🗯️ Political Observations: Lessons To Learn

Over the last week, a number of political thoughts have been swirling around my head. I think it is time to get them out:

• While on a drive recently, I was binge-listening to the latest season of the Start Up Podcast on Church Planting. They had a very interesting episode on theology of evangelical churches. One standard position is “complementarianism”, which is the view that women is complementary to man, and that they should never have a leadership position. For the evangelicals, this may have been an unspoken reason why Hillary was unacceptable, and why there is so much hatred of her assuming leadership. But that’s the past. What is the lesson here?  Namely, a man of any color is more acceptable to them than a woman would be. If our goal is to retake the White House — which is a must in 2020 if not before — we need to keep this in mind when choosing candidates. We must take care to not needlessly shoot ourselves in the foot.
• In fact, it would be astute of us to understand exactly why Evangelicals support Trump, despite all his faults. Here’s a good explanation. Here’s a real telling quote: “They want the return of Protestant privilege in American culture. The loss of Protestant privilege, and the reality of religious plurality, is driving them crazy.” For all their protestations about Sharia law, they want a Christian nation where Christians have the privilege, and those who are not are second class citizens. I’m not sure there is a way to turn these folks around, unless they can believe there is a different anointed candidate that will press their goals. What is the lesson here? We must work on the non-evangelical Christians — those who believe in what Christ actually said and did, as opposed to evangelical beliefs, and demonstrate how Trump is not building a better world.
• Trump is also using fear to bring his supporters to the polls, implying that Liberals will use violence to overturn all he has done for the evangelical community. We know that is not the reality, but fear is a powerful motivator. What is the lesson here? We must work to counter that, and use all means necessary to turn out the vote: get people registered, help them get to the polls, and get all those who have been sitting on their hands not voting to get out and vote and make a difference.
• We need to learn how Trump voters see themselves, and see the Liberals. Here, the name Dinesh D’Souza is critical. D’Souza’s latest movie, Death of a Nation, compares Donald Trump to Abraham Lincoln, and his Democratic opponents to Nazis. Yes, you’ve read that right. I have friends on FB that believe it — and this is what feeds into the fear of AntiFa. They don’t recognize the party ideological swap that occurred in the mid-1960s as a result of the Southern Strategy. What is the lesson here? We must continue to demonstrably counter — with patience — their view of Liberals. We need to demonstrate there isn’t a unified thought, and just as with Conservatives, there is a broad spectrum of views.
• We’ve all commented on how many Trump supporters seem to have drunk the Kool-Aide, and think whatever he does will benefit them. I know many such supporters who are on limited means who have partaken that beverage. Yet he is making life more expensive. His tariffs on imported vehicles and parts will make even US made vehicles more expensive, and the new trade deal with Mexico will make them even more expensive. Will this awaken them? Probably not. What is the lesson here? We must keep hammering home how Trump’s policies are making things more expensive, and how wages are not increasing enough to compensate, making the economic condition of lower and middle classes worse (while the rich are getting richer).
• One thing I’ve noted from many Trump supporters is an attitude of … not quite hate, but of “get off my lawn”. They seemingly are angry at everything: liberals, taxes, other people, society. Trump speaks to them because he reflects anger — his whole “schtick” is to intentionally do things that piss off the people he does not like, and to revel in their reactions. What is the lesson here? As Liberals, what must our response be to this? First, we must not react with anger in return, for that is the reaction that they want. We must learn to deflect that anger, and infuriate them even more by being nice and reasonable in response. Remember: Don’t feed the trolls. Set the example, and attract the moderates who are tired of the anger.
• We’ve seen lately how Trump is angry at Google for returning more negative results about him. Setting aside the question of why the President is bothering to search himself online (narcissist, me thinks), what he doesn’t understand is that it is just an algorithm, one that returns what is out there on the web, and giving priority to links on sites that have proven themselves over time to be trustworthy. Algorithms can only return what is out there, and there is much less on the web that is positive about Trump, and the sites that are positive about Trump get much less links. What is the lesson here? If you have a blog, link to reputable articles only. If you are on Facebook, share reputable articles. Help the algorithms find the truth, simply by posting the truth.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🗯️ Political Observations: Lessons To Learn by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

🗯️ What This Liberal Wants

No, Folks, I do NOT want this to become a full-on Socialist Country.

I want the beautiful balance of Capitalism and Socialism that we had back before Nixon and Reagan, when we looked out for Rich and Poor, back when a one-income working person’s salary meant he or she could afford to rent – or even BUY – a nice little 2-bedroom house with a little bit of yard. I want the days when kids could learn a trade or go to college, or both, without spending a fortune, and usually ended up living as well as their parents within 10 years or so. I want days when people could afford to go to the doctor and get the medical treatment they needed, and there was confidence in the quality of that treatment.

If only this system had worked for everyone!

The blot on this sunny scenario was … Racism. Non-white people were treated badly and paid far worse and jailed far more often than white folks, even with other factors (intelligence, work ethic, education, nature of infraction, etc.) being equal. What’s worse is that this still goes on. At times, I seems that the Far Right’s entire purpose has been, since the 1950s, to make sure this state of affairs continues. If not for the Civil Rights Act — an act brought forward by Democrats that lost them the Southern Vote to this day — we would still have legally separated neighborhoods!!!

You should SEE the bullshit in the original CCRs (from the 1940s and NULLIFIED BY THE CRA) for the neighborhood I grew up in the Crestwood Hills community in West Los Angeles! These state that no one of Asian, Negroid, or Hispanic heritage could own or rent in our neighborhood. I even recall that there were initially covenants against Jews. In other neighborhoods, POC were not allowed to SLEEP in the neighborhood unless they were household servants living in separate quarters on the property.

This was an era when the best position to be was White, Male, and Christian. Those who were not in those categories were viewed — either explicitly or implicitly — as “beneath”. There was implicit privilege in three attributes: you got the better jobs, you got better treatment from law enforcement, you got the better pay, you got the better working conditions, you got accepted at the better colleges, you could join the right clubs and organizations — all without you having to do anything.

The GOP, which was once the anti-Slavery Party, is now the chief supporter of discriminatory actions in policing, in housing, in hiring, in firing.

Notice the completely different rules THEY follow when THEY are in power (e.g. “No criticism of US; To HELL with the First Amendment!”) versus when they are OUT of power. When they are out of power, they criticize, they investigate, and they complain about the corrupt ethics of those in power. When they gain power, that goes out the window. No criticism is permitted, despite what the First Amendment says; investigations into corruption are “witch hunts”, and there is a distinct lack of ethics.

From what I can tell, the GOP now represents only the those that have money, privilege, or position, and those that want to preserve their money, privileges, and/or positions. I’ve seen this characterized as the “Richies and the Racists”.

If we REALLY want America to be “great again”, we need to truly crown our good with brotherhood and knock off the racist crap,  We need to go beyond the “under God” in the pledge, and focus on the “liberty and justice for all.” We need to move beyond the constant fearmongering and international saber-rattling that make us cut beneficial social programs so we can spend insane amounts on the military … all while military families struggle MORE than the rest of the middle class. We need to truly and realistically understand the external risks that this nation faces, and use our military power to defend against those realistic risks, and as a way to help other nations protect and promote freedom, which benefits this country through the reduction of overall risk.

I have no idea how we can fix this, when when we live in a country where a large portion believe it to be a Christian Nation (despite what is written in the Constitution), where Christian values are to be legislated in statute and imposed on all. When we live in a country where Black Men Kneeling during the flag salute is treated as a soulless act of disrespect, but White Men marching to support White Privilege and re-segregation of society, and deliberately killing a counter demonstrator with one of their cars during the process, is treated as merely a product of understandable frustration. When our leadership proclaims that there is equal wrong on both sides.

The Right has gone insane, thanks to twisted religion, racism, greed, bully-worship, and fear. They have abandoned the values of their once respectable party to the cult of personality, and the worship of power and privilege.

Luckily, there is one way to bring us back to where we need to be. Please, Sane People! GET OUT AND VOTE! Every Primary. Every Election. Your vote is the difference.

[Note: This was adapted from a post by my friend Mary W. over on Facebook. Shared and adapted with permission.]

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🗯️ What This Liberal Wants by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.