We have become so accustomed to the extreme polarization of our country that began in earnest during Clinton’s second term and has gone off the deep end during the past few years with the creation and ascendency of the Republican Tea Party movement, that it’s hard to remember that there was a time not that long ago when things were very different. But they were,
Our nation stands under attack … not from without, but from within. Both our politics and our culture have been corrupted.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Media and the Polarization of America
We have become so accustomed to the extreme polarization of our country that began in earnest during Clinton’s second term and has gone off the deep end during the past few years with the creation and ascendency of the Republican Tea Party movement, that it’s hard to remember that there was a time not that long ago when things were very different. But they were,
Labels:
conservative talk,
gridlock,
media,
polarization,
Republicans,
right-wing,
Tea Party
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
We Must Reform Our Election System
We have just witnessed the most obscene election in American history. Obscene in the sense that $2.6 billion was spent on the presidential race. Obscene in that the Supreme Court’s decision that money = speech gives new meaning to the phrase, money talks. Obscene in that the Supreme Court’s decision that corporations are people entitled to their right of free speech meant that corporations as well as individuals could spend unlimited amounts of money in support of their preferred candidate.
But at least such reform needs to become part of the public discussion. Someone in Congress needs to have the guts make this his or her cause. And perhaps one day, just as public opinion has evolved on other matters. the public will come to demand such reform and the politicians will have to comply.
Friday, November 2, 2012
How Can Evangelicals Embrace Capitalism and the Republican Party?
Over the past 30-40 years, the Religious Right has gone from total noninvolvement with politics to total involvement to partial domination. As a general matter, and more specifically in recent years, they have endorsed capitalism and the concept that each person is responsible for himself, they have endorsed a limited role for government, and they have tenaciously fought for the right to life of the unborn and against same-sex marriage or any kind of gay rights that gives homosexuals the approval of society.
It is only the presence of government regulation, which began in the early 20th century and has grown over the years, that has resulted in corporations [capitalists] being able to claim to be responsible members of society. But they are not reformed. Even today with all the regulation we have, if there is an area where there is no regulation, or it is hazy, or they dislike it, capitalists will do whatever they can get away with regardless of its impact on the broader society or their workers. It is simply the nature of the beast.
Labels:
abortion,
capitalism,
Christianity,
Evangelicals,
gay marriage,
gay rights,
God,
homosexuality,
Jesus,
pro-life,
Religious Right,
Republicans,
same-sex marriage,
social contract,
Tea Party
Monday, October 15, 2012
What If All Religions Viewed Other Religions As Equal?
First let’s start with some basic facts. For millennia now, three of the world’s major religions have believed in one God. Whether one is Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, when one speaks or prays to God, one is praying to the same being. Indeed, the ancient history of these religions are to be found in the same story. Where they separate is in their belief of who the true prophet of God was and then they further separate based on the institution that best represents the faith or the sub-prophet that is more worthy of adoration.
Labels:
ecumenism,
religion,
religious conflict,
religious exclusivity,
religious liberty,
religious tolerance
Thursday, October 4, 2012
What Obama Should Have Said But Didn't
Opening Statement: I want to be a president for all the people, whether rich or poor, Democrat or Republocan ... not just the 54% that don't receive any government benefits. I will not write off any American.
Entitlements: Just a few weeks ago, Governor Romney, in a private gathering of donors, sounded very different from the way he is sounding tonight speaking to all of you. He said that the 46% of Americans who receive government benefits feel like victims, that they have become dependent on government. It sounded like he felt they were losers. I strongly disagree. The seniors who have paid into Social Security all their lives, the injured veterans coming back from Iraq and all our wars after having fought for their country ... these are people who have paid their dues, they are indeed entitled to support from the government at this point in their lives. What about the poor? The poor who have never had a fair chance to get ahead because of poor schooling, a government obligation, deserve the support of the government to help them pursue their dreams of life, liberty, and happiness. That is why President Clinton turned welfare into workfare.
The Role of Government: As it says in the Declaration of Independence, the role of government is to "secure these rights" ... meaning the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In other words, government's role is to create a situation where everyone has at least an equal opportunity to pursue those rights. The government needs to be there for all the people, and especially those who are at a point in their lives when they are facing hardship and are vulnerable ... whether it is from old age, from natural disaster, from injury received in defense of their country, from unjust discrimination, or being born on the wrong side of the tracks. That is the ethic of the American sense of government, the American social contract.
Health Care: No, Governor, you're wrong. We do not have the best health care system in the world. Far from it. Despite spending more money by far on health care per person than the rest of the world, the United States consistently scores near the bottom of the pack of industrialized countries on almost every measurable outcome of national health. That is why the board, that you are so fond of mentioning, was created. While places like the Cleveland Clinic and several others have instituted practices that have delivered better health care at lower cost, the rest of the health care industry has not embraced those examples and so our costs keep rising while we have unsatisfactory health care outcomes. This is clearly confirmed in a recent report by the Institute of Medicine. The board was created so that these excellent health care practices developed by private clinics would be mandated for the entire health care industry. So that we can at the same time significantly lower costs while improving people's health.
Closing: I have tried to be the President for all Americans. Countless times during my first four years, I have reached across the aisle on all the major issues to try to work with Repulican legislators. But in virtually each and every case, the Republicans just said, "no." They have stated very bluntly, as did the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, that their sole goal was to see that I would be a one-term president. Every decision they have made was to weaken me by weakening the country. During the Republican primary season and at the nominating convention, Governor Romney sounded like the most radical of the radical Tea Party Republicans. He wrote off almost half of America's citizens, half of you. Tonight he tried to make you believe he is now once again the old caring Mitt Romney who was Governor of Massachusetts. I ask you ... who is he? How will he really govern?
Labels:
entitlements,
Health care,
Obama,
presidential debate,
role of government,
Romney,
Romney Obama debate
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Romney Shows His Dark Side
Whatever else one could say
about Mitt Romney … that he was a flip-flopper, an opportunist, that there was
no “there” there … one couldn’t say that he was a nasty man. One felt that he
would do or say anything he had to to become president, but that he would stop
short of being nasty.
Well, that barrier has fallen. On the stump the other day, Romney said
that no one had ever asked him for his birth certificate … that everyone knew
without question where he was born, where he was from. How despicable!
Clearly, this was a
reference to the Obama birth certificate canard. Although obliquely, Romney with this statement signaled to
the “Birther” movement that he was one with them. And he signaled that no blow would be too low for him to
throw in this election campaign.
So not only is Romney an
opportunist … witness his most recent proposal that states be given the right
to control drilling and mining on federal lands … but far worse than that (for
among politicians this character trait is not unusual), he has shown that he
has no shame. And that should be
beyond the pale, certainly for someone aspiring to be president of this great
nation.
Labels:
birthers,
Obama birth certificate,
Republicans,
Romney
Friday, August 24, 2012
Republicans’ Seven Biggest Lies
The propaganda theory of
“the big lie” is that if you tell a lie big enough often enough, people will
begin to believe it, and the Republicans are masters of this tactic. The
Republican Party has been selling the American public a bill of goods and
unfortunately the public is falling for the scam. They want the average
American to think that they are going to protect their interests and that the
Democrats will ruin them. This is
a classic “big lie” if ever there was one.
Their “argument” is based on
the following subsidiary lies, which fall predominantly into two categories …
the economy and health care/Obamacare:
Lies About the Economy
Lie #1: The financial crisis
and joblessness is the fault of big government, of government regulation.
Fact: The financial crisis was caused by rich
investment bankers and mortgage brokers trying to find a way to make a fast
buck at the expense of ordinary Americans or small-fry investors. It happened
because people in the financial industry are greedy and cannot be allowed to
regulate themselves.
Lie #2: The financial crisis
continues because of the failure of the Obama stimulus package and the increasing
government deficit.
Fact: The Obama stimulus package, while not
creating many new jobs, resulted in preventing the elimination of millions of
jobs, especially state and local jobs.
This kept the country out of a second Great Depression.
Fact: Once the stimulus funds were spent,
Republican-led efforts to slash the budget in order to cut the deficit have
made the jobless crisis far worse by reducing support for state and local
governments, causing increased unemployment in that area that the stimulus had
prevented and stalling the recovery.
Fact: The deficit, while large and
undesirable, is more of prac†ical concern to investors in government bonds, and
interestingly rather than fleeing from US bonds, investors continue to flock to
them as a safe haven in this volatile global financial market.
Lie #3: The key to getting
the American public back to work is cutting taxes for the rich and
corporations, as well as cutting the deficit.
Fact: Cutting taxes for the rich only helps
the rich get richer. There is no
trickle down effect, as was proven during the Reagan years. Reducing corporate taxes only
results in corporations and their investors making more money; it does not
encourage investment and job creation unless the tax cuts are specifically tied
to that effort. Corporations are into doing more with less labor; they have no
interest in job creation or giving raises. It’s not that they don’t have the money … they are sitting
on $1.74 trillion … yes trillion … dollars of cash.
Fact:
Income inequality between the very rich and the rest of us is worse now than at
any time in US history. And income
stagnation for the average American is a real crisis.
Fact: Cutting the deficit by cutting funding
for all sorts of programs and support for state and local governments will only
make the job situation even worse by increasing layoffs at all levels, as it
has already done.
Lie #4: The answer is not the government;
government is the problem.
Fact: The crisis was caused by market forces
working in a for-all-practical-purposes unregulated atmosphere. Its only guide was greed. Even Alan Greenspan has admitted that
his theory that the market would be self-regulating was an error. The answer to protecting the American
public from this type of thing happening again is regulation of the financial
sector that has teeth in it. The
Republicans are dead set against such regulation. The Democrats support it.
Fact:
We got out of the Great Depression through massive government spending
including the WWII effort. In a
financial crisis, the private sector has no interest in investing. Their only concern is protecting or
growing their profits. Thus they
find ways to do less with more, which is great for their shareholders, but bad
for the American worker. We need
more government stimulus, hang the impact on the deficit, in order to get the
unemployed back to work.
The Lies About Health
Care/Obamacare
Lie #5: Obamacare will get
between you and your doctor and reduce the quality of your medical care.
Fact:
There is nothing whatsoever in Obamacare that would do this. It is built on the existing private
insurance system. It is not a “government takeover” in any sense, which
Medicare actually was, although interestingly everyone loves that.
Lie #6: Obamacare will force individuals to get
health insurance. The implication of this is that individuals who cannot afford
health insurance will be forced to buy it or suffer a penalty.
Fact:
One of the main drives behind the enactment of Obamacare was to provide health
insurance to the millions of Americans who don’t have it as part of their jobs
and who can’t afford to buy it. It
does this by subsidizing health insurance for those who can’t afford it. The
individual mandate will provide health insurance and proper medical care to
millions of Americans who currently can’t afford access.
Fact:
Republicans have for the last 20 years urged the individual mandate as part of
any health care reform. It was
central to the bill that Governor Romney supported in Massachusetts. Now they
are against it solely because it’s a Democrat-passed program.
Lie #7: Obamacare will
ration health care.
Fact:
There is nothing in Obamcare that would ration health care. There are measures
in the law that encourage the medical profession to apply their group knowledge
more consistently so that everyone gets the best care and money is not wasted
on unnecessary or counterproductive procedures.
Fact: Contrary to the statements of
Republican talk show hosts and some Congressmen, there is no “death panel” in
Obamacare. What the law does encourage is for doctors to talk about end of life
issues with their patients so that the patients’ desires regarding various
levels of medical effort will be known and respected.
Bottom line … Republican politicians
and radio talk show hosts have presented a Big Lie to the American public. And
by saying it over and over again, and by the Democrats not effectively
countering the lie, a large segment of the American public has come to believe
the lie. But in fact, Republicans are only concerned with protecting the
interests of the rich and corporations; they have no concern for the average
American. It is instead Democrats who are fighting to protect the well-being of
the average American.
There is no question that
government is not the entire solution … the private sector and individuals have
a major role to play … but government is certainly a necessary part of the
solution.
Labels:
big government,
Democrats,
economy,
Health care,
individual mandate,
Obamacare,
Republicans,
tax cut
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)