Actions Speak Louder than Words

I'm reminded of a PBS documentary several years back, showing American bible-belt Christians leaving their churches on Sunday morning with smiles beaming from their faces ... making their way to watch/cheer a public lynching.

It apparently had entertainment value for followers of Christ. If only they correctly interpreted his inspired words, they wouldn't have been so horribly wrong (again). Where's that Holy Ghost when you need it?

It should teach us ALL one thing: Words don't amount to squat no matter how many flags or holy books they are wrapped in. ACTIONS (where life is) is all that matters. 

It's where the rubber meets the road. The rest is noise and distraction ... that politicians use - to great success - to get themselves (re-)elected.

No More Faux Patriotism

I remember after 9/11, when flag-wavers came out of the woodwork offering me a flag to put on my office door, even though I had one there long before it became fashionable to "wave." Then, these situational patriots had the nerve to question my patriotism when I didn't jump onboard the Bush War Train.

Patriotism isn't waving the flag when everyone else is. It's waving the flag in your heart that nobody sees during moments of peace. Like religion, patriotism does not need to be worn on one's sleeve to make it genuine. In fact, I'd argue the opposite. Faddish and situational patriotism is shallow.

The American Way of Using Religion as a Stick

So, it has become known that the DNC had it in for Bernie supporters, just as his supporters suspected.

Which tells us that even Democrats are not beneath GOP-tactics of using religion to undermine a candidate.

Jew, agnostic, atheist, who cares anyway? I mean, don't actions speak louder than words? Words are cheap. Actions are where life is.

I've seen some pretty bad things done by those who carry holy books around or profess faith in a deity; and I've seen some pretty good things done by those who are not religious or may be agnostic (not-knowing) about the whole theism thing.

The point isn't to say anyone has a monopoly on "goodness." It is to say one's position on religion or theology is irrelevant to one's public behavior.

Thomas Jefferson was attacked for being an atheist, for daring people to "dare the existence of God" in the name of enlightenment.

Thomas Paine is all but forgotten, because he chose to write The Age of Reason, which undermined organized religion (even though Paine's Common Sense was a huge broadside in pushing the American Revolution forward).

It's always been the lazy politician's (or wonk's) approach to undermine a candidate by accusing him of not conforming to the majority's belief system.

Shame on those in the DNC who went down that route. And shame on the party leaders (DWS and HRC) for not calling them out and shaming them, if only internally.

How the South was Lost

I just watched LBJ (Brian Cranston) last night on HBO and was amazed (not really) how much the appearance (white/male) and rhetoric (state's rights, unconstitutional, etc.) of those opposed to civil and voting rights legislation in the 1960s is the same as today's GOP. Not much has changed. The reactionaries have objectively not evolved in half a century, other than to tone down their speech ... i.e. until Palin and Trump arrived. It does get a bit confusing though, since the South was predominantly Democratic then and that is where much of the opposition came from. LBJ accurately predicted that the Democratic dominance in the South would be lost for at least a generation as a consequence of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Political party allegiances began to invert nearly immediately and has continued apace ever since, with many Democrats (starting with Strom Thurmond) bolting to the Republican Party, that was more (conservative) hospitable to remaining opposed to change (esp. regarding minorities) they felt was "too quick" and upsetting (to their racist constituents).

Republicans quickly seized on the opportunity with their Southern Strategy, that worked extremely well for them. For the country, not so much. Fifty years later, and the "Party of NO!" still thinks any change is "too quick."

19th Century Republicans = Modern Democrats

Abraham Lincoln was a Republican of the 19th century variety.

The philosophical impetus that drove Lincoln evolved since the Civil War and eventually landed in the Democratic Party (the former South/slavery-supporting party) during the mid-20th century when Civil Rights legislation passed.

After that, along with the "culture wars" since, we had an inversion in America's political parties with a good many Democrats abandoning their party to become Dixiecrats (see: Strom Thurmond) or became Republicans in protest of Civil Rights legislation (along with welfare, and liberalism) beginning around the Johnson years.

By the time Reagan came along, the political solidification of the South was already well underway which is why national "party" heat maps show the South as being predominantly "red."

Republicans invoking the name of Lincoln to establish "creds" without qualifying it with historical context is dishonest, at the very least. And, manipulative at worst.

Angry Old Man Changes Tune ... not

After the recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down Texas regulations on abortion clinics as arbitrary and/or lacking sound medical basis, abortion foes pounced on Donald Trump for not saying anything about it.

Shocking, I tell ya! A man who supported abortion all of his life not having much to say about lifting restrictions on abortion!

Of course, it is shocking only to those who actually believe Donald Trump had an 8th-decade conversion to the "pro-life" cause. Along with support for unregulated gun access and reading the Bible daily. Etc.

It appears the Religious Right is as clueless as the NRA.

A 70 year old man suddenly has a change of heart over Jesus, guns and abortion ... all at the same time. How stupid do you have to be to NOT recognize this as a CON job? The right-wing's irrational fear and loathing over Hillary has made them pliable dolts. 

For the Religious Right, who is instructed to "have the faith of a child" (per Jesus), I'm not completely surprised at their lack of curiosity and absence of skepticism. And, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the NRA either since its #1 goal is to maximize the profit of gun manufacturers under the rubric of an absolutist 2nd amendment.

No Sacred Amendments

There is nothing sacred about the Bill of Rights, in terms of permanence.

The Bill of Rights are simply the FIRST ten amendments to the Constitution.

They were added to the Constitution AFTER it was ratified by the States.

The people OF THOSE TIMES supported those amendments, just as Americans since then have supported amendments to support abolition of slavery and the right of women to vote, to name but a few.

We are no more bound by the amendments of the first American generation than future generations should be bound by amendments we support today. That's the whole point of a democracy, after all. It evolves, grows, learns, etc. - tempered by experience and reality. Not frozen in time.

Those who believe any amendment is beyond modification or even retraction simply do not understand how our liberal democratic system was setup to function.

This is what Thomas Jefferson had to say about change:

"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

I'm sick and tired of hearing that we should be held hostage to what people in the 18th century thought about guns and their role when muskets and canons were the primary weapons of violence and war.

As a gun-owner myself, I'm quite content to use basic defense weapons for target practice. I don't need or want anything more. And, even if I did, I would give up access to higher-grade weapons as I'm not so selfish as to demand a right to recreational high-power target shooting at the expense of crazy people using same high-power weapons to decimate my fellow citizens.