We Need To...

 

Yesterday, the majority of corrupted Supreme Court justices further undermined the Constitution by making shitty decisions about our fundamental rights. Those protections in the 14^th Amendment disallow discrimination against anyone for any reason.

In the bad old days, there weren’t any federal “teeth” to this amendment.  That’s why the southern states, post-Civil War, continued to discriminate against and suppress people of color. That’s why Jim Crow laws were allowed to pass. That’s why segregation continued.

Now it seems that the Rethuglicans and the six ultra-right-wing fascist-leaning Supreme Court justices would like to return us to those days. White power!

It’s maddening that the Democratic party doesn’t respond to all this treachery. Where is the outcry? The only voices I see speaking up are the minority justices on the Supreme Court, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Senator Bernie Sanders. Where are my NJ senators, especially Cory Booker? Why isn’t Rep. Andy Kim speaking up?

Finally, President Biden is at least beginning to criticize what’s going on. He’s said Congressional Rethuglican efforts are semi-fascist. He says he doesn’t agree with expanding the Supreme Court but, at least, he says it is not normal.

During the Obama administration, there was a lot of racial ugliness. The Obamas responded, “when they go low, we go high.”

It seems like that’s the strategy the Democrats have been using since tRump was elected.  There has been very little outcry from our Democratic leaders for years in spite of all the evil practices and laws passed by MAGAT Representatives, Senators and Governors.  To continue being silent in the face of the crap the Rethuglicans are pulling now seems cowardly to me. It reminds me of how the Wehrmacht stayed silent and tried to appease Hitler in a “maybe he’ll get satisfied and go away” ploy. We know what happened.

Going high by staying silent is counterproductive now. Why can’t we go high without being nasty? Go high but defend our rights? Why aren’t our leaders doing more to protect our rights? Why are the only Congressional voices speaking up now the progressives? Where are the moderates? They represent us too. Why are the only two Republicans to speak up Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney? Any other decent-minded Repub (if any left) are quaking in their boots that tRump might primary them if they speak up.

Why must this work be left in the hands of advocacy groups like those in the LGBTQ community, Black community and activists like Rev. William J. Barber II?  Here is a story about anactivist group that isn’t giving up the fight for equality in spite of the fact SCOTUS seems determined to quash it.  There are many other activists and groups speaking up.

Why aren't our representatives listening and acting? I’m fed up with complacency.

After SCOTUS dumped its latest crappy decisions, my son Bill Rademacher wrote this poem expressing his own frustration:

“They go low and we go high,”

The courageous battle cry

Of the spineless from the sky

As their tower falls downward.

They take you out at the knees,

Deafened to all of the pleas

While the defenders all freeze,

Bravely led by a coward.

Danger reared its ugly head,

Bravely turned their tails and fled

Seized moral high ground instead

While charges drowned in red tide.

It’s not contradictory,

Be now benedictory,

We have moral victory!

We have the right on our side!

But we haven’t got the Right,

The Right will put up a fight,

And cowards fall from their height,

Foundation broken below.

They see our fear of seeming

With hypocrisy teaming

So they set themselves scheming,

Thus “they go high, we go low!”

They consider what hurts worst,

Make sure to do unto first,

And unleash rhetoric versed,

“They will now do this to us!”

Knowing that we won’t stoop down.

“They go low and we go high,”

So we bravely heave a sigh,

And say “well at least we try,”

As the tower crashes down.

If only I could imbed

Before another retread,

If, when they go low, instead,

We gave a kick…

 

People, we need to wake up. If any of these decisions bother you at all, contact your representatives and let them know. And if your representatives are Democrats, say you want them to start speaking the fuck up against these Rethuglican machinations to take away our rights.

Do you think it won’t happen to you? Think again.

 

 

Tearing Apart the Great Society

 

Who else remembers Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society? I was 8 when President Johnson was sworn in after President Kennedy was assassinated. I was 13 when Johnson decided not to run for re-election. Although he accomplished a great deal, he was most connected to the Viet Nam war.

After JFK was assassinated, Johnson was determined to carry out programs Kennedy had wanted to get off the ground. In 1964, Johnson announced the beginning of The Great Society. New and revolutionary programs need creative names, like The New Deal during FDR’s administration.

Johnson had a lot of experience and power. He’d been the Senate Majority leader before becoming JFK’s Vice President. He knew how to negotiate with or strong-arm opponents into voting for sweeping social reforms.

I was busy being a little kid and then an insecure teenager during the Great Society. I didn’t really become aware of what was going on in the country until Rev. Martin Luther King and then Senator Bobby Kennedy were both gunned down and assassinated.

Here is what was created or passed during the Great Society:

Civil Rights Act

Voting Rights Act

Job Corps (as part of the War on Poverty)

Affirmative Action

Medicare/Medicaid

Head Start

Elementary/Secondary Education Act

Housing and Urban Development Act

National Endowment for the Humanities/Arts

Water Quality Act

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Child Safety Act

Immigration & Naturalization Act

I’m sure I haven’t listed all of Johnson’s accomplishments. He was a better President than he gets credit for because of his ability to get so much done.

The Great Society was meant to make lives better for people, especially those marginalized or living in poverty. Of course, Republicans hated it.

By the time Johnson left office and Nixon was voted in, I had begun following the news more closely. However, I didn’t see that, behind the scenes, Nixon and his party began working to tear the Great Society down. Nixon found favor with Judge William Lewis Powell.

Why?

Powell was irritated with activist Ralph Nader. I totally remember Nader. He was the activist lawyer that labored for consumer protection rights. He went after the auto industry’s poor safety record. I remember news stories focusing on his exposure of the Ford Pinto’s danger issues. Nader was instrumental in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act passed in 1966.

Powell saw Nader’s successes and the formation of Nader’s Raiders to fight consumer safety issues with other corporations as a dangerous path to (gasp!) socialism. So, Powell wrote a memo. I have read articles that Powell’s memo is a blueprint for conservatives to infiltrate political offices, local, state, and federal with people who would work to take down Great Society social reforms. Ultimately, the strategy would be to place conservatives on the Supreme Court which could sway and undo all of these acts and programs.

It was to be a long game. It would take years to accomplish.

The Powell memo went from the Dept of Commerce to President Nixon’s desk. Nixon was most favorably impressed. He nominated William Lewis Powell to the Supreme Court in 1971, not too long after Powell had written that memo.  That was a bare blip registering with me that fall of my junior year in high school, but it was the beginning of the long game to upend democracy in favor of some kind of conservative right-wing rule.

Now fast forward 40-50 years. We have an ultra-right-wing corrupt majority on the Supreme Court. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 was eviscerated, making it harder AGAIN for people of color to vote. The Court has made decisions to weaken the Water Quality Act in favor of corporations.

Most recently, the court overturned affirmative action in college admissions. That’s probably going to lead to the same thing when it comes to employment.

The Court and Rethuglicans in Congress are bound and determined to gut any and all of the programs that would benefit “regular” people—people like you and me. Cases in point: forced changes to the SNAP (food stamps) and WIC programs that would make it more difficult for low-income people to feed themselves and their children.  Think of it: Rethuglicans are okay with hungry children.

We know that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the number one targets of the thugs in power. They are waiting breathlessly for the first opportunity to do make seniors and the disabled suffer more than they already do.

Democracy hangs on by a thread.

President Biden is making headway trying to reverse the Rethuglican machinations of the last 40-50 years. Sadly, he gets little credit and continues to suffer a low approval rate.

Thanks to President Biden’s efforts to rebuild the middle class, unemployment has gone down, new jobs are being created every month, and the economy is better. We haven’t gone into a period of inflation. I don’t understand why half the country has a poor opinion of Biden.

Helpful accomplishments:

Lower the cost of prescriptions, especially for Medicare/Medicaid recipients.

Inflation Reduction Act, a broad program that addresses climate change, credits, and incentives for companies to develop energy-saving products, financing for homeowners to switch to more environmentally friendly sources of heating/air conditioning/electricity, infrastructure (repairing roads & bridges)

Gun safety—doesn’t go far enough but it’s a start. It does provide funding for mental health.

An attempt to cancel the horrendous student debt. I call it an attempt because, of course, the conservatives are yelling and screaming and challenging it in courts. I believe it’s a case before the Supreme Court now.

The CHIPS Act will encourage growth in American companies.

American Rescue Act, which provided stimulus checks to everyone suffering from the covid pandemic and quarantine. It also provided funds to help stimulate the economy, and it worked.

Veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iran suffered side effects from the burn pits. Rethuglicans didn’t care to help with the vets’ health issues resulting from the burn pits. The PACT Act helps vets get the care they need.

When SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, other fundamental rights could be endangered. So, President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law. It protects same-sex and interracial marriages, which was a possible next target.

Bidenomics: a total rejection of Reaganomics (the trickle-down strategy that only benefits corporations. Nothing ever trickles down to the people who need it)

These are just a few of what President Biden has managed to get done in spite of strong opposition from the Rethuglicans. Biden negotiates for what he wants and has been successful. Yet, he is denigrated and put down because of his age, never mind the fact that Congress and 2024 presidential candidates are close in age.

President Biden is trying to uphold the vision of the Great Society.

Why does half the country think it puts us in the wrong direction? These are people who would benefit from these programs. They vote against their own best interests, supporting greedy and criminal white men who are interested only in giving tax cuts to the rich. I just don’t get it.

Do we want to go down the road of fascism and suppression, where the 1% live in luxury and the middle class continues to disintegrate? Or do we want to save the Great Society? I think we Democrats need to become a lot more vocal and drown out Rethuglican noise. And we need to vote, vote, vote.

 

 

 

 

Before It's Too Late

 I was looking at different sources to see how many people read books. By people, I mean teenagers to adults. I was thinking that perhaps there are too many complacent people in the country, ignoring the spreading fascism because they don’t read enough and don’t believe we could have such a thing in the United States. It turns out that the stats haven’t changed too much and that the average person reads at least one book a year.

To me, that’s shockingly low because I’ve been a bookworm all my life. People lead busy lives as adults, though, and many don’t have much time to sit down and read a book. Perhaps kids and adults would prefer to play video games or check out their social media. Maybe instead of wondering how much people read, I should wonder WHAT they are reading. They sure don't seem to be learning a damn thing about history.

The recent news has me shaking my head.

Florida’s governor Death Santis wants bloggers to register with the state if they’re going to write about him. He also wants reporters to not only register but turn over their material after covering one of his appearances. He wants to know the political views of professors at the college level. Now these are chilling ideas for anyone who has bothered to read what was happening in Germany in the early 1930s. This same governor has further restricted a woman’s right to make choices about her own health.  This same governor has made it harder for minorities to vote. This same governor has terrorized school teachers and districts into removing books from their shelves for fear of being charged with a felony. Does this sound like a book burning without the fire? This same governor had a “don’t say gay” law and an “anti-woke” law passed. That’s not even half of what he’s been up to. He’s a truly scary guy.

But where are the protesters? Why aren’t legislators speaking up about it? Understandably (I guess) half of our legislators side with the repressive fascist but why are there crickets from the other side? Why aren’t they speaking out?

When there was no outcry, fascism began spreading like wildfire. States seemed to be competing to see who could come up with the cruelest and most outrageous violation of a person’s rights. Texas and North Carolina would like to sentence a woman to death for having an abortion. And still … crickets?

Do the citizens and legislators choose not to speak up because they think: oh, that’s just crazy stuff? It’ll never happen here.

Oh yes, it could. Our democracy is still in danger. There are still folks who’d like nothing better than to overturn it and bring on authoritarian theocracies. At that point, it’s too late to say, “Hey, we didn’t want this.”

Today is the anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. It took place on March 7, 1965. There was a one-day mention of it on Sunday, but I haven’t seen anything about it since. Is its history too ancient? I’ll bet young people didn’t learn about it in their history classes and maybe it wouldn’t even be legal to teach it in half the states today. White supremacists and christian nationalists want to bring us back to the Jim Crow era or worse. Isn’t there some nut down in FL (where else?) who wants to make the Democratic party illegal?

Recently CPAC held its weekend-long convention in Oxon Hill, Maryland. And Michael Knowle said, “transgenderism must be erased.” Erased. If you erase transgenderism, you’re erasing people. If you erase people, isn’t that just a nice way of saying genocide? After all, the Nazis didn’t start by exterminating Jewish people. They started with “undesirables”. And when no one said anything, then they moved on to the increasingly inhumane treatment of the Jewish population.

There is too much rubbernecking going on. Everyone who disagrees with fascism, Nazism, oppression, suppression, racism, bigotry, and misogyny should be doing something. Boycott. Write letters. March. Sit in. United, peaceful protesting.  The time for that is now, not when it’s too late.