As I watched the pundits talk about this idea that the nomination of tea party people as the GOP standard bearers for the upcoming (since they really are pretty much disgruntled Republicans), I found it interesting that a fair few of those pundits saw this as a good development for their Democratic challengers. Now most people who follow politics know that Democrats can be particularly adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and I wonder if we do not have the potential of seeing the same for November.
I couldn't help but laugh out loud last night while watching "The Daily Show" opening segment which brought out John Oliver, Wyatt Cynac and Jason Jones to discuss just how the Democrats still have ample time to "fuck this up."
I think that Democrats should be particularly concerned about these tea people from a political perspective. As conventional wisdom and recent history show, the mid-term elections are all about older white people, the group that has loathed Obama from the very beginning. If that is the case, then the craziest of the conservatives will indeed ascend into office. Personally, I think that this indeed will happen. I sometimes think that perhaps they need to get in so the world can see just how twisted their political perspectives happen to be, and then I sober up.
Regardless, we will see if indeed the Democrats "fuck up" even their glimmers of hope for November.
I was glad to hear that Obama has tapped Elizabeth Warren to begin working with the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In the past, I've posted my disdain for both Tim Geithner and Larry Summers (here, here and here), and the fact that both of them have their misgivings about her made me all the more encouraged that she represented something right. Meanwhile, Warren has been a no-holds barred advocate for the middle class and for Main Street, and that has really been missing from this administration in a substantive sense. I hope that her appointment is a real signal that change is coming to this White House on helping the rest of us (that top 2% that the GOP is crowing for will always be fine).
Well, political Washington is back in full swing, and I am confident little will be accomplished before the mid-terms. The latest Washington madness has been the whole expiration of the Bush tax cuts, cuts that were passed in the Congress through reconciliation, like health insurance reform (though when the GOP pushed through the tax cuts, it was hailed as a remarkable victory; health insurance reform was hailed by these same victory "hailers" as a usurpation of government, but I digress). I think it reasonable to have the wealthiest among us pay more taxes; they are about the only ones who can afford it. And I am not surprised by this call from Senator McConnell to work diligently to ensure that those in his tax bracket are spared going back to Clinton era taxes (that must have been a terrible period of extreme taxation, the '90s).
As one who is working on his own small business (more clients please!), I can assure folks that most small business people do not take home $250,000 annually. It simply isn't true. Yet, to hear the GOP talk, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, and expiration of their making, will hit that majority directly. I will always give the GOP credit for creating a fantasy world where even their mendicant supporters need to ensure that Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao's taxes don't go up. How very clever indeed.
Personally, I believe that there has been class warfare going on for the last 30 years, but that class warfare has not been against the rich and/or wealthy (there is a difference). War has been waged against the middle, working and lower classes in our "classless" society. We have worked to maximize profits at the expense of American workers across the board. And many of us, by supporting things like excessive de-regulation and trickle down economic fallacies and playing police men of the world (have to keep the military-industrial complex sated), joined in on the fun, getting, at best, a home that might go into foreclosure, a 401K that is not worth very much, and a flat-screen television.
Let me know how much food those mendicants supporting the GOP will be able to put on their tables once the richest Americans secure those tax cuts we can't afford.
I woke up with a start. The telephone was ringing right at my head; it was my aunt calling. Once I was done with the brief conversation, I reached for the television remote, turned on the set, and turned to MSNBC. What happened next surprised the shit out of me: I stumbled right on the re-broadcast of the September 11, 2001 of the "Today Show," 9:02 am. Right there on my television was the second plane hitting the South Tower of the World Trade Center. And I did something I hadn't done since that day nine years ago, when I was sitting in my cousin's office after having been evacuated from the Library of Congress: I cried.
Oddly enough, my tears were not for the events I was watching. No, my tears were for my country on this ninth anniversary of this American tragedy. Seriously. Everything from the Lower Manhattan Islamic Center, to the trick ass "preacher" threatening to burn Korans, to the growing push to blame all Muslims for the actions of 19 fucks, and their still at-large leader, to the torture done in my name as an American by the previous administration (and Cheney's continual bragging about it), to President Obama's support of assassinating American citizens without due process, if they are deemed terrorists, to people trying to make Obama into a Muslim, because they see that as being yet another way to impugn his character (as if being a Muslim, in and of itself, is a bad thing), to the protests against mosques and Islamic centers around this nation, even those that have been in communities for decades, all came into my mind as I watched that plane hit the South Tower, while the North Tower burned.
I rarely give former President Bush credit for anything good, but he did the right thing in making it clear that our fight is with the people who organized the worst terrorist attack on American soil, not with Muslims in toto. Yet now, with President Bush gone, it's clear to me that many of his supporters were simply playing along until he left office. Now that he is gone....
I still remember how quiet it was in Washington that evening nine years ago. I still remember staying up all night wanting more information. I remember calling my friends in New York, and checking on my friends around Washington. I remember that friends of friends didn't come home that evening (three, if I recall correctly, and all in New York), and though I didn't know them, I felt for my friends who did know them. But what I've witnessed these last few months, particularly over this Islamic center, has made me feel nothing but shame. I feel like we are slowly but surely letting the fucks who attacked us on that day win. And it hurts more, because I know that we should be a better people than that.
September 11, 2001 was a tragic day in American history, no doubt. But we have survived worse tragedies. More importantly, we've come out a better nation, stronger in our principles, each time. Sometimes, when I look at our current political landscape, our talking heads and politicians, and some of my fellow citizens, I wonder if we have the same mettle our forefathers and ancestors had. Are we capable of looking evil in the face and staying true to ourselves as Americans, remaining the nation with the moral high ground? Or, have we been so cowed, so spooked, that we are willing to destroy those very principles that made us the envy of the world?
On this particular anniversary, I am not sure what that answer is.
Yesterday was odd. I was conversing with my mother, and we both agreed that if the actual faces of the GOP were Meghan McCain and Colin Powell, then the GOP would actually be competitive with constituencies that have little to no time for the party right now. McCain an Powell might have the ability to make a person go "hmm" with regard to the party.
Though I know that none of these issues are settled, I am finding it very interesting that the courts, regardless of who appointed the judges, have been fairly consistent in coming down on the side of gay rights. Again, none of these issues are settled, and I know that Scalia and Thomas loathe gays based on their religious traditions (I am confident that Roberts and Alito do as well, but they haven't had a gay rights case come to them yet), but I am hopeful that the Constitution will out.
Yesterday, we saw a federal court side in favor of gay service members in a case brought by those associated with Log Cabin Republicans. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was declared unconstitutional yesterday. It was great to see that.
I think that it is important to remind people that just as the federal government was discriminating against gays under President Bush, the federal government is doing the same under President Obama. It is also important to realize that Obama would be held to a higher standard on gay rights, because he is a Democrat, since the village idiot even knows that the GOP platform all but jails gay folks (yes, Ken Mehlman, I still remember the GOP official position on the gays), so Obama deserves to be hammered on his gay rights positions.
I hope that this case will push Obama over that edge, at the very least, to push for a full repeal of DADT. It began with a Democratic POTUS, and it should end with one.
Last week, I wrote a post on the old Green Book for black travelers during the Jim Crow era, and I wrote that I intended to talk to some of my older relatives about some of the places listed in my hometown (Hampton, VA). Well, I had a chance to talk with my grandmother (87), great aunt (89) and great uncle (91) about the places, and it was fun to see them nod their heads in acknowledgement.
My great uncle, who grew up in the Phoebus section of Hampton, was most familiar with the places in Phoebus, but he was also aware of place names in Hampton as well (Hampton was a part of Elizabeth City County before incorporation in 1952). I was told that one of his cousins had some tie to the old Horton's Hotel and Restaurant, the only black owned hotel in Phoebus (he couldn't remember if his cousin married Horton or not). My great uncle also remembered the old Club 400 at Bay Shore, the popular black beach at Buckroe Beach. There were no listings for my grandmother and great aunt's North Carolina hometown.
The conversation moved toward a general discussion of living under a Jim Crow system. I was particularly interested in my great uncle's story of his times in the UK and France during WWII. He said that he felt whole for the first time in his life during his time there, and that he was reluctant to return to the U.S. at the close of the war. Apparently, his older brother felt the same way (that great uncle was in France). I never had a chance to ask my grandfather about any of this; he left Hampton Institute and he was sent to the Pacific theater of war, though I think he only got as far as Hawaii.
I also had an opportunity to ask for the names of my great grandparents, and other great aunts and uncles and cousins (all on my mother's side of the family). It was cool to learn that one of my relatives was a local surgeon, who had to be hidden from white patients in order to do his work. Another relative was the first black member of the Hampton school board. I wanted to have a record of those names for the rest of us to have. So my plan, when I got home, was to organize this information and decide what to do.
Unfortunately, as I checked my e-mail messages, there was a note from my father letting me know that his mother had lost her battle with colon cancer. Without question, my joy from those earlier conversations about my mother's family's past left me. All I could think of is that I had not had an opportunity to have that type of discussion with my grandmother regarding my Dad's side of the family. So, I am off to Pennsylvania to attend her funeral. But I've also decided to seek out my oldest remaining great aunt up there, and ask her similar questions that I asked my Virginia relatives.
I think it's sad that too many of us only become interested in our family history when someone passes away. If you want to know your family's history, then I strongly encourage anyone who reads this blog not to wait to talk with those family elders. Seek them out. You may be amazed by the stories you hear.
