A few random thoughts for this big day

The day to officially vote has arrived in America. Will America take a step back from its democracy or will it say to some belligerent autocratic thinkers enough is enough? Here are a few thoughts, again from an independent and former member of both parties. I mention this often as I want people to know I have some conservative bents around financial stewardship and progressive bents around civil rights and opportunities.

Please vote, if you have not doneso already. If you have, well done.

If you care about our planet and battling climate change even more, please vote.

If you care about the civil rights of all people on our shores, please vote.

If you care about the right for a woman to choose what to do with her own body, please vote.

If you care about healthcare access for all Americans, please vote.

If you care about financial programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, please vote.

If you care about requiring more truthfulness and civility in politics, please vote.

If you want to people to address real issues rather than contrived ones, please vote.

To be frank, the halls of legislature no longer are filled entirely with people with good morals, ethics and sense. We have some folks who are not only less than competent, they are more than mean-spirited. Sadly, we have hundreds more just like this lot who are running for office today.

This last statement is unnerving is as Bill Maher put it so well, this is how autocracies start, by electing the people who have sown seeds of doubt. As Maher said the other night, Hitler and Mussolini were elected into office and brought along like-minded folks.

If anyone touts the former US president’s bogus and unproven claims of election fraud in this election, they should not be voted for. Full stop. They are purposefully gaslighting you to get elected, just as the former president has done all of his adult life. He did not just wake up, run for office and start deceiving people. That has long been his modus operandi. This is why I did not vote for him in 2016 or 2020. I want my president to be more truthful than not.

We have one Senatorial candidate who is against abortion, unless it is his baby and he needs to pay to get rid of it. We have one Senatorial candidate who as a doctor on a TV show was hauled in front of Congress for peddling snake oil miracle cures that were untested and harmful to people when taken with other drugs. We have another Senatorial candidate who owns a gun shop, presenting a fairly significant conflict of interest, but also has posed a even tighter nationwide abortion ban.

People need to look at the candidates and vote. Even if you don’t agree with me on all issues, please vote. The problem with elections in America is not fraud, it is not enough people voting. That has always been the case. One party does not think that.

Advertisement

Please vote on Tuesday, if you have not already

As an independent and former Republican and Democrat, I encourage people to vote. A key reason behind sharing your voice is one of the parties has gone out of its way to tell more than a few, “your vote does not count.” If you are keeping score, you know that the former president’s bogus election fraud claims have led the Republican party leaders to promote the idea of concerns over the voting process as several Republican governors have cracked down on the ranks of voters.

I truly wish this was not a true statement as I hoped the voter suppression tactics of the Jim Crow era were all behind us. Sadly, they are not. This move to suppress voting by the GOP restarted in earnest after the 2010 midterms which dovetailed a census year. With a, in part, racist backlash against the current president, the Republicans took majorities in many states which they used to suppress votes and the process.

Using the cookie-cutter language promoted and distributed by a conservative group called ALEC, restrictive voter ID rules were passed in a number of states along with some extreme gerrymandering, which was so bad, even the GOP lamented later they went too far. The reason is the gerrymandering opened the door for more strident candidates like the ones whose names appear with headlines of bigotry or bullying. Now the GOP is adrift because the truth has little currency therein as these strident incumbents care very little about the truth and are fairly smug about so doing.

I have shared time and again my concerns with Republican elected officials. I have pled with them to promote better civil discourse. I have pled with them to support the truth tellers and call out the liars in a more routine way. I have pled with them to tell the former president to cool his jets and stop dividing us with his Big Lie and routine untruthful behavior and actions. We need a good conservative voice in our country, but this vintage of the GOP is not it.

My strong recommendation is do NOT vote for anyone who still promotes Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. It was not. If a candidate believes this BS, then they will pretty much lie about anything. When truth has little currency, then it is used less and less.

One truth that many do not know is the Republican party has no platform. They chose not to vote on one in 2020 and one prepared by Senator Rick Scott earlier this year was not universally admired or adopted. So, the party is one of telling everyone what is wrong from their perspective, but not offering up what they would do about it.

The Democrats are far from perfect, but at least they have passed legislation to address climate change, infrastructure, gun governance, inflation, healthcare premiums, Rx price limits et al. Under the previous president, the main focus was trying to take people’s healthcare away and giving a tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.

As someone who is more fiscally conservative, while being progressive on social and civil rights issues, I voted for just three Republicans in this election as they had a track record of bipartisanship. The significant majority of my votes were for Democrats. Please vote, even if you do not agree with me. It matters.

Needed truths are long overdue

The following is a letter I sent to my newspaper for publishing. It will likely get passed over as I think it is too soon since the last one was printed, but please feel free to adapt and use. By the way, I posted a variation of this on my Senators and Congressman’s websites.

It is long time past due for elected Republican leaders to step up and speak needed truths. Otherwise, my former party will continue down a perilous path destroying any remaining veritas and gravitas. The former president’s Big Lie needs to be squelched now before the country becomes further divided. He also needs to be charged for his seditious actions which endangered members of Congress and our democracy. And, his misappropriation of confidential classified documents has put us in danger.

Right now, I am in disbelief that elected officials continue to forget their oath. We need them to be better than they are being. The truth matters. I am quite disillusioned in the Republican Party. Democrats are far from perfect, but I can argue policy emphasis with them. With the Republican Party members, I find myself arguing the truth versus whatever it is being espoused by too many in the party.

What I have observed in this campaign season, while all politicians embellish the truth and lie to some extent, with many Republican candidates the truth is not even a consideration, as when one believes a Big Lie, small truths are easy to ignore. I watch some commercials and say that is not true or that is long reach. The lies are that obvious to this independent and former Republican voter.

Thursday Thimblefuls of Thoughts

It is supposed to be a rainy, cold day here. So, it is a good day to wander with my thoughts, since I cannot wander outside. Here a few thimblefuls of thoughts on this Thursday. Please be forewarned, these thoughts and $3.00 will get you a cup of regular coffee.

I sure hope Democrats will learn a lesson from the Virginia election results. They should have seen it coming, but continued to fail to act. The bickering by Democrats in the US Congress led to their still not passing the three month overdue infrastructure bill and a tandem piece of legislation that would actually help Americans. I pleaded with the Speaker and two other representatives to get something done. The Americans expected them to pass something, but they still have not. It is akin to a circular firing squad.

As for the Republicans, while their party is adrift, untethered to truthfulness and lawfulness, their choice not to participate in the governance process in Washington does not seem to hurt them. What concerns me is the members of the party do not seem to care that untruthfulness and unlawfulness are key tenets.

And, it is not just rationalizing the untruthful and seditious actions of the former president. Critical Race Theory has been invented as a name-calling hammer that most people don’t know what it is, but have been told it is bad. As a white suburban mother said, it just teaches kids the truthful history, that bad things have been done by those in power to disenfranchised people – always has. But, the conservative leaders and opinion hosts have been beating a drum about how dare people teach that white people did some bad things in our past. This white washing of history has been a planned effort to woo votes.

It saddens me how ill-informed Americans are on the whole about issues, history, economics, etc. I have written several times that we are “The United States of Entertainment.” Most people spend time focusing on sports and entertainment news. If we do read or watch news, we tend to get it from sources who are telling us what we want to see or hear. Or, worse we will get it from someone on social media, where false stories are routed six times more often than real news per a media analyst. This is why Facebook did not change their model, as they made more money letting falsehoods flow more quickly.

We have serious issues that are not being dealt with or discussed. And, some are at a burning platform stage, pun intended. Climate change is hurting us now, so we must act. This is no longer a future issue. More and intense wildfires, more sunny day flooding in coastal towns, more stalled weather patterns, more damaging hurricanes with higher sea levels are all predicted events (per Climate change scientists) that are happening with greater frequency.

Voting and civil rights are under attack in the US and in other paces. The fear of the other sells. Lies sell. The former president knows this which has been his modus operandi for decades. Voting and civil rights have been under attack for several years, but they have been heightened by the staged and planned Big Lie by the former president that he was cheated out of the election, which he still cannot prove. He lost because he got fewer votes, but is not adult enough to admit it. As his niece Mary said before the election, her uncle will “burn it all down to avoid losing the election.”

Then there is naysaying of COVID vaccines that continues to get promoted that keeps us from moving full steam ahead. And, that debt and deficit will not fix itself, especially when we have to spend to improve and fix our infrastructure. Finally, we must be more civil to one another. We can disagree without being disagreeable. Listen to understand not to respond.

What frustrates this independent and former member of both major parties, is what I said above is overtly obvious if people would just read or watch multiple news outlets. I have said many times, it is hard enough to govern with facts and the truth, but when we govern off lies, it is nigh impossible. We must get our legislators to focus on doing their jobs, not just keeping their jobs. When they don’t, we are the people who get hurt.

Letter to Editor on Wedge Issues

The following letter I sent in to my local newspaper was published in its entirety, which is rare. Please feel free to modify and forward if you like the message.

It amazes me how so much time can be spent on created wedge issues for political gain and so little on real ones. The global (and US) water crisis and need for accelerated climate change action are key environmental issues. Investing in deteriorated infrastructure while also reducing the US deficit and debt are at odds, but both are needed, so we must be judicious with spending cuts and revenue increases, as both are needed to solve the math problem.

And, we must stop this degradation of civil rights that were long fought for. Attacking the right to vote under the guise of staged and unproven election fraud claims is abhorrent in the eyes of this independent voter and should be in the eyes of more elected officials.

Help ask leadership a few questions that need answers

I do not have a crystal ball, but I do read and have read for more than a few years. I am not prescient, but I do recognize we have issues that are just not getting talked about enough or at all. Please help me ask a few simple questions of leadership – state and federal representatives, senators, governors, council member and county commissioners, etc.

• since there is a global and US water crisis that will only be made worse by climate change – what do you plan to do about it now, not as it becomes even worse a problem?
• since climate change is a huge problem by itself and shows up in utility, reinsurance, NGO, and governmental models with catastrophic impact, how do you plan to leverage further what others are already doing to combat it?
• since America has fallen woefully behind other countries in infrastructure and we are just one expected train wreck or bridge collapse away from someone crying how could you let this happen, why is it so hard to figure out an infrastructure bill?
• since any newspaper in any reasonably sized city will report daily local shooting deaths and with the every other day occurrence of mass shootings around the country, what do you plan to do about at least stemming the tide?
• since a group of state governors and legislators are hell bent on restricting the rights of Americans to vote, why is it so hard to make sure federally that this sacred right is protected (and please do not cite the fallacy of election fraud the losing candidate in the last presidential election is touting still)?
• since all Americans do not have practical access to civil rights protection, what do you plan to do about that to make sure they do?

These are just a few questions I have. Help me ask them and get answers.

Sunday soliloquy

A soliloquy is defined as an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play. Since William Shakespeare’s birthday is tomorrow, per advance reporting by Kim, I hope you will join me for these thoughts and offer a comment or two. I will try to use fewer words than the bard.

I am puzzled by an ongoing problem. People are usually mortified to learn they have been fooled or left out of something. Then, why would they get information from such disreputable sources who have been proven time and again to lack veracity? It could be repeated conspiracy stories from social media, a legislator, an opinion host or a former legislator or just erroneous use of facts or wanna-be facts. Strong suggestion – check your sources and stories, especially if the name of the source cites someone named Trump, Johnson, Gohmert, Taylor-Greene, Nunes, Hannity, Cruz or Carlson.

It matters not which political party a member of a legislative body belongs to, when he or she dishonors the office, either severely or on a routine basis, the member must be punished under the rules of governing body, ranging from censure, removal from committees or removal from office. And, it must not be “gotcha” politics – to be frank, a political party should try to clean up a mess before it gets to the actions of the whole body. The Catholic Church learned much too late, they needed to clean up its pedophile priests problem as it tainted the reputation of the whole. Police departments are only beginning to learn this truth about needing to address those over-zealous folks in their ranks. There are no perfect people, so why should we expect any group to be perfect?

Groups of people, whether they are legislative bodies, companies, organizations, or governments must not and should not punish the truth tellers in their midst. There are many reasons to have concerns about actions of the former president, but his firing of inspectors general and people who testified under known-in-advance risk disgusted me. Congressional sycophants of the former president left these honorable public servants hanging as they rationalized his deceitful, corrupt and even seditious actions. He is “just rough around the edges” we would hear. Lying is not rough around the edges, it is deceitful.

Let me close with a note to Democrats. Please do your best to govern. If one of your party has acted poorly, chastise his or her actions and remedy the matter. Just because it is your tribe does not make it OK. Bill Clinton balanced the budget and more jobs were created on his watch than under any other president, but he still was a womanizer who had one known affair in the White House and lied about it. Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi et all will make mistakes – own up to them and remedy them where possible. And, when a member says something inane or mean-spirited – say so.

We need truth tellers in both parties. We need honorable public servants. Right now, democracy is under attack, which is directed at the wrong problem. Our problem is not the wrong people voting, it is not enough people voting. Where our elections really have concerns is in the amount of money it takes to get elected. A legislator, at best, will be mildly subjective because of funding to get elected. This is the best argument for term limits and legislating out the Citizens-United and McCutcheon SCOTUS rulings. Maybe if the money influence wanes, less money will be funded.

Freedom Summer Project – a needed revisit with a voter suppression and racism afoot

With a president who attacks the voting process (without dearly protecting it) and does not speak out against racism in our country, this past post on a terrible time in history is relevant of what we must not become again. The only change is adding six years to the time elapsed.

Fifty-six years ago this summer, over 700 students from across the country, joined in the Civil Rights battle in Mississippi, where African-Americans had been demonstratively and, at times, violently denied their basic civil rights, especially the right to vote. These students joined together with the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNNC) under the guidance of Bob Moses, who had been slowly organizing SNNC since 1960. These students, were predominantly white, but included all races and ethnic groups.

The fact that many were white helped bring further attention to the ongoing tragedy going on Mississippi, perpetuated by those in power as the young students lived within the African-American community, taught through Freedom Schools young students about African-American history, literature and rights, items that had been absent from their curriculum. The Freedom Summer project can be viewed up close with an excellent documentary shown on the PBS American Experience. A link is provided below.* I would encourage you to watch the two-hour film as it can tell a story that requires footages of violence, overt racism, and brave people who spoke up, like Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rita Schwerner and countless others.

Hamer is the face of the effort as evidenced by her speaking passionately in front of the 1964 Democratic Convention committee about how she was arrested, beaten, and tormented when she and others tried to register vote. Schwerner is the widow of one the three Civil Rights workers, Michael Schwerner, who along with James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, were abducted and killed by the KKK who came to abet the efforts of those in power in Mississippi. The widow rightfully pointed out the fact that two of the abducted (at the time) were white, was the only reason people in America started paying attention. She noted it is a shame that many African-Americans had died or were injured merely trying to exercise their right as citizens. Before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, less than 7% of African-Americans in Mississippi were allowed to register due to ostracization, intimidation, and complex constitutional literacy tests.

Since I cannot begin to do justice to this subject, I encourage you to watch the documentary. It will make you ashamed that this could happen in America, while at the same time making you applaud the magnificent courage of all involved, especially those African-Americans who had lived and would continue to live in this Apartheid like state once the freedom summer students went home. Yet, it took the deaths of these three young folks to galvanize and empower people.

It also took the organization of a more representative Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party of whites and blacks that went to the national convention to unseat the representatives sent by the state party, who were all white. Since morality was on their side, they almost succeeded, but they ran into the politics of Lyndon B. Johnson, who used his power to squelch the effort for a greater good – he could not help in matters if he did not get elected and he saw this as a means to interfere with that mission, no matter how noble the cause. LBJ accomplished great things for African-Americans, but politics is an ugly thing to watch up close and he looks manipulative in the process.

While their efforts fell short at the convention, their efforts were huge contributors to the passage of the Voting Rights Act the next year. But, one of the young folks who went to the Freedom Schools and is now a PhD., noted that learning about their African-American culture and civil rights that had been denied them, may have been the greatest achievement. I applaud their efforts and bravery. We still have a way to go and are seeing some battles having to be refought with several states passing restrictive Voter ID Laws. Three states have had their new laws ruled unconstitutional, while others are in court now. Yet, just because our President is multi-racial does not mean we are there yet. So, let’s keep in mind the battles these brave folks fought and not let their civil rights be stepped on again, no matter how cleverly masked those efforts.

* http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/freedomsummer/

You don’t want to win the argument, you want to get your way

The title is a quote I read this week in Readers Digest, where famous people noted the best advice they ever received. It was offered by Paul Steiger, the former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. This quote resonated with me as it sums up the objective of politicians. “You don’t want to win the argument, you want to get your way.” And, this is one of the problems.

With it taking so much money to get elected, politicians are beholden to an oligarchy of donors whose influence is significant. They are the kinds of people who want their calls answered or returned immediately. When you shell out tens (or hundreds) of millions of dollars, you want the representative to represent your interests.

Being right or winning an argument is irrelevant. These folks just want to get their way. This is a key reason non-sensical arguments continue in the public vernacular. The oligarchy wants its way. They want to perpetuate their business model at all costs, even if the model is dangerous to people or the environment. They want to be protected if the market starts to buy fewer of their product, as free market capitalism to them is only I can get help, not you.

If you think about major issues, be it doing something about climate change, paying people better, governing gun use and sales better, protecting the financial interests of consumers, making sure people have access to health care, etc., the oligarchy does not want anything standing in their way. They want their economic engine firing on all cylinders.

Being right matters little. It is even more true today, when these folks can spin-doctor and influence pseudo news sources to make folks believe that their revenue generation is more apple pie than getting all people a square deal. This is why it is critical to advocate for change in our voting and campaign laws. They do not want to change the laws, as their influence has been enhanced by recent changes. This is why it is also critical to stay informed from good sources of news and information.

We can win arguments, but it takes effort. We win by knowing, understanding, repeating and advocating the right thing. It is already an uphill climb, so we better get our mountain boots on and start. That is the only way the right way will be the winning way.

This North Carolina Voter is Embarassed by New Voter ID Law

My state of North Carolina is getting more national attention, but not the kind that puts us in a favorable light. This on the heels of a legislative session that brought us notoriety in the New York Times, Esquire Magazine, Real Times with Bill Maher, and various science magazines. The recent Voter ID Law is the latest example, which is
unfortunate. From this Independent, former GOP voter’s vantage point, the new
Voter ID Law solves for the wrong problem. The signficant problem in our country
is not the wrong people voting, it is not enough people voting. Our country and
state lag behind other democracies around the world in the numbers of voters who
turnout at the polls. We should be passing laws to enable more voters, not block
the path for more voting.

The ID part of the law is one element of the blocking. As a 54-year-old white man, it is hard for me to walk in the shoes of people who are disenfranchised or discriminated against by how they look. I can empathize, but I truly don’t have that perspective. And, I am amazed by the recent Supreme Court verdict that says we have insufficient discrimination in our country to continue parts of the national law to assure voter
non-discrimination. I wonder what country they live in, as discrimination still
exists today. This North Carolina and laws like it from around the country are prima facie evidence that this discrimination still exists – it is codified now.

When you add the voter ID with the elimination of Sunday voting, with the elimination of same day registration, with the reduction in time period for early voter, with the elimination in straight party ticket voting, with campaign disclosure changes, with the elimination in early registration and with not standing by your political advertisement, I see a law that is horribly flawed and not serving the mission of the people. One of its drafters was on PBS Newshour last night and kept referring to a survey that said 60% or 70% of North Carolinians support this law. First, off which is it – 60% or 70%? Second, I would like to see the survey as I would wager it is from a biased sourced and did not ask about all of the stuff passed with the Voter ID part of the law.

To this point, this morning, The Charlotte Observer reported the results of the newest NC poll by Public Policy Polling (PPP) on the new Voter ID law. only 39% of NC voters support the law, with 50% opposed to it. Tom Jensen, the PPP pollster noted that while the ID part of the law is supported by more voters, when the other parts of the law, many of which are noted above, are added in the law becomes “a loser.” For example, only 33% of voters support the restriction to the early voting period, with 59% opposed with even higher opposition with Independents and Democrats.

My GOP friends have told me and I have read claims that this is law is not designed to suppress the vote and is not Jim Crow like. Of course it is. Almost every feature passed in the law will be harmful to African-Americans who tend to vote Democratic. To say otherwise, is an insult to my intelligence. This is why our Attorney General in NC who is a pretty smart guy, is having a crisis of conscience. He will be asked to defend law suits claiming unconstitutionality and discrimination when he knows the litigants are correct.
I don’t know if the courts will be unduly influenced by the Supreme Court, but
in this person’s view I agree with the AG. This law is unconstitutional and
makes NC look backward.

I know a few of our legislators have shown a bent to label folks, if that makes what has been done alright. Anyone against the law is a liberal Democrat. One of the same folks has called anyone a tree-hugger for wanting to protect the environment, and so on.  I am not a liberal Democrat, but that should truly not matter. I voted for our GOP governor nine times in his campaigns over the years for Charlotte mayor and NC governor. He led Charlotte as a moderate and I was hopeful he would be able to hold back the tide against poor legislation like this, rather than sign it. Based on his signing this law among other laws passed this year, there will not be a tenth.

This law should be repealed along with a few others that are harming people and our economy. It is not in our best interests. Our taxpayers will have to spend a lot of money
defending something that is indefensible.