting government, they will have to redefine and rebuild their party.  Not an enviable spot to be in, but the question to them needs to be asked:  Why didn’t you stop Donald when you had the chance?

For all of us, it has indeed, become about values. And damn well a long enough time it took for us to get to this point.

We did nothing when a disabled reporter was publicly mocked;  when women were described by body parts with vile terms; when porn stars proved they were sought and bought;  when women shared the sexual assaults; when underage girls were raped;  when a traumatized veteran with PTSD was mocked; when a POW was ridiculed; when a Gold Star family was demeaned.  Smear campaigns were begun against every expert in the administration for telling the truth.  Environmental programs, incident response plans, fair taxes on the wealthiest, oil pipes across Native American lands, and cemeteries desecrated, were gleefully proposed and supported by the Senate, led by another suspected Putin fan, Mitch McConnell.  Barack Obama was made a continuing target for ongoing insults, lies and misrepresentations.  Little, innocent  children remain locked in cages away from their parents.  We have a justice on the Supreme Court who unabashedly campaigned for the spot, and one who is an alleged rapist and drunk.  Their qualifications seem simple:  take away civil freedoms of those who are not male and white.  The Attorney General is proudly continuing with what appears to be an erosion of laws, the Constitution, and our democracy.  Robert Mueller was leading an excellent investigation into the wrong doings of what looks more and more looks like a mob syndicate, when he was told to stop and the full report was hidden.  When Donald was impeached for inappropriate, unethical and illegal behavior, Mitch McConnell protected him, and his donors and contributor’s interest and allowed him to continue squatting in the Oval Office. The sitting vice president who as governor was kicked out of his home state for his discriminatory, hateful proposed legislation, mirrors, mimics and pathetically fawns over Donald and his probable mentally, emotionally and physically disabled presence.  The list is too long to continue.  And, every day, a new injustice will be proposed, and new lies told.

The Republicans carry the majority of the blame, not the minority that voted for this administration.  It seems that gerrymandering and the Electoral College are in their back pockets, and how they steal elected seats from those candidates who actually win the vote.  Republicans did this to their party, themselves, and our country.  And the rest of us, including those Republicans who have stopped supporting those currently elected and in power, have grown tired and angry with ourselves from hiding behind an accepting attitude because we are too afraid to publicly reject something that is wrong.  We are chafed from the righteousness of “difference”, when it isn’t different, and when it’s just wrong.  All terribly wrong.

We have been too scared to accept who we have become.  Being us means, hell YES you make “politics” all about values!  Damn straight, we want NO lover of bullying, backstabbing, misogynism, and lies, brought into our community, workplace, home, and/or space.  And we sure as hell do not want it in our government any longer.

Leaders show us the light and then take us there to find, and keep, hope.  Therein is true grace, truth, safety and compassion. On the other hand, like crabs in an open bucket, vile creatures such as these elected Republicans, grab us and pull us back down to their level, keeping us imprisoned and suffocating our souls.  We are smeared with the feces of hate and violence, and the spittle of abuse.

As you witness the mob mentality of riots and threats on the news, roboted onto social media, in your community…understand that THIS false version of America is what the world now thinks of us.   We have lost respect and honor.  America was never NOT great – but now it grates…on the conscience.

I have family members who are staunch trumpsters, and in the same breath, declare they respect women, veterans and the environment.  We know this doesn’t jive:  you can’t support somebody who lacks values and grace while claiming you have honor.  I have friends and colleagues who proudly declared they voted for the trumpsters because of their “religious faith”.  We know that this “faith” is neither religious nor a belief:  it’s an unmasked compulsion to follow and/or control.  I found that how they voted does matter to me.  The 2016 election was never about Republicans or Democrats or Libertarians or Independents.  It was always about grace, truth, respect, honor, dignity, and the Constitution.  Every one of these people know where I stand, and how I think, without my attacking them.  I keep my comments towards those who are destroying our government and pimping our politics.    If I were to hurl personal insults to family, friends and colleagues for what I view as their lack of emotional and intellectual intelligence, I would be what I hated the most:  just like those trumpsters.  “Fall back on your grace,” is what I tell myself. And also, “Speak your truth to power,” because the people who are in our space either by choice or DNA, have a powerful influence over us, and need to hear it more than anyone else.  I know I’ve made “enemies” and some of these folks will no longer have anything to do with me.  Such a relief!  I don’t think I would have spotted their lack of values without these times.  But mostly, I am awed by the other outcome these times have produced.

People everywhere, in multiple roles and various backgrounds, are finding each other and coming together like no other time in our history.  Resistance to attempts to steal our civil freedoms, harbor the wealth to a selected few, destruction of the middle class, and shredding our Constitution, is ongoing and increasing.  People are courageously calling out the gaslighting, the illegal acts, the unethical behavior, and the white supremacy groups.  They are shining the light of truth upon this world for all to see, and to signal to our global friends to stay tuned, for we and the real America are coming back!

Claim your ground.  Take a stand.  Be silent if you so choose with your family, friends and colleagues, but not where you can make a difference.  At the polls this November 2020, any currently elected representative who has been a public supporter of this incompetent, ignorant, narcissistic, greedy, and dangerous federal government, needs to go.  Vote the opponent.

Stay well, stay in peace, and stay in truth.