On Wisconsin!

As the recall election approaches in Wisconsin, I’m wondering how many Badgers remember their history. Well here’s something sobering: the first thing the fascists did when they gained power in 1933 Germany was abolish trade unions. So I gotta ask: is that what you want for your state?

One of the things I thought about this Memorial Day was how many millions gave their lives to beat back fascism in WWII. Wisconsinites can do it with their ballots, without shedding a drop of blood. It would send a powerful message to the rest of America.

Unhinged Republicans

According to US government projections, by 2042 whites in America will be outnumbered by non-whites for the first time since Europeans set foot on the continent. I think conservatives have become unhinged by the prospect, which could explain the radicalization of the GOP, and why Republicans are resorting to every despicable tactic imaginable to seize and hang onto power.

Are conservatives inherently bigoted? I’m not prepared to make a sweeping generalization, but you have to wonder why Mitch McConnell vowed to make Obama a one-term president so soon after the inauguration. There was no real record to condemn, so it could only have been the color of the president’s skin that McConnell found fault with.

Education begins at birth

The current conversation about GOP candidate Mitt Romney’s so-called education plan prompted me to tweet about something that’s at the core of my beliefs: that education begins at birth. I was pleasantly surprised to be retweeted a few times.

That education begins at birth isn’t my unique view—it’s the view of many educators and social scientists, but it’s seldom a topic of widespread discussion, and it needs to be.

It’s basically true that by the time they are three, most children’s attitudes about learning are pretty much formed—and if learning doesn’t excite them, it’s not their fault. What happens all too often in America is that too many children reach school unprepared to learn, and teachers have an uphill battle. For the most part, teachers are an easy target when our schools fail, but very few of them deserve the blame that is heaped upon them.

There’s nothing complicated about getting a child ready to learn. Step 1, of course, is to read to your child—from day one. Step 1a is to make sure your child sees you reading, and gaining pleasure from it. This is the foundation for learning—that it’s fun.

What else? Play classical music, of course. It not only instills a love for beautiful music, it lays the groundwork for math skills. Provide educational games for your kids, but make sure you interact.

And what else? Keep them healthy. Bodies and minds function better when properly nourished.

There’s more to say about this, of course, but it’s a start. If every child reached school with basic skills and an eagerness to learn, teachers could really do their jobs.

Are corporations helping McConnell keep his vow?

Mitch McConnell vowed to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Are corporations doing their part by sitting on piles of cash when they could be hiring in order to make Obama look bad? While it is true that corporations have done well under the current administration, it is also true that they almost overwhelmingly prefer Romney over Obama.

The conventional wisdom that businesses are afraid to hire because of uncertainty over the economy is GOP spin. Consumer spending is what drives an economy, and as our recovery inches forward, it would be in their interest to hire and create more consumers — or so you would think.

So the question needs to be asked: Are corporations helping McConnell keep his vow?

What Jesus said about gay marriage

The Golden Rule is at the core of Christ’s teachings: “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you,” according to a familiar translation. It’s a simple principle embraced by virtually all faiths, and could very well mean full and lasting world peace if practiced by all.

But in the case of gay marriage, it’s practiced by few — particularly those who claim to be faithful adherents of Christ. Using instead a few isolated biblical passages that condemn homosexuality as justification for their bigotry, by supporting a ban on same-sex marriage they are literally saying that they don’t mind if someone else tells them who they can and cannot marry. If they adhere to the Golden Rule, by discriminating against others, they are saying they would have others discriminate against them.

You would think the preaching of Jesus would trump everything else that appeared in the Bible. He is after all the ultimate authority, the central figure on which Christianity was based.

Opponents of gay marriage spend a lot of time citing God’s views about homosexuality. If God is to be taken at His word for anything, then gay men should be executed because God commands that they be put to death in Leviticus 20:13. (It’s worth noting that God makes no mention of lesbians.) But it should be pointed out that God also prescribed the death penalty for anyone who worked on the Sabbath (Exodus 31:15). If this is His law, then why is Walmart open on Sunday? If it’s His law, then why do preachers preach on Sunday? Because after all, the ministry is an occupation, and these pastors get paid to preach.

Clearly many of God’s pronouncements have been repealed — either by man or by scientific discoveries. So if an evangelical preacher can be spared the death penalty for working on the Sabbath — or for appearing on MSNBC — then gay men and women should be allowed to marry.

It is clear on so many levels that the Bible is wrong a lot and shouldn’t be taken seriously. We’ve known, for example, that despite what the Bible says, the earth does in fact move, as Galileo proved centuries ago and we know without a doubt now. We know too that the creation as described in Genesis is a fairy tale. The Bible does set out a few moral standards in the ten commandments, but then goes on to depict the Old Testament God as a bloodthirsty figure who is big on stoning people to death. God does become a kinder, gentler figure in the New Testament, but we have Jesus to thank for that.

And in that regard, Jesus did speak about gay marriage when He gave us the Golden Rule, and His word should be final.

Bigotry alive and well in NC

Big letdown in my adopted home of NC yesterday as bigots came out from under rocks to reject equality for the LBGT community. I would venture to say that those supporting Amendment 1, which would prohibit marriage between same sex couples, have never been the victims of prejudice — although I could be wrong, because I understand African Americans were opposed to gay marriage by a wide margin as voters went to the polls. If their votes carried the day for bigotry, they should be ashamed.

How the right suppresses workers’ rights

As a New York Times editorial put it, “Under federal labor law, employees have the right to join together to seek better pay and working conditions, with or without a union. If an employer tries to punish organizers, employees have the right to seek protection from the National Labor Relations Board. But employees still don’t have the right to be informed of their rights.”

And in several jurisdictions, industries have sued to deny workers the right to be informed after the NLRB issued a rule requiring them to post a notice of those rights. Can you imagine denying people the opportunity to know their rights? It’s like being denied the opportunity to know the Bill of Rights exists, much less discuss its contents.

This is the right wing at its worst. It shows just how much corporations hate unions, how little they care about workers’ rights. If you’re an average employee and you vote Republican, you are voting against your own interests. You’re making it harder for yourself to advance, to ever get meaningful raises, to have a safe workplace. You are also undermining your own job security.

And remember job security? Have you noticed that job security has declined in pace with the decline of unions?

The threat of ignorance

According to polls, a surprising number of Americans think the Roman Empire is the Italian guy who calls baseball games. But those who know what the Roman Empire really was are aware that the Empire declined over a period of time, and that the most likely causes were the disintegration of its major political and social institutions at the same time it was defending against a variety of invaders.

While the US is not an empire in the same sense as Rome was, it became established as the dominant world power following WWI, and with a strong alliance successfully resisted the Axis challenge in WWII. But detractors have often predicted that America will eventually go the way of Rome — and nothing will bring America down more quickly than ignorance.

For this we’ll have to thank the likes of people like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Allen West, James Inhofe, Rick Santorum, Virginia Foxx, Mitt Romney, Donald Trump, and other knuckleheads too numerous to count, in and out of government. Ignorance — a national security threat.

Evolution, GOP style

A lot of Republicans are on record as rejecting evolution because it conflicts with the biblical account of the creation. Never mind mountains of scientific evidence — all that is trumped by the first two chapters in Genesis, which will fit on two sides of a single sheet of paper.

But there is an aspect of evolution that these Republicans embrace — survival of the fittest. Where Republicans part company with Darwin is in how this principle applies. In Nature, species survive according to their ability to adapt to changes in their environment and to surmount threats to their existence. For Republicans, it’s the wealthy who are entitled to survive.

Harsh? Oh, maybe. But take a look at the proposed cuts in the Ryan Plan, which about summarizes Evolution, GOP style. Programs that would face funding cuts provide a safety net for poor women, children, families, and seniors. Without even a modest safety net, people in these groups face hunger, chronic illness, homelessness, and death. Because they have no wealth, they will be culled from society. Ryan claims that these programs don’t lift people out of poverty. What they do is help people survive it.

If you read the New Testament, you will find that Jesus left instructions on how to care for people without wealth. The Ryan Plan is, in effect, a repudiation of what Christ taught. It is, in effect, a condemnation order.

Parity with the big spenders?

I was tickled to death when sponsors started fleeing Rush Limbaugh after his attack on Sandra Fluke — or, more correctly, after word got around about his disgusting remarks. When the world at large got a glimpse of Rush in action, advertisers didn’t want to be associated with him. Among the advertisers who fled? The Girl Scouts. (Damn — why were they there in the first place?)

Anyway, I don’t shop at, use the services of, or patronize in any way a single advertiser on the list of the companies that abandoned Rush, but I’m glad they did. Sends a message, so to speak.

Or does it? Because I recognized a number of the companies that ran away from Limbaugh as advertisers on shows I watch, and I’m sure I’m not the only consumer to notice this. So boycotting the offending sponsors leaves you with a dilemma: do you also want to punish programs you like?

More recently, a number of corporations have withdrawn support from the American Legislative Exchange Council — ALEC — when its connection to Stand Your Ground laws was exposed following the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. It turns out that ALEC, with major support from the Koch brothers, is also a major influence behind the Voter ID laws now on the books in many Republican-dominated states as a means to suppress voter turnout. Here again, I recognize many of these companies as sponsors of programs that suit my sensibilities.

So what does this tell me? It tells me that corporations spread their cash around. Ideology may or may not be involved, but that’s besides the point. The point is, they have me by the balls. Just about any product I buy or service I engage is produced or provided by a company that buys influence. It is hard work — and costly — to find companies that don’t make donations to candidates or PACS or belong to some trade group that employs an army of lobbyists, regardless of their political leanings. I still depend on agribusiness for most of my food, a bank to store my money, and an insurance company to let me drive legally. Meanwhile, I can’t find anyone locally to make me an affordable pair of jeans.

I would like to say that, as consumers, we can make a difference — and I have made that point before. I think it’s possible, for instance, that a Florida travel boycott would make Florida think twice about its SYG law. I certainly can’t imagine foreign travelers wanting to visit the States, with so many pistol-packing Americans walking the streets.

The kind of reform required to preserve our democracy will have to originate with people who don’t want reform, so how will that work out? A constitutional amendment to get money out of politics sounds like the solution, but amendments are proposed by either two-thirds of both houses of Congress or two-thirds of state legislators. I won’t live to see either. Only the public dislikes the current system, and to those in power, what the people want doesn’t matter. Politicians can’t be shamed into doing the right thing.

Which is one reason I propose an Equal Voice Law (the other reason, Citizens United), which would allow unlimited campaign contributions as long as no one person’s contribution was more than anyone else’s contribution. In other words, if I can’t afford more than a buck, then AT&T couldn’t donate more than a buck. Equal voice. Get it? Sure it’s silly, but maybe it’s time to try something silly. I’m under no illusion that anyone will even get wind of my proposal, so my only satisfaction will be having the opportunity to write this post.

Nevertheless, I think one or two members of Congress could introduce such a bill, and then everyone else would have to explain why they opposed equality. After all, isn’t equality something most Americans cherish?