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.

ABORTION, THE PSEUDO-ISSUE

by Ruth Sheets

Election Day is past and many people are pleased while others are angry, ranting that Donald Trump really won except for voter fraud (which of course is not happening). It was Biden vs. Trump, the unifier vs. the misogynist, white supremacist in the words of my bias.

When I hear Donald Trump ranting against nearly everyone, I wonder how anyone supports him. But, 70 million did, just as he said 5 years ago, “I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and I wouldn’t lose a supporter.” Unfortunately, I know he’s right. I suspect there are issues those supporters care about. It seems though, anything can be forgiven if the candidate claims to hold a particular position on an issue. The issue most prominent for moderates and liberals is human rights. The conservative issue, abortion. Nearly a quarter of a billion people have died of COVID-19 under Donald Trump’s watch, yet his supporters are not only staunchly with him, but kept many of his Congressional enablers in office. When interviewed, several Trump supporters said that Trump was against abortion. That was the issue? Really?

I understand moving toward insuring human rights for all people, but Why should something as minor as abortion be the issue? It seems to me that if women were being recognized as adults who have the capacity to make important decisions for their own lives, abortion would just be one more medical procedure to improve human life, safe, legal, and available when needed.

That is why I see abortion as a pseudo issue. It is the surface thing that can be pointed at to demonstrate one’s credentials as a good conservative, probably conservative Christian. The real issue is that women are seen by men in general as subordinates who should have only a minor place outside the home, in the "public sphere." Many men in power are scared of women because most women can do an amazing job in the work world and still raise kids and run a household, often without men. I suspect most men would be hard-pressed to do that. Now, when they attempt it, they are seen as superheroes. Men have been sure about their role and how important they are to everyone, assuming superiority to women, people of color, children, disabled persons, non-Christians. That leaves a very small "elite" group of white men who think they deserve to rule, make all decisions for the world, and be the moral police, except for themselves, of course. They can lie, cheat, do violence, plan wars and force others to fight them, and more and they want no opposition.

Women, people of color, and children often do stand up to men with varying degrees of success. A few are allowed in their circle, but only those who espouse the male majority viewpoint (Phyllis Schlafly, Kelly Ann Conway, Martha McSally, and Amy Coney Barrett, for example), the devoted surrogates.

Abortion is just one tool wielded by scared white men (and their surrogates) to keep women out of the way, too poor or wrapped up with kids they are no threat.

So, abortion is the conservative pseudo-issue. It is not enough to try to ban abortion because most women don’t have one, many conservatives oppose birth control too, and many women depend on that. That means women have no control over their reproduction. Men get their pleasure while women bear the burden and responsibility for whatever happens. It’s a weapon men have come to embrace and to force, shame, or coax many women into using against women too.

Since most religions are patriarchal, it is easy to slip anti-abortion and anti-birth control into the doctrine even if the sacred books do not mention it or give it short shrift among many dos and don’ts that today’s people mostly ignore.

Another proof of this pseudo issue status of abortion is the way pregnant women are often treated in the workplace and society in general. In many workplaces, few if any accommodations are made. Often there is no maternity leave, paid or unpaid. We push paternity leave before all women who have borne the struggle for 9 months get paid maternity leave. Then, of course, there’s the loss of wages, expensive day care, and shortened careers for women who take time to “raise” their kids at home.

The thing that amazes me most is how many women support this insanity. Misogyny is alive and well among men, but also among women. Why women are willing to accept their second-class status is unclear to me no matter how many times women have tried to explain it. The fallback for so many, “It’s God’s will.” When I point out that any mention of birth control in “scripture” is cursory, they ignore that and say “it’s what the Church teaches.” The media are on board too, constantly finding women willing to speak out against other women, making claims that are irrelevant to the discussion, but harmful to women in general. Their cry of “Right to Life” is merely a demand of forced birth. Not sure? Where are the conservative proponents of significant financial help for families after the child is born through age 18?

I find this abuse of women and our autonomy disgraceful, but until women who are more than half the population take our place in the circles of power, pseudo issues like abortion will hover over us and keep us from moving on to the important issues of saving our planet, providing food, shelter, and a decent living for everyone including children, and correcting the wrongs of racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, agism, ableism, and more. There will be 31 Republican women in the House of Representatives starting in January. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the needs of women.

So, sisters and brothers of all political leanings, in the future, vote for people who do value women for more than the children they bear. See women as partners, as people who can make their own decisions about their own bodies and reproduction. Stop hiding behind abortion and birth control. We need to move on to put our focus on the real issues.

SAFE VOTING, A RIGHT, NOT A GAME

by Ruth A. Sheets

I, along with many other Americans, believe our most important right as citizens, behind life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is the right to vote.  It appears there are quite a few elected representatives at all levels who are not among the right to vote believers.  Unfortunately, the unbelievers are mostly Republicans.  Why is everyone’s right to vote not critical for them?  Well, of course, they don’t want any but superior people like themselves, to hold office.  And, who are those superior people, rich, white, straight, Christian/Jewish, Republican men, with some submissive go-along women.  They simply don’t care about any of the rest of us unless they can use us as pawns in their political games. 

OK, REPUBLICANS DON'T CARE.  That is my starting point.  They crouch to listen to their cult leader who is scared of everything and everyone.  He “knows” that voting is the way to control what happens in America and he fears he might lose.  The way to keep that from happening is to shut as many people as possible out of the voting process, and encourage would-be voters to believe voter suppression is necessary to stop voter fraud, by Democrats and people of color.  Voter fraud of any kind is extremely rare and is usually done by mistake or misunderstanding, but that explanation does not fit with Republican talking points, so is neatly ignored for the sake of the lie. 

Republicans have gotten especially good at voter suppression over the years.  They even convinced the Supreme Court a few years back that some of the most racist, sexist, xenophobic districts in America are anxious to have everyone vote.  Of course this was a lie, as the Court knew very well, but hey, scared privileged white men and their allies can be found everywhere, even on our highest court. 

The very day the decision came down that cancelled out the most important sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, those districts began their work to make voting nearly impossible for large portions of their population.  Some of their “best” practices include:

-   Voter I.D. laws which allow a gun license and not a college I.D.,

- birth certificates required for people who have been voting for many decades (many of those certificates lost in fires or because of race and poverty, never existed),

- matching signatures for identical loops and swerves in letter formation in signatures decades apart

- DMV cards and other forms of I.D. that cost more than the poor can afford,

-  purging voter rolls of people who haven’t voted in a couple of elections (probably because of insane work schedules),

- purging voters with identical names to someone else on the rolls,

- refusing to enfranchise people who have served their time in prison even when the people of the state voted to enfranchise them (Florida)

It is predominantly people of color, older citizens, and younger people just getting started as voters who are the targets, the victims.  Who were meant to be least impacted, rich, white, privileged, men and women, of course.  These are the folks Republicans are counting on to keep them in power indefinitely. 

Another major type of voter suppression is gerrymandering.  This is slightly different because it doesn’t keep people from voting, it just negates the votes of Democrats who are forced into districts that have been cleverly shaped and contorted to make sure Republicans will always win there.  Republicans have  taken  jerrymandering to new heights of greed and power-mongering, giving them advantages no party should have in a democracy. 

Democrats have often tried valiantly to fight this crippling assault on American democracy, but it is exceedingly hard.  Once a thing is done, it’s hard to undo, and already, a lot of damage has been done.  Those who have not been eliminated from voting don’t think much about the others because it isn’t their problem.  The in-group of voters smugly think, “I did all the right things.  If they had done the right things too or tried harder, they’d have no trouble either.  All they have to do is . . ., but they’re just too lazy.”  We rarely think beyond that because life is complicated, busy, and we only vote a couple of times a year.  It is not quite often enough to make it a habit.  We also have an exaggerated sense of our having done things “the right way.”  A lot of that “right way” comes from privilege, luck, money, and other critical factors not available to everyone.  The right to vote should not be dependent on any of those factors, just that a person is a citizen of the United States.   

On top of the real and manufactured problems with elections, COVID19 has “gummed up the works” even further.  It has made it unsafe for anyone to vote in person right now. 

There is a way to make this less of a problem.  That is vote by mail.  Several states already use this as their means of voting all the time.  Others are flirting with the idea.  Some states are going for no-excuse absentee ballots.  Others are looking at a combination of in-person voting and vote by mail.  Some states are looking at same as usual. 

Some states like Georgia found a way during their primary to put the least experienced poll workers and the non-functioning machines in Black communities, causing extremely long lines and wait times.  A few wealthy white areas got to taste the long line approach to voting that is a regular part of Election Day in minority communities.  They didn’t like it much, but after their complaints, they are certain it will be fixed by November.  Those in the Black communities can never be sure of such correction.  Other state primaries experienced similar challenges, also mostly in Black communities.

 

OK Republicans!  We all deserve the right to vote and need safe elections (yes, even for your constituents).  The states need the funds to do that, and you know it.  But, you guys seem to be oblivious to the voice of the people. 

The privileged got rather safe elections,  mostly by mail during the pandemic.  Fancy that!  It’s clear the COVID19 crisis is having and will continue to have a major impact on our democracy.  Therefore, no one should have to choose between their health and voting.   Unless Congress responds, the primaries will be a preview of what’s to come in November.  That is inexcusable and a good reason that those in the Senate who don’t demand a floor vote on funds for safe voting and support for the US Post Office, and relief for the worst problems of COVID19 should be defeated this fall. 

I get it that REPUBLICANS DON'T CARE, but you could learn to care.  Even grown men can learn new things.  You all learned to love and bow down to a bigoted, womanizing, homophobic, transphobic, money-grubbing, child-man, dictator wannabe, so you can learn to care about the American people and our need for properly funded safe elections in November.

The next few weeks will inform the American people of how much REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE about them.  I am just hoping Democrats will jump in and take advantage of Republican lack of empathy and stand with and elect candidates who actually do care what happens to people other than themselves, who won’t see voting as a game they can only win by keeping everyone else off the field.  

THE McCONNELL-TRUMP TEAM, DICTATOR & ASSISTANT

by Ruth A. Sheets

Mitch McConnell has declared himself, through his actions, Assistant dictator of the United States.  That means anything the Senate, therefore Congress approves has to be cleared by himself.  This fool was elected only by a tiny fraction of the American people and should have no right to decide what the American people will get from Congress, but he has jumped into the role with enthusiasm and abundant cruelty.

I keep waiting for the Senate to rise up as one and declare they will vote on the issues that matter to the American people no matter what Mr. McConnell wants, but it has not happened yet and probably won’t.

In case they should rise and Mr. McConnell is not willing to share the nearly 300 pending bills he has from the House with them, they can get those bills directly from the House where some have been waiting for months, but they won’t.  Without McConnell, the risen Senate could put a next relief bill together with House members and pass it over any possible veto of Mr. Trump, Mr. McConnell’s partner in crime, but they won’t.

Senate and House Republicans are not only cowards, but they have given up their souls so they could be Republicans.  That is sad because some Republicans in the past have had the needs of Americans at heart.  However, since Nixon, and his racist sexist xenophobic “Southern Strategy,” those Republicans are as rare as hen's teeth (cliché but apt).  And Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump have joined forces to do as much as they can to make the rich richer and ignore the poor or blame the poor for the rich not becoming as rich as they could be.

Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump are very much alike in many ways.  They are both obsessed with money and are in constant competition to acquire more, never able to give up the quest.  They are both nearly completely self-absorbed and have been, probably for their entire lives.  They do what is expedient in support of the self no matter who is hurt.  They have had minimal education and have not let that education get in the way of their self-promotion.

Their one political gift is the ability to identify those people who are easily manipulated  by money and promises, then proceed to determine which promises and for how much.  They both speak the language (albeit poorly) of caring and appreciation for the people they work with, but their affect is flat when those words are spoken.

Both Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump love power and the trappings of power, the fact that everyone around them says “Sir” and wants/needs to bask in their light is almost orgasmic for them.  Neither believes he needs to be informed beyond some basic talking points that let him seem in charge to his followers and donors.  Those followers sit panting for the drippings from the huge quantities of bacon the McConnell-Trump Team is amassing.  The donors get some big chunks:  cuts in regulations, big money contracts, government positions with authority, and more, while The Team makes sure that if some of those drippings just happen to fall to the unworthy, those unintended recipients will pay through:  cutting SNAP, diminishing Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, ordering ICE to pick up and deport young people who are Americans in all but name, upon turning 18, bankrupting the post office and possibly the states, etc.

Someone looking at the COVID19 fiasco in the United States would see a president and Senate majority leader who are OK with the unnecessary deaths of American citizens,  especially since most of the deaths now are among people who would not be voting for Trump/McConnell anyway.  Even the media often find excuses for the Team’s bad behavior, their dismissal of the Constitution, the proposed destruction of our environment, the lack of equipment to properly protect first line workers of all kinds.

Since the Team members have not contracted the virus and are not at risk, they must be protected by God, thus deserving of laud from every American as well as re-election.

When the McConnell-Trump Team loses members, it is not their fault, not the fault of these two amazing leaders who just LOVE the American people and all the things the Constitution stands for.  It must be the fault of, well, let’s see, China, the Democrats, President Obama, the Democratic governors, the “fact” that “no one could have imagined COVID19 would get this bad.”  Blaming is what they do very well.  They probably have a group whose only job it is to come up with excuses and people other than the Trump-McConnell  Team to blame.  

So, where do we go from here.  The Trump-McConnell Team and Republicans in general claim to be channeling the founders, but there is no way the founders would have approved of Mr. McConnell, Mr. Trump, or the pathetic performance of Republicans across the country.  One can’t help but be surprised that Republicans are seen as the patriotic folks.  I guess that is because they wave the flag back and forth with more vigor.  Or, it could be because Republicans can say “Thank you for your service” more quickly and loudly to every service person they meet than anyone else while yelling for more war.  In reality, it is probably because Republicans as individuals and PACs (Political Action committees) have more money than anyone else and will do everything they can (lying, cheating, deception are not off the table), to keep what they have and get lots more.  A recent example is the “hidden” gift in the CARES Act that will allow the 1% to get away with paying billions less in taxes, snuck in around page 200, by guess who.

The McConnell-Trump Team knows how to tap into an amazing money stream, truly a gift that keeps on giving, but only if the McConnell-Trump Team and their followers will keep working for the moneybags who periodically open the dam to let a little of the “water” to flow downstream.  Of course, they will.

And the American people?  We will need to get help elsewhere.

The GOP's End To Democracy

by muon

The word “coup” is defined as a seizure of power from the government, usually sudden and violent, usually having to do with military activity. But there’s another kind of subtle political coup that’s oh so much more diabolical because it happens slowly.

The government of the United States, as set down in our Constitution, is supposed to be a government of, by, and for the people. It’s a democracy in which its citizens ought to have the ultimate power by the use of their vote. And it was constructed with three branches ~ executive, legislative, and judiciary ~ which are supposed to remain independent of each other, so that no one man nor one group would be able to seize absolute power and destroy our democracy.

The Republican Party has been trying to do just that ~ stage a political coup at the Federal level of the government, and through non-democratic means. In order to maintain a majority in Congress, the GOP has developed gerrymandering and voter suppression to an art form. Because of Citizen’s United, they’ve been able to shift power from ordinary citizens to corporations and the very wealthy. Power has even been given to foreign interests who seek to fund candidates and influence elections.

In the past 2 years, the line between executive branch and the Republicans in the legislative branch has completely disappeared. Most GOP congressmen support Trump without question, giving him the confidence to act like a dictator, while they turn a deaf ear to the vast majority of voters. Laws these days aren’t legislated, but come down from the White House as executive orders, or as Trump probably thinks of them, empirical edicts.

Still, we used to be able to rely most of the time on the Supreme Court to be the fair and impartial conscience of the country (albeit, not always ~ Dred Scott, for instance). Now, beginning with the Merrick Garland fiasco, the GOP has repeatedly ignored procedures set down centuries before, in order to manipulate the judiciary to their own will instead of the will of the people.  The Kavanaugh nomination is only the latest symptom. Legal minds and institutions from all over the country say Kavanaugh doesn’t have the temperament for the Supreme Court. Even former Justice Stevens believes Kavanaugh shouldn’t be appointed. Yet, the GOP is plowing forward, ignoring prudence and precedence from the beginning. Nothing about this confirmation process has had anything to do with true democracy. It’s all about illegal seizure of power from the voters of the United States.

This is why the 2018 general election is so important. Voters on both sides of the political divide need to take their power back from congressmen who’ve been in office so long, they think somehow that it’s their birthright. We need to remove people from office who have no respect for the separation of the three branches of government, who think our government is about their own power and wealth.

Only one political party is seeking to merge the 3 branches of government into one. The Republicans are staging a coup, pure and simple. You need to vote this November before that right is taken from you as well.

One-Issue Decision? Not This Year

by muon

I made a list last night of all the issues, off the top of my head, that seem to hinge on this election. I'm sure I forgot something. Here's my list, in no particular order:

Unemployment
Education
Energy independence
Climate change
Renewable energy
Equal pay for women
Middle East, terrorism, war, national security
Healthcare
Women's healthcare, including contraceptives, abortion, and Planned Parenthood
Medicare and Social Security
Immigration
FEMA and crisis management
Infrastructure
Welfare, food stamps, other poverty issues
Science, Arts, PBS
Deficit
Gun control
Citizens United
Supreme Court appointees
Banking/mortgage industry problems
Foreign and Domestic Trade
Wealth imbalance

For all of you still undecided folks out there (if any), really, all you have to do is go down this list and decide who you trust to make policy for you on these issues, at the Presidential, Congressional, State and Local levels. For instance, if you're hit by a natural disaster in the next 4 years, do you want someone who acted the way President Obama, Governor Christie and Mayor Bloomberg acted this week, or say, the way President Bush acted during Hurricane Katrina? Do you want a president who'd shut down FEMA and tell the states to handle disasters themselves, even when their infrastructure is completely compromised?  You might say, oh, but I don't live in a natural disaster prone area. I thought so, too, until Hurricane Sandy.

These issues are the main reasons I'm voting, not only for Obama, but for all the Democrats on my ballot.  I say main reasons because there are others.

I refuse to vote for a party that condones and spreads the blatant lies of its presidential candidate. This week Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders pressured the independent Congressional Research group to suppress a report showing that tax cuts for the wealthy do nothing to help the economy. I won't vote for anyone who has such a contempt for truth.

GOP leaders have gone out of their way to make voting more difficult this year. Voter ID laws, voter roll purging, laws restricting registration drives, reduced early voting in many states, and intimidation measures aimed at African-American and Latino voters are all forms of voter suppression. For the first time, the UN has sent monitors to the US to observe our elections. I'm not voting for the party that made all this happen.

Legislation in this country shouldn't be influenced by anyone but the voters. Many Democrats are in the pockets of lobbyists as much as Republicans, but the worst offenders right now--the Koch Brothers, Grover Norquist, the NRA, far-right religious fanatics, and Big Oil--are GOP cronies.

So that's the election in a nutshell for me. You're on your own.

MA and PA Senate Races

by muon

Time to talk about some of this year's Senatorial races.

Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, during his debate with challenger Elizabeth Warren, decided to introduce race as an issue in his campaign, He complained that Ms. Warren claimed to be a Native American. He hinted that she only used her claims of race to advance her career. He said he could tell whether she was Native American simply by looking at her, and to quote him, "Clearly, she is not." (I suppose, in Brown's limited experience, he believes Native Americans need to look as if they've ridden out of a Roy Rogers movie, complete with feathers and war paint.)  In a pathetic echo of the Obama birther movement, he challenged her to "release her records."  If you want to watch this part of the debate, click here.  

 Last Saturday, some of Brown's staffers tried to disrupt a Warren rally by doing tomahawk chops and war whoops. (Watch the clip here.)  Seriously, fellas? It never occurred to you that those actions might be considered racially offensive? Especially since anyone watching sports in the last decade has heard of Native American tribes repeatedly asking the Atlanta Braves to discourage their fans (the vast majority of whom are white, surprise, surprise) from doing the exact same offensive behavior.

The staffer in the tan cap leading the chops and whoops is Brad Garrett, Brown's state GOP operative. The guy in the blue cap and camo shirt is Jack Richard, Constituent Services Counsel for Brown. Mr. Richard is on the federal payroll to the tune of 60,000 taxpayer bucks annually. Yes, while spreading racial devisiveness, Jack Richard's pocketing our tax money.

Scott Brown, though he said he regretted the actions of his staffers, launched a new website this week, where he calls Elizabeth Warren a "Fake Indian." Last night, Cherokee Chief Bill John Baker released this statement:"We need individuals in the United States Senate who respect Native Americans and have an understanding of tribal issues. For that reason, I call upon Sen. Brown to apologize for the offensive actions of his staff and their uneducated, unenlightened and racist portrayal of native peoples."

I'd go further than that. As a taxpayer, I demand that all staffers on the federal payroll who participated in the event be fired.  If Brown wants to keep them on and pay them out of his own pocket, fine. But I don't want them on my dime.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tom Smith                            Bob Casey

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, senate challenger Tom Smith is running ads claiming incumbent Bob Casey "hasn't passed a bill in 6 years." This is quite true. Senators cannot single-handedly pass bills. However, Mr. Casey did vote support the following bills: Middle Class Tax Relief, Veterans Jobs, FDA Food Safety, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Children's Health Insurance and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to name a few. If bills didn't pass, it was because of GOP filibusters.

In August, Smith stated that he opposes abortion in all circumstances, even in cases of rape and incest, and he equated the trauma of pregnancy by rape to that of having a baby out of wedlock.

Smith claims to have been a successful job creator, owning a coal company that employed over 100 people. If you look up Thomas J. Smith, Inc., records state that the firm employs 25 people, yet had gross annual sales of $5,075,000 in 2011. Which explains how Smith has the moolah to primarily self-fund his campaign and flood the airwaves with lies.  Smith claims he retired in 2010, yet the site above still lists him as the owner. If he ever did employ 100 people, he shrunk his workforce by 75%.  Good work, Job Creator.

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."

Voting A.B.B.

by Ruth A. Sheets

The latest of many many polls has the upcoming presidential election essentially tied.  I find that incredible. Generally, an incumbent is reelected when he does a good job, that is, improves the economy from the time he took office, ends an established war, passes legislation to support the middle class, and takes care of the poor to some extent.

President Obama’s reelection should not even be in question this year since he presided over a country whose stock market rose more than 5,000 points, pushed a health care program which, although not perfect, does increase significantly the number of people who will be covered, and designed a stimulus program that employed a lot of folks to improve our infrastructure.  He also has championed a tax reform that would increase the share the haves will contribute and gives extra money to the middle class who will spend it to help the economy.  He is continuing the war in Afghanistan, but has ended involvement in Iraq.  His support of veterans far exceeds anything by previous presidents.  He wants to get us to the top of the world in energy and innovation.

So how can he be tied with someone who has no clue about the life that more than 99% of the population lives, who is a war hawk with no experience of what such hawkishness will cost, who has no concrete idea of what would build the economy?  Mitt Romney is not even in the same league as President Obama in his ability to empathize with Americans.  He believes that he got where he is only through hard work and his own brilliance (which, of course, he didn’t; it was his family’s wealth that gave him the leg up).

Why would poor folks even consider Mitt Romney? He thinks that the programs in place are sufficient to help the poor, and are even harmful since they promote laziness and a bad work ethic?  Why would women support someone who is in favor of restricting all kinds of rights for women?  Why would small business people support someone who has no sense of how valuable government support of company start-ups is?  Why would any public worker like police, fire fighters, teachers, etc. support someone who, along with his party, blames these workers for being the vampires who are sucking the life out of the economy?

What is it that Romney supporters see in him, a mediocre politician, businessman, and governor? 

I believe it is not so much what they see, but what they do not see.  The antipathy of many Americans toward President Obama is directly related to his racial mixture.  He is self-identified as African-American. 

Some of the Romney supporters tried him four years ago and were expecting miracles.  If one looks at his record, it does not include miracles, but some significant achievements.  President Obama got one chance.  He did not give every American exactly what they wanted, so he is branded a failure.  A minority person gets only one chance and the results must be amazing or, kick him out.

On a smaller playing field, I have experienced this phenomenon.  As a seriously visually-impaired person, I have known since childhood that to be seen as equal with non-disabled persons, I have to be very much better at whatever I am doing.  When I make a mistake, it is not like a non-disabled person’s mistake.  I must fear for my job, position, or reputation.  Asking for help is seen as a significant, sometimes crippling weakness.   Then the double whammy hits.   When I am better at something, the resentment of people around me can be isolating and painful.

Being the first of anything is hard, but in this culture, being black and first is nearly impossible, even for someone as talented as Barack Obama.  If he can’t be painted as incompetent, a fool, or some other stereotype of African-Americans, he is called an elitist.  He gets the double whammy too. 

So, why do so many people support Mitt Romney? People who have no economic or political reason to?  The answer, no matter how inept Romney is, he isn’t black and there are a lot of people who vote A.B.B, Anything But Black.    

Why Romney's Attitude Matters

by muon

I just read an opinion piece by John Baer titled "Why Mitt Romney's tax returns don't matter." (Not to be picky, but my English teachers always pounded it into my brain that words in headlines should be capitalized--but maybe political columnists aren't required to pass English.)

Mr. Baer claims that America wants to see Mitt Romney's tax returns merely "so we can see (a) just how rich he really is and (b) what he's hiding from the American people." He calls this, dismissively, "voyeuristic curiosity." He says what we'd find out doesn't matter.

While making sure that Mr. Romney isn't hiding anything worrisome or even criminal in his financial past would certainly be a legitimate reason to ask for the returns, I think the main issue here is the candidate's stubborn refusal to show them to us. We are, after all, his prospective employers.

Picture yourself interviewing a job candidate. On his application, he lists the job he's had for the last two years, possibly even something impressive, like rocket scientist. You say, "This is great, but what did you do before that?" He says, "You don't need to know that. All you need to know about me is written there on the application."

If you're a real employer, all sorts of red flags will go up. You're not going to hire the guy. Not only are you worried about what may or may not be in his past, you don't like the fact that he won't answer your question. You want team players in the office, not prima donnas.

Imagine that Mitt is elected. I can picture him evoking executive privilege even more than G. W. Bush (his record is 6 times). Mitt's press conferences will be singularly and deliberating uninformative. If these months of job interview are any indication, Romney would be at best, a secretive president, and at worst, someone who constantly lies to us, the folks paying his salary.

So, what do you say, Mr. Romney? 5 more years of returns? That's all we ask. Or shall we thank you for your time and move on to the next job applicant?

muon

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