BREAKING THE MOLD

By Ruth A. Sheets

In a Substack piece, Robert Reich, Professor Emeritus at UC Berkley, wrote about getting voters to vote for candidates who have their interests at heart.  I started thinking about how hard that is going to be for Republicans, maybe some Democrats too.  This is what I came up with in response. 

Over the years, we Americans, and people of other nations too, have been carefully groomed by the rich and powerful to go for the loud-mouthed white male as having the "best" answers to every question of importance, the “mold.”  Those loud-mouthed white men decided what is natural among the beasts of the field and birds of the air and among human beings too.  They told us what to buy and what makes us beautiful/handsome.  They told us they knew how to rule and that it was right for loud-mouthed white men to rule the world.  Well, those same loud-mouthed white men took us into Holocaust, into endless wars, enhanced significantly the wealth gap, have blamed poor people for being poor, have used the taxes paid by working people all over the world to produce and buy war machines that have no other purpose than killing our fellow human beings and any other creatures that get in the way. 

Here, the Republican Party has made recruiting those loud-mouthed white men into their ranks critical, and put a lot of money behind them.  What those in charge of the party recruitment knew is that in the position of "president" you can put the not-so-loud and definitely not very competent, but behind them must be a loud-mouthed white man.  If you can't manage that, go with the loud-mouthed guy for president who can lie like a rug and the guys in charge can make the public believe every word. 

If one looks at Republicans say from 1960 onward, every victorious Republican presidential candidate has fit one of the molds or other.  Nixon could be a loud-mouth, but he depended on others like his VPs Lodge and Agnew to do the shouting while Nixon pretended he was just like a thoughtful judge.  Goldwater fit the mold perfectly, threatening all sorts of people and groups with American might.  Ford was the least like the mold, but he was only needed to pardon Nixon of his crimes.  He did it and was gone.  Reagan was portrayed as everyone's grandpa, but he had no clue.  His VP was rich and knew how to manipulate folks behind the scene and did, Bush,Sr.  As president Bush,Sr. had all the words, but also had racism and misogyny to keep him in favor.  Bush,Jr. was incompetent, but I think, wanted to do a good job, at least some of the time.  His VP Cheyney was the needed loud-mouth. 

Trump was the perfect creation that fit the mold sufficiently to be carefully shaped using Trump's own loud-mouthed white man tendencies to believe himself better than everyone else when in reality, he was not smart, a bad businessman, a cheat, a liar, a rapist, and more.  That could easily be covered by a lying media and his loud-mouthed hatred of everyone he chose to or was directed to hate.  With the Republican Party cheating in elections, Trump was elected, then re-elected.  He gives the rich white men in corporate power nearly everything they want while enriching his family (well, the corporations enrich them so their patriarch won't get out of line during the takeover of our democracy). 

Republican voters are drawn to this kind of loud-mouthed bullying that Trump portrayed so well before his dementia made it harder for him to know what is going on.  How do we convince Republican voters that they are focusing on the wrong hand.  The corporate magicians are doing them immense harm while they watch their Trumpian puppet lie his way through this corporate destruction machine.  It will be hard for them to break out because their loyalty has been so carefully groomed and tended.

On Saturday, March 28, 2026, people all over the country rallied to try to draw attention to and stop the loud-mouthed bully in the white house.  In our tristate area, the media practically ignored the whole day’s activities, giving no more than a minute to the event while covering Tiger Woods’ car crash in Florida for a far longer report.  That truly is what we are dealing with, a corporate media that props up an old man with dementia while ignoring the American people.

It’s time We the People work harder to “break the mold” and find more ways to get information to people who are stuck in their perceived need for loyalty to a party that left them behind long ago.  The people and corporations in power want to drain them of their will to act, and to distract them from making good decisions for their lives; it’s working.

I didn’t mention the Republicans who lost the presidency, except for Goldwater because for the most part, they were white men who did not fit the corporate/conservative uncaring mold:  Dole, McCain, and Romney.  And, they didn’t have the VP back-ups to counter their decency.  The Democrats who ran against them had ideas that were more powerful to capture Democratic voters.  Remember, when Democrats get out to vote in their greater numbers, unless there is  AI or media-based  fraud, Democrats win. 

ELECTION 2022

By Ruth A. Sheets

As Election Day is near and the polls open just under 60 hours from now, I thought I would reflect on some things I have noticed.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t been pretty.

I don’t remember an election in which so many candidates felt so free to display their racism, misogyny, homo/trans-phobia, ableism, and antisemitism.  Candidates said out loud what we have known they were thinking, but usually kept to themselves.  There may be a Democrat somewhere who has done this but I have not heard or read about them yet. 

1. Republicans put out ads showing images of Black characters while they claim Democrats are the cause of increased crime everywhere across the country.  They are tapping into the Willy Horton variety of ad that I first remember seeing used by Bush Sr. during the 1988 presidential campaign.  The goal seems to be, scare white people with those Black men who are going to come after them.  Dr. Mehmet Oz has PAC ads that accuse John Fetterman of releasing desperate criminals to terrorize the people (white people of course).  The truth of the matter is that the crime rates in cities and states with Republicans in charge are higher than in the “blue states and cities.  I admit I was surprised about that, so I had to look it up.  I guess the ads are OK, though since the terrified voices only imply that Black or Latinx people are committing the crimes.  Republicans claim to be the “law and order” party but we have learned that they don’t like the law much and only want order they can impose on the people they don’t like (consider January 6th and their attack on the police).

2. In primaries, many Republican candidates proudly stated their full approval of laws that make abortion illegal in all cases no exceptions, even calling for women who have had abortions given the death penalty (Missouri).  For the general election, they have either scrubbed their websites clean of any mention of abortion or just won’t talk about it or say “I’m pro-life” and naturally, no interviewers push for clarification of what that means.  Dr. Oz said who can get an abortion should be decided by a woman, her doctor, and local politicians.  During the primary he said there should be no exceptions to abortion bans.  In which case was he lying?  Doug Mastriano, running for Governor of Pennsylvania said “Women’s bodily autonomy is a joke.”  At least he said the same thing in both elections.  In general, the abuse female candidates are getting from male as well as female opponents is appalling and should not be permitted on the air, but . . . .

3. LGBTQ persons are targets of many Republican candidates who proclaim loudly that they should never have the right to marry.  The candidates can’t or won’t say why, but, who’s asking, no one I have heard.  The parents of trans children are being threatened with losing their children, jail, and more depending on the state.  Where is the why?

4. John Fetterman had a stroke just before the May primary in Pennsylvania and has been recovering well and on schedule according to his doctors and other doctors who work with people who have had strokes (including 2 sitting senators).  However, there are ads out implying he is incapable of doing the job of Senator because for now, his speech is impacted as is his auditory reception, very typical at this stage of recovery.  Fetterman agreed to “debate” Dr. Oz but the debate was clearly set up to maximize Oz’s glib talking skill and speed.  I am not sure why Fetterman agreed to the format unless he thought Oz would use a change of rules as Fetterman’s declaration of incompetence.  One would think a Doctor as Oz was, would know and do better, but alas, no.

5.  Antisemitism is still ugly, just as it was throughout history, but some Republicans have dragged it out again hoping to grab some voters who have some kind of grudge against Jewish people.  It appears it is working because more than one candidate has made antisemitic comments and faced only cheers from their audiences.  It appears they have just another group to hate aloud.  I guess their base’s hatred of everyone who is not rich, white, straight, “Christian” and male had to specifically include Jews.

We are in a deadly global warming crisis yet I have heard nary a mention of it by anyone.  Inflation has been blamed by Republicans on Democrats despite the fact that we have one of the lowest inflation rates in the world.  Democrats are finally trying to report on large corporate price gouging as a factor in today’s inflation, but can’t seem to get any traction.  I suspect it is because most candidates are raking in fossil fuel and other corporate price-gouger campaign money. 

Then, there is the large number of candidates running for the Republican vote who won’t publicly admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.  They and he know he lost, but since the Republican Party has decided lying works so well for them, they endorse “the big lie” and go with the flow.

Republicans and some Democrats claim Democrats are lazy and just don’t like to vote.  I hope Dems will prove them wrong on Tuesday.  Those who make those claims, though forget to mention the voter suppression, gerrymandering, and other obstacles a lot of Democrats and even disadvantaged Republicans face too.  It is growing more and more evident that those white men in power will do and say almost anything to keep power.  They even support a few people of color and women whom they think they can control and get to do whatever they want, but whose presence is supposed to let We the People think they are trying to diversify.  Republican full embrace of Donald Trump and the downplaying of the January 6^th insurrection can let us all know about their desire for diversity.  It doesn’t exist.

There are a lot of good candidates out there who live by a set of principles that include justice for all, working to build a nation that truly values diversity not just as a talking point, consider a woman’s right to bodily autonomy as sacred, and care about our future, the future of our planet, and the children who will live that future, candidates with character.  Find those candidates and vote for them.

DEAR DEMOCRATS

by Ruth A. Sheets



Hey Guys!  What are you doing?  Who is advising you as to how you are reaching out to your fellow Democrats ONLINE and in other media?  What I can say is, you all need new advisors.  If others are as frustrated as I am, you all/we as Democrats are in trouble.



I receive between 100 and 200 emails per day from various Democratic candidates and organizations.  If they provided something new or interesting or compelling, they would be worth the time to read them.  Most of them DON’T.  They whine, beg, exaggerate, guilt, threaten, and otherwise dys the Democrats who choose to open them.  They are filled with fake polls, fake petitions, “breaking” notices that contain news sometimes from weeks in the past. 



I get two messages next to each other; one says Mitch McConnell is winning (STUNNED) and the other that he is losing (AMAZING!).  Who is your audience?  Do you think if a person skips the first, they will be moved by the second?  That’s insane!   I get it that candidates can’t collude with PACs and should not, but maybe the Party together needs to make some decisions about the messages sent out and a set of formats.



Candidates need to state their positions, not make their whole message a disparagement  of their opponents.  We already know their opponents are mostly sycophants and rich white men (and a few women).  Where do you stand on the issues of the day?  What will you do to make life better for those on the margins?  What will you do to make this nation more fair?  I get it that these are fund-raisers, but I’ll give you a hint, trying to guilt someone into supporting you is not a good look and probably not as successful as some other strategies.  Find those other strategies!



Organizations, we don’t need more than one message from you a day.  Also, if we have given to your group or are monthly givers, it is not kind to keep acting like we haven’t given enough, so you can pound us every day.  My reaction is to stop my contributions to your organization, and plan to do that for one of those I supported until the comments like, “You don’t care” or “We’re sorry, goodbye, Ruth, you’re for Trump?”  When I receive these messages, I dismiss them out of hand and determine not to waste my money on such garbage when I could support organizations that are actually doing something to help this country beyond emailing for money.



It sounds as though Democrats have been employing Republican strategists, perhaps believing that if they won so many seats over time, they must know something.  They did know something.  They knew how to cheat and lie, and to sew defeat and helplessness in Democrats, particularly people of color and white women.  Well, times have changed.  These groups are “woke” and don’t need the threats of complete and utter destruction to get them moving.  They need direction and ways people can make a meaningful difference.  If all your organization has is its ability to email people for money and you are doing nothing to produce real action, get out of the way, join with a group that is actually working for a more just nation. 



Nearly every week, I am confronted with a new organization spouting a lot of junk that everybody already knows, then begs for money.  It seems to me if you want money, you should be giving evidence of what you are actually doing with the money beyond fundraising for something, often not clear. 



It is going to be really hard to defeat Republicans this fall.  They are doing everything they can to keep Democrats from voting.  They have all the billionaires to whom they gave a half trillion dollars, just in the three months of the pandemic.  They are a bottomless pit of money.  We can’t compete with that, so we have to be smarter.  Republicans think money solves everything.  Well, it hasn’t solved the problem of police killing Black Americans, or maybe that is exactly what their money was designed to allow.  It didn’t solve COVID19 and didn’t save the lives of 113,000 people the virus has taken so far.  In neither case did money serve the American people. 



How can we do smarter?  We can:

- force the media to see us and our candidates and every time we are seen, we need to have a unified message.  I like REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE, but I suspect better ones can be found, and every time, the interviewee needs to be able to back up the statement; REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE, they’re OK with your employer putting you at risk for their profits.  They regularly underfund the Occupational Health and Safety Agency (OSHA). OR, REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE; they are OK with ripping kids from their parents and putting them in cages. 

- as a party, heavily support groups that are on the ground getting voters registered and checking to see who is being purged and informing the people of their new status as purged, then helping them fix it.

- only draw up REAL petitions and polls that are going to the people, agencies, or political bodies they claim to be for.  Getting people to sign petitions and complete polls that are only a front for fundraising is shabby and should be beneath us. 

- stop asking stupid questions on polls.  When I find one that asks me who I voted for in 2016, I ditch it because I know it’s not real.  When I read questions like “Are you OK with employers stealing your money?” I know it’s fake and just for the donation.  Stop this BS and if you want to conduct a poll, make it for real with intelligent questions that don’t presuppose the answers (or change the answers around to be sure the responder knows what the pollster is looking for – as if we can’t tell from the first question).  Then stop the “Submit and Donate” crap.  A poll with stupid questions requiring a donation is just wrong.  Stop it!  

- make sure that Breaking News” is just that.  Using that message for something everyone has known for a week or more makes what follows suspect. 

- avoid sending the same message more than once a day.  Democrats are not stupid and if your message seems worthy, they will check it out or set it aside  for later.  They don’t need to be hit with it over and over.  Then your message has become spam and should be ignored.

- tell candidates, if you are approaching people not in your state or district, you had better introduce yourself and where you stand on about 5 important issues immediately.  It would be best to send different messages to your constituents or potential constituents and the rest of the world.  I get messages all the time from people I have never heard of and I am not always sure where they are from, and generally don’t care. 

- remind everyone the US Post Office is mentioned in the Constitution.  Instead of crying that my 19015 post office is going to close, yell THE U.S. POST OFFICE IS IN THE CONSTITUTION, AND CONGRESS HAS AN OBLIGATION TO FUND IT AND STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH IT!!  

- stop the outrageous language:  “we’re stunned, shocked, terrified.”  Is that the message we want out there.  Dems are easily stunned, shocked, terrified by the things Republicans are doing?  Really?  We know them and their tactics.  They are not stunning, shocking, or terrifying. They are destructive, anti-American, unconstitutional, inhumane, unpatriotic.  We should rely on these words instead when commenting on Republican actions and stop the hyperbole. 

- remember that we have been conditioned to know that there is very little Republicans will not stoop to in order to obtain and keep power and money.  This week’s Georgia primary is the perfect example.  In white (Republican) areas of Atlanta, there were no lines, just voters moving in an out of the voting place.  In Black communities, the machines were broken and lines were 3 to 4 hours long, and in a pandemic that hits Black and other communities of color harder than white communities.  Message sent, message received!  The Republican project is devoid of meaningful ideas, so sabotage is the strategy.  Keep finding and reporting such incidents, and they are frequent.



I hope you Democratic organizations and campaigns will step forward and put your resources in places that will really help us revive our democracy.   It is important we tell all Americans that the Republican Party needs to be set aside until its members have time to grow up and get some positive character traits that will allow them to serve the American people instead of robbing us of our rights, our tax dollars (for their pet projects), our freedom, and our voice.

Do We Really WANT A Democracy?

by muon

Something extraordinary happened this past week in the US. I don't mean the impeachment trial. That's been rare in American history, but not extraordinary, except perhaps how the outcome of this one trial was reached. But let's go back to the night before the vote, when the chamber of the US House of Representatives sounded more like one of Hitler's rallies in the 1930s.

Every Congressperson in that chamber, whether senator or representative, knew that almost everything coming out of Trump mouth that night was an outright lie or exaggeration, even before the Associated Press came out with their official fact-check the next day, yet Republicans not only did their usual standing ovations, but they chanted aloud over and over, yelling "Four more years!" as if they were drunken teenagers at a school football game, cheering on their team.

In 2009, when Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!" at President Obama during the State of the Union, the entire audience gasped and Wilson received a formal rebuke by the House of Representatives. At last Tuesday's speech, the only person punished for yelling out was Fred Guttenberg, a father whose daughter had been murdered by gun violence at Parkland. Right now in America, we punish for grief and reward for lies, deception and cheating.

Which brings us back to the Senate vote the next day. Most senators have been to law school. They understand the law. They understand evidence, and they all knew there was enough of it to prove Trump guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, even without more witnesses and documents. Some GOP senators gave that as their reasoning for not voting for more witnesses. Yet all but one GOP senator voted Not Guilty on the both articles, and that one senator, stupidly, voted Not Guilty on the article of obstruction, the one most easily proved. Every one of them KNEW they were going against the law and against their oath of office. 

So what is happening in this country to make otherwise educated, (one would hope) intelligent, and yes, mostly well-to-do men and women blindly follow a man like Trump, who has no respect for the laws of our democracy or even for anything close to fairness and decency? Those senators had no second thoughts about taking on the mantle of that disrespect and lack of decency themselves.

I'd like to believe that at least some of those Congresspersons, even as they were chanting during the speech and especially as they were voting "Not Guilty" the next day, had little twinges of conscience way back in their brains, telling them "No, this isn't how a democracy is supposed to work." But in the face of all that blind Hitler-like devotion to their leader the last week, they seem to have become monsters before our eyes. 

Yet, I see an envy for that devotion on the Democratic side too. I think it's why the Democrats seem to be having such a difficult time sorting through candidates. It's not that they want someone so perfectly qualified that victory is assured. It's that they want someone who can be put on a pedestal, who inspires in them a willingness to follow the candidate off a cliff if necessary. They don't think anyone can defeat Trump unless their candidate is also like him. They want someone who'll make them "feel" a part of something bigger than themselves, the way Trump Nation seems to -- a charismatic golden idol who will fix everything single-handedly. Then all the voters have to do is sit back, wave flags and cheer.

Democracy doesn't work THAT way either. We seem to be gauging potential presidents by the size of the crowds or noise made at rallies. Rallies don't run a government. That's obvious from the last 3+ years. Yet everyone seems to now crave daily political drama on their newsfeeds more than a return to a sane functioning government of the people.

What I want in a president is someone sensible enough to appoint qualified, knowledgeable people to be in the cabinet and head the departments. People who we can trust to get us our tax refunds and Social Security checks. People who'll make sure our water is safe to drink and our interstate bridges are safe to drive across. People competent enough to quickly take care of Americans who've been through hurricanes, tornados, floods, earthquakes and wildfires. People who'll care for separated refugee families with compassion as they do their best to reunite children with family members. People who'll revitalize our education system. People who'll actively work to reverse the human causes of climate change instead of shutting down every federal research facility studying it. People who can negotiate with foreign leaders without cooking up back-room deals that give a select few Americans more power or wealth. People who'll protect fair elections and keep them open to all US citizens.

I think any of the Democratic front-runners can do the job. We shouldn't stress over charisma, or even stress over differing policies right now. The task of putting back together the tattered shreds of the current government needs to be job one. Keep your eyes on the prize:  Democracy.

We don't need a president who inspires us to chant in ecstasy when he/she enters a room. That's not American. It's not Democracy. It's Fascism. But remember, when you're busy voting for a president who'll preserve our democracy next November, also vote out all the congresspeople who'd turn this country into a dictatorship. Don't sit back, complacently waving flags, while your power – the power of the people -- is being taken away.

THE APOLOGY PROBLEM

by Ruth A. Sheets

Lately, apologies are the thing.  Make a slip of the tongue, apologize.  Harass a woman or minority person, apologize.  Get caught bribing someone or making employees open false bank accounts, apologize a little.  Cheat on your partner or visit an escort service, apologize, if you're a Democrat, then resign from office.  Tell some jokes that might offend a member of Mr. Trump's followers/White House family, definitely apologize.  Make sexist or racist comments in public, apologize, well, sort of. 

Apologies can be a way of moving a relationship or connection closer to balance after a crime or even a slight has been committed.  Apologies are important when they are sincere and appropriate.  The consequences of apologies, however, are not in any way equal.

People have apologized for things they have done, sometimes even for things they have not done.  Often people's apologies have been false, said just to make a situation go away.  And, if the apology was appropriately moving, the "right" person could be forgiven anything.

It seems apologies now are only for certain people, in particular, Democrats, liberals, progressives, some men.  On "The Late Show" recently, Stephen Colbert had Bill Clinton as his guest.  He demanded an apology of him for the Monica Lewinski affair that took place twenty years ago.  Mr. Clinton, like him or not has apologized so many times since then it is ridiculous.  He was president at the time of his fling with  Ms. Lewinski, but she was a willing participant.  Yes, a man has more power in this situation, but to claim that Ms. Lewinski had no part in what happened is to remove her agency.  She, of course, is not expected to apologize for putting herself in the position to be drawn into the affair (or whatever it was).  She could not have walked away?  Was she threatened?  I am not blaming her, but when do the apologies end? 

I am concerned about the relentless nature of the demands for Mr. Clinton's apologies.  It seems Republicans and conservatives are rarely held to account for much.  I don't remember anyone asking for George W. Bush's apology for lying to start a war with Iraq in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed and many more were displaced.  His lies were deliberate, convincing Congress to support military action that was inappropriate.  Part of the campaign against Hilary Clinton was that she "supported" the war, the manufactured war. 

Mr. Trump brags that he never apologizes for or regrets anything he does.  He has cheated on his wives, lied over and over to the American people, threatened our allies.  Where are the demands for his apologies?  Republicans are in charge of all branches of the government and they will demand nothing in the way of apologies from anyone in their sphere, including for actions that are clearly unconstitutional. 

It seems for conservative Christians and Republicans (they mostly overlap), a quick apology, possibly sincere, is just the ticket.  It "lets" God forgive whatever behavior over and over.  That, of course, does not work for anyone else because they are just not as holy or worthy, or maybe, rich.  Mr. Trump is special for the Evangelicals because he doesn't even have to apologize and he is recognized as holy.

So, Mr. Clinton will keep having to apologize while those who actually cause real harm like Mr. Bush, the sexually abusing coaches and doctors, and religious zealots won't unless they choose to.   Harvey Weinstein will and should pay for his abuses (not enough), a "liberal" you know, but the banks and companies that wrongly foreclosed on people's homes, overcharged poor people for services they didn't want or need, and produce destructive products make minimal apologies if any at all.  At most they will pay minimal fines and just keep on keeping on. 

The demanded apologies must stop.  They mean nothing and are only used as an attempt to humiliate certain enemies.  There is no "repentance" and rarely an attempt to change behavior or make amends to those harmed. 

Skip the tearful, pathetic apologies and tell us what you will do to fix what you have done.  And truly, we need to have some way of prioritizing wrongdoing.  All acts are not equally heinous and should not be treated as such.  Honest journalists need to step up and put an end to the apology demanding.  Just accurately cover what happened, minus the apologies unless  they are from the journalists themselves for getting swept up in Mr. Trump's misdirection and deceit. 

We're All In This Together

by muon

I was thinking last night that maybe we need a national pep rally more often. Not just Democrats or Republicans or Tea Party or Occupy, but everyone. The only time Americans seem to cheer for Americans is during the Olympics. I think we need to cheer for more than our sportsmen. We need to cheer for each other, and not only every four 4 years.

The DNC was for the most part a very positive event. The speeches didn't ignore what was wrong with America, in fact, many brought to light nuances of issues that voters may never have considered, but the tone of most of the speeches was that, working together, we could fix things. By the end of the convention last night, I think every person in that auditorium felt more empowered than they did at the opening gavel. Chances are, lots of TV viewers were effected the same way.

What difference does it make?

When FDR took office in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, he spoke to the nation frequently. The tone of his words was very much like that of the speeches of the past week. He communicated an optimism in America's capabilities that went a long way toward Americans picking themselves up and making the nation economically healthy once more. We hear about things like consumer confidence, and that's part of it--that is, people feeling secure enough to spend money they otherwise would save for a rainy day. Optimism--a light at the end of the tunnel--makes people quit waiting for someone else to help. If they see something better, they work toward it. Fear, as FDR said, makes us hesitate, then despair makes us sit down and stop trying.

Political views aside--considering solely the tone of the discourse--I can't describe the GOP Convention as optimistic or uplifting. The speeches dwelt on who to blame for America's problems. When the subject turned to mending those problems, we heard, essentially, Romney, Ryan, private companies, and the Religious Right will fix everything (details to be disclosed after the election). The tone was "We'll decide what's right for America," taking even their own audience out of the process.

I prefer to be asked "What's good for America? And how can we all make it happen?"

As former President Clinton put it: "We're all in this together is a far better philosophy than you're on your own."

WHAT DO WE HOLD SACRED?

by Ruth A. Sheets

On Thursday, March 29th’s NPR program “Here and Now,” a discussion was held regarding morality and what the two political parties/political positions hold as “sacred.”  The guest said that one of our greatest problems currently is that “liberals” and “conservatives” don’t interact with each other.  They don’t exchange ideas on a personal level.  Members of Congress work in Washington for only a short period each week, then rush home to their districts.  They don’t have to really work with anyone on the other side of the aisle.

When people can’t be together on a personal level, they can’t begin to understand the position of the others.  Without such understanding, each side can become entrenched in their own beliefs and attitudes. 

The guest explained that each side antagonizes the other by stepping on, defacing, or denigrating the things the other holds as sacred.  If people can only understand what the other holds as sacred, the anger and fear may dissipate, at least somewhat.

The Republicans/Conservatives hold such icons as the flag, the Bible, and the cross/crucifix as their most revered objects/concepts.  The Democrats/Liberals tend to hold the concepts of fairness and equal opportunity for all as inviolable. 

When a flag is burned or desecrated, the actual desecration seems more important than the reason for it.  There is no room for any of their top three symbols to be treated with anything they might see as disrespect, no matter why.

When conservatives propose actions that do not seem to allow for fair treatment of all groups or which do not accommodate equal opportunity, Liberals often see them as being heartless, often to the point of evil. 

The thing I noticed is that the conservatives cling to objects which no one is allowed do disrespect, but people in general are less important.  Liberals seem to lean more toward people and value symbols and objects less.  It seems to me that there is a qualitative difference here.  

Objects and symbols are easy to deal with.  They don’t need anything. They make no real demands, except loyalty.  Admittedly, that is a pretty strong master.

People are messy, unpredictable, often needy.  The struggle for fairness and equality of opportunity is a lot harder than defending the flag, Bible, or cross, especially when the latter involves only speech in 3-word slogans or even letters (“U-S-A, Drill baby drill.”).

It is easy to think of those who revere symbols as patriotic because those symbols can be easily displayed in nearly any type of setting. 

Improvement of conditions for people, fairness, justice for all are very hard to display.  These generally require stories which take time to experience, time which our current short attention spans don’t accommodate.  But are these less “patriotic?”

It would be helpful if people on the “left” were a bit more sensitive to the “right’s” need that their symbols not be desecrated in art, protest, and other areas of life.  However, the sad part is that I don’t feel the “right” will reciprocate, at least not in this period of our history.  

I believe it is not that the people on the “left” don’t value the things the “right” holds as sacred.  It is that we do not place them above people.

 

An End to Democracy in America?

 
 by muon

This is the United States. We live in a democracy where we elect officials at all levels of government to represent us. We don't bow to dictators and tyrants. If we see our elected officials usurp too much power, we oust them. Right?

In 1990, Michigan passed a law that allowed the state government to take over state institutions (such as schools) by assigning an emergency manager. As I understand it, the manager's job was to help the institution out of financial difficulties.

A year ago, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder passed an act that expanded this takeover authority to include cities with high budget deficits. The managers have the power to suspend council meetings, layoff employees and fire elected city officials. Each city is expected to foot-the-bill for its emergency manager, and their salaries range from $132,000 to a quarter million annually--more than the salaries of the elected officials they were sent to replace. The cities of Ecorse, Pontiac, Benton Harbor, Lansing and Flint have been placed under emergency manager control.

The takeover of Benton Harbor occurred a month after Whirlpool pulled its last manufacturing plant out of the city. The company then proposed to build Harbor Shores, a half billion dollar golf course and residential development. Three holes of the golf course was to be on public lakeshore land taken over from a city park. The emergency manager not only fired Benton Harbor's mayor and stopped council meetings, but replaced members of the planning commission with his own appointees, thus ensuring the development could proceed without public input. It should be noted that the sponsor of the act that allowed Gov. Snyder to take over the city was Al Pscholka, state representative for Benton Harbor, former VP for the development company building Harbor Shores and on the Board of Directors for another organization involved with the development.

As if this weren't enough, when Benton Harbor's public radio station protested the takeover, the manager shut down the station and put it up for sale on Ebay, blatantly violating the citizens right to freedom of speech.

If you're still not convinced that a war for democracy is being waged in Michigan, consider that the democrats of the state's legislature have filed a lawsuit to force the Republicans to follow the state's constitution on the procedures for taking roll call votes. Currently the Republicans, who are the majority, are denying requests for roll call votes from the Democrats, more or less taking away their right to vote.

The scary thing is that these sorts of shenanigans are springing up all over the country. The GOP governor of Ohio took over school districts in Columbus and elsewhere, and just last month, GOP governor Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania took over the city of Harrisburg. Most Pennsylvania citizens never heard about this and don't realize that they could be the next ones to be denied their democratic right to elect local government representatives.

What Democrats Want in Their Politicians

by muon

In a word:  Backbone.

Granted, I'm basing this on a poll of the two dozen or so registered democrats I know personally, though I can guarantee that poll-wise, they're all virgins.  Gallup, Pew?  They never call this part of the country.

Even if you violently disagree with everything Republicans stand for, you have to admire them for their backbone.  They'll stubbornly take stands against abortion, gay rights, Islam, healthcare reform, global warming--in fact, standing up against the most people possible is what Republicans do best.  What do they stand for?  They say things like "family values" and "the American way"--vague, subjective phrases that mean different things to different people.  They don't come out and say it, but they have a solid record of standing up for Big Oil and Big Medicine and campaign contributors. They stand up for deregulation, so American businesses can cut corners and create disasters like oil spills and airplanes that come apart in midair.  They work hard to gather up every last dollar bill in America to put into the pockets of the wealthiest 1%.  Republicans excel at scamming a quarter of the remaining Americans into believing that this is somehow all good for them when it isn't.  Then they claim that this quarter represents the "majority of Americans."  Okay, so their math isn't perfect, but they have enough hutzpa to make up for it.

The other side of the aisle?  Even when Democrats had a
substantial majority of the House, they caved to the GOP. They don't understand that this is why they lost the majority, not to mention a load of governors and state legislators. Now Mr. Obama has announced his candidacy for the next presidential election.  His voter base is still waiting for him to act on the most important promises from the last election. "Change" was a word you heard a lot from his camp in 2008. They aren't using it so much this year, but they need to. Very little has changed in two and a half years. There's still no end in sight to our wars, Guantanamo is still open, too many Americans are out of work, too many lost their houses, too many are living in poverty, too many can't afford health care. Our schools are still substandard to the rest of the world. And possibly most frightening of all, irreversible climate change is two and a half years closer.  If you like to eat and breathe, this is a bad thing.

So, all you Democratic politicians out there, start standing up for what the voters of your base believe in. If you want support and enthusiasm, if you want donations, you have to stop being a bunch of wusses.

muon

Get with the Game!

It seems that the Federal budget is a political football that is being tossed around by both parties’ representatives, but neither is willing to line up on the field and play a fair game.

The Republicans insist that the only way to “fix” the budget is to cut services for the least able to stand up for themselves, the poorest, most needy. They claim that “everyone should share the sacrifices that are necessary to eliminate the deficits” so their suffering is inevitable.

The Democrats say that they won’t support such cuts because of the hurt it will do to a lot of people, yet continue to “negotiate” these cuts as though they may have to go along with them to “keep the Government from closing down next week.”

NONSENSE, ALL OF IT!!

Republicans know that the people targeted in their cuts generally do not vote. Why should it matter to them if folks can’t afford to heat their homes in winter? If legislators' kids didn’t need Head Start, it can’t possibly be really necessary. They claim that since they themselves had to work their way through college, who needs Pell grants? (Actually most Congresspersons didn't have work their way through college, and these days you'd have to work more than a minimum wage job full time to afford it). We taxpayers pay for Health Care for Congress and their families, so they don’t have to feel the pain of watching their children suffer without proper medical care.

The Democrats should be screaming about the hypocracy. Instead of letting the wealthy who are totally out of touch with real people set the agenda for the next year, they should be seriously looking at Defense Department programs that are not necessary, ways we can make medical care more cost effective (cutting out for-profit money gobblers), increasing taxes to include all income for Social Security and Medicare.

The field we hired our representatives to play on should be a level playing field. Currently it is not. One team wants to win by undermining the other (increasing poverty, destroying unions, increasing the power of the already powerful) while the other team stands around letting it happen because coming together as a team is hard work and might make them a bit unpopular with the folks at the money-trough (who are essential for running campaigns).

Maybe it’s time for the “fans” to get involved. We need to ask ourselves, "Who are we as a people?" What does it mean to be “American?” Is money all that matters? What are our responsibilities to our people?

Peace,
Ruth