WHY THE WRONG FOLKS KEEP GETTING ELECTED

This is the song that never ends

It just goes on and on my friend

Some people started singing it not knowing what it was,

And they'll continue singing it forever just because .

                                    Shari Lewis

Amazing. The more I’ve learned about these upcoming mid-term elections, the more this song just popped into my head and kept playing.  Coincidence? I think not.  Some things- like American politics- never change.  In my mind there is nothing more consistently Byzantine, convoluted, absurd and ludicrous than American politics.

The majority of Democratic candidates are running away from Barak Obama like he has the cooties, while the Republicans are poised to take control of the Senate.  The Republicans have had one agenda-as articulated by their leader, Mitch McConnell who is on record saying: “As long as Republicans refused to follow his (Obama’s) lead, Americans would see partisan food fights and conclude that Obama had failed to produce change.”  

Not only do we have McConnell on record putting politics above country, but we also have him- at a time when more and more college grads are living with their parents due to the unbearable burden of student loans- fending off any efforts to make those loans more affordable. Elizabeth Warren has been trying to change the law so that student loans could be refinanced when interest rates drop.  She is trying to lower student loan interest rates on working class kids by closing tax loopholes for the wealthy.  Mortgage loans can be refinanced, auto loans can be refinanced.  The only loans that cannot be refinanced are the ones that are needed for upward mobility: school loans. What could be more American than allowing the brightest to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” by attending the best schools into which their talents can get them admitted?  Common sense tells us that if the best and brightest can attend the best schools, then society as a whole-not to mention the student him/herself- will be better off.  That is what the American Dream is all about.  Who champions the American Dream more than the Right?  What does McConnell say about all this?  “Not everybody needs to go to Yale.”

Despite McConnell consistently voting against the interests of the vast majority of his constituency, he has survived in the senate for thirty years and is still a few points ahead in his race for reelection against Democrat challenger, Alison Lundergran Grimes.  Grimes, meanwhile, is so afraid of the backlash against the head of her party, The President of The United States, that she refuses to say if she voted for Obama or not.  And what, exactly, other than the fact that he’s black, is the source of this anger and resentment of Obama?

According to Charles Krauthammer (who constitutes one third of the right wing brain trust-along with William Kristol and George F. Will) a major source of discontent is Obama’s handling of the economy.  A Republican is saying that Obama was too slow in cleaning up the George Bush (REPUBLICAN) mess- the greatest economic mess in U.S. History since the great

Depression.  Of course, Krauthammer neglects to mention that every step Obama has taken to revive the economy from its Republican induced coma had been fought bitterly by those same Republicans.

As if laying this economic mess at the feet of the president weren’t enough, Krauthammer, ever the jokester, lays a genuine thigh slapper on us when he writes: “”Moreover, here is a president who proclaims the reduction of inequality to be the greatest cause of his administration.  Yet it has radically worsened in his six years.” Every single attempt by the Obama administration to reduce the inequality has been met with accusations of SOCIALISM! (AARRGH!!!)  

The amazing thing is that these Republican tactics work!  They are like the kid who draws on the walls then sticks the crayon in the other kid’s hand.  Where Democrats are often ruled by fear, the Republicans rule by fear.  The Bush administration used the terrorism alert to keep a gullible public so worried that they had to vote for him.  With nothing but smoke and mirrors, they win election after election, correctly counting on an electorate so easily distracted that they won’t let facts get in the way. 

www.williamgriggs.net  

HOW AMERICA IS MAKING ITSELF MISERABLE

Is there a relationship between the U.S. being the most right wing of the developed nations and the fact that it is the angriest, most unhappy, and jails more of its own citizens than any other nation on Earth?  If you answered “yes” you may go to the head of the class.

Several years ago, I wrote a Science fiction novel, titled, “The Megalight Connection,” in which I tried to lay the groundwork for human potential based on internal and external harmony as well as dysfunction as a result of insecurity, resulting from disconnection, which results largely from a really, really bad idea (the world owes me … I’m better than you are) and/or fear/insecurity.  I originally conceived of connection and disconnection (C/D) as an individual, spiritual concept.  The idea was relatively simple: the more honest and authentic our inward relationship, the more connected we are with others.  The more we connect with each other, the fewer the conflicts in the world.  Ultimately, if we connect as we should, we would eliminate the whole idea of “them,” because there would only be “us.”

The political/racial backlash to Obama’s election caused me to focus more on the politics of C/D, or more specifically of disconnection.  Everything about the Tea Party, as well as those who exploit their dysfunction, a la Ted Cruz, reeks of disconnection.  Where connection lies at the core of empathy, disconnection clearly is its opposite.  As always, there is a false idea at the core of disconnection, and in this case, it’s the idea that no black man should be president. 

Then there is the economic system of disconnection.  Pure capitalism epitomizes disconnection.  Capitalism unfettered, means unsafe everything, from working conditions, to food, to water to air.  It means large companies can morph together to control markets on all commodities.  No minimum wage.  Pure capitalism is pure evil. 

Not surprisingly, the economics and politics of disconnection are inextricably interwoven and endorsed by the same constituency.  Sadly, these endorsements come more from the victims of these pernicious systems than from their beneficiaries.  What was it that the great surgeon, Ben Carson called the “worst thing since slavery” and actor Chuck Norris called “the greatest threat to our freedom”?  Was it a plague or another world war?  No. It was health insurance!  What is it in American culture that produces this mentality?

The PBS documentary, “Happy” provides some answers as well as further validation for all that I’ve been espousing regarding C/D.  According to the film, money, once basic needs have been met comfortably, has little to do with happiness.  This fact is particularly essential when one considers that one of the primary aphorisms of American culture is that time is money.  Remember, the core of disconnection is a false idea.  Time is NOT money.  Time is LIFE.  It is the allotment of life we have on this planet.  The movie went on to show that some of the happiest people on the planet live in small villages and tribal enclaves and have little more than each other.  They are happy because of strong family and community ties.  They are happy because they are connected.

Denmark was graded the happiest of first World nations.  Denmark also boasts free medical care and higher education for all its citizens.

Once again we are left with the question of what it is in the American culture that makes this nation so right Wing in comparison to the rest of the world?  America, more than any other nation, places the individual above the group.  I believe it goes back to the American mythology of the Old West.  The hero as solitary figure.  He rides off into the sunset, alone.  It is no coincidence that the most American of the American heroes, John Wayne, was also a racist in real life.  Nor is it a coincidence that, for many Americans, the most beloved president of the last half century was also a symbol of the lone American hero as well as a champion of apartheid and racism, Ronald Reagan.   

Every society must balance the rights of the individual against those of the group.  In America, there is no balance.  This elevation of the individual above the group further fosters a sense of competition over cooperation.  Capitalism is the most competitive system the world has ever seen.  As competition increases, cooperation decreases.   Cooperation breeds well being and security.  The happiest people in the “Happy” documentary also placed cooperation above competition.

I guess the old saying (paraphrasing) is true.  Americans who want everyone else to be miserable start by making themselves miserable.  

 

WHY CONSERVATIVES SHOULD NEVER WRITE ABOUT RACE

Conservatives have no business writing on anything related to race.  There. I said it.  They consistently approach all things racial from a paternalistic position of condescension, lecturing black folks on how we should feel about how they treat us!  Following the Michael Brown shooting, we were treated not only  to the spectacle of  Sean Hannity berating a black official (Democratic committeewoman Patricia Bynes) for not agreeing with him  but also his explanation that as someone registered to carry a gun, whenever he gets pulled over by the police (all the time, I’m sure) he simply tells them he has a gun in the car and he has no problem.  So why do Blacks have so many problems unless we don’t know how to act?  Not only do conservatives consistently lecture at Black folks, but their lectures are also consistently based on logic that is either twisted or non-existent.

One of the latest instances of a conservative who desperately needs to be put in check comes from Chicago Tribune columnist, John Kass, who, like Hannity, is also ALWAYS wrong on issues concerning race.   Kass wondered in his column why the African American community was not outraged at the slaying of a nine year old child (Antonio Smith) the way we were at Michael Brown’s killing.  Kass also enlisted Cook Country States Attorney, Anita Alverez in his argument about Black folks’ misplaced priorities.  He quotes Alverez: "I don't understand why people aren't as outraged when a young child like this is executed on a street," Alvarez said.

Interestingly enough, the Kass article came less than a week after a piece by fellow columnist Steve Chapman, debunking the conservative’s arguments that Blacks care only about white on black crime, citing the First Lady’s appearance at the Hadiya Pendleton funeral and Rev. Al Sharpton’s visits here to combat violence in the community.  He could also have mentioned the marches, rallies and radio initiatives all aimed at stopping violence within the African American community.  If Kass had really had a point would he not have started by exposing the flaws in the argument that we do care about black on black crime?  How could a professional journalist, writing for one of the most powerful mainstream papers in the entire country, produce apiece that ignored so many blatantly obvious facts?

Conservative commentators like Kass and Hannity are offensive to the Black community on a plethora of levels. First, how dare they accuse us of not caring about the children we have lost?  How dare they assume that the African American community lacks the human capacity to weep for our children, regardless of whose hand brought the child down? Furthermore, the reaction within the community to the shootings of Brown and Smith differ because the circumstances are different. 

Antonio Smith was killed by a mindless thug in the community.  We deplore these thugs who terrorize our communities and applaud the police for their swift action in apprehending four suspects.  We hope these perpetrators, if found guilty, will be off the streets for a very, very long time.  And while we are sick and tired of these thugs who contribute nothing but fear and death to our communities, we also know that they do not occur (at least to this degree) in nature.  They are the result of slavery, of the ongoing persecution of former slaves and the descendants of slaves with lynchings, the destruction of successful black towns (by the very people who insist we must pull ourselves up by our bootstraps), and the list goes on.  Black folks had their names, language, and identities ripped from them, and were defined as three-fifths human.  These thugs represent violence begat by violence.   These killers roam our streets perpetrating mayhem for one central reason:  They do not know who they are.  They were not born, Dr. Frankenstein/Kass, they were created by the system you so zealously defend.

And while we’re at it, The Antonio Smiths of the world are dead because of the ludicrous availability of guns in this country. I believe it is the Right Wing in this country that so vigorously supports absolute freedom to own guns.

Thugs killed Antonio Smith.  A police officer killed Michael Brown.   We do not call a thug when a policeman kills someone.  We do not pay thugs through our tax dollars to be thugs. Taxpayers do not put guns into the hands of thugs.   Where are those responsible for killing Antonio Smith and where is the person who killed Michael Brown?   We do not mourn Michael Brown any more than we do Antonio Smith.   In the case of Michael Brown, we mourn the lack of justice.  If conservatives do not understand this spectacularly obvious distinction, then they have no business writing about anything remotely related to race.