Calling Them Out: Utter Nonsense Edition

Allow me to begin by saying that the ball has deflated, the bounce is no longer and the President is reopening the slim leads he held going into the debates. On the heels of more polls than anyone could ever want to look at, it is clear that there has been a confusion of moment for momentum. One would think that the ticket’s headliners and down candidates would be doing everything to hold onto their ever narrowing margins of plausible victory. Yea not so much! I thought that the GOP couldn’t possibly top the craziness that they have become notorious for. I thought that Tagg wanting to take a swing or Ann worried about Mitt’s mental health, or the utterly appalling “Black people were better off during slavery” comments couldn’t be topped. But oh was I wrong.

 I find this to be a much more effective means of dealing with my frustrations, so I offer you my latest rant, ‘Calling Them Out: the Utter Nonsense Edition’. Enjoy!

1.       Mourdock, Rape babies are God’s will… Now I get that there is a slight and I mean really slim possibility that the comment was just taken out of context and what he meant to say was that even in the face of such tragedy God will take that which was meant for evil and use it for good, you know the whole Romans 8:28 thing, but let’s face reality. He butchered any shot of cleaning that one up. And with the help of Ryan, Mandel, and Akin God ordained rape babies is now a GOP talking point.

2.       Oh the holy trinity of you can’t be serious, also known as Coulter, Palin and Trump.

3.       Coulter, Obama is a retard tweet… The queen of insensitive stupidity outdid herself on this one. Way to offend EVERYONE in one comment.

4.       Palin, shuck and jive… The traveling circus side show formerly known as going rouge Palin needs a new day job. Perhaps Glenn Beck needs a model for his new denim line.

5.       Trump, 5 million for your transcripts… Ignore the fact that this really amounts to birther 2.0, you have got to give him credit. He one upped Romney’s 10k bet and took plutocrat to a whole other level.

6.       Garbage-gate, rampant fear of your ballot being trashed by the GOP. Once the stuff of wacky pundit lore is becoming more and more of a reality.

7.       Stealing the election, it would be funny if it wasn’t possible. Romney owned voting machines in of all places OHIO? You know that state that no Republican has ever won the White House without winning.

8.       You have to love when a newspaper from a city that was essentially saved by the Auto Bailout thanks the President for rescuing them and then promptly endorses the guy who said let them go bankrupt.

9.       Since it has no official title I will be referring to Romney’s foreign policy platform as “Everything He said”.

10.   Why is it that McCain is out openly demanding an apology and Romney is not only silent, but still running ads supporting the candidate? Oh wait... nope, apology not demanded. Just when I was about to commend McCain for showing real leadership he seems to have caught a serious case of flip flop.

11.    Flip Flop: the official GOP platform and in celebration the Grand Old Party will no longer use the elephant, but rather a fish on dry land.

12.   Voting like losing your virginity bad. Making it a federal crime to terminate a pregnancy that was the result of a rape, which need I remind you is an ACTUAL crime, bad?

13.   Threatening your employees with personal consequences if they vote for Obama, now there’s the solid leadership the Republicans keep telling us we’re missing.

14.   THERE ARE STILL UNDECIDED VOTERS

Like I said, Utter Nonsense!

Bayonets and Bellicosity

In a debate held under the auspices of foreign policy, we spent 90 minutes discussing the domestic economy. The problems with that are many fold. It exposed and seemed to validate the belief that Americans are both disinterested in the world and woefully uninformed about the issues that matter on a global scale. As a member of the global community, the issues of foreign policy are not just social issues. They are economic, impacting American families and American lives in more precise terms than the abstracts they present.  So why don’t we Americans get that? Why is it from pre-K to the Presidency we focus on ourselves without an understanding of what connects us to others?
My questions are not meant to sound like fortune cookies. They are real concerns that determine our economic future. There is an intricate connection between the world’s economy and our own. Some of our largest debt holders are overseas, capable of, though to their own financial peril, calling our loans at any time. Our solvency as a nation requires that our production capabilities and exports increase and our consumption of domestic goods increase. In simple terms need to make more, sell more of it overseas and as consumers buy more domestically made products. To pretend that profound shift in our consumerism would not spook global markets and have far-reaching impact is naïve.
The fact is that for most Americans and at times myself included, much of this is at best gibberish and at worst is flying over our heads without a real understanding of what it means. A Master’s in Political Journalism, a Doctorate in Economics and a JD in Tax and Corporate law and Trade Regulations to figure it all out on your own. Though we have access to the internet, figuring out the impact of policy has limits. So citizens are left to rely on a process for dissemination mired in pandering that clarifies little. We call it debate. I call it interrogating a stump speech.
If this debate was to discuss China, and more specifically regulating China, our dependence on them for cheap labor would be part of the conversation. I wildly tweeted #Sensata, but it went all but unmentioned.  There was that 2 second response from the POTUS “you know how to ship jobs to China” and then it was over. Instead of issuing real policy differences, Candidate Romney got fireplace on a snow day cozy with almost all President Obama’s policies leaving me screeching at my television and wondering did I miss the debate. I recognize that like any good fighter if you know you have a soft left parry to the right as often as you can, but this, this was ridiculous.
For the President’s part, though he came out guns blazing and clearly, made the difference glaring, he did little to corral the conversation toward foreign policy either. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, even say that he was simply responding to the accusations of Gov. Romney. There was a clearly missed opportunity to explain to the American people the importance of having a strong multi-level approach. Both to our allies and our enemies to ensure we remain a global leader. President Obama tossed one into the fray.  I’m unsure of how clear it was to those who do not usually follow politics to walk away understanding.
The debate spent most of its time and energy shamelessly pandering to voters that each candidate seems to believe vote in monolithic unity, Women, then Jews, then Ohioans. Noticeably absent was immigration, which has an impact on foreign policy, but I digress. What we did not hear was a clear answer to a single question. Perhaps we could discuss what would happen if Nations, whose interests are not American interests, suddenly decided to issue trade embargoes on us? We should discuss debt reduction as a foreign policy issue, but then we’d all be Ron Paul supporters. Perhaps, someone could explain to Governor Romney, that global strength is not warmongering. Otherwise, Ahmadinejad would be the supreme commander of everything.
The facts are simply that debates as a whole do little other than rouse the base and give us a “good fight” to watch. If I pretend to think as an undecided voter, I’m left wondering “what was I supposed to walk away from this with?” It leaves people to make gut decisions about highly sensitive issues. If you are not a journalist, blogger or party faithful, was it enough to sway you in either direction? Sadly I doubt it. I do not like Romney for the Presidency. I knew that walking in. In the end, the only reason the first debate mattered is that people who wanted justification to vote for Romney found it, whether or not that is enough to win an election is anyone’s guess.
My hope is that people decide that TV ads and talk radio are not enough to base your decision. That they take to the internet, to chat rooms to anywhere to find out a little more from both sides of the discussion. They ignore the barrage of misinformation and find a credible source. My hope is that they weigh the message and messenger and that their litmus for leadership is integrity and character, not spin and suppression. I believe that we should re-elect our President. I believe that process requires time and microwave solutions do not work. I believe the opportunity has come to redefine American as globally compassionate, fiscally responsible and morally sound,  morality based in fairness and not imposing our personal judgments.  I believe that we are better than zingers and xenophobia, bayonets or bellicosity. We must refuse to accept inequality and discrimination. We must decide that we are better than our history. Better than our fears. Better than our own agendas. We must be as good as the lives sacrificed to create this remarkable social experiment we call our country. We are Americans, and we are better than that.

Calling Them Out: Conservative Edition

So last night I got the bright idea to ask the last few remaining Republicans that I know what their love affair with Romney is and why they hate President Obama. I got crickets. My answer to the profound silence was to launch a Twitter rant that I lovingly referred to as “Calling Them Out: Conservative Edition”. By request I’m posting the ‘rant’ here. This is my gripe list. Sarcastic as it gets! Enjoy!

1.       Let’s call a spade a spade. People think that Republicans are racist because they show up at events wearing “Put the White back in the White House” t-shirts.

2.       Seriously, does anyone even know what Romney’s tax plan ACTUALLY is? Until proven otherwise I will continue to refer to it as Mitt's Magic Math.

3.       Exactly how many Republicans asked for or benefited from Stimulus money that the Republicans consistently rail against…here’s a few… Romney, Ryan, Rigell (must be an R thing).

4.       Mitt’s most trusted ally is Ann. We just didn’t know until Tuesday that that was Ann Coulter. As we all know single moms cause assault weapons and gun violence.

5.       Just saw the new RomYan TV ad. Apparently they are the only people who don’t know that if you quote PolitiFact as your fact checker it is the same as lying.

6.       It seems that fact checking and polls are only acceptable and valid when it proves the GOP position, insanity (call it what you will). And then there is the wonderful phenomenon we call Gallup.

7.       Allow me to voice my outrage over the tcot (top Conservative on Twitter) twitterverse  bashing of  Katherine Fenton (Sandra Fluke 2.0). If wanting to be paid equally to a man for the same work makes me a liberal conspirator and Feminazi, sign me up.

8.       It’s only a cult during primary season. Once you’re the actual nominee it suddenly becomes a legitimate religion that we should all show due respect. Atleast according to the Billy Graham website.

9.       The blatant disrespect of the President. Could you imagine what would have been said if Sasha or Malia said they wanted to take a swing at Ann? I guess Tagg has never learned that Black men live by the ‘wish’ factor.

10.   Oh Todd Akin: doesn’t he just wish that if his comments were legitimate they’d have a way of just shutting down. But apparently that super power is reserved for those that have been impregnated by legitimate rape.

11.   We all know that slavery was horrific and the worst of American history. But let’s go one step further than fear mongering and assert that the current state of America is worse than then. The cause President Obama. This would be less offensive if only one of the GOP faithful was spouting off this nonsense.

12.   Employers ‘encouraging’ employees to vote for Romney. Sexual Harassment 2.0 anyone? You don’t have to screw your boss just yourself and the rest of the country.

13.   After all the lies told, flip flops flipped, the attack on women’s rights and the grossly disparate policies, why exactly are there still female Republicans?

14.   Voter Fraud

Voter Suppression

Voter Confusion

Voter Exhaustion

The most successful GOP policies of the last 4 years

What Would Jesus Do?

The one statement Paul Ryan made during the debate, at least as I see it that was honest was the one about not being able to separate a person from their religion. Except, for many who consider themselves part of the religious community, religion is not as clear cut as it used to be. There's a difference between religion and faith. They have spent the last decade framing a clear distinction between the two.

I was 15 years old when you could say “I lost my religion”, REM style. For years, I struggled with an idea of God that was welcoming and loving. I was clear on His rules and wrath, or what others told me was His Judgment. I understood little else about Him. What I knew could not have been what He truly was. Eventually that changed. Though, I was not sure if it was only semantically and meant little outside of the crafty use of language. The idea that Religion was independent of Faith became the fundamental principle of my belief.  It still is. I could point you to numerous preachers, pastors, ministers, Rabbis, or Shaman, all that can more eloquently than I, illustrate the dangers of religion untempered by faith.  I am proud of my belief in Jesus. However, I am utterly embarrassed by what Christian has come to mean. I take this personally. Sometimes, I wonder would Jesus become a believer in the religion of his name sake if He met 'Christians' if He met me.

I have listened to countless men and women voice their concerns over the coming elections, Romney’s Mormonism, President Obama’s support of Marriage equality or our position on Israel. The ridiculous quackery coming out of the right, legitimate rape, the world only being 8000 years old, abortion rights, gun rights, the list is long and winding. Somehow the consistent thread that seems to connect them all is religion, specifically Christianity. There are those taking the position that this is a secular attack on what they believe. There are those who view this as the Church taking a role in policy that the Constitution clearly expresses as outside of the bounds of the relationship between church and state.  Too often these concerns get labeled as a single issue and dismissed as lunacy. It is not lunacy it is not even unreasonable. It is exactly the opposite. Sadly, we’ve wrapped the discussion in personal conviction and passion, and it lacks the clarification debate brings.

Where religion can easily be considered canon, rules and norms adopted by participants, faith is a set of personal beliefs. Religion can inform ones beliefs or shape their faith. Religion is not their faith. Religion is an institution. Faith is at a heart level.  If they were not different, everyone who shares the same religion would also share the same beliefs. We would not have the majority of Catholic women supporting birth control where the official position of the Church is against it. Zionism would not be controversial. Jeremiah Wright would not have ruffled any feathers. Mormons would still believe that being Black reflects the sin in one’s character. Women would not preach. There would never be another demonstration at a soldier’s funeral. These nuances are not just contextual arguments waged by scholars. They are in the framework of the protections that the distance between government and religion insure. The Constitution never explicitly divided Faith and State, just Church.

As the saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows. When it comes to odd allegiances and ironic enemies, politics has nothing on religion. There is a curious relationship between church and state. It extends further back than the history of our country and is further reaching than any special interest group we’ve ever seen. A personal struggle or embrace of Religion has, especially over the last 8 years, become a political one. There are still many who believe the President is Muslim, though even the Bible says that no one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit (translation, you cannot fake your salvation). This is the first time a Mormon has a shot at the White House.

There is little that I can think of that has done more to redefine religion as dangerous and subversive than politics. With every new, crazy, platform that emerges, each starting with God and ending with why that justifies discrimination, we are systematically forcing a choice that I’m not sure we should make. I’m not willing to assert that the problem is religion itself. I am willing to say emphatically that how we use religion is. That is a problem. Given that the Christian religions are the most likely to proselytize since it is the Great Commission, that command from Jesus to preach to the masses and convert the nations. How do we win over the lost when the popular interest  is telling religion to get lost?  Especially when talking about Christian religions.

The answer to that question may require us to face what is driving people away from religion. There are few statistics on people losing their faith. Not long ago, Ann Rice published her open letter on why she will always believe in Jesus but will never again call herself a Christian. For the first time in history, America is no longer a majority Protestant nation. What role politics has taken in moving the needle further and further away from the goal is anyone’s guess. Politics has become the resting place for a destructive religious campaign, one where no one is willing to pull the plug. If we think of Christianity as a candidate, would there be a manager on the planet that would not have pulled the advertising, that would change strategy by now?

How will we redefine the role of religion as we move forward as a nation? I’m afraid that we’ll find out after it is too late. We will not be able to reverse the damage we’ve done, leaving a generation feeling more comfortable with atheism than organized theology. You have to ask is it worth it? Is this moment worth scrapping the entire mission? I’m not sure. I’m not God, Jesus or the Holy Ghost. For the sake of the generation we’re losing more rapidly than we're able to repair, I hope someone knows that answer. A thought for you to consider. If the purpose of it all is to show who God is, maybe it is time to stop trying to legislate religion and morality. Perhaps, we should start passing laws and policy informed by our Faith and affirmed by our sense of fairness. But that is just my opinion of what Jesus would do...

The Disclosure Generation

Over the last week, I came across the logic defying statistic that the overwhelming majority of voters 18-24 are not registered to vote. At a staggering 61%, one has to wonder why there is such a gap in participation and enthusiasm among these voters. There are articles published about it and, the pundits have weighed-in. Everyone seems to have some theory about why no one has been able to reach them. In 2008, it was at least in part due to these new voters that Obama swept the popular vote as well as the 270 Electoral votes needed to win the White House. So why the lack of interest 4 years later in a race that’s tighter than anyone could have anticipated? Maybe it’s what they know and, most of the rest of us don’t.
There is an underlying issue in who occupies positions of authority that the generation disparity speaks to without knowing it does. We’re not just talking about the Facebook generation. (If you’ve been paying attention to social media, Facebook is now for old people. Twitter and Instagram have captured the young.) We’re talking about what Facebook gave birth to. We’re talking about the full disclosure generation.
The beauty of having a Relationship Expert in the family is that there is never a shortage of analyzing why people do things. The fact that she happens to have teenagers provides a non-stop supply of material for discussion. It’s no secret that, among young people, there is an overwhelming distrust of the older generations. The question is why. Why don’t they trust us? Why do they seem  so disinterested in what we have to say? Why don’t they care?
There has been an enduring what is wrong with “them” conversation. It’s nothing new every generation has it. Be it rebellion from what their parents say, believe or say that they believe, the next generation has always had difficultly relating to the prior. This generation takes the cake. This isn’t beach music versus Elvis. This is a cultural shift based on the ready availability of information. Nothing is too personal. The freer one is about disclosing and divulging the more it’s gobbled up. What was once taboo is now imperative if you want their support. Lady Gaga has mythically captured this sentiment and rode it all the way to being the most famous woman on earth (at least according to how many Twitter followers she has). For a generation (Boomers) that pride themselves on decorum, comportment and appropriateness this generation prides itself in putting it all out there, “Girls Gone Wild”, style.
It’s not exactly shocking that this is happening. Less so if you pay attention to what has legs in the media and what doesn’t. Scandals aren’t what gets people’s attention. Coverup does. For young people, there is an allergy to the cover up. They’re not interested in what someone says. They want to know who you are behind closed doors. They want a reality TV window into your life. They want to know if you’re authentic. They’re OK with your flaws. They’re OK with you lying. Just not about lying about being a liar.
There is a certain amount of grit that you have to respect. It is in the love affair that they have with “realness”. There is an interest in where you came for, what you stand for and whether it is relatable to my experience of the world. The current political climate is missing that. It’s missing the general upheaval that young people offer, the almost nuclear energy, the passion, the dogmatic persistence to do things on their own terms. Politics now is pandering, canned leftovers, trying too hard to reach the middle and too afraid to knock it out of the park. It’s brainwashing; it’s boring; it doesn’t fall into the unrelenting pace of the digitally plugged in who sleep with their cell phones and pay for their Starbucks with an iPad app. To them, last week was ages ago and, nothing lasts longer than the span of the 160 characters you can tweet.
While the campaigns keep looking for depth and profundity, they’re not. That’s not because they lack depth or commitment. They just don’t buy it. They know that it’s only as good as the time stamp attached to it. They know that it has no legs. It’s just the cover up and, the real story will come out at some point. They understand that their confirmation bias hasn’t been wrong yet, so why start questioning their instincts now. They’re looking for the Eminem rap battle moment. Until they find a candidate willing to put it all out there, they’re not biting no matter how you bait the hook.  They don’t want you to come out swinging; they want you to come out Freak Flag flying and proud of it.
That kind of disclosure scares the hell out of Boomers. Maybe because it shows no shame, maybe because when they grew up people kept their business to themselves and abhorred the idea of what the neighbors might say. Boomers still believe in personal embarrassment. Boomers confuse shared priorities with shared methodology. Given that the premise of this generation is a self-assertive declaration and refusal to be bullied, stay in closets, keep secrets or hide in the shadows, this generation can’t understand why anyone should feel ashamed of whom they are. They are proud of what their story is and refuse to accept that anyone else gets the right criticize that.
This is the generation of divorced parents. They have watched up close and personal what happens when people pretend to be things they’re not. This is the generation of therapy where fixing the problem receives greater investment than preventing it. This is a generation that learned the hard way that if you wait for it, it’s going to all come out anyway so why not put it out there yourself. The only way this generation is going to take part in the political process is when politics stops being about who gives great photo-op and, gets real. This is the Disclosure Generation. They’re not afraid to tweet it.

It's just the Playoffs....

For nerds, politics is a sport.  In the world of political punditry, there are few events that are more anticipated than the first Presidential debate. Most of us waited with proverbial bated breath counting down the seconds to the first game of the “Intellectual Playoffs” and like football on any given day anything can happen.
I have long held the gripe, and legitimately so, with the Right and their unparalleled propensity toward self promoting spin. Forget the etch-a-sketch, when listening to the average Fox Commentator it’s like a being on the Gravitron (that spinning carnival ride that glued you to the walls and made you want to vomit).  I try to not to be guilty of things that I have an issue with in others.  Therefore, I cannot offer and will not offer any spin regarding my disappointment with last night’s theatrics.
I was starkly confounded by how our President handled the first debate performance. So much so that my natural conspiracy theory self went into over drive, connecting his bar lowering “I’m not a good debater” and the dismal showing of veracity of purpose and mission on stage last night. I want to believe that it was a strategy. Somewhere in his brilliant mind he was setting us all up. Holding us at bey for an October surprise that ignites the spark needed to carry him through the finish come November.  I wanted to believe that instead of duck, dodge and counter, his version of take the hit was the President being a stand up guy. Leaving you confident that if you were in a bar room brawl, win or lose, you weren't going to end up fighting the bouncers by yourself.
I want to believe that he reminded us all that the winners of debates aren’t necessarily the winners of elections. After all Mitt has been campaigning for the last 20 years. Between the never-ending stump speech and years at the helm of companies where presentations win contracts, I expected him to do well.  Mitt is blindly pursuing the dreams of his father. His over commitment to the audition has made his willingness to do and say anything to win moved the bar in gross favor of dishonesty. He has his own “The Mendacity of Mitt” column on the Maddow blog, and a running ticker on MSNBC and CNN. There’s no coming back from when Fox calls you out on your vagueness and inaccuracy.  What he said was not just inaccurate. It was wantonly false, blatantly dishonest, and had no regard for the truth. All of it done in the best screen test Mitt Romney has ever given. If this were Hollywood, he would deserve the part.
We find ourselves in the midst of a climate shift where no one trusts the fact-checkers. Say PolitiFact as the source and people will laugh at you. Truth seems to only travel as far as the direction in which you lean. Believing the lies, it seems, is determined only by how far you already lean that way. We walked into this debate season having questions and having remarkably few answers. Last night did little to change that. I listened and rewound and listened again as Romney laid out his 5 points and couldn’t get them to add up. I got irritated by the President repeating the same answers. Even though I know they were the right answers. Ones solidly based in facts and math. Not program cuts of PBS or Pell grants that do little to increase the deficit and would do harm exponentially greater than their cost. I wanted him to go on the offensive, quit the zone defense and drive it straight down the field. I found myself annoyed as I followed along on twitter. The Conservatives lit up my feed with barb after bard. I wanted to strike back, I wanted to argue. What I couldn’t do was pretend that as far as style goes, last night’s debate took a traveling salesman and made him look like a credible candidate.
It is mind boggling. The entire country wants microwave results when the issues we’re facing simmered for the last 35 years. Fewer Americans who survived the depression influence policy, the people who understand that progress takes process left the building and left the rest of us with the quick fixes, clever slogans and snake oil.
With all that said, I have greater resolve to support this President and this administration. Because once the ether wears off and, the high ends, we will all realize that the facts still matter. Style is aesthetic. Solutions aren’t short term enterprises and, there is no script for real leadership. Being regarded as a number 1 draft pick doesn’t mean you’ll perform on game day. Ryan Leaf vs Peyton Manning '98 anyone? College ball isn’t the pros… What we face requires sustainability, something that Romney’s plans, even as he describes them, cannot achieve.
I appreciate the ability to criticize my team. Progress requires it.  It remains to be seen whether President Obama was victim to the arrogance of incumbency or, is a strategic genius on levels none of us has ever witnessed before. Either way there is tomorrow and fortunately for us all, our votes decide the fate of the free world. The only day that counts is November 6^th. It’s just game 1 folks. There are still 4 weeks to the Super Bowl.

The Race Myth

I’ve spent much of my life being the only black person in the room. I spent most of my childhood speaking for the entire race, never mind that if you asked I’d tell you that I’m West Indian, Colombian, Venezuelan and a few other things. I get it. I look Black, enough said.  I abhorred those conversations. They taught me a lot about how I think, how other people think. The things we say when we’re unsure how people will receive it. I doubt anyone ever realized how uncomfortable I was with it. It’s a big job speaking for all Black people. I always questioned if my answers helped or hurt. However, this is one of the few times in my life I’m relishing the opportunity to do just that. Speak on behalf of all Black people that is….
We’ve watched many of the “crazies” find their way out from under the proverbial rock and spout off at the mouth lately. Let’s start with Walter Block of Loyola University, whose comments about Black families being better off during slavery, were beyond shocking. Then there was the always egregious ramblings of Ann Coulter, happy to tell the world the only racists she knows are Liberals. The prize had to go to George Will for the “we can’t fire Obama because he’s Black” argument for why Romney isn’t winning in the polls. This is lunacy. This is craziness. This is disgusting… this is distorted.
The problem with distorted is that it usually starts out with some modicum of truth. Even though, each of these instances involves racism somewhere, they also involve information that if brought up by the sane and rational thinkers of our society just might help us heal from our wounds and build a post color America.
The question of why the African-American family unit has largely been in shambles is a valid one. Block didn’t invent the statistics, just used them in a way that was more offensive than it was probative.  The premise is worth exploring. We know that a high school education and marriage are the best predictors of financial solvency. There’s enough evidence that the Sexual Revolution and ‘Free Love’ had a damning effect on Black families. So did the drug laws of the 1980’s. If you happened to have caught Blocks’ interview, you would have noticed that Fox pulled the plug on him immediately when he mentioned decriminalizing drug sales.  Why not question a system that is dependent on being a single mother? Reform would make sense in decreasing the number of families on welfare. So would incentivizing marriage, build in a work to replacement threshold. Families would have the opportunity to remain on the program provided they are employed or enrolled in job training for a predetermined amount of years.
They can do so until they are earning the equivalent of their program benefits, ensuring that families that come off welfare stay off welfare.
You have to give Ann credit. It takes a tremendous amount of “brass” to say the things that come out of her mouth. To her credit, party affiliation did switch. Dixiecrat was a real thing.  Racism was at home in the Democratic Party long before it took up residence in the GOP.  Of course, that begs their motives be questioned. The beauty of populous movements is that they are constantly morphing, or at least that’s the line they keep trying to sell about Mormonism and its declaration of the sudden equality of Blacks. Assuming Black America is under the mistaken and obnoxiously paternalistic view that there are no racists in the Democratic Party would be flat-out ridiculous. There was an actual culture of Neo-Con Black Conservatives. I was one and, we already know what happened with that. (See “What the Right gets Right”) But I don’t consider myself a Democrat. I vote Democrat because of policy, not handouts.
The fact is that I can understand how George Will drew his conclusion. I don’t know anyone who wants to be labeled “racist”. With so many unresolved issues surrounding race and our country, I’d be even willing to give him some latitude about it. It wasn’t exactly crazy to think that not wanting Obama re-elected if you’re White might look that way.  It assumes more than that. It assumes that we are willing to accept underperformance because we believe Black is a deficiency. That somehow at a core level we expect incompetence. We gave it the “old college try”. It didn’t work, let’s not do that again. Full blown confirmation bias, I already thought it was true, now I know it is. It is an unfortunate side effect of politically correct. We’ve just become uncomfortably silent.
I assure you that I haven’t gone off the deep end. The notions of how most Black people see race and racism are horribly inaccurate. We’re not interested in debating its existence; we want to have a real conversation about its impact. We’re not looking for handouts, restitution, or 40 acres and a mule. We want to build restoration for our families, our communities and bridges to other communities, based in shared priorities and common goals. So let me say it once and for all. Black Americans, Black people in general and I would even venture that ALL people of color are not interested in having White people apologize for being White. We don’t see it as a privilege, nor do we see color as a deficiency. We are interested in addressing a history of policy that has created privilege out of color and rectifying the impact of blindly ignoring what centuries of dogma creates. We are evolved enough to admit, face and deal with our own complicity. Stop it with the “White Guilt” or subscribing to the notion that it’s what anyone is after. Instead, join those of us Black, White, Hispanic, Asian and everything else that have committed to being part of the solution.

What the Right gets Right...

This weekend I received an email from someone who has read some of my pieces on Voice4America.com.  It was a pleasant email, not scathing, not overly flattering. The question asked I believe is worth answering. They asked why I started blogging/writing about politics. Not just pop culture or relationships or religion, but politics, specifically Liberal politics. That just happens to be the unquestionable headquarters of nerd-land and home of the ultra erudite. For a woman who clearly didn’t major in Journalism or English, not only did I think that it was a fair question, but one that needed a public response. I’ve been open and vocal about my political views, Liberal, and my support, not full agreement with the current President and his administration. I have made reference to having been a Republican and the shift in my party affiliation and politics.  That doesn’t explain it, hopefully this will.

On November 4, 2008, my daughter turned 6. That same day she watched the election with her parents and extended family. She sat on her father’s lap, holding her pregnant mother’s hand as she watched someone just like her, half Black, half White become the President. The nostalgia of that moment she understood. She didn’t understand how much that one night affected her life.  At the time, her father was the Internet Sales Manager of a Chevrolet Dealership. Her mother was a Consultant for a small firm that services the educational system on early maternity leave as the result of a complicated pregnancy.  Her parents could barely afford the health insurance that covered her and her mother. Her father gambled the way that many families do and relied heavily on his VA benefits for his health care. His was largely the income supporting her small family. As a car business family, we felt intimately the effects of the recession. Nice title aside, her father made less than $45,000.00 that year. He went to work every day whether he was sick or not but still managed to make it to her school for lunch twice a month.

The bail out that saved the Auto industry kept her family from losing everything.  Car sales stagnated in a horrible slump for much of that year. Everyone took pay cuts. We tightened our belts and braced for doors closing. The doors didn’t close because the President we watched get elected chose not to let GM go bankrupt. That following summer, after her sister’s birth, our family of three became four, the Obama administration released the cash for clunkers program. It was the best 60 days the dealership had experienced in nearly 2 years. Shortly after, GM repaid their loans. They released new products and sales began a steady climb. Her father went from Internet Sales Manager to the Senior New Car Sales Manager, and her mother continued to work with teachers and parents. Her work focused on helping the school system build a positive relationship with the families it services that would foster student success.

Life for her and her family was moving in the right direction. Her parents were able to buy a new home with a spacious back yard and a neighborhood playground. Her father was now making enough to afford full health insurance for his whole family including himself.  The cost was still steep but livable. The gains in car sales offset the cost of ensuring our health. It turned out that was a great thing. The programs the Obama Administration put into place, especially the Affordable Care Act, lowered premiums and gave widespread access to health care.  In March of 2012 while sitting on a couch her mother began convulsing for no apparent reason.  Her head started shaking up and down, her teeth chattering so hard that you could hear them from across the room, her eyes batting rapidly…

                                                                                                                                 

For the last 7 months, I've been poked, prodded, scanned and tested. I have had a CT scan and MRI and an EEG with another scheduled for this month. I have had 2 full blood panels. I am under the care of an Internist, Neurologist, Gastroenterologist and an Endocrinologist. There are no clear answers for the cause of the episodes as we refer to them as.  They are not seizures and right now that’s all we know. The cost of the care I have received is staggering. We could be bankrupt if the ACA didn’t prevent insurance companies from employing arbitrary spending limits. I’m a trooper, I refuse to believe that this is the rest of my life. I also know what the realities of the cost of finding out what’s going on. Between deductibles and previous cost of care caps, I know that had the ACA not passed I would have to choose between my care and the college education I’m saving for, for my daughters.

For me, when I look at my husband, my daughters and my life, politics is personal. The decisions made affect me directly. I do not have to wait to see how they impact lives. I feel the impact of them every second of every day of my life. Though I am sarcastic and I attempt to be witty and evocative, when I write, it’s not to the cerebral alone. It’s not to the already converted. It’s not just to the choir. It’s to people like me. We understand that political decisions change real lives.  It’s not about what is savvy or strategic. It’s not whether I can prove I’m smart, or educated. It’s what speaks to me at a core level. It is an understanding that intelligence and eloquence alone cannot fill the space with what matters. It’s the thing that the Right gets right. It’s speaking to where people are, not just where they envision themselves. Speaking to what moves them, not just what they pontificate about. Speaking to what they believe, not just what they know.

I became a Liberal because what I believe no longer had a home in the GOP. I became a blogger because what I believe deserved to have a voice. I am woman of Christian FAITH. I believe in Gun rights, Abortion rights and Civil rights. I have an education. I went to both a secular college and a Ministry and Church Leadership program. I have a near genius IQ, and I may not be able to put pen a grammatically correct sentence without proof readers or spell/grammar check to save my life. I am also a mom and a wife and an American of foreign decent that believes the dream isn’t dead yet. To rebuild it, we’re going to have to stop speaking just to people’s minds. We have to remind them that it is what is at the heart of whom we are that makes our story uniquely American. I needed a political party that could welcome all the things that I am and the GOP just wasn’t it. That doesn’t mean that I can’t learn from what they are skilled at. They are adept at is speaking to what’s at the core of people, and it’s something I know works. It is the reason I blog about Liberal politics because for our political system to work it must remain accessible to everyone.