Free Friday: Renouncing the Pledge

Dear Elected Representatives,

If who have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, We the People relieve you of that obligation.  If you need to raise taxes to solve the problems facing this country, you are now free to do so.  We would like you to use your knowledge, experience, and skills (the reasons why a bunch of us voted for you) to do whatever you feel you need to do in order to carry out your responsibilities.  If we disagree with what you do or we feel that you have duped us and become a different sort of representative then you led us to believe before we voted for you, we’ll let you know and fewer of us may vote for you.  That’s what elections are for.  The only pledge we require of you is that you promise to do your job to the best of your abilities.  So … have at it!

Sincerely,

We the People

Thoreau Thursday: The Individual is Voting In Lockstep

If you see America as the culmination of the success of a lot of individuals doing what is best for themselves, how do you justify voting in lock step on every issue with everyone else in your party?  We know every Republican doesn’t agree on every issue and that every Republican doesn’t believe that government and taxes are always bad.   So why do they suppress their individual beliefs for the good of the collective?  Why is it OK for the Republican Party to use the threat of supporting a rival in the next primary to keep folks from supporting health care reform, but not OK for the government can’t use fines to encourage environmentally responsible behavior?  Compromise to save the environment or provide medical care is horrible, but compromise to save the Republican Party is OK?  I suppose whatever It is that allows a person to criticize a fellow Republican for “impure thoughts” for considering raising revenue to reduce a deficit, also allows them to fight hard to protect embryos and stem cells but dismiss the murder of women and children by remote control planes as collateral damage.  So, while it may be hypocrisy, it’s also really useful.  An individual certainly should be able to do whatever is best for themselves … even if it isn’t always what’s best for themselves.

W-etiquette Wednesday: Those Damn Liberals

Life would be better if people would stop lacing their political arguments with one or more of the following: liberal, leftist, radical, conservative, wacko, Jesus freak, socialist, pinky, left leaning, etc. etc.  You add nothing to your argument by saying “how can you leftists think that Obama‘s plan will do anything but add to our deficit?”  Besides, it isn’t nice.  Why don’t you just say that Obama’s plan will add to the deficit?  Why do you have to call me names?  Is your argument not good enough on the merits?  I know that manners and cooperation are antiquated relics of a time gone by, but I like them.  I also like logic and reason, and I think none of them go well with half hidden insults.  If you have a point to make … make it.  If you want a name to call me, I’d prefer the name my mother gave me.  If you don’t know that, go with “fellow American,” or even “hey you.”   I can’t stop you from being juvenile, but you can … so would you mind?

Tuneful Tuesday: It is Raining in Baltimore and Everywhere Else Too

It might be "raining in Baltimore fifty miles east."  But it is right in the nation's capital that "The circus is falling down on its knees" and the "the big top is crumbling down."  I listened to "Raining in Baltimore" by the Counting Crows as I was ignoring the crumbling children in the back seat midway through a twelve hour road trip, and it made me think of the political mess.  There are "no answers" and there is "no change" and "everything else is the same."  Adam even gives us the solution, although I might start with a little love before went right to the "big love."  I, however, feel and am as powerless as Adam to do anything but wait for "a phone call" or "a rain coat."  "Maybe I should buy a new car.  I can always hear a freight train, [i]f I listen real hard.  And I wish it was a small world, [b]ecause I'm lonely for the big towns.

I'd like to hear a little guitar.  I think it's time to put the top down."

Monday Musings: Obama and Gift Giving

Obama did win because he handed out gifts.  Romney was right.  Of course, so was Obama.  Elected officials should give their constituents things which improve their lives, things like citizenship, medical care, and renewable energy.  The goal should be to benefit the majority of your constituents, and not just a few.  It would seem to be hard to get elected if you don’t do that … but of course that isn’t the case.  You don’t have to give people the things that make their lives better if you convince them that there is something or someone they should be afraid of … or something that they should be angry about.  Then, all you have to do is take money from the few people whose interests you do take into account to fund this deception, vow to take care of the invented threat, and chuckle as people forget their own interests.  This, of course, is why there is a Tea Party, a Birther Movement, “love it or leave it” bumper stickers, and so much talk of “socialists” and “radical liberals.”   The only way the Republicans can sell many of the extreme positions that they have recently adopted, is to use fear and anger.  They seem to have given up on even pretending to give people what they need, forcing them to take a different approach … and criticize the people who are trying to provide folks what they need as gift givers.  I think that the holiday season is a good time to start appreciating, and even demand, gift giving … even from the people we have elected to look out for our interests.  Maybe Republicans will start agreeing with Romney about how you win an election, and then start acting on that conclusion.  

Taxes Pay for Stuff

We came together in societies because we couldn’t thrive as individuals.  Taxes are how we contribute to that collective effort.  Taxes pay for shit that you use.   If you want to go back on your own, be my guest.  If you are going to stay, can you please drop this nonsense about never raising taxes and get serious about each of us doing our part to help solve the real problems we are facing?  

Voting For America

I love America.  I love it for what it is, what it has always been: an imperfect collective enterprise.  The Republican Party of 2012 has a very different vision.  For that reason, for the first time in my lifetime, I won’t give any consideration to voting for a single Republican candidate.  I don’t mean any disrespect to those who will be voting for Republicans, I just can’t reconcile the differences between the vision of the Republican Party for this country and my own vision of what this country has been, what it is, and what I would like it to be.   

I love this country, warts and all.  I don’t need to pretend that it is something it isn’t.  I don’t need to pretend that it is perfect.  I don’t need to overlook Jim Crow, the detention of Japanese Americans, our role in supporting despots in several continents, our misguided war in Iraq, our use of torture, or our current rankings in education, infant mortality, and violent crime.  I’m not threatened if my President acknowledges any or all of this, or even apologizes for it.  On the contrary, it makes me proud.  America isn’t perfect.  It isn’t always a beacon for freedom and democracy.  It isn’t always in the right.  That’s just the truth.  Good leaders acknowledge the truth.  Good leaders make me proud. 

I am proud of my country and I love my country, so I don’t have a problem acknowledging that other people love their countries.  I don’t have a problem acknowledging that other folks have reasons to love their countries and reasons not to love ours.  Not acknowledging that there are economies that are growing as fast or even faster than ours, cities that are as safe or even safer than our cities, health care systems that work as well or even better than ours, or young people that are getting as good if not a better and more affordable education than our young people doesn’t make it all untrue.  It just makes us obnoxious, self righteous, self involved bullies.  The truth is that America isn’t any more perfect than any other country.

Maybe I love my country because I’m not perfect either.   I don’t claim to be the only one who loves my country, or to love it for the right reasons or the only reasons.  I also don’t think that part of loving America is agreeing with me.  Part of loving America, for me, is being willing to raise my voice in opposition and being willing to listen when others do the same.  I’m not perfect and my country isn’t perfect, which means there are problems to be dealt with and I’m not going to be able to do it by myself or just with folks who agree with me on every issue.   I don’t love my country any less because I recognize its deficiencies or believe that they can only be addressed through collaboration, cooperation, dialogue, and discussion.

I do love my country, though, and I do want to address those problems.  I want to use logic and reason to solve them.  I want to rely on science.  My country is not on a world that is flat or was created in six days.  My country is not threatened by a communicable disease caused homosexuality.  My country is threatened by climate change.  My country is filled with animals that evolved rather than being created as they now find themselves.  My country evolved. 

My country is still evolving.  That is what I love about it.  There is a minimum wage.  Children don’t work.  Women can vote.  Slavery has been abolished.  There aren’t still drinking fountains for colored people.  There aren’t still Jim Crow laws, and when echoes appear in voter ID laws or in the actions of ‘monitors’ identifying voter fraud mainly in minority precincts in contested states … enough folks protest to warm my heart.  It makes me believe that in the future people won’t be called out as terrorists because of their religion, seen as less than full citizens because of their accent or skin color, and denied rights because of who they choose to love.

I love my country even if everyone doesn’t think homosexuality is right, maybe even because everyone doesn’t think homosexuality is right … as long as those preferences don’t intrude on people’s rights.  I love a place where folks can tell each other their morals are wrong, I don’t like a place that can bring the power of the courts behind those religious and moral preferences.

I do love the power of the state.  We all do.  That is why we joined a society.  That is why we abandoned the Articles of Confederation and rejected the Confederate Constitution.  That is why we like paved roads, bridges that don’t fall down, police forces that protect our children, health care for our families, and a helping hand  when we have fallen behind.  I don’t see that there is much to love about a state that leaves us at the mercies of the market and corporate interest, while telling us what we can do with our bodies and who we may marry.  I don’t hate government.  I love it.  I love the promise that rests within it, unfulfilled as it may be … the promise that rests at the center of America … the promise of equality of opportunity … the promise of a fair shake.

I love my country because of that promise of a fair shake, above just about everything else.  I love the idea of that fair shake, because underneath it is the idea of a common goal.  I love my country because underneath the John Wayne me-first veneer, I see something else.  I see it in the footage of folks marching over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.  I see it in the stories of the Boston Tea Party, the crossing of the Delaware, and the winter at Valley Forge.  I see it in the flickering light of television screens the world over when Neil Armstrong stepped out onto the moon.  I heard it in Al Michael’s voice as he asked “do you believe in miracles?”  I felt it in my bones when a Black man was elected President.  Talk all you want about the independent streak in the American character.  I see something else, something more important.  I see a togetherness, as tortured and imperfect as it may be, and that is why I can’t vote for a party that denies it.  I can’t vote for a party that doesn’t acknowledge, let alone love, America as it is.  That will change.  I won’t have to boycott the Republican Party in 2014.  It may be naïve of me, but I am sure of it.  I love this country too much not to be.  For now though, it is what it is … and so is love.  So, I’ll be voting for Obama for President, and against the Republicans in every other election.  Don’t hate me for it … I’m just staying true to my vision of the country I love.  What about you?