Russia Could Change Voter Registration Data - My Pollworker Experience Nov. 2016

The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report Tuesday stating that

In 2016, cyber actors affiliated with the Russian Government conducted an unprecedented, coordinated cyber campaign against state election infrastructure. Russian actors scanned databases for vulnerabilities, attempted intrusions, and in a small number of cases successfully penetrated a voter registration database.

While it states that "The Committee has not seen any evidence that vote tallies were manipulated or that voter registration information was deleted or modified", it also says that "It is possible that additional activity occurred and has not yet been uncovered."

I don't know if California is one of the affected states, and what I'm about to say is completely anecdotal, but this is my experience with the 2016 presidential election. Make of it what you will.

I have been a pollworker since 2006, and a poll inspector in charge of my precinct for the last 8 years. I have dealt with many voter registration issues during that time. The way it works is that when you register to vote and you are accepted as a legitimate voter, your information goes into the state database, and then your name and address are listed in the roster of voters of your precinct, and cross-referenced by street index.

This means that if your name is listed in the roster, you are already confirmed as a legal voter. There is no statistically-significant such thing as noncitizen voting at the polls - that is, a noncitizen showing up to the polls and using a registered voter's name to cast an illegal vote. Contrary to what proponents of the "many millions of fraudulent votes by illegals" crown may claim, this is so rare as to be practically nonexistent. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, "After the 2016 election, The New York Times surveyed election and law enforcement officials in 49 states and the District of Columbia. They learned of two possible instances of noncitizens voting – out of 137.7 million voters nationwide." Hardly the millions of illegal votes cast that Trump blames for his loss of the popular vote.

 That's why we ask for a voter's name and address only - if their info matches up on the voter roster, they're already certified as being properly registered. "But..," the fraud proponents sputter, "What if an illegal immigrant uses the name of a registered voter at the polls to cast an illegal vote?" This does not make sense. Non-citizens have no interest in trying to cast an illegal vote that will do them no personal good, but will almost certainly result in fines, jail and deportation. There's nothing in it for them! It's ridiculously easy to catch

Legitimacy is at the Core of Republican Hypocrisy

The arrogance of Republican hypocrisy is breathtaking. Trump, of course, is the most visible, blatant, and audacious, but it has been going on much longer than Trump has been on the scene. 

The most recent (as of this morning) has been the Eric Schneiderman debacle. After credible witnesses and contemporaneous corroboration of physical, mental and emotional abuse from someone who has been an outspoken advocate for #MeToo, Democrats rightly called for Schneiderman to step down, which he did. And Twitter was ablaze with the pearl-clutching condemnation of Republicans who were shocked and disgusted that a man in public office could behave so reprehensibly, and who must immediately be removed from that office.

But when confronted with abuse and assault accusations of their own, they stubbornly insist that A) all of the accusers, no matter how credible, are lying; B) the accused are denying any wrongdoing so must be believed; and C) that regardless of the truth or falsity of the accusations, their guy was elected by the people so it doesn't matter.

This extends to every corner of political and public life, from the accusations of corruption and self-dealing from the White House on down, to evangelical support of the most egregious moral failings of the President, and any kind of transgression that they would excoriate Democrats for. They lambasted President Obama for wearing a tan suit, which they accused of being 'disrespectful of the office', while giving a pass to the most vile insults that the current resident of that office throws around at anyone he doesn't like, including mocking a disabled reporter. They berated Michelle Obama for wearing a sleeveless dress, while giving the current resident's wife a pass for nude photographs.

It has always puzzled me, because it's not just the 'low-information' base and die-hard Trump fans who do this - it's smart, well-educated Republicans in and out of public office who do the same. How can they possibly keep a straight face? How can they constantly excuse and justify bad behavior of their own while being outraged over the slightest transgression - real or imagined - of any Democrat? How can they rail against the speck in their brother's eye while ignoring the beam in their own? How can they justify this to themselves?

I am thinking that it comes down to the issue of legitimacy.

In 1994, Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist, with the help of pollster Frank Luntz, came up with the "Contract with America", a manifesto of conservative ideology and Republican campaign platform wish list that painted Democrats and liberals as not just misguided but illegitimate - not just wrong but immoral. They made the case that conservative values must prevail, not just to improve the economy or strengthen America, but in order to keep liberal values out of the public sphere altogether. This document referenced traditional Republican ideas such as cutting taxes, slashing the safety net, a balanced budget amendment, tort reform, term limits, cutting regulations, etc. Along with that came language that encouraged the Christian Coalition to consider it a legitimization of their 'place at the table' of government legislation and a rejection of the separation of church and state.

Frank Luntz helped Newt to make the case that America itself was conservative, and therefore anything non-conservative was, by definition, un-American. Luntz gave Newt a treatise on language to define his position and denigrate the opposition, telling Republicans to use words like choice, children, common sense, confident, duty, family, freedom, liberty, opportunity, precious, prosperity, protect, rights, strength, tough, truth. And he told them to use words to define Democrats like abuse of power, betray, bizarre, bureaucracy, cheat, coercion, corrupt, decay, destroy, fail, greed, hypocrisy, ideological, intolerant, liberal, lie, obsolete, punish, radical, selfish, shame, steal, threaten, traitors, unionized, waste, welfare.

Of course, there have always been fundamental differences between the two parties/ideologies, and plenty of partisanship, but even with all that there was the idea of the 'Loyal Opposition' with whom you had vigorous, even heated debate on the floor, but respected as a person and a fellow congressperson. You might completely disagree with your opponent but at the end of the day you did not question their right to be there. Newt and company weaponized disagreement, and promoted the narrative that Democrats and liberal values must be eliminated at any cost from a voice in American government. This is not an exaggeration. They speak of a permanent Republican majority, and warn that if Democrats are allowed to have a say, that America itself is endangered.

This is why you hear things like "a child molester/rapist/felon/thief/traitor in office would be bad, but not as bad as a Democrat."

What has seeped into the subtext of the Republican narrative (obviously not all Republicans personally, but the frame, which is embraced by a large portion of the conservative electorate) is the idea that Democrats do not belong in office, period. That their very ideas are not legitimate and that their policies will harm America.

This gives them the freedom to hold a different standard.

If Democrats are fundamentally illegitimate, any steps to eliminate them from government are acceptable. If you believe that the premise of liberalism is dangerous and destructive and immoral, it is easy to justify doing anything possible to prevent or remove them from office. It's a logical extension of "the ends justify the means."

So, no matter what a conservative may do that is questionable, unethical, immoral or even illegal, the bottom line is that they are in the right. They may not be personally honorable but they are standing with a cause that is honorable and essential for the survival of America, so they are legitimate. Trump is just the most egregious and offensive example of this way of thinking. This is why evangelicals will back him no matter what. If a sinner can further God's purpose, then the sinner is not wrong.

Conversely, if a liberal or a Democrat transgresses, it is a confirmation of their basic illegitimacy. There is no cognitive dissonance there if you consider it within the frame of legitimacy over illegitimacy. A Democrat admitting and accepting responsibility for wrongdoing is proof of their fundamental unfitness. A Republican refusing to admit any wrongdoing is proof of their innocence and legitimacy.

Although there are few Republicans who will consciously attest to this underlying premise, and of course many moderate Republicans who do not subscribe to it, I believe that this is an overall driving force in motivating the actions of the current Republican party. A lie in the service of the truth is no lie.

Until we contend with this directly, I think this toxic dichotomy will continue and intensify. We must address this before we are shut out of our country's political process for good. As long as a Democrat in office is considered worse than a criminal, we will continue to have to fight a war for basic legitimacy itself.

Democrats and Reasonable Republicans Need To Come Together

Let me start by saying that all of us are on a continuum, and our major differences stem from where we sit on that continuum.

As Americans, most of us believe in the same general ideas. For instance, in America we use the tax system to fund our government and the things we use in common that can't be built individually. So it's not that Democrats believe in taxes and Republicans don't; it's where on the continuum we stand on them. We have a set of laws and regulations that define us as a society. If every single thing we do in public or private is regulated by the government, we have no freedom; if nothing is regulated, we have no freedom either.

We're not polar opposites; we are just on different places on the spectrum.

The way our democratic/republic system is supposed to work is that we have input from different points of view, and by negotiation and compromise, we come to a place where there is something for everyone - no one gets all of what they want, but everyone gets some of what they want. We are not an autocracy where everything is determined by one person or party. We are not supposed to be trying to stamp out the other's point of view. It is not good vs. evil.

Somewhere along the line, but brought to a fine point by Newt Gingrich in the 90s with his "Contract with America", came the idea that Democrats were not the loyal opposition but enemies to be eradicated, and that the goal was not a compromise between both parties in the marketplace of ideas, but to usher in permanent Republican rule, as Karl Rove declared. These radicals evolved into the Tea Party, and it's not too strong a statement to say that their aim is not cooperation but permanent political dominance. And this position has gotten more and more extreme, with little to no respect for the other side. Liberalism is not a balancing factor but a dangerous ideology, to be vanquished whenever and wherever possible. Hatred for liberals was a significant factor in Trump's election.

But it has not only been Democrats who have been demonized; it has also been reasonable Republicans. Moderate Republicans have been largely forced out or marginalized by this radical right, which is largely responsible for the inability of the Republicans to pass much significant legislation despite controlling the House, the Senate and the White House. In the meantime, a rogue President goes unchecked.

Reasonable Republicans are in a bind - they don't want to align with the radicals who are clearly out of their minds, who defy facts and science and math, who are racist and misogynist and homophobic and xenophobic and theocratic, who are going against everything that this country stands for - immigration, equal rights, public safety, separation of church and state, the integrity of the vote - yet they are not ready to identify with Democrats, either.

To them, I say: it's OK. You don't need to be a Democrat to help us regain what the radical Trumpists have taken from us. I know you worry that by aligning yourself with Democrats you are betraying your core identity as a Republican. But let's be honest - Democrats and reasonable Republicans have more in common than reasonable Republicans and the crazy Trump fringe. We're not asking you to give up your identity or be a Democrat or a liberal. We can agree on common facts and reality. They are in an 'alternative' universe. Which would be fine, except they have taken the power to inflict that alternate reality on us. This is already damaging us both inside our country and with our relationship to the rest of the world. And it can literally lead us to nuclear war. We have never been closer, even during the Cold War, because it would not happen as a deliberate policy decision by a nation, but as a confrontation between two unstable world leaders. Any little mistake, accident or provocation could bring it on.

As firmly as I believe in my liberal ideals, I also believe that my ideas should not be the only ones. I believe that Democrats and Republicans have to work together to temper each other's extremes or excesses. I don't want a permanent Democratic majority. There are good and bad ideas on both sides, and that's what America is to me - a place where everyone has a voice and can work together, a place that was built by and enriched by immigrants from its very inception, a place where one side does not control everything. It should also be a place where we share our common values, and respect facts and science.

So I'm calling on reasonable Republicans, not to become Democrats, but to take your party back from the fact-challenged extremists who are not even conservative. You don't have to give up your beliefs to join us, because at the end of the day we have more in common with each other than with Trumpism.

(I should add that this applies to progressive v. centrist Dems as well - we can hash out differences in party direction later, but right now this is triage. We cannot afford to dilute or fracture our vote and risk losing another election, or at least enough seats to have some kind of say rather than being shut out altogether as we are now.)

Our differences can be debated from a foundation of a shared reality. Not so with the Trumpists. They are neither real conservatives nor Republicans, but authoritarians following a narcissistic, childish despot-wanna-be. It is urgent that we come together to save a place where we can have those differences  - while we still can.

How About How Liberals Feel, For A Change?

Once again, it's the Left that's being asked to consider the Right's feelings. It's the Left that is, as usual, being asked to do all the compromising for the sake of moving past gridlock. It's the Left that's accused of not respecting the opinions of the Right.

In the wake of the horrific and tragic Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shootings, the ever-temperate and moderate bothsiderist David Brooks tells us that "The people who defend gun rights believe that snobbish elites look down on their morals and want to destroy their culture."

His answer, of course, is that "(i)t’s necessary to let people from Red America lead the way, and to show respect to gun owners at all points." After all, if we snobbish liberal elites would just get off our high horses for a minute and try to understand how the Real Americans of the Heartland™ feel, and not just be hating and thinking we're so superior all the time, then maybe we can all move forward.

And of course, we always do.

Cue the tsunami of articles about Trump voters and how they feel and why they feel and why they're so downtrodden and ignored by the arrogant Left. How, they bemoan, can we understand the Red Staters better? What can we say to them to show them we're not haters? When are we going to show them some respect and stop telling them "who they are and what they think" from our lofty elitist towers?

Oddly, enough, this always seems to be a one-way street.

Have you ever gone to any right-wing sites or read any right-wing Facebook posts asking each other to consider the left-wing point of view? To try to put themselves in a liberal's shoes? To wonder why liberals think the way they do, and maybe understand them better?

Go ahead; I'll wait.

No. I haven't, either.

I can tell you that I have spent a LOT of time 'trying to see the other side's point of view'. In fact, I wrote a whole book trying to figure it out. Before I stopped posting my political viewpoint on Facebook, even in my most angry rants, I tried to show respect for those who believed differently than I did and to acknowledge that they (some, anyway) were trying to be the best people they could be and believed in the righteousness of their position as much as I believe in mine. I asked for those people to have an honest and respectful dialogue with me to see where our beliefs connected and did not connect without insults or attacks.

I can count on one hand the people who were actually willing to have that discussion. There were a few people that would, but they were very much the exception. And it was at my invitation, not theirs.

And I never saw, from those on the right, requests for liberals to explain why they believe as they do. I never saw someone from the right reach out to the left asking for respectful dialogue with an open mind to hear an opposing viewpoint with the approach that we are both people of goodwill trying to understand one another. That doesn't mean that it never happens, of course, but I never saw it and I have looked.

We are both - right and left - accused of operating within our own bubbles, more comfortable with surrounding ourselves with those who share and reinforce our own point of view. And this is pretty much true. But I can tell you that, at least with my own experience, when I try to engage the other side, most of the time I am not met with respect.

There are some people who thrive on argument and conflict and do well with confrontation, and they will go out there and give as good as they get. But I have yet to see an argument on Facebook that has resulted in "Gee, you're right! I need to change my point of view to yours!"

In any political conflict where there are diametrically opposed positions, it is always the left that is asked to capitulate for the sake of breaking a stalemate. It is always the left asked to make concessions to their beliefs. When Republicans are in power, Democrats are expected to compromise - and they do. As opposed as Dems were to George W. Bush's agenda, they gave him most of what he wanted, including a disastrous, unnecessary war. They cannot bear to be seen as 'obstructionist'. They believe that you have to give in order to get - you know, the way that the government worked back in the good old days when Dems and Repubs would argue bitterly on the floor, and then go out for drinks afterwards. But when Democrats are in power, they are treated as illegitimate by the Republican party (thanks to good ol' Newt) so that obstructing the Democratic agenda is seen as a virtue, and to compromise at all is to abandon conservative principles. And, of course, we can't be faulted for standing up for our principles, can we?

We're supposed to feel for the Red-Staters who Brooks quotes as "offended by the lawn signs that said, 'Hate Has No Home Here.' The implication: Hate has no home in my house, but it does in yours." It's understandable, even justifiable, for them to be offended by the slights that they see themselves subjected to by the thoughtless and uncharitable Left - but at the same time, they deride liberals who feel offended by their treatment by the right as being "special snowflakes". The Left are always the 'real racists' if they point out racism, and intolerant if they object to being discriminated against because of religious objections. They are 'haters' if they object to being hated.

As the bleeding-heart, open-minded liberal I am, I am willing - more than willing - to consider or even embrace an opposite point of view if you could empirically prove it to me. If you could really show me that tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations truly make the economy better for everyone, I would change my position on tax cuts. I'm not married to them ideologically - I want results. But of course, it has never been shown to me to work  - but if you had proof to show me, I would not ignore it.

So far, though, I have not been met with either respect, good faith, willingness to listen or empirical truth from the right. Until we get some sort of reciprocity (see what I did there?) from the other side, I am not especially interested in continuing the same dynamic where one side does all the reaching out, all the understanding, all the capitulating. Because it will continue exactly like that as long as we allow it to.

And I am not willing to roll over on a matter of principle as important as preventing mass murder.

Evangelicals Approve of Trump - No Surprise!

Everyone seems to be surprised that far-right evangelicals and fundamentalists, who are so very critical of American society’s immorality and sinfulness, are completely embracing Trump, possibly the least-Christian President ever - venal, profane, vain, envious, greedy, a liar, a cheat, a thief, an adulterer, a glutton - when they howled at the perfidy of a Bill Clinton or even attacked the Christianity of a Barack Obama, surely one of the most scandal-free, family-values men ever to occupy the White House.

It is not so surprising if you know the history of the relationship between evangelicals and Big Business Republicans.

Evangelicals took a drubbing during the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925. Even though William Jennings Bryan prevailed against celeb lawyer Clarence Darrow and obtained a conviction against John Scopes for teaching evolution, the evangelical community were ridiculed in the press and painted as ignorant and backward. As a result, they retreated from public life and developed their own commmunity apart from the mainstream culture.

In the 60s, the Republican Party was essentially a business-oriented party, not especially concerned with religion. And the religious right was not interested in engaging in politics, which they considered ‘worldly’ and sinful. But when a 1964 Supreme Court decision removed prayer from public schools, a man named Paul Weyrich envisioned a Christian Right with political power.

It took him some time to convince both Republicans and Christians that they could empower each other. In 1978 the IRS threatened to revoke tax-exempt status from private schools that were not sufficiently integrated, and at this point the evangelicals decided that their isolation could no longer protect them, and decided to accept the help of the Republicans. Paul Weyrich convinced a Baptist minister to organize a Christian protest against the IRS called Christian School Action. Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Jerry Falwell Sr. (who donated his massive direct-mail list) got on board, and Christian School Action was successful in getting the IRS to drop the desegregation plan.

This led to the birth of the Moral Majority, and the joining of the religious right and the Republican Party.

Up to this point, the Big Business Republicans did not have, by itself, the means to dominate the political landscape. And the religious right had no recourse to government power, especially with the separation of church and state. But together, they became a juggernaut, with Republicans utilizing a disciplined, organized and obedient religious voting bloc to achieve their secular ends.

In return, the evangelicals were promised that their religious goals would be prioritized.

Disappointed by the liberal bent of one they considered one of their own, born-again Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter, the religious right mobilized to elect the divorced ex-movie star Ronald Reagan, who although not particularly religious himself, wooed them ardently.

However, although the Repubs talked a good game, the religious right didn’t always get a lot of bang for their buck. The evangelicals always delivered their vote and held up their end of the bargain, but once their guy was in office, the big promises did not materialize. Few evangelicals were appointed to top positions and their issues were not paid much attention to.

Even during the George W. Bush era, who was a genuine born-again Christian, the religious right was not given the legislation and policies they felt their support entitled them to.

The lesson learned for the evangelicals was that a President who was truly religious or who talked the good game was not necessarily going to outlaw abortion or same-sex marriage. Sunday-school teacher Jimmy Carter didn’t. Their beloved patriotic Ronald Reagan didn’t. Their born-again Dubya didn’t.

So - when someone comes along who does pay real attention to what they want, no matter how personally vile and licentious, they could not care less. Their saintly candidates didn’t do squat. So maybe it takes God utilizing an ‘imperfect’ man to produce Godly ends, like King David or King Solomon.

They will embrace and adhere to the one who gives them power - and Trump has done more than any other president to support their agenda.

So don’t expect the hypocrisy to end anytime soon. That will have to wait till the next Democratic president, when they will once again rail at and condemn his or her awful sinfulness.

Estate Tax - NOT a Death Tax, NOT a Double Tax

Why do the Repubs get away with saying the Estate Tax is 'double taxation'?

Now, What's Left?

Now, What's Left?

We know what is going on with the Right.

We have come to the understanding (which I and other progressive writers came to 10 years ago) that the authoritarian personality - the core Trump supporter - is not amenable to persuasion, argument or even fact; that they make their political decisions based on the belief that a 'strongman' will keep them safe and it is the bad 'others' who are the real problem. We know that right-wing authoritarians have a much lower threshold for tolerating fear and uncertainty than those who identify as liberal or progressive.

In my book "The Price of Right: How the Conservative Agenda Has Failed America (and Always Will", written while George W. Bush was president, I stated that my biggest worry was what would happen if our right-wing authoritarian populace, activated and intensified by 9/11, were to come into contact with a real social dominator. Bush was an authoritarian, but not a social dominator or even a double-high authoritarian (those who would score high on both authoritarian and social domination scales) although he was surrounded with quite a few double-highs, such as Cheney and Rove. But a real social dominator is without even the vestige of conscience or core intellectual ideology that drives a Cheney.

My fear has come true 10 years later.

A social dominator is the ideal attraction for the authoritarian personality and can command the utmost loyalty and obedience from his followers, and this is why Trump is unassailable as far as his base is concerned. There is nothing that makes an authoritarian feel safer and stronger than being led by a social dominator. They are both completely submissive to their accepted leader and highly aggressive towards anyone that leader dislikes.

As we have seen, this is a complete 'alternate universe' in which we cannot even agree on a set of basic facts, much less have a substantive debate on them.

But as the backlash to the Trump regime is building momentum, and Democrats are increasingly improving the possibility of winning back a majority in the House and Senate, I find myself wondering what the Dems are going to do to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as we always do.

We play by two completely different set of rules, and we get snookered every single time.

When Bush was in power, Democrats did their best to 'play fair', supporting the President and being willing to compromise, hoping that if we give some, that the other side will give some as well. What we got for our pains was a kick in the teeth.

What the left sees as fairness - both sides being willing to compromise in order to move forward - the right sees as weakness and a willingness to betray one's beliefs. To their mind, if you compromise your principles, then you must not have very firm ones to begin with and therefore you don't deserve respect.

So when Democrats came into power and we had a Democratic president who tried to include Republicans and sought out bipartisan solutions, the Republican answer was to completely stonewall everything the President tried to do - shockingly, not just by action but explicitly and in so many words, including the willingness to shut down the government and cripple our global credit rating and stealing the President's Supreme Court nomination. Obama's efforts to reach across the aisle engendered only contempt from the Republicans, while at the same time they accused him of tyranny if he made the only decisions he could with the Republican refusals to engage or participate. They saw him as weak and ineffective at the same time they accused him of being an imperious tyrant.

And now, of course, when the Republicans are back in power and are in complete charge of everything, somehow it's the absolutely powerless Democrats who are responsible for the failure of the Trump agenda.

We're in that same old familiar cycle of Repubs creating huge deficits by wealth redistribution - taking from the middle class and poor and giving it to the rich - and then justifying cutting the social safety net because there's no money left.

And we're in that same scenario where when we try to set an example of sticking to our values, we get screwed, as the Al Franken debacle showed once again. We stand up against sexual assault, they defend their child molesters and sexual predators, and when one of our own is principled enough to accept responsibility for their behavior, we pillory them - yet Repubs excuse their own on the grounds that they do not admit wrongdoing. And we lose a great, honest Senator.

(And I'm sorry to not toe the Dem line here, but I believe that Al Franken should not have lost his seat immediately. I believe that he was, indeed, set up by Roger Stone et al, and that there should have been an inquiry into the circumstances before asking him to fall on his sword to make the point that Dems are principled. And I will also say that if it had been a Republican accused of the same thing, I would feel the same way.)

So - we don't need to figure out the Right any more. We know exactly what's going on with them and why.

We need to figure out the Left and we need to do it now.

And I am really at a loss here.

Why do we keep giving in? Why do we keep rolling over? Why don't we stand up for what we believe in just as strongly as the Right does?

Why aren't we proud to call ourselves liberal in the way that the right is proud to call themselves conservative?

Why is the media afraid to be accused of 'liberal bias'? Why do we let them move the goalposts and work the refs?

Why does the conversation go like this:

    *Some hateful thing by the right*

    Dems: that is hateful

    Repubs: nuh-uh, it's YOU that's hateful

    Dems: well if we did something hateful, we're sorry and won't do it anymore

    Repubs: See? YOU'RE the hateful ones, not us.

    Dems: OK

    Rinse and repeat.


We try to meet their lies with honesty and we always lose.

We need to figure this out and we need to figure it out RIGHT NOW.

The midterms will come up, and we will - maybe - take back the House and/or Senate - or not. There is no way of telling what could happen between now and then.

But these are not normal times, with normal politicians in office. We don't have the luxury of sitting back and hoping something different will happen. The danger that this unhinged, unfit maniac in the White House presents worsens every day - to the tune of possible nuclear war. And if Dems cannot figure out why we act the way we do, we can't figure out how to change it. And if we continue the way we always have in response to right-wing aggression, we will lose even when we happen to be in power.

We need to pursue the research into the same psychology, genetics, social science and neuroscience that has been used to understand right-wing thinking and motivation. Many decades of study have gone into understanding the right.

We do know that progressive ideals have had power in the past. It is not impossible. It can be done. It has been done. The United States itself is a progressive, liberal ideal - the idea that We the People can be our own authority instead of being ruled by an autocrat.

So, what needs to happen in order for us to assert and stand up for our own democratic beliefs and principles the way the Right does? To respect our own values the way we respect the values of others?

We had better figure this out in a hurry. We're running out of time.

Trump's Lies - A Feature, Not A Bug

Many people wonder why Donald Trump lies about things that are easily fact-checked and refutable, and moreover, why he lies about things he doesn't need to lie about?

I have come to the conclusion that he lies - sometimes (maybe even most times) on purpose, and sometimes not knowing or caring if it's true or not - to assert power and domination.

Think about it.

Every time he tells a lie, he is telling the listener that whether it is true or not, what HE says is the reality that will follow.

It is a message to both his die-hard supporters and his 'enemies' - anyone who does not bow down to his greatness.

It is an expression of his power and his ability to remake reality.

To his followers, the message is one of support and safety - if you follow someone so powerful, that power is yours also.

To his enemies, it is a statement of aggression and dominance. He can lie with impunity and not suffer any consequences from it, so therefore his enemies have no recourse against him. He cannot be stopped no matter what he does or says - not even by the truth.

If the sky is blue and Trump says it's green, you are forced to make a choice. Not only that, you are forced into deciding between two 'realities', which automatically puts the lie on a par with the truth - two ideas that must be chosen from. So right there he has put himself in a position of strength. He has elevated his lie to the same level as your truth. This simultaneously boosts his lie and diminishes your truth. This works - but only if he NEVER concedes or retracts his lie.

Then when presented with the overwhelming evidence that he lied, he either lies again and says he never said it, or you took it the wrong way, or he moves the goalposts, or he doubles down and dares you to do something about it.

And the more blatant and obvious the lie, the more powerful the differential. Your truth has lost its power by being compared on the same level as his outrageous lie, and the bigger the difference between the lie and the truth, the more power is ceded to him.

He claims additional power by constantly calling others liars (he is so powerful that he can lie, but no one else can) and by demanding apologies from everyone else (when he has never apologized to anyone ever.) He is different, better and stronger than you - you have to follow the rules but he doesn't. This is another display of dominance and aggression.

Simply put, there is much more power (for him) in lying and getting away with it than there is in telling the truth. 

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

Ignorance is not bliss.

I am really tired of hearing Republicans say, "The people elected him to (smash up Washington, bring back coal jobs, etc. - insert delusion here), so he should get to do whatever he wants, and it doesn't matter if he has no idea what he's doing - he's not a Washington guy and doesn't know (insert protocol here)."

For Paul Ryan to say, "The president is new at this. He’s new to government. And so he probably wasn’t steeped into the long going protocols that established the relationships between DOJ, FBI, and White Houses” is simply ridiculous, but it echoes the current excuses talking points that the Republicans are using to obfuscate the fact that the Resident is completely and utterly - even dangerously - unfit for the office he grifted his way into.

If you remember, when Obama became President, the Repubs continually called him an 'amateur' because he had only been in the Senate for a short time. He had, however, been in the Senate, and before that had taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago for 12 years, had been a civil rights attorney and had been an Illinois state senator for 3 terms, so even though he had many years of experience and education in law and government at both state and national level, he was mocked by the right as an unqualified amateur.

And you never heard anyone on the right say, "The people elected Obama so whatever his agenda is, is what the people want him to do."

The office of President of the United States is arguably the most important and influential job on the planet.

Why on earth would it be acceptable to have a President who doesn't know what he's doing - and, moreover, refuses to learn?

And when people say they want someone in government who's 'not a politician' - I understand it if you're thinking of the word 'politician' in the derogatory sense. But government has to be run by people who have some idea about what they're doing! Why would you want someone in office who is incompetent?

I've used the example of a person who's never been to medical school being handed a scalpel and sent in to operate on a patient. Sure, every surgeon has a first time operating, but he or she would have many years of education and practice on cadavers, assisting other surgeons, etc., before they would be allowed to cut into a patient. And there are tens of thousands of surgeons in the United States.

But - forget about surgeons; if you were hired at McDonald's you wouldn't be allowed to take a single order or flip a single burger without the proper training. If even the lowest-paid service jobs require a certain expertise before being allowed to interact with the public, why in the world would it be acceptable to have someone in the most powerful position in the world be unqualified?

This is a person who at any given time is four minutes away from wiping all life from the face of the earth.

And to all those people who say, "Give the guy a chance - he's new to this" - he's not interested in learning about the requirements of the job. He's not interested in following any of the rules or protocols - or even laws - that are the parameters of this highly complicated and sensitive job. He insults our allies, but he kisses up shamelessy to our adversaries. He doesn't care about democracy; he prefers - let's be kind and say autocracy. He doesn't care about diplomacy; he prefers military aggression. If he really cared about the job, he'd be busting his ass 24/7 to learn about it. He'd be humble about his lack of knowledge and do whatever it took to become qualified. 

But he's not interested.

All he's interested in is what he's been interested in his whole life: Donald Trump and his own glory, power and money.

Laws, rules and protocols are just obstacles to his autonomy.

And the sad thing - the awful, frightening thing - is that the Republicans could not care less.

As long as they have a lock on every branch of the government, they will not do anything that will endanger their control of the White House, the House, the Senate and the Judiciary. They are so close to getting everything they have ever wanted with no interference from Democrats that there is nothing they won't put up with from this malevolent clown and his family of grifters and shills. They will not impeach him. No matter what. They will turn themselves inside out until their heads spin right off their necks to justify keeping Trump in office.

Republicans know that even though they would have a President Pence to take his place that they would lose Trump's 'base' - those people are not Pence fans and would not be unquestioningly loyal to hiim. Trump's power is in the relationship beween a social dominator and his authoritarian followers, and you cannot just substitute another person into that relationship. They also know that the scandal of an impeachment would hamper their ability to pursue any legislation, and at the next election they would be wiped out the way they were after Nixon.

So, as much as I am interested in Comey's testimony and the investigation into the Russian attacks on our elections and the question of Trump campaign collusion or complicity, I don't see it leading anywhere right now. I wish I could. But no matter what the outcome of these hearings and investigations, the fact remains that you cannot prosecute a sitting president. It's not that the president is above the law; it's that the job of the president is important enough that any criminal prosecution can wait until he is out of office. Impeachment is possible, but only by having articles of impeachment brought by the House, and subsequent prosecution by the Senate. And with Republican majorities in both bodies of Congress, that will not happen.

I'm not ruling out the possibility of something so egregious happening, or being brought to light, that there is simply no way around it, because Trump is such a walking dumpster fire that there is no telling what he's capable of. In the four short months (although they seem interminable) that he has occupied the White House, he has done so many unimaginable things that nothing - absolutely nothing - he does would surprise me. But as things stand today, I don't see anyone being able to stop him for a good while.

That does not mean that we should not fight him at every turn - fight against 'normalizing' his egregious, offensive, dangerous words and actions as 'a different way' of being President - not just about him, but about the precedent that his behavior sets for future Presidents, who may be a whole lot smarter, more cunning and more dangerous than he. We have to challenge him and fight him and expose him relentlessly, because every time he gets away with someone saying "Oh, he's different; he comes from the business world" or "That's just his personality" or whatever other excuses they make for his aggression, his vengefulness, his dictatorial tendencies, his disregard for any constraints - legal or moral - on his behavior, his lack of decency, his unwillingness to do what Presidents are supposed to do and act the way any democratic world leader is supposed to act, our democracy crumbles a little bit more.

There may already be irreparable damage to our world standing and relationships with our allies; even when he goes, even if we get a new President who tries to repair the damage, because of how he has treated our best friends and most dependable allies, they are not sure that they can trust that another Trump won't come along and do the same thing again. This has caused a distance between us and our closest friends that may not be able to be undone. This he has done singlehandedly. In a matter of months.

His aggression from the 'bully pulpit' has also encouraged physical violence in his followers, and his example has made it socially acceptable for white supremacists, anti-immigrants, anti-Semites, misogynists, and anti-LGBT people to take their hateful rhetoric to the level of physical attacks on people and property, as well as attacking the free press, both verbally and physically - so much that a man who physically attacked a reporter because he didin't like what the reporter said was elected to the House of Representatives and nobody said boo.

So, without power to actually stop him at this point, our only choice is to continue to speak out, to make our voices heard, to witness and record, and most of all to refuse to accept him and his behavior as normal or acceptable.

It is not.

And to go along with it because "there's nothing we can do" is doing something - it is endangering our precious democracy in a way that it may not be able to recover from.

We Don't Need a 'Different Kind of President' - We Need a Different President

Enough.

Enough talking about how Trump is a 'different kind of President'. Enough making excuses for his unacceptable behavior. Enough saying he should be 'taken seriously but not literally'.

Do you hear what you are saying, you idiots?

You are saying that it's OK for the President of the United States to lie.

And it's our job to deal with it and try to figure it out somehow.

That is crazy talk, my friends.

This is not a question of Democrat or Republican, of left or right. To be honest, Donald Trump could have just as easily been a Democratic candidate. For most of his life, his political leanings (as well as his party registration) have been aligned with the Democratic party. His personal life certainly has not hewed to what would be considered traditional conservative values, to say the least. And many of his earliest stated positions are not typically Republican either - on trade, on international relations, on health care, on Social Security and Medicare.

So, no, we're not talking Democrat or Republican here. We're talking a dangerous authoritarian demagogue that has managed to weasel, bluster and lie his way into the most powerful office in the world.

Simply put, we have a liar as President of the United States.

I suppose you could call that a 'different kind of President'.

Barely two months in, and he has already insulted and damaged our relationship with our closest allies (Great Britain, NATO), telegraphed support and approval to some of the world's most despotic and dangerous rulers (Putin, Duterte), and provoked an unstable and volatile adversary (North Korea). He is so completely unfit for office that there is a serious likelihood that he could get us into a nuclear confrontation. Like many autocrats, he adores the trappings and public display of military power (although avoided military service of his own).  He wanted to parade tanks down Pennslylvania Avenue at his inauguration. He has said that "we have nukes - why don't we use them?"

Unfortunately, it seems that the Republican party is so invested in their agenda that they don't care what he does as long as he signs what they want him to sign. Removing him from office, even though they would still retain a Republican president, would damage their ability to move legislation with the speed that they need to enact all the pet projects that a balanced government with any input from Democrats whatsoever would prevent or at least mitigate - privatizing Social Security and Medicare, eliminating the Department of Education, the EPA, neutering the Department of Labor and the FDA, selling off federal lands, doing away with any regulatory protections from pollution, poisons, workplace regulations, etc., that could possibly hamper corporate profits, eliminating consumer finance protections against predatory lending policies, giving religious views of corporations priority over women's right to healthcare and family planning of their choosing (to name only a few.)

This is their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and you can bet they are not going to kill the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs. They get the Golden Eggs, and we get the Goose.

And this is happening in only two months of this Residency.

He must go.

Before he destroys American democracy. Before the worst-case scenario, which was unthinkable for any previous American president, but a possibility now - nuclear war.

Enough. We don't need a 'different kind of President'. We need a different President.

Back To Hooterville Once Again! or, Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Wow. In one ill-fated evening, I've been thrown back to how I felt on November 4, 2004.

So, I guess I'll be firing up the ol' tractor and heading out into the back 40.

I'm going to be cross-posting on my "Price of Right" Facebook page as well, but I think a blog is right for what's going on right now. I'm not going to inundate my friends and family with my opinions who don't really want to hear political stuff or who want to come over and argue. I'll continue to post music and cat stuff on my regular Facebook page. On this page, I am preaching to the choir.

So I invite you to join me here!

The following is the first post up on Price of Right:

Last night, like many of you, I was in total shock. I love you all for coming by and sharing your own thoughts and feelings with me, and for your support. I have a lot more to say, and right now I only want to say it to you.

The main reason I wrote my book "The Price of Right" was really to answer my own question, which is why people support ideologies and policies which go against their own best interests. I knew why rich people supported the conservative ideology, but why in the hell did working people support these ideas that had an adverse affect upon them?

I learned several things on that journey.

I learned that facts don't matter.

I also learned that people have deep psychological - and physical, or genetically-based - reasons for thinking the way they do, and that when you hold a position like that, it is not going to be swayed by logic or argument. So I quit arguing and trying to convince other people to change their minds. People occasionally do, but not because someone out-argued them on a blog or Facebook post.

Instead, I decided to focus on reaching out to the people who share the belief system I do, and hoping to empower and encourage each other. Yes, I'm 'in the bubble'. I'm in the 'echo chamber'. I'm not going to expend my energy and emotion on people who my thoughts and feeliings are just going to antagonize. And so, here, I'm not having people come shit on me and my friends. There will be deleted comments and unfriending if necessary. Being 'public' doesn't mean you get the right to come in and trash the joint. This is my home, and I'm running it.

Even in spite of how devastated I am because of last night's catastrophic events, I still believe that there is strength and power in coming together and working for progress and positive change - even if we don't see the results in our lifetime. We fight because it's right, not because we think we're going to get our way. I believe this more than ever, even if I don't 'feel' it right now.

It was, in fact, a day much like today - the waking nightmare after a gruesome election - that gave me the impetus to begin writing my blog "Last Left Turn Before Hooterville". I woke up the day after the second Bush election in 2004 and I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't believe that after the previous four years he was still in the White House. I experienced a profound sense of disorientation. I didn't know where to turn or what to do.

I had never written before in my life, but I felt, like I feel now, that it was 'write or die'. I started reading the comments on the Washington Post political site, and got into a conversation with a guy who had his own political blog. I went over there and for the first time felt like there were people who thought the way I did and wanted to talk about it. So I started my own blog. And that blog led me to a whole world of progressive thought and progressive friends - and even a book contract! I feel so lucky that I was able to have a platform to write exactly what I wanted to say.

So I invite you, my friends and loved ones, over here to chat with me - share some solidarity and hope, and channel our anger and frustration into action.

And fuck those motherfuckers.

Here is a link to the very first post I wrote on my Hooterville blog. It takes me back so viscerally to the way I felt then, which is the way I feel again now. And I would take a thousand Dubyas over the monster that has just bullied his way into the presidency.

In Six Words: Why Government Should Not Be Run Like A Business - by Donald Trump

A favorite argument - perhaps THE favorite argument - by conservatives, when discussing government, is that it should be run like a business. This is their justification for privatizing every government-controlled agency or organization. They say that running America like a business eliminates bureaucracy, waste, fraud and needless spending. That if a business was run like the government, that business would go under. That if America was run like a business, most of the problems we face today would be eliminated.

And the corollary is, what's good for business is good for America

This is a fallacy, and I think it's time we addressed this head on:

Government and business have distinctly opposite interests.

Business is, at its core, for profit. Not 'breaking even' and definitely not taking a loss. It is simple math. Dollars and cents, nothing more.

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that idea.

There is nothing wrong with the idea that the aim of business is profit. This is what drives the economy and is the backbone of the world. Supply and demand. Incentive to create something, to work for something, to achieve the things that you want - this is one of the things that 'makes America great', if you will.

But it is not the only thing.

There are things that all people need that are not profitable - in fact, they cost.

Having clean air, water and safe-to-eat food is not necessarily profitable, but they are necessary for our survival. We need to defend ourselves from attack. We need roads, we need health care, we need a national infrastructure, we need an educated people and - we need a legal system. We need laws to protect people from being hurt, damaged, stolen from or killed.

We need laws for business as well, to make sure that business can operate fairly. What if we didn't have laws that enforce contracts? If a business sold widgets to someone in advance, and then the person just took off with the widget and didn't pay, without laws that enforce that business' right to have that contract honored - "I give you stuff, and you pay for it" - that business would have no recourse. And if someone broke into the business' warehouse and stole all their inventory, there wouldn't be a thing you could do about it. The legal system that protects us all - businesses and individuals alike - has to be created and enforced by We the People. And taking care of the interests of the Amercan people costs money in the short run, although it pays off in the long run - in quality of life, in freedom, in security, in progress. But not in quarterly profit.

This is the difference between government and business.

Business is like a powerful engine - with wheels and steering and brakes, it can go where you want it to go, but without parameters like steering and brakes, it can run over and destroy people.

If the goverment is run like a business, then the only concern is the profit. And in business, people's welfare is not the most important thing. The only concern is the bottom line. For business, that's fine - it's the way it's designed. But the government exists for the interest and well-being of the people.

And a perfect illustration of this was given to us by none other than Donald Trump.

Last Monday, at the first presidential debate, Hillary Clinton said, "Donald was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis. He said, back in 2006, 'Gee, I hope it does collapse, because then I can go in and buy some and make some money.' Well, it did collapse."

Trump replied, "That’s called business, by the way."

In those six words, he made the case for not only why he is unfit to be President (or even dogcatcher) but why government should not be run like a business.

Running the country like a business means money first, people second.

Being a wealthy businessman (I don't say 'successful') is not a reason why Trump should be elected President. Because he is proud to profit by the hardship and losses of the American people.

This is his priority, and it is his prerogative as a business person to at least attempt to do so.

But the President is a public servant. The President's interest has to be first and foremost that of the American people, not his own wealth and power. Do you really believe that if those were to come into conflict, that the People's interests would prevail?

Me neither.

Donald Trump himself has told us in six words why he should not be President.

Believe him.

Get Out The Vote - Start NOW!

Democrats, progressives, liberals, whatever - just a thought. The election is a year away. When voter turnout is low, Democrats lose. When voter turnout is high, we win. We are the natural majority, but we don't vote as often as we should.

And Republicans like it that way.

This next coming year is important - not just for the Presidential elections, but the downticket elections as well - city, county, state, boards of education, Congressional, gubernatorial. This is where we often drop the ball. This is how we lose the House and Senate, as well as the local elections that determine what goes on in our own communities, and where the right-wing fringe people get their footholds.

Mid-term elections - those are vitally important and we don't participate like we should. And when the only people who are paricipating are the fanatical true-believers, they are the ones who get elected.

Wonder how we got hijacked by the far-right religious fringe, and the ultra-Tea Party wackos who are hell-bent on bringing the whole government structure down, and don't care who gets hurt? Wonder how they got to set the horrific agenda before us and are seemingly unstoppable even by the leaders of their own party?

It's because we are not getting out the vote. We're not voting on a local level, we're not voting in mid-terms (which is where our Congress and governors get elected) we're not participating on a national level - and these people ARE. Remember that.

Please, please - start thinking and planning about voting and participating NOW. We have a year before the presidential election, and the primaries are coming up in the spring. If we're not happy with the way things are in politics, we need to do something about it now - not wait till after the elections and bitch.

So, in conclusion - VOTE! Get your friends to vote. Get your family to vote. Help people who are not registered to vote to register, and if they need help getting to the polls, help there too. 

I also recommend becoming a pollworker! It really helps get you involved in the process. It's fun. Your fellow pollworkers are other people interested in the political processes, and, whether they share your political persuasion or not, they're usually pretty interesting people. You get a sense of pride from perfoming an important public service - dare I say THE important public service in a democracy. You get to meet your neighbors and people you might not otherwise run into - plus, it pays! I really enjoy it and look forward to it. I've been doing it for 10 years, and now my younger son does it with me. He came for the check and stayed because he liked it. Now he is on the list to do it every election.

It's simple. When we vote, we win. Let's start thinking about this NOW.

Thanks!

Thoughts on #BlackLivesMatter, White Privilege and Music

I was raised by a very liberal single mother in the '60s, and I make my living playing music that is rooted in the black community. I used to think I was 'color-blind' as if that was something to be proud of - that I didn't make a distinction between black and white, that I only judged people on the content of their character, etc. It took a lot of reflection, learning and listening to what black people were saying about their experience for me to realize that that was an attitude of racism and white privilege - that I had the luxury of not noticing color. Black folk never have that luxury.

I sing and play soul music, jazz, R&B and blues, and I have a deep respect, inspiration and love for where it came from. I do not imagine that I 'sound black', nor would I ever try to. Even I find it extremely offensive when a white singer brags about 'sounding black' (although most of them definitely don't even though they think they do.) I can only imagine how a black person must feel when they hear that. But the cold reality is that I am allowed to go into that world - welcomed with open arms, in fact - do the best I can in it and succeed or fail on my own merit, but the same is not true for black folk in many primarily-white genres, such as country music. A Charley Pride or a Ray Charles several generations ago only illustrates the absolute rejection of black singers by Nashville - black artists, that is; backup singing or playing for a white artist is all good as long as you're '20 feet from stardom'.

I realize that as a white person who performs in a predominantly black genre of music, 'cultural appropriation' is another aspect of white privilege that I have to examine. There is a long history of white artists performing music first created by black artists, and making more money from it than the original artist, such as Elvis, Pat Boone, etc. It is a very sensitive subject and still takes a lot of unpacking and questioning - especially for someone like me. Again, I am grateful to have been welcomed by my black musician friends, but that does not give me license to assume that I'm part of that experience as a black musician and what their obstacles are in this business.

Hope You Like The Sh*t Show, Progressives - We Let It Happen.

Every single day, the Republican Party goes further and further into far-right-wing extremism - so much more radical than it was when George W. Bush was in office that it's hard to believe. Issues that we thought had been settled long ago are now under attack all over again - a woman's right to decisions about her own body, the separation of church and state, civil rights, voting rights, care of the environment, the right of workers to organize, Social Security, even the Department of Education and public schooling. Science itself is not just questioned, but utterly denied, both by religious extremist nutjobs and corporate behemoths whose interests are threatened by facts.

Remember that there are two major lanes to this Republican Highway to Hell: Far-Right Religious Extremists (FRREs) and Big Business/Big Money Repubs (BBs). Neither of them can prevail on their own, but they both believe they can use the other to achieve their ends - and so far, they have been right. They have separate agendas, and they will ignore their differences as long as possible for the 'greater good' of Republican Party dominance. Intersecting with those two major lanes are the Tea Party nutballs and the Libertarians, who can share some values of both, but can throw a monkey wrench into the agenda of the two majors as well.

Big Business (with a few exceptions) has absolutely no interest in the religious or social agenda of the Religious Extremists, but they sure do have an interest in an obedient, cohesive voting bloc that will pour all of its unmatched organizational resources into doing the bidding of whatever leader they believe in, so they will spout whatever the religious wackos demand of them - and those demands are getting more and more extreme and dangerous all the time. What does matter to Big Business are lower taxes and de-regulation, and they are willing to promise whatever they need to in order to get them.

Another basic divide is between the Right Wing Elites and the Right Wing Populists, and this is where the Tea Partiers and Libertarians come in. Big Business is mostly about the Elites, and the FRREs mostly come down on the side of the Populists, but the BBs want the loyalty of the Populists, and the FRREs want the power of the Elites.

Tea Partiers/Libertarians are a big factor here as well - they share some values with both sides. They are Populists (some religious, some not), but they want the lower taxes, military might and de-regulation that the BB Elites want - only more, and they are willing to pull the whole structure down to get it. BB Elites have no interest in pulling down the structure. They like it just fine the way it is, because it is specifically structured to benefit them at the expense of everyone else.

These 3 Populist fringe factions (FRREs, Tea Partiers and Libertarians) are not all-powerful on their own but, put together, are such a sizable portion of the Republican Party  today that Big Business Elites and old-style conservative Republicans have had no option but to go along and make whatever 'deals with the devil' that have to be made in order to hang on to power. Being the elitists that they are, they have looked down upon those factions as useful idiots that they can placate with promises and accessions to religious and social demands that don't affect the basic financial and corporate power structure (or so they think!). They have believed up to this point that they can control those fringe elements, but in the last few election cycles the traditional leaders of the party have lost any power they have over the religious and Tea Party fanatics, and are being pushed aside. They are still getting what they want - lower taxes, military spending and de-regulation - but the price they are paying for that is a drive straight through to Crazy Town.

And this, my friends, is what has brought us to where we are today - to Donald Trump, to Dr. Ben Carson, to Carly Fiorina. To Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee. To the complete shutdown of a working government. To the eradication of the separation of church and state, and the dominance of religious belief over the rule of law, and over scientific fact. To out-of-control mass murders every few months - in the name of 'freedom'. To racism re-entrenched and intensified. To the literal destruction of the planet we live on.

We have allowed this to happen.

At some point, we - Democrats, liberals, progressives, whatever we call ourselves - must take ownership of OUR part in this.

We have not stopped them, nor have we even made any more than a token and half-hearted effort to do so.

When every few months innocent people are gunned down in mass murder-suicides, we don't stop those responsible - the gun lobby and Second-Amendment radicals who prevent any reasonable gun control legislation - any at all - from even being considered.

When union after union is shut down and neutralized, we let it happen.

When crazy laws are made like "Stand Your Ground" that allow people to murder with impunity, we let it happen.

When Wall Street and banking greed decimated the economy, and we allowed them to skate off with nary a slap on the wrist, and actually become MORE powerful, profitable and too-big-to-fail as a result, while the rest of us have yet to recover from the damage they inflicted, we let it happen.

When there are so few elected officials who stand up for real progressive values - and, don't lie; these ARE the values that most of us believe in - that you can count them on one hand, it's because we aren't electing them.

When institutionalized racism and white privilege is the norm, we are not challenging it.


What Bernie Sanders is saying is absolutely true.

We need nothing less than a political revolution.

What we are up against is too strong to change with a few rallies, slogans and Facebook posts.

It is going to take a real political revolution. From the ground up - from us. From all the people who have watched this happen. Standing by and hoping that our politicians will change this will not work. Expecting that if we deal fairly and respectfully with Republicans, they will meet us halfway will not work. It hasn't so far.

I have been afraid for a long time that things will have to get terribly bad before people will demand a change. This is what happened during the Great Depression. It took people literally starving in the streets for an FDR to be able to implement something as radical as the New Deal. Republicans fought against it tooth and nail, of course, but the public embraced it and those policies got us out of the Depression and gave us the strongest, biggest middle class America has ever known - the very era that conservatives think of as 'the good old days when America was great', and say they want back, but their policies have destroyed.

But without the devastation of the Great Depression, there would not have been the public will for the New Deal to happen.

So I fear that things may have to get worse.

Yes, I am supporting Bernie Sanders. I am sending him money. But, as Noam Chomsky says, Bernie Sanders cannot save America. Only a true political revolution can do that. Only a willingness to stand up and confront these Republican bullies toe-to-toe, which up till now the Democrats have not done. But they won't do it without the American people demanding that they do so. That was the first thing President Obama said when he got into office: "Make me do it." Mostly, we didn't.

Until the American people say, "F*ck you, NRA. You're not killing our children any more."

Until the American people say, "F*ck you, radical "religious" Republicans - we're keeping Planned Parenthood and giving them even more money because women have a right to affordable health care and you don't have the right to deny it to them."

Until the American people say, "F*ck you, for-profit prison industry - you are not going to get rich by destroying the lives of Black Americans to fill your occupancy quotas."

Until the American people say, "F*ck you, Wall Street and Big Finance - if you steal from us, you will pay us back AND go to jail."

Until the American people say, "F*ck you, greedy Congress - full-time work should pay a living wage. Don't deny us that and at the same time vote yourself pay raises, gold-plated health care and fat pensions."

Until the American people say, "F*ck you, corporate lobbyists - our government is not for sale. We will finance campaigns, not you."

Until the American people say, "F*ck you, Supreme Court - money is NOT free speech and corporations are NOT humans."

Until the American people stand up, say it and mean it, nothing is going to change.

So, until then, progressives - enjoy the show. Because we can't just blame the Republicans. It's OUR show, too.

Yes, I am #FeelingTheBern.

OK. Let me start by saying I love Bernie Sanders, and have for many years, long before he was on most people's radar. He stands for my values and the issues I think are important, and he always has. He has never been anything less than authentic, passionate and committed to liberal values.


However, when people would ask me what I thought about Bernie running for President, I was ambivalent. He is so effective as a Senator and a member of Congress, and I was afraid that with the political climate the way it is, that he would not get very far. I wasn't sure that America was ready for Bernie's message, even though I have been for a long time.

But, I have to say, I'm really excited about how America is responding to Bernie. He is bringing it like no one else. Whatever happens, he is getting the progressive message - the REAL progressive message - out there, without apology, without compromise, without fear. He truly is speaking for working people, for poor people, for social justice, for civil rights, for a fair and living wage, for real democracy for all of us, not just for the richest among us.

Click here for more about Bernie!

This is what I have wanted to hear from a Democrat for years - really, all my life -  and had just about given up hope that it would ever happen. And, unlike most politicians, he's not just saying what he thinks will get him elected - this kind of talk is not what passes for 'conventional political wisdom'; it's the exact opposite. He is saying what he has been saying all along, and his record shows that he is not just saying it but doing it. He is calling for real political revolution - and Americans are hearing him. If he is courageous enough to get out there and say what no one else - not Republicans, not even other Democrats - will say, then he has my support all the way.

I'm volunteering, I'm contributing, and I will be writing and talking. I'm ready for the revolution.

So - yes, I ‪#‎FeelTheBern‬. ‪#‎BernieSanders‬ ‪#‎Bernie2016‬

Liberal Values are American Values

I believe that liberal values are American values. Here's why:

For starters, liberals fought for America's independence, freed the slaves, and gave women the right to vote.

The Mt. Rushmore Presidents--Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt--were each considered radical liberals in their day. 

Below are major American achievements that liberals fought for, and conservatives opposed:

• Independence from Great Britain: Conservatives, who then were called Tories, were against the War of Independence.

• Separation of Church and State: This great achievement was eventually embodied in the First Amendment of the Constitution's Bill of Rights.  It was opposed by conservatives who wanted to preserve the special status of established churches in Virginia (the Episcopal Church) and Massachusetts (the Congregational Church).

• Freedom of the Press: Conservatives distrusted a free press.  This provision, which was fought for by liberals, also made its way into the Constitution's Bill of Rights.

• The Abolition of Slavery:  At the outset of the Civil War, abolitionists were regarded by conservatives as dangerous extremists.  Most were persecuted and many were killed.  Some religious denominations split over the issue.  Today's Southern Baptist Convention owes its origin to conservative Southern ministers who believed that the Bible approves of slavery.  The Republican Party--which for decades was run by liberals--was formed to prevent the spread of slavery into the western territories and states.

• The Pure Food and Drug Act:  A liberal extremist by the name of Upton Sinclair wrote a book called The Jungle which described slaughterhouse practices so vividly that a reluctant, conservative Congress was shamed into creating a federal agency with the responsibility to test all foods and drugs destined for human consumption.

• Women's Suffrage:  Generations of women lectured, wrote, lobbied, marched, and practiced civil disobedience in order to get the right to vote.  They were called liberal extremists, and worse.  Only a few early liberals lived to see final victory in 1920.

• Equal Rights For Women:  The Equal Rights Amendment, which has been introduced in every session of Congress since 1923, was passed by Congress in 1972 but failed to be ratified by the necessary number of states.  Conservatives successfully kept it from becoming law. The dangerous wording of the Amendment is as follows: "Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex."

• Birth Control:  In the 1870s conservatives in Congress passed the Comstock Law which made it illegal to disseminate information about birth control practices.  In 1938, in a case involving liberal extremist Margaret Sanger, Justice August Hand lifted the federal ban on birth control.

• Child Labor:  Liberal extremists called "muckrakers" exposed horrible abuses of hundreds of thousands of child laborers. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson pushed the Keating-Owen Act through Congress which banned articles made by children from interstate commerce.  The Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.  Not until  the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 did any meaningful child labor legislation succeed.

• The Repeal of Prohibition:  The 18th Amendment, which prohibited the sale and use of alcoholic beverages, was opposed by liberals. It was  repealed in 1933.

• Social Security: Before FDR introduced Social Security in 1934, most elderly Americans lived in poverty, yet it was fought by conservatives as a socialistic scheme. Without it today, most elderly Americans would still live in poverty.

• The Tennessee Valley Authority:  This creation of the Roosevelt era brought cheap electric power to rural areas of the economically devastated Depression-era South.  Private firms had passed on doing it themselves because it was too big and not lucrative enough, but TVA was branded as Communistic.

• The United Nations: The UN is a favorite whipping boy of conservatives.  Conservatives in another generation killed the League of Nations, which if properly implemented, might have prevented WWII.  Undoubtedly the UN is flawed and often ineffectual, but the world would be a more dangerous place if there were no forum for all the nations of earth, rich and poor, dangerous and peaceful, to talk, talk, talk before they fight, fight, fight.

• Desegregation of America's Armed Forces:  President Harry S Truman, by executive order, ended Jim Crow practices in the U.S. military.  His civil rights initiatives split the Democratic Party.  Strom Thurmond, a staunch Southern conservative who later became a Republican Senator from South Carolina, ran for President as a Dixiecrat, and carried four Southern states.

• Civil Rights: Over the fierce opposition of conservatives, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed which made racial discrimination in public places such as restaurants, hotels, and theaters illegal, and guaranteed voting rights. President Lyndon Johnson, who had supported segregation while he was a Texas Senator, was branded as a traitor by conservatives.

• The Environmental Movement:  John Muir, Benjamin Harrison, and Teddy Roosevelt led in the creation of national parks and the preservation of wilderness areas over the opposition of conservative forces led by mining and timber companies and developers.

To be fair, it is true that conservatives have founded and generously supported hospitals, orphanages, museums, schools and colleges, historic preservation, and a wide range of philanthropies. They have created parks and beautified cities.

But conservatives have been on the wrong side of a shockingly long list of major developments that have made American a better place to live--as the above list should make clear. (There are hundreds more that can be added.)

This is because, historically, conservatives generally have been naysayers, defenders of the status quo.

Sometimes conservatives do get it right. But that shouldn't surprise anyone. If you say No to everything, you're bound to be right every once in a while. 

The next time you hear someone saying that liberals are a threat to America, tell them to take a history lesson.

Harry Truman used to say, "The only new thing in the world is the history you don't know."