LOOKING BACK ON OUR POLITICS

If I sometimes come across as too political - or too liberal, my older son Craig will probably sound pretty radical to some of my readers. This is the letter he wrote to his sister about the 2008 election when she asked for his opinion on the candidates. He missed the mark on a couple of things... John McCain is still with us and loudly voicing his opinion. I believe McCain would have had us in at least two wars by now if he had been elected. Craig's belief that Obama could end "the hateful partisanship" plaguing our country was a pipe dream many of us shared that has not come to pass. 

As for "the most divisive, negative and deceitful campaign in American history" run by McCain, I think the 2012 campaign run by supporters of Mitt Romney won that title. I truly hate to hear what the 2016 campaign will subject us to now that the Supreme Court has let loose all the big money for financing. 

******************************************************

October 29, 2008 

Carajean,

First things first. Yes, Democrats did gain control of Congress in 2006. By the slimmest of margins. In the Senate, there are 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans and two Independents that caucus with the Democrats.
  
There are two major obstacles that have prevented this Congress from being able to pass much meaningful legislation. First, the rules of the Senate effectively require 60 votes to bring up a bill. It takes 60 to stop a filibuster. Therefore, the Republicans have been able to obstruct anything that they didn't want considered and have done so. Even on some legislation that garnered enough Republican support to pass Congress, it still has to be signed by the president. Bush has vetoed several pieces of good legislation. To override a presidential veto requires a 2/3 majority, which we just haven't had.

So, trying to blame the Democratic Congress for our current troubles is a bit disingenuous.  We're in the mess we're in because of Bush's and the Republicans' disastrous policies on every front. Tax cuts for the wealthiest among us during a time of war. A war that is costing our nation $10 billion per month. A war about which we were lied to again and again. A war that John McCain says we may need to remain in for many years to come. A war that was a fait accompli once Bush/Cheney took office. The profiteering from this war has made Halliburton, Bechtel, KBR, Blackwater, etc. billions and billions of dollars, mostly through no-bid contracts. All of these companies are heavy Republican contributors. In fact, Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton just prior to naming himself the most qualified V-P candidate for Bush.  People should go to jail over what has happened. If you have Netflix, I highly recommend viewing "Iraq for Sale". It will enrage you.

I know the Republicans always fall back on the same refrain of how all the Democrats do is "tax and spend". Well, when Clinton left office, we had a budget surplus and had actually started paying down the national debt, which at the time was around $5 trillion. Since that time, Bush and the Republicans have run up enormous deficits and our national debt has more than doubled. They call us "tax and spend" but should call themselves "borrow and spend". They've essentially looted the treasury and nearly bankrupted our country. 

Undecided. I can't believe MY sister is undecided. Look at the choices.

On the one hand you have a 72-year-old man that has battled melanoma several times and hasn’t come completely clean about the stage or severity of the illnesses. Even without his cancer history, actuarial tables say he has about a 1 in 3 chance of dying over the next 8 years. He made two very important decisions during the course of this long campaign that I believe should disqualify his candidacy on its face.

1) He sucked up to the religious right in order to gain the Republican nomination and has run the most divisive, negative and deceitful campaign in American history. He has avowed that he would nominate more conservatives to the Supreme Court in the same mold as Scalia, Alito and Roberts. The next president will likely have two nominations to the court. One more conservative and Roe v Wade will be overturned. Period. A woman will no longer have the right to an abortion. 

2) His pick of Sarah Palin. This woman was chosen to fire up the aforementioned religious base of the party. Besides being an absolute idiot (George Bush in a skirt) obviously way out of her depth on the national stage, she's just plain dangerous. She is a Pentecostal who believes we are in the "end times" and that Jesus will return in her lifetime. (These people are nutjobs, little sister.) They've interpreted the Book of Revelations to mean we will see an Armageddon and the believers will be snatched up in the Rapture. I can provide you with several articles and videos where she affirms this belief. If McCain were to croak in office, do you really want her to have access to the nuclear launch codes? I ******* sure don't. This woman is so fundamental in her religious beliefs that she believes abortion should be outlawed even in cases of rape, incest and where the health of the mother is in jeopardy. While mayor of Wasilla (a town of about 9,000 people which is famous as the methamphetamine capital of Alaska), she instituted a policy at the local hospital that required rape victims to pay for their own rape tests! W**? (You know I could go on and on and on about these two, but I'll stop. Lunch hour is almost over.)

In Barack Obama, we have what I believe is a once in a generation, perhaps once in a lifetime candidate at a time when our country is in dire crisis. He has the intellect (President of the Harvard Law Review), compassion and understanding of the issues that's rarely seen in public life. He has been fiercely attacked by the Republican smear machine. And has demonstrated a calm and run a campaign that I've not seen in my lifetime. I truly believe he will be able to inspire our citizens to go beyond the hateful partisanship that we've been plagued with for so long. The list of conservatives and Republicans who have endorsed him is, I believe a testament to that. 

Watch him tonight. I believe he'll be able to close the sale for you.

Love,
Big Brudder

***************************************************************

Brother and sister have changed a little since 2008. I've used their photos from around that time. I don't know who Carajean ended up voting for, but I'm sure she's careful what questions she asks her big "brudder" since then.

Craig is not  new to politics. I can remember when he was a young teenager how I got upset when he put up a huge poster in his room in support of McGovern for President. At the time I was still thinking I was a die-hard Republican. For many years, Craig would mail things to "My right-wing, conservative Mother"! (I cannot believe anyone ever really thought that of me.) In his early twenties he went with a group to D.C. to march on the South African embassy condemning apartheid. During these years he was also a member of the 7-member Nuclear Freeze Board in the State of Texas. His political activism continued after his marriage. He was a Democratic Party Precinct Chairman in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for a time. I asked him about this recently, wondering why he is not more active now. His response was:

"Cameron wasn't quite 2 years old when I dragged him to our precinct caucus in Carrollton (the northern part - in Denton County), where we lived. It was a well attended one - it was '92 and Clinton won our precinct primary in voting that day and the caucus that night. I was elected Precinct Chair. Served again a few years later when we moved to Denton itself.

My involvement hasn't been nearly as intense for many years. Working campaigns in Texas requires the idealism of youth. I do some online grassroots activism on occasion.  Raised quite a bit of money (relatively speaking) for Obama in 08.

Wendy Davis may get me active this time around. Forgive her for the open carry support. This IS still Texas and her campaign was hoping to somewhat neutralize guns as a wedge issue. And you can see that Abbot's campaign badly misjudged the public reaction to having the lunatic gun-nut and pedophile Ted Nugent (Ted Nugent's Jailbait Problem) campaign with him. I've enjoyed the schadenfreude."

I think the highlight of Craig's political activity was a trip to Washington for the inauguration of Bill Clinton, for whom he campaigned. Other than a few Letters to the Editor of the (now defunct) Dallas Times Herald, he hasn't done much since then. Currently a Fleet and Internet Sales Manager for a huge Dallas Honda dealership, Craig has passed on his passion for politics to his son Cameron, who was a vigorous supporter of and campaigned for Barack Obama. 

I recently have been researching the problem of inequality in the U.S., and have asked Craig's feedback in writing something on the subject. (There is an excellent documentary on Netflix by Robert Reich that Craig recommended to me called "Inequality For All".) Craig's response to this request was: "I'll get some inspiration (or anger) before long and write something. The inequality thing has been simmering for awhile. Reich has been writing some short columns pretty much every day on his Facebook page.  I'll copy and paste some for you. He's wonderful." I look forward to Craig's inspiration - or anger!

Ahhh, some things haven't changed at all since he wrote that letter to his sister. The Republicans, now bolstered by the Tea Party members, have again been the obstacles to Congress passing much in the way of meaningful legislation other than the Affordable Care Act. God save us from more like them being elected in the coming mid-terms!

Peace, love, and wise choices,
Marilyn

P.S.

From ABC News:

"The NBA announced today that it has banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life and fined $2.5 million, the maximum amount, after he was recorded making racist comments."