Tag: conservative

They fear Ocasio-Cortez; and they should

The ultra conservative gang is pulling is afraid, and they are pulling out all the stops. In this case, it’s Ben Stein. He was funny in some movies because his mode of speaking was about the same as his mode of thinking. Now he’s the latest wealth-is-for-the-wealthy striking out at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He’s out of his depth. He is attempting to compare her to Adolf Hitler because she promotes social programs, a socially responsible government, and a more equitable distribution of wealth in our country. She—gasp—actually believes things like: millionaires and billionaires ought to pay their fair share of taxes; people who work full time should earn a living wage; every American should have affordable health care; LGBTQ Americans are people too and should be treated equally.

Let’s be VERY CLEAR. What Ocasio-Cortez is talking about is a reasonable and responsible combination of government and social consciousness as a government and nation. The GOP has done all it could to enrich the richest and destroy the middle and lower economic classes. they like it that way. And now they have given us Donald Trump. We have already seen the fruits of Trump’s Hitler-like promises and psychosis—as discussed by MANY historians, sociologists, psychologists and psychiatrists who have a much firmer grip on the subject than Mister Stein. Ocasio-Cortez is nothing like either Hitler or Trump. She is the direct opposite. Remember what Joseph Goebbels said, to always accuse the other side of that which you are guilty of yourself. He also applauded lying your way to power, and advised to make the lie a big one, and keep saying it, until you convinced people to believe it.  These happen to be two of the most prominent, and effective, tools in Trump’s crooked bucket. Now Ben Stein has bought in.

Ben Stein is attacking Ocasio-Cortez for one reason and one reason only. He supports the concept of very small government and is dedicated to the trickle-down economic theories the GOP has used since the Reagan era (that’s 40 years), to continually unbalance the economy and the social strata of America. Ben Stein is a believer of the concept that, as Al Capp put it so eloquently in “Li’l Abner,” what’s good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA.” He supports the belief that 1% of the people should have all of the money, all of the political power, and all of the control.

General Bullmoose is in the White House right now. We can see how that’s working out.

And about that “small government” thing. It was feasible and reasonable in 1790 (the year of the first official census), when the population of the country was under 4 million. In a nation of 300 million plus, a nation in which 99% of the people are more in danger from their own country’s massive corporations than any outside threat, the government must be large enough to stand up for that 99% against the 1%, as well as the threats posed by racism, white supremacists, and rampant, vicious religious cultism. Think far-right evangelicals. Social responsibility maintaining stability through equity in the economic system are vital necessities for a government that represents ALL of the people, as opposed to the wealthy few and the violent cultists.

That is the kind of government Ocasio-Cortez is talking about. Ben Stein should be ashamed to even attempt comparing her to Hitler. But then, he believes the 1% should rule. They’ve been consolidating their wealth and their power for four decades. Ocasio-Cortez is talking about restoring the political and economic balance all Americans deserve, and all of America needs. The far right white supremacists don’t like it. More importantly, the 1% doesn’t like it. To make things more awful for them, she is tough. She isn’t going to politely sit down and let the old guard on either side of the aisle tell her to be quiet. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is also smart, and determined to get a fair shake for all Americans. She is a Tigress. Put her and Mitch McConnell in a locked cage WWE event, and she would have the old traitor on the mat begging for mercy with his last breath in seconds. I doubt she’d even work up a sweat. Donald Trump’s bone spurs start acting up almost as bad at the mention of her name, as they do when he hears the word Pelosi.

That’s why the wealthiest among us hate Ocasio-Cortez. It’s why they fear her. And they should.

NRA ad is Disgusting, Frightening, Reprehensible

The new NRA ad is both disgusting and frightening. Language like this is an invitation to the next civil war. The content of the ad is a virtual manifesto for war.  

The term “violence of lies” attempts to deliver the message that the legitimacy of freedom and equal rights for all Americans, including women, including those who are LGBT and people of color, is a lie. Really? The call for health care for all Americans is a lie. Really? The charge that white supremacy and white nationalism is Hitleresque is a lie. Really? And again, really?  

Just what is the NRA legitimizing and promoting here? An all white America? An America where only whites have rights and power? An America where only extremist evangelical Christians are legitimate? An America where it’s every man for himself and the poor, the less able, the disabled, the mentally ill, the “not ambitious enough,” are pushed to the side and left to die? An America in which women, and those who are the wrong color or wrong religion, know their place and follow orders and take what they are given and act happy about it? An America ruled by the richest and biggest and strongest and meanest, instead of the rule of law for all people?  Are we to be, according to the NRA, a country where “All men are created equal” means all men who are white and Baptist and straight? 

George H.W. Bush once said, “This will not stand.”  He was referring to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. I submit that it is time for those who believe in an inclusive, free America, an America which is truly based on all men and women being created equal, to echo that former Republican President’s words. Let all men and women of freedom and tolerance and love respond to the hatred of the alt-right agenda the NRA promotes with that ad by declaring, “This will not stand.”  

America will NOT be a nation of hate. America will NOT be a nation in which only the “right” people rule with their guns and viciousness and threats against those who are the wrong color, or the wrong gender, or who do not behave or worship the “right” way.  

We have been edging toward a new civil war ever since Barack Obama was elected. Not because of him, as he has consistently shown himself to be a moral, caring, intellectual, thoughtful individual. But because of the tide of racism and bigotry and white supremacy advocates that raised their malevolent, violent tentacles of hate against the election of a black man as President.  

We have been edging toward a new civil war because the majority of our people, and our courts have finally ruled that one’s humanity, and rights, are not determined by one’s sexual orientation. 

We have been edging toward a new civil war because our President and our courts and the majority of our people refuse to condemn an entire religion because of the acts of a few.  

We have been edging toward a new civil war because of the incredible concept that women may have some control over their own bodies. 

We have been edging toward a new civil war because of the fear and hate and resentment of fringe groups, the extreme white supremacist right wing nationalists and evangelical, fundamentalist extremist Christian right. They are supported by big business, because big business knows that as long as those groups’ white supremacy egoism is maintained, they will largely be quiet, do as they are told, accept what big business cares to pay them and the working conditions big business determines for them. Just as long as they are assured that they are dominant because they are white and the right kind of Christian. 

The NRA is big business personified. It feeds off of this ultra conservative sector that stands for everything an enlightened society, a truly free, democratic society, must put behind us. The NRA is virtually endorsing another civil war, because it, and the arms industry, feed off of the blood thirst they encourage, the phobic fear of those who are ‘different’ they encourage.  

We have been edging toward a new civil war for all of the above reasons, and for much longer than eight years. Now, with Donald Trump’s ascension, the forces in favor of such an unthinkable event are more rabid than ever. The NRA ad  is abetting the idea of one. When it comes, (the chances of avoiding it just shrank immensely) there will be blood. It will run as freely on one side as on the other. The right seems to think for some reason that the left doesn’t believe in having guns. They are more wrong than they can imagine. The right seems to think that all of the police, and military, will be on their side. They are woefully ignorant on that count. They apparently believe that because they talk more violently, swagger bigger, and act meaner, they really are those things. They are very mistaken. War brings out the inner ruthlessness in all men. Count on it. 

The only questions left to answer, if the next civil war that the right seems to want, that the NRA seems to condone, arrives, are how many gallons of blood will be spilled (it will be by the barrel full), and what kind of country will emerge from the darkest time in American history, bar none.  

If and when the next civil war comes, I am sure that one side will have the bulk of the world’s support, both moral and material in every way possible. And it will not be the side of this country’s burgeoning and threatening neo-Nazis and evangelical extremists.  This is still America, not 1930’s Germany. I believe that most of the world, including America’s allies abroad who watch this awfulness with horror and alertness, stand ready to help our country to right itself. 

The next civil war has been edging closer to us for a long time. The only question before us in the immediate future is, can we find a path of reason that will lead us away from it. This path must include all Americans, not a privileged few. Yet the NRA ad suggests just the opposite, a blood filled road right through the middle of it. 

That is reprehensible with a capital R.