Tag Archive | Republican

Dear Republicans:

There are two opposing factions of you who are taking shelter under the Party umbrella. As we have witnessed with the Trump years and the resulting January 6 insurrection, one is the revived “white christian nationalist” (also known as anti-semitic Nazi) group. The other is the traditional Republican.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

If you are still reading this, I’m going to assume you are a Republican who has remained silent because you are undecided as to which faction you belong. Let me introduce myself.

Though I am an independent voter, the words Democrat, liberal, progressive, feminist, or whatever, are also words thrown at me to place me in a small box with a label on the side. I’m proud to be those things, and I’m also proud to be tolerant, compassionate, humanistic, liberal on some issues and conservative in others, and a progressive only when it educates or creates a better quality of life that causes no harm to future generations or other living things. I am also whatever means “emotionally intelligent”.

I miss you! I remember my long years in state government, when I would meet someone like yourself, and get into a great conversation and discussion about social problems, solutions, etc. It was stimulating! It was fun! It was thought provoking! And then your party let Trump into it, and supported him as a viable candidate.

I repeat:

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

As if the sexual assault accusations against Trump were not enough to give you pause, the fact that he is an immoral, unfaithful, sexist misogynist as proven by the Hollywood Access TV tape, should have. As also proven by his recorded campaign actions of bullying and making fun of disabled people, lying every time he takes a breath, and exhibiting NO understanding of any social or political issue, for that inhuman creature, he is the ONLY THING that matters.

When Russia was personally invited to interfere with the 2016 election and Trump “won”, you all not only ignored the majority of us who did NOT want him in office, you jumped on his rickety bandwagon and signed on as huge fans. Then you started trying to force the kool-aid down our throats. Misery loves company, I suppose. Made me seriously fear you would have supported Halloween’s Michael Myers if he had run, under the chant of Party, Party!!. (Insert videos from Hitler’s rallies.)

Did you laugh with delight when he allowed Sarah Palin to make fun of a former first lady in a selfie in front of the official portrait?? Or when he sold cans of beans on the Resolute Oval Office desk? Perhaps when he thought himself cool in ordering cheap and tacky take out food for a visiting sports team? Did you crack yourself up and slap your knee and say, “Oh, gosh, that Trump is hilarious, just my kinda guy for the Oval Office!” You must have, because you DID NOTHING TO REPRIMAND HIM before, during or after any public or sneaky debacle. Your public tolerance and acceptance of his unethical behavior and nepotism, putting his foolish children in our faces TO RUN OUR COUNTRY (which they all failed at but got richer from, may I just say), is repulsive.

Further and increasingly serious, you ignored his private meetings and public praise of Putin and his love affair with Kim Jung of North Korea. You dangerously dismissed all these signs of his devotion to an Authoritarin government, his bullying of Ukraine’s president in an attempted bribery scheme, shaming and falsely smearing the reputations of people standing up for the truth of what he was trying to do – gain power for himself. He may still be doing it with the witnesses to the January 6 Committee Hearings, exhibiting possible leanings towards witness tampering (oh, gosh, oh, my, what a total surprise).

And his Trump business organization – oh, good grief. You even ignored THAT! His university was nonexistent, but he kept the money until he had to give it back. His charity was nonexistent, but he kept the money until he had to give it back. Were not all or nearly all, of his business attempts failures? He appeared to have pimped his property while squatting in the Oval Office under the guise of hosting dignitaries and government events. HE HELD A POLITICAL RALLY ON THE GOVERNMENT WHITE HOUSE LAWN, FOR GAWD’S SAKE…and still, you were silent.

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, said in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on Dec. 10, 1986:

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.”

As threatening and dangerous as it was, you went into nearly orgasmic glee in your support of Mitch McConnell’s defying all rules to put a handmaiden, political activist, and a rapist on the Supreme Court to start taking away the voting and civil rights of your targets. You probably knew ahead of us all that the wife of intolerant, discriminatory, state-is-the-church-and-I-am-it Clarence Thomas, is a behind-the-scenes insurrectionist.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Your standards had fallen so low at this point, I imagine it was just a matter of an inch or so of rolling over a bit to find yourself completely in the gutter.

To the majority of Americans, who include constituents, Trump’s squatting in the Oval Office and shitting on everything historic, of value and integrity was shocking and appalling. His defiance of our liberties, freedoms and pursuits of happiness and appointing lawyers who will enforce gender discrimination and religious persecution, is horrendously not surprising.

And when came the 2020 election, Trump’s criminal-like allies/appointees and family were rightfully ousted from our government. And yet…you know what is coming…a well-organized, self-serving propaganda movement of LIES to stop the transfer of power took over. Trump and your Party could have taught Nazi Joseph Goebbels lessons in messaging. You sanction traitor behavior in Congress, heavily support faux Fox “News”, promote the likes of unhygienic Steve Bannon and mentally ill Alex Jones on the airwaves. You promoted lies to the denials who needed to believe them. LIES to the majority of Americans who knew better. LIES to the world who felt unspeakable fear for our democracy. Globally, you Republicans turned us into a nightmare of disgrace to our world allies. Only the dictatorships of Russia, North Korea, etc., like kids when a favorite puppet is tightly held, were excited with the possibility of a coup against our government and democracy. You are to blame for this monstrosity we are facing that parallels the rise of the Nazi Party and Hitler in Germany, make no mistake about it.

But wait. With Republicans in charge, it continued to worsen for our country. Much worse.

January 6 arrived with the denials intending to kill people and overturn the government so the Trump and his loyalists could stay in power. That’s when you Republicans started appearing on Fox News to say things like, “The election was stolen, the election was stolen, we are all doomed!” (Put to “chiken little” music, please.) You used words like, oh, I dunno…tourist…selfies…smiling crowds…peaceful protests…hang Mike Pence…drag Nancy Pelosi down the steps by her head to kill her…you know, the usual “visitors on a tour” semantics.

During the insurrectionists’ rioting, Republican legislators secretly made calls to the White House to save their lives. After briefly speaking the truth and remarking at the horror, those same Republicans got back up, brushed themselves off, and started all over again. Afterwards? After people were killed and multiple injured, and the insurrectionists were contained, did they acknowledge it then? When it is well-known as an attack on our Democracy, and more and more evidence to support that it was brought about by the inciting of Trump himself, did they or any of you embrace the truth?

No acknowledgement of the coup upon our governmental democracy, and the violence against the Capitol Police and threatened violence against our Congress, was a Party position. In fact, your RNC chair – dear gawd, help us all – led the bandwagon. Were there protests from you?

None.

Zip.

Nyet.

Niguno.

Rather…more of your usual silence.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Getting still worse. When Trump was forced to stop to save his own orange skin, he and his second immigrant and third wife petulantly refused to attend the inauguaration, refused to show even the slightest courtesy to the incoming President and First Lady, steadfastly unwilling to relinguish the power of the presidency. He was FORCED to do the latter. Now, two years later, we are suffering with how he has damaged the unshakable integrity of our post office, and the voting system. Well…wait, I forgot some little detail. You WANT him to destroy our voting system, because we won’t vote for fascism, gender discrimination, misogyny, religious persecution and intolerance, which means we won’t vote for you. Makes sense to destroy the voting rights, then, if you are an anti-semitic, white supremacist fascist such as the Republican Party is now.

Trump is now stumbling his way back into the public, promoting the known LIE, seeking militaristic gang power for himself, badmouthing our democracy and wanting to destroy it. And your candidates who are cowering before and sucking up to HIM…not the Party, not the truth, not integrity…are they publicly dismissed by you? Oh, heck, no…sorry, I forgot to whom I was speaking for a moment. You are still doing it. STILL. You are now remaining silent to these resurrected atrocities.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

It has taken the January 6 Committee hearings to finally and with dignity and evidence, present the ultimate truths to our nation, and the world. And yet, the two Republicans who are seated on this committee have suffered at your hands for doing the right thing objectively, professionally, morally, ethically, and legally, because the thing your darkness fears the most, is any kind of light. “Must be destroyed,” you shout, no doubt.

The nightmarish truth is, the “white christian nationalists” started up multiple years ago, and Trump has fully revised that hatred under the name of “far right conservatives.” But we all know that’s another lie or two. But hey, what’s a couple more when you are in the gutter any way, right?

We Americans are not as stupid as you want us to be, in spite of your dumbing down America by defunding education and banning books. We ARE BEARING WITNESS TO THE “white christian nationalists’ movement as anti-semitic, misogynistic, and militaristic. It has cemented itself as your Party’s version of homegrown racist Nazis.

Congratulations, you have created your own Hitler. Is your arm getting tired yet from saluting so much?

And what of the Constitutional directive of “separation of church and state”? Oh, heck, just dust on your shoe, you can brush that off. Even not-hanged-and-still-alive Mike Pence isn’t willing to separate his version of church from any role in government. To him, they are the same. I guess with his new book, “So Help Me, God”, the publishers thought, “So Help Me, Mother” was a bit offputting, to say the least, and went with God instead, huh? You do know his own home state rejected him and might not even vote for him, right? Is Pence the best you got then?? Pathetic. Your own beloved Ronald Regan said, “We establish no religion in this country. We command no worship. We mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are and must remain separate.” Thanks to Mitch McConnell, your party took that speech, tore it to shreds, and gave it to Trump and his Supreme Court for toilet paper. Mr. Reagan must be looking down upon Republicans with a nasty frown. (True) Christianity is a practice…not a government.

This bears repeating: the great majority of Americans, many of who are constituents and trusted legislators to do what they hired them to do (represent them), do not want this ugly movement to continue. And yet you Republicans are publicly supporting the leader of our country’s version of racist Nazis out of fear. You are sickened, not at the “potential” criminal wrongdoings Trump has committed, but at the idea of displeasing HIM, your Party’s new leader.

Grow UP, will you? Man up! Woman up! You aren’t just letting constituents down, you are destroying your own Party with your silence, and the impact of your past leaders, such as Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

Speak up and against this attack on our democracy, integrity and freedoms. Take your Party back! I miss you! I miss the discussions, the realization that our country needs more than one party, and together, the members enhance our political and governmental systems. I miss talking politics! I don’t want to talk criminal acts and violence any more. I don’t want to talk about misogynists reducing women to breeding animals and refusing civil liberties to people who are different. I am about to puke over this “I work for Jesus” shit, when that Jesus is white and Catholic. FYI – Jesus was a brown Jew who started his own radical movement. He was neither white nor a christian. (Yes, you have to point that last part out to people. It’s sad.)

Because of you…the public acceptance of the barbarity of Trump, his family and allies, your Party is no more. Now the Republican Party has become synonymous with broken promises, white male rapists and terrorists, propaganda without truth, denying civil liberties for our diverse populations, eliminating freedoms for women, censoring education in our schools, betraying veterans, and destroying our planet. YUK. Your Party stinks! And it’s dangerous.

But maybe it’s too late for you to save it. A wound can only grow so much pus and toxicity before the skin turns gangrene. I think the best the rest of us can do is kick every dang, ugly-souled Republican off the ticket and out of office. Another intelligent, ethical and integrity-based party will grow in your Party’s spot. And you can sit in your chair on a warm winter’s night in front of a burning fire, and tick off the counts of charges that hopefully will be brought against Trump and all his allies. Perhaps including you.

Good night and good bye, Republican Party.

Note: this article is an opinion piece and based on the sole observations of the author, who does hold in high regard another faction of the Republican Party, more humane and rare: the folks who know, respect and seek the truth. Such as:

Republican Accountability Project (formerly, Republican Voters Against Trump) members;
The Lincoln Project members;
White House staffers and Trump campaigners and appointees appearing before the January 6 Committee hearings to share the truth;
Individual Republicans such as Steve Schmidt, Sully Sullenberger, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, to name only a few.

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.

Tea for Trouble – right here in Republican City

Dec3

This was written in 2011 about the 2008 elections and immediately after. I wonder, though, if anything has changed. The Republican Party may be, as some have accused – hijacked by a fringe element. I hope the true, intelligent and broad-minded Republicans make their voices heard louder and clearer than the Tea Party.

Whether or not the tea partiers originally had a legitimate complaint is irrelevant when one looks at their chosen group behavior to express it. Whether viewing it from a religious, spiritual, emotional, or psychological level, their group behavior is all the same: unacceptable, improper and detrimental to anyone’s good. Flash back to October 2008 when the stakes were for the highest governing office in the land.

“From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.” Socrates

The Washington Post reported on the absurd negativity of one Republican rally. When the Republican vice presidential candidate talked against then candidate Obama, the crowd shouted “Boooo!” and one man yelled, “Kill him!” The candidate was pleased at the reaction. The crowd (mob) even turned against the press.

In a Republican rally in Clearwater, the reporters were greeted with shouting taunts by the 3,000 or so gathered. When the respected journalist, Katie Couric, was publicly accused of asking the “wrong” things on purpose just to make the Republican vice presidential candidate “look” unsuccessful, the mob began to wave sticks and shout abuse at the gathered reporters. Some hurled obscenities at a camera crew, calling out to an African American soundman, “Sit down, boy.” “Getting ugly out there,” ABC’s Jake Tapper was reported to have stated.

American News Project went inside a Republican rally to watch the vice presidential debate, where it witnessed Republican supporters booing the moderator and laughing when Sen. Joe Biden got choked up talking about his first wife and daughter’s deaths.

November 2008. Newsweek reported that the Secret Service gave the Obama campaign reports that “a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October” occurred at the same time that many crowds (mobs) at Republican rallies became more frenzied. Now flash forward to the present.

In March of 2010 journalists reported on the tea baggers” abusive and derogatory attacks against select members of Congress. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo) was spat upon. Representative John Lewis (D-Ga), who championed the civil rights movement and became a hero himself, was called a “ni-er”. Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass) was mocked by lisp sounds and called a faggot.

Kjell Magne Bondevik, a Lutheran minister and politician who is served as Prime Minister of Norway and is currently the President of the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights, has been credited with making this observation; “Extremists and populist movements are exploiting people’s fear of those who are not like us.

We can see the consequences in the form of terrorism and racially motivated violence.” The Republican mob is calling itself the Tea Party to invoke historic memory of the establishment of our country.

Whoa, Nellie. I am not buying the false patriotism.

This country was established by refugees who were escaping governments that hounded them with hate, bigotry, discrimination and intolerance. America was about religious freedom, civil liberties and the right to happiness that cones from peaceful and healthy living among its citizens.

Instead of promoting the vision of the early colonists, the tea partiers are trying to create the very same environment that the first settlers came here to escape. In addition to the slight-of-hand with the naming of the group (now you see patriotism, now you don’t), the tea partiers have chosen to follow people who are….strange.

Their primary figure is a former governor who quit public service to become a well-paid speaker and state tour guide. Her lies, sneers, sarcasms and greed have been well documented for all to see. But the necessary rhetoric to incite the emotions is there in spades: sneering, sarcasm, and “reload” directives, so one can understand the attraction she holds for the tea partiers. And on her part, she can make fun of them and be exactly what they despise and get away with it. She coyly dismisses the low-economic population that is setting the tone and behavior of the tea partiers. She calls them Joe Sixpack, which conjures up 1) male figures who 2) sit on their behinds and drink. Just because a person is economically limited does not mean they are 1) only males and 2) sit instead of working hard and 3) drink away their paychecks. It is demeaning to this class of hard-working Americans and yet the tea partiers wear the label like a compliment. She is also sarcastic towards the dreaded “elitist,” which she desperately wants to be.

I agree with her desire. An elitist, by Webster’s definition, is a great thing to be: the choice or best of a group, class, or the like. Yet even though she strives to set herself apart from the group that wants her to represent them by demanding a high salary and star treatment, she knows she is not quite there yet. So her anger is quite real.

In spite of its good purpose, anger is an emotion that has been overused by the tea partiers. Anger was meant to be an appropriate, healthy response that alerts us to the need for a change in behavior, direction or expectations.

Who can fault anyone for being angry at the two wars we have been carrying for too long, the loss of jobs, income, security, and self-respect, or health care coverage to pay our health care bills?

But she who represents the tea partiers is not angry about any of those. In fact, she approves of the aggressive war tactics, is making quite enough money for herself, thank you, and slams any attempt to care for the health and well-being of our most vulnerable: her Joe Sixpacks, our children and elderly. She has snowed the tea partiers into seeing what they want to see in her, not who she is. It is sad until you realize it is the choice of the tea partiers to be fooled, so all empathy goes right out the window. (Which she can probably see because she sees a lot from her windows.)

“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.” Socrates

I don’t buy the pleas from tea partiers that declare they are misunderstood, maligned and just plain ole good folks voicing an opinion; that those against their group behavior are “elitists,” “liberals,” or plain old dorky Democrats. One has only to observe behavior to know character. Those who proudly proclaim themselves tea partiers and rally behind a public figure who is dishonest, a cheap bully and advocate of fear mongering, are secretly or not so secretly, choosing to create and promote evil.

No one who honors truth and integrity could support what this group is doing.

In pre-WW II Germany, there was an organization that was originally focused on a healthy back-to-nature theme. However, by the mid 1930s with Hitler’s rise to power, the face of the organization had changed. Each member was considered a “soldier of an idea” and that the individual worth of each member was the complete surrender to the organization’s views.

Though many tea partiers are middle-aged or older, there is an eerie echo of the Hitler obsessive dedication to a group mentality. No self-respecting member of any group endorses a mob mentality, which is exactly the role the tea partiers have embraced.

What is confusing, though, is why the Republican Party does not see the harm this faction is causing. Unless…the tea partiers ARE the voice of the Republican Party?

Yipes.

So where do the rest of us go from here?

There are many options.

“He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.” Socrates

The reverse elitist approach the tea partiers use in their separate and conquer tactic is recognized by most Americans for what it truly is: an anti-religious, anti-spiritual and anti-American movement.

Many people, especially women, are dismayed by the tea partiers’ intention to gain control of government by polarizing this country. Our religious and our spiritual beliefs focus on healing the coming together of humanity in respect and dignity that mirrors a Divine Source. It practices the Golden Rule of doing onto others as you would do onto yourself; the biblical directive to treat your fellow human as your brother or sister; the “love thy neighbor” intention. If the god of the tea partiers who they purport to respect, were to have a second chance at the Ten Commandments, there would be an addendum: “Incite no mob to violence, no mouth to utter slurs, and no action to shame the love that has created you.”

Write your elected officials and party leaders to insist they speak out publicly against any behavior that exhibits violent rhetoric, racism, discrimination and mob behavior. Write to every Republican you can and insist the Party denounce this wild faction. The Republican Party unleashed this fury, now it is time for them to reel it back in.

Vote only for those who reject this hate group movement. E-mail your news stations and demand that they stop sensationalizing the tea partiers by limiting the video coverage of their antics. Ask that the news substitute international events for the numerous yells and verbal abuse displayed at these gatherings. Comment on articles of tea partiers with calm, thoughtful expressions of disapproval for their behavior. Refuse to support any person, organization or event that promotes this group. Voice your disapproval when it comes into the conversation. Talk tolerance, acceptance, diversity, and civil liberties. Model the appropriate, calm and respectful behavior when voicing an opinion or disagreement.

Or, you can start a quieter movement of one.

Dr. Wayne Dyer, in his book The Power of Intention, refers to research from Dr. David Hawkins, well-known psychiatrist and researcher of kinesiology, in illustrating the notion that one individual can impact thousands. Based on his ideas of counterbalancing energies, Dr. Hawkins presents the position that one person who is optimistic and non-judgmental of others will counterbalance the negativity of 90,000 individuals who are not; one person who is loving and respectful of life will counterbalance the negativity of 750,000 people who are not; one person who lives in constant peace and spiritual joy will counterbalance the negativity of 10 million people who do not. Finally, one person who lives in pure, transcended spiritual grace will counterbalance the negativity of 70 million people.

There is no way can I live in pure grace and counterbalance the negativity of 70 million people. I am too insulted at idiocy, too vulnerable to wants, and just plain too ornery for everybody else’s good. I might have the chance of affecting 90,000 people, tops. I can live with that. Of course, if another person joined me on this first level, that would lessen the negativity of 180,000 people. A total of 17 people being optimistic and non-judgmental would positively impact my entire home city. 67 optimistic and non-judgmental people would positively impact the whole state. Perhaps more importantly, I would only need .007 of a person to counterbalance the United States Congress.

These are good enough odds for me.

[A Tea Party bilboard hung in Iowa. Methinks thy heading was a little too close to home in describing the good ole Tea Party itself. Under (enlightened) public pressure, the billboard was later removed.]