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I’m Patriotic, I’m a Republican, Oh the Nonsense We Tell Our Children

  • Posted on November 12, 2010 at 6:32 pm

To me this looks a lot like child abuse. What parent would want their child involved in a political rally this way?

My students have just finished making a six page art journal.  I was busy grading them today when I came across a sixth grade boy’s journal that made me laugh.  The art journals are meant to be personal and tell something about the person creating it.  On one page this sixth grade boy drew an American flag, stated he is a patriot and then stated he is a Republican.  This made me crack up because for years the Republicans have always made that “patriot” label seem like it belongs to them.

After September 11th the Democrats resented the fact that Republicans thought of themselves as being “more” patriotic.  All the politicians had to run out and buy flag pins to prove they are patriots.  It is rare these days to catch a politician without their little pin that supposedly confirms they are a patriot.  I thought it was funny that this boy called himself a patriot and a Republican.  I was raised by two strong Democrats.  I don’t remember being that aware of politics when I was in sixth grade.  I was more into kickball, reading and the Monkees.  I really got into politics when I began high school.  However, the thing that I find most interesting is this idea that a patriot is a Republican.

I think Republicans must be starting out quite young indoctrinating their children.  Democrats and liberals probably have that “open minded” thing that gets in the way of indoctrination.  As a liberal person I know I wanted my son to be a “free thinker”.  I may be paying for that now as my son doesn’t always do everything the way I would like him to do things.  However, I know in my heart I feel it is best to teach in a non judgmental way and he is an adult now and free to live the kind of life he chooses.  Free thinking and that open minded thing can sometimes appear like a person can be easily swayed to a compromise.  Republicans tend to think they are right and anyone that doesn’t think like they do is wrong.  I know this because I have a lot of Republican relatives!

With all of this in mind, I think it’s interesting to think about the make up of the new congress in January.  Already President Obama is talking about compromise.  Standing firm doesn’t seem to enter into any of the Democrats lingo.  There is a famous quote by Alexander Hamilton, “”Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”   If you think about it, the current Democrats haven’t really shown us what they stand for, so I will not be surprised if they fall for whatever the Republicans want.  They have two strikes against them.  The first is that fact that most of them were raised to have an open mind and listen to the other side.  Second, most don’t seem to have strong convictions.  Yes, I know there is always Representative Dennis Kucinich, but he’s a rarity in this Democratic Party.

I’ve always considered President Obama to really be a Republican anyway, so I don’t expect that he will hold out for much.  Senator Kennedy is dead, so a lot of the blow back we would usually feel when these discussions get heated just won’t happen.  There is no one left like Teddy Kennedy that will show their outrage at anything.  Oh, Republicans you think we need to change Social Security and give those tax breaks to the wealthy?  No problem.  We just want to get along!

This morning on “Morning Joe” I had to listen to Joe tell me that the American people really get it.  They know that we have to have the tax cuts kept in place for the wealthy to grow our economy.  I’m lucky I didn’t spit out my coffee.  The American people don’t know any such thing.  They are currently being indoctrinated by the media which includes Joe to think this is the right thing to do.  However, it doesn’t make any sense.  If those so called tax breaks were so great, then why are we in so much trouble?  Those tax breaks have lead to our giant deficit.  If the Republicans get their tax break rest assured, they will have to cut something.  Just do the math!  Logic tells me there is an imbalance.  We can’t keep running into the red, so they will make cuts.  They will cut everything they can for the little guys, but they won’t touch the wealthy or big business.  I don’t know where you are on this scale but I can tell you most of you are part of the 98%.  The Republicans will pass that pain to all of us and save the wealthy 2 % from the pain the rest of us will feel.  Those Republicans will expect us to be “patriotic” and indoctrinate us to suffer our own losses in silence.

Right now the media is also indoctrinating us about those crazy Europeans that are protesting everything from the rising retirement age to the cost of college tripling.  We have been told that Americans don’t act like those socialists!  Americans wouldn’t take to the street like that and smash windows and cause chaos because they want to prove a point.  However, they forgot about our own history.  The real question is how much will the American people put up with from these corrupt Republicans and Democrats that continue to do the bidding of big business and the wealthy?  Will we ever get really mad and take to the streets or are we lulled into a false reality that we have no choice but to live with whatever our representatives decide to throw our way?  Democrats and Republicans are labels that don’t seem to really fit any more.  What are they?  What do either party stand for?

The Republicans used to stand for a smaller governmental footprint and states rights, and a form of conservative governing.  They certainly wouldn’t be out “saving” the world and policing it.  However, President Bush changed all of that.  Under the last administration government grew and grew to the point that Republicans can no longer claim to be conservative.  Oh, they can say it, but they certainly don’t live it!  Democrats used to be different than the Republicans.   We could always count on the Democrats to stand up for the rights of people.  Those personal issues of freedom were always really important.  Helping people get a hand up was also important.  We could easily say, “Don’t leave anyone behind.”  It’s kind of like the motto from the military of “Leave No Man Behind”.  However, in recent times the Democrats have left us all behind.  They haven’t stood up for the little guy, the working stiff, the laborer.  They’ve talked about it, but they haven’t walked the walk!

Neither party stands for much of anything any more except for taking care of business.  They take care of the lobbyists and then when they’re out of office they continue to take care of themselves.  Hell, when they’re in office they take care of themselves.  Wouldn’t you love to name your own raise?  I’m taking a class right now because I want to get a raise.  I don’t think the politicians are required to do much of anything to get their raises but they sure do get them.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm

All of these politicians want the American people to think they are politicians because they are such great patriots!  The truth is we are all patriots.  Being patriotic might mean taking to the streets to protest just as much as wearing a pin and proclaiming your patriotism.  Being patriotic is more than waving a flag and blindly supporting war, any war.  Being a patriot means that you love your country enough to question the politicians.   It might mean working hard at holding their feet to the fire to get them to get something done.  We are all patriots, Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, Green Party, Tea Party, Coffee Party, Independent or whatever party we come from.  Patriots aren’t just Republicans.  In fact patriots can even be gay and lesbians and that just makes those Republicans crazy!

Dropping Like Flies

  • Posted on February 21, 2010 at 6:07 pm

Evan Bayh listening to the American people?

Is there something in the Washington D.C. water?  Why are all these congressmen deciding not to run?  Another one bites the dust with Evan Bayh from Indiana.  The talking heads keep telling us the so called reasons but are there more sinister motives.  Are some being pressured not to run much like the Lt. Governor Democratic nominee from Illinois, Scott Lee Cohen?  Oh, the shame of it all.  The people voted for him to be the nominee even with his scandalous past but the Dems in power will have none of it.  “One day you’re in and the next your out!” as Heidi Klum claims on Project Runway.   Evan Bayh gave an emotional speech that seemed honest.  It really seemed like he didn’t want to leave at all.  Maybe he’s getting ready to run for the White House or maybe he was forced out because of some hidden, secret scandal yet to be revealed.

Or maybe we should just take him at his word.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/opinion/21bayh.html?hp=&pagewanted=al

We all know that congress is dysfunctional.  It’s a given and we don’t label them a “do nothing” congress for nothing.   The two parties have run amok.  We used to at least feel like one of the two parties represented us, the little people.  Conservatives had the Republican Party and liberals had the Democratic Party.  Today it feels more and more like the two parties represent corporations and no one else.  Under George W. Bush the congress ran up the debt in unprecedented numbers.  Conservatives weren’t represented neither were the liberals but corporations were highly represented especially the ones that were profiting from these two wars we have been enmeshed in for years.  Have you noticed how the press portrays Barack Obama as a liberal and claim he’s moving to the left and so on?  This is just smoke and mirrors as much of the press is controlled by corporations.  This is to make those of us that are liberal feel like we got what we wanted.  How untrue all of this is as I find it amazing to note that the “change” from one party to the other has virtually gone unnoticed by most of us little people.  If I had fallen asleep after the 2008 election and just awaken it would seem as though GW was still president.  If I were voting right now I would vote for women because we are under represented and I would vote out most of the incumbents.  If you have spent the majority of your life campaigning you more than likely are out of touch with the American people any way.

Republicans feel a surge coming on.  They think that the American people want their type of rule.  How unquestioningly they miss the mark.  They fuel the Tea Party people thinking that it is the Republican Party that the Tea Party wants to emulate.  I find this all very doubtful.  It seems to be more of a Libertarian view or a left over fringe of the Ron Paul movement rather than the Republicans that have the hearts of the Tea Party movement.  Truthfully people in this country are fed up with both parties.  We don’t like the money involved in elections and the partisan way everything is seemingly decided.  That of course is just to fool us as both parties are really representing corporations.  The question is really which corporations back which party?   http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/index.php Anyone that has ever gone to Open Secrets usually comes away with their eyes open as to who is running our government and it isn’t “We the people!”  This next site is interesting for finding information in the news about corporations and politics.  http://www.corpwatch.org/index.php I contend that we should change the way we elect out politicians from the local sheriff to the highest office in the country, the President.  We should make elections meaningful again with much debate so we can truly see where these people stand on the issues.  We should bring back the League of Women Voters to organize the debates.  Now Presidential debates are negotiated between the two parties.  Forget about the parties.  Take them out of the picture and ask whatever the people want to know.  We should give equal television time to all of the candidates.  Independent candidates shouldn’t have different requirements than the two main parties when trying to get on the ballot.  In many states Independents have to jump through extra hoops to try and get on the ballot.

In the Michigan Presidential primary of 2008 when the people voted some of their votes ultimately were given to a candidate that they did not vote for on May 31st, 2008 when the Democratic Party rules committee met to decide what to do about the Michigan Primary.  When my sister called the Attorney General of the state of Michigan she was told that the Democratic Party could do what they wanted with those votes.  It’s like a club or a union.  They can decide things for us.  What I don’t understand is the fact that we, the taxpayers, paid for this “club” to have their primary.  I believe it cost our very “poor” state twenty million dollars to have that primary.  What a waste of tax payer money!  I would have to say whether Evan Bayh is talking truth to power or has been pushed out, much of what he has said is a known fact.  Congress doesn’t accomplish much these days but they do manage to irritate the hell out of the American people, the voters.  Let’s hope we stay mad as hell and remember these antics the next time we go to the polls.  Let’s start thinking about voting against the two party system and the money interests.  Let’s ignore the media and search for our own truth.  There are plenty of publications on the web that can better inform the public about what’s really going on.  So let’s all get educated and do what we can in our own communities to inform people about the corruption in Washington D.C. and even in our local communities and states.

Locally, there are two main issues that rise above most other issues.  The first is job security and the second is the education of our children.  We want our jobs to be secure with benefits and comfortable enough so we can raise our children and have something left for retirement and we want our children to have a life filled with opportunities that only a good education can provide.  Slowly but surely we are failing in these two main areas.  The federal government has abandoned us on both issues.  They have transported our jobs out of the country, killed unions to lower our wages and have tried everything they could do to destroy public education.  They are watering down the education system by slowly but surely sneaking money out to “charter” schools with far different requirements than public schools.  They have done a wonderful job of convincing the people that everything is wrong with our children’s education in a public school and it must all be changed from the bottom up.  We have lost our local control over our schools and our jobs.  Some might think the main issue is taxation but truthfully if you have a good job with benefits taxes aren’t as difficult to pay!  It’s time to fire the people that brought us to the brink of disaster and to a life of recession and depression.  The government has wasted our money, our resources and now they will lay waste to our children in endless fighting of endless wars.  We must dismiss them as surely they have abandoned us, the American people!