Thursday, November 27, 2014

We need to put more effort into closing our racial divides

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025110493_jdlcolumn27xml.html


We need to put more effort into closing our racial divides

Developments out of Ferguson, Mo., signal a need to understand and work on the country’s race problem.
This Thanksgiving opinion piece in the Seattle Times bears reading.  You will agree if you are of the Progressive persuasion and disagree if of the conservative persuasion.  My comments are as follows:
 
Interesting my three rational, carefully thought-out, non-inflammatory opinion posts in response seem to have disappeared from the Seattle Times.  So much for a "discussion" about "closing our racial divides" in the Seattle Times.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

SCORCHED EARTH

                            SCORCHED EARTH


Republicans won the November 4, 2014, election in obtaining majorities in both houses of the United States Congress.

Will this begin an end to the nasty partisan hatred and divide in this country?  It will only happen if the three political leaders, President Barack Obama, John Boehner, Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives and, and Mitch McConnell, incoming Senate Majority Leader can actually put aside their personal and ideological differences and work together for the benefit of the American People.

Won't happen.

First out: Boehner warned President Obama not to draft and sign a presidential executive order on immigration, asking for him to await the seating of the next Congress and for it to then take up the issue.

President Obama immediately stated, "No!" That the Republican-led House did not vote on reform during this present session, after the Senate passed a bill, so Republicans can't be trusted to take it up in 2015.  Besides the president knows what the American people need and want while Republicans do not.

The president has a little over two years left in office and, according to many, was dealt a major loss to his plans and policies by the election.  While he bitterly renounces that view, the question is, what will President Obama do against an opposition obstructionist Republican-led Congress?

Given everything I have heard and read about the president, his background, upbringing and personality (including "his" books) I believe he lives his life in his mind - a typical narcissist - and further, perhaps believes that the Tea Party, conservatives and Republicans exist only to block what he knows is the best for America and Americans. Some Democrats are partially in that category too. With much of the power in this country seemingly lined up against him, with his political power weakened and with little possibility of the enemy allowing anything of his to get through Congress and signed into law, what can he do?

Degrade and Destroy?

It is very possible that, in his mind, the Republican-led opposition needs to be degraded and destroyed and, along with that he might also believe that the American people have been completely misled and misguided.  Capitalism is wrong for people, since only the rich make out well. Christianity is part and parcel of Capitalism and needs to be degraded. Finally, the U. S. Constitution is out of date, racist and elitist. The people themselves have proven to be easy suckers for Capitalism/Christianity's propaganda and they need to be put into and understand their place. To obey what's right for them.

How?

The "earth" of America needs to be degraded and destroyed.  Scorched Earth.




Saturday, November 15, 2014

Republicans: Choose CHOICE

I just noticed that my last post was exactly one year ago.  Since then much has happened.  The President of the Democrats, Barack Obama has sunk in popularity and with the tendency of the people to follow, many Americans think little of him.  That unpopularity sunk many Democrats in the recent (November 4, 2014) election.  I never thought in a million years that would ever happen.  Republicans will take control of the U. S. Senate and the House of Representatives in January.  Will they self-destruct in their leaders' and leading lights' ideology and ego competition?

Here is some advice to them:

Republicans: Choose CHOICE


The election of 2014 is over.  The triumphant Republican Party now has about a year before the campaign of 2016 will begin.  For that, the party needs a cogent, simple yet punchy theme to present to voters, something the Democratic Party has excelled in. I propose: Choice.  After all, what is the overarching difference between Republicans and Democrats?  Republicans trust “We the People” to make beneficial decisions for themselves.  Democrats do not seem to trust “We the People” to make good decisions, but prefer detailed laws and regulations created and administered by their hand-picked elites to decide for us. That difference translates into Republicans enabling “We the People” to have CHOICE, while Democrats routinely take choice from us and give it to their bureaucrats who choose for us. Why can’t the American people choose what school to send their children to?  What doctors to go to? What to have covered in their health insurance policies? What kind of a mortgage to buy a house with? To join a union and pay dues or not? What safety equipment they want in their cars? What crib to buy? To wear a helmet on a motorcycle or not? What to use to heat their homes, run their cars, or wash their clothes in?  And those are just some things that quickly come to mind.
Obviously, there are circumstances when elite experts’ knowledge is needed in a field that we can’t begin to understand about something that could really harm us. But is using the  word “natural” to sell corn flakes something so very dangerous that it needs an expert to stop me from choosing whether to believe it or not? Really? Do we actually want to eliminate personal discretion from our lives? The human element of judgment?  Do we need an instant replay of each action we take in our lives with the final decision being made by officials in Washington, D. C.? This is the tension between trust and distrust; imprecise human acumen and the precision of computing machines and video cameras; freedom and equality; choosing and obeying. Sure, I might get hurt or cheated but it will be my choice; anyway, I think most of us are smart enough to know. After all, practically all the information ever known to humanity is available to most anyone on a little smart phone. Perhaps the government’s role should be to figure out how we get informed, not “protecting” us as consumers from ourselves. Massive bureaucratic institutions are invented primarily by Democrats when in power to limit the human prerogative of choice. Don’t they think we are smart or honest enough? This seems to be an appropriate time to mention Dr. Jonathan H. Gruber, a prototypical Democratic Harvard Ph. D. elite and one of the key architects of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). He was quoted as saying “…[C]all it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever...” That seems to answer my question.
This is a national dialogue that has never been clearly advanced, explained or argued by our political parties.  We the People haven’t even been told what the difference is between choosing or obeying. Framed that way, would voters choose to decide things for themselves or submit to the  dictates of an ivory-tower aristocracy? Republicans need to ask.
Remember, the United States Constitution called for a government distributed among the people: The states each with their own government and a small central government, itself divided into three branches, one of which was even bifurcated.   That structure is still supported by Republicans while the Democrats want a powerful, expensive centralized government which would preempt the decision-making of the people to stop them from making ignorant opinions. Republicans trust the masses of human beings – democracy –  while Democrats seem only to trust our formally educated Ph. D. superiors.

Historically the Democratic Party has expropriated the word “choice” but mostly related only to abortion. One choice.  The Republican Party should seize “choice” by explaining how they encourage it widely in our lives, how it represents democracy and what our government was founded on.