Back to the Future

Yesterday's  blog post by Jayne Martin struck a chord.  She reprised a 2 year old post about the  continuing dominance of "tired old white men" in our political system and the not-so-hidden prejudices of the political and emotional landscape.   

I watched PBS' airing of the two part "Clinton" series last week.  It was interesting to go back in time and realize how similarly their presidencies began and the hatred directed towards President Clinton and, worse, towards Hillary.  In most respects, she turned out to be the more politically prescient of the two.  But the nation wanted her head.  They obviously overcame some of the derision only to become mired in the Whitewater and Monica-gate scandals.  Clinton was his own worst enemy as those who worked for and admired him note in the program.  But even he has come out on the other side.

My husband and I are convinced people hate Obama because of his color more than his policies.  In the spirit of bi-partisanship, he's attempted to appease those who do not deserve to be appeased, i.e. McConnell, Ryan, Cantor, Boehner.  They've done all but spit on him.    

 ttaken from the The Schiller Institute newsletter of Lyndon LaRouche  Note remark re: Constitution

We have journalists like Mark Halperin calling him a "dick".  This is our president!  I may have thought G.W. was all those things & more but I don't believe I put it in print, let alone say such a thing on national television.

We can only hope President Obama, if re-elected, has the opportunity to achieve his goals in the second term, unencumbered by the need to seek re-election and please an old white bread male dominated Congress of politicos indebted to PACS, lobbyists and corporate America.

I Don't Want To BE Negative, I Just Am

I was raised in a white upper middle class Conservative family.  

My parents grew up during the Depression, went through WWII and came out on the other side to become part of the working middle class who elevated themselves financially.  Their early experiences may have shaped their thinking but they also had help from the Federal government thanks to numerous social policies implemented including the Social Security Act and the GI Bill.  

White people in this country were all pretty much in the same boat so I don't think they faced the obstacles the white middle class now faces.  My parents' prejudices, particularly my father's, stemmed from poverty.   For some, prejudice allows people to feel better about their station in life because there is somebody or another class of people over whom they feel elevated.  It's twisted but I think it's true. 

I was raised to believe I would have a better life than my parents because it was supposed to be that way.  Of course, it wasn't that easy and I was quite surprised by the low paying jobs I had to take when I graduated college.  Somewhere along the way,  I began to change my thinking.  I had experiences.  To paraphrase John Lennon, "life got in the way of my plans."  I became a Liberal, criticizing Nixon, Viet Nam, the Establishment, racial discrimination.  We moved east to rural Kentucky, south to Virginia, experiencing other regions and cultures and a lot of severe poverty first-hand.  My husband became a social worker.  We did volunteer work.   I knew the U.S. had the resources to eliminate poverty and help others achieve the American Dream but it always seemed in the near distant future.   That was back in the Seventies.  Now, in the 21st Century, it is farther away than ever.  

I don't understand people who have so much and don't want to help those who do not.  I don't understand the lack of obligation to others less fortunate, whatever the reason.  I don't understand ANY sense of entitlement.  I've worked hard to have a good career but I know it is luck more than hard work that has kept me employed.  I'm not that smart.  I am that lucky.

We owe all children an education. College should be a given.  We are still one of the wealthiest countries in the world yet we have a 19% poverty rate??? Inexcusable.  We pay farmers to destroy food crops when starvation is rampant throughout the world?  We can't deliver food, medical supplies and the like to people under seige without its falling into the hands of pirates who'll steal and sell it?  We give politicians, the very people who won't help us solve our problems, great benefits like health insurance and a lifelong pension? Our priorities are so screwed up.  

Let's hope "Occupy Wall Street" is the beginning of a tidal wave of non-compliance towards the people who don't care.  We can make them care if we really want to.

Racism According to Rush

Not sure how to respond to a story like this.  It defies imagination.  The fact he can say these things, facetiously or no, could coin a new phrase "hysterical hubris". 

In a remark extraordinary even by the standards of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio heavyweight declared on his program Wednesday that the United States needed to return to racially segregated buses.

Referring to an incident in which a white student was beaten by black students on a bus, Limbaugh said: “I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.”

A full transcript of Limbaugh’s comments on his radio show is available at MediaMatters.org.

Limbaugh’s comments came after a called complained to say that local law enforcement said the attack probably wasn’t racially motivated. The incident had been hyped by the conservative Drudge Report, which posted a video of the fracas.

“Police initially said the beating of the white student by two black students appeared to be racially motivated,” the Associated Press wrote. “But police on Tuesday backed away from that.”

That didn’t stop Limbaugh from making his comments Wednesday.

“In Obama’s America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, ‘Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on,” Limbaugh also said. “I wonder if Obama’s going to come to come to the defense of the assailants the way he did his friend Skip Gates up there at Harvard.”

“White Americans are racists who have created what they call free markets that really just enslave the rest of America and her trading partners,” Limbaugh also mocked. “I mean, it was white Americans that ran off Van Jones. No, look, let’s just follow Eric Holder’s advice and not be cowards about all this. Let’s have an open conversation, an honest conversation about all of our typical white grandmothers. You had one, I had one. Obama had one. They’re racists just like our students are. ACORN — hey, nothing but racism fueling the pursuit of ACORN.”

Limbaugh also suggested that racism itself was acceptable.

“If homosexuality being inborn is what makes it acceptable, why does racism being inborn not make racism acceptable?” the talk show host asked. “I’m sorry — I mean, this is the way my mind works. But apparently now we don’t choose racism, we just are racists. We are born that way. We don’t choose it. So shouldn’t it be acceptable, excuse — this is according to the way the left thinks about things.”

The second set of comments occur in the audio clip below.

Make that "dangerously hysterical hubris".