The Self-Administered Muzzle

Sigh. We've gone and done it again. In our abject fear of defeat, we play not to lose. Which of course only ensures we will.

OK. WTF? you ask. Let me explain.

Last Saturday, President Biden uttered the strongest, most-decisive words of his presidency. Speaking in Poland, he said Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.”

Yay.

Vladimir Putin is a toxin. In the relatively giant world of 1900, his toxicity would have remained largely contained to Ukraine and environs. In the shrunken, interconnected world we inhabit in 2022, it overflows and contaminates vast swaths of it.

Like his orange-haired counterpart in the U.S., Putin has been given far too long a leash by a global community more intent on avoiding conflict and provocation than protecting sovereignty. We have collectively given Putin an inch, and spoiled child he is, he has taken a yard.

He is deserving of Biden's words. And so much more.

But then the Democrats fucked it up.

Fearful of letting such strong words stand, they scurried to walk it back. Spinmeisters rushed to the world's press and nervously clamored “No! What Joe meant to say was...” In doing so, they opened the door to the always fragrant opinions of Putin-bitch Dmitry Peskov, who saw the opportunity and ran with it like an NFL running back charging through a four-foot hole.

Dear DNC: Has it ever crossed your mind that to win a game, it might be highly-profitable to play to win, as opposed to playing not-to-lose? Has it ever occurred to you that instead of remaining fearful at incurring the opposition's wrath, it might just be enormously-profitable to energize and engage your base?

To stand tall and say “We are Democrats! We believe in inclusion! Democracy! Equality! Law! And order!” To stand tall and shout “Vladimir Putin is a shit! And it's okay to call a shit a shit!”

I mean, ever?

Granted, you did once. When you stood in direct opposition to the blatant racism and discrimination that prevailed in the United States. Remember?

Once and for all: Stop apologizing!

Let's fire up the meat-grinder (literal or metaphorical—either one works) and make Vladimir Putin victim number-one.

Let's be proud not only of who we are, but who we are not.

Exhaling

Whew. It's over. Officially, incontrovertibly over.

For the first time in four years there is an emotionally-stable grown-up in the White House.

One who has a clue.

One put there by a plain and simple majority of Americans. Americans wearied and disgusted by the Trump brand of “leadership.”

Like his Democratic predecessor, President Biden has a massive job ahead of him. Not only must he lead a nation besieged by a runaway pandemic and its seemingly bottomless financial fall-out, but must undo the damage wrought by the (cough) “law and order” president.

It's a two-pronged job that will undoubtedly encounter strident Republican opposition.

Yes, moving forward while simultaneously filling-in craters behind you is no easy thing.

Mr. President and Ms. Vice President, I wish you nothing but the best. We are in desperate need of leaders—as opposed to sneering, podium-pounding “authority”.

I pray you are able to surmount the obstacles in front of you and can return us to a normal that, while not perfect—is infinitely better than what so many of us face today.

God bless you.

Going Forward?

There is no joy. Only relief. With a diminished majority in the House and an undetermined alignment in the Senate, there is little worry Democrats will make any significant inroads into our legislative logjam over the next two years.

Joe Biden is mostly a paperweight. While the papers on the desk won't be scattered about the room by Trump-style bluster, they won't be put in order, either. In other words, while we won't be moving forward, the descent into chaos has been halted.

More concerning is the widespread support enjoyed by the most toxic, destructive and ignorant president the nation has ever endured. I heard time and time again “He kept his promises” as justification for casting a ballot for Mr. T.

Really? You mean the Rust Belt is awash with good-paying manufacturing jobs? 'Cause I missed that. He increased our consumption of coal, thereby restoring the economies of West Virginia and Wyoming? 'Cause I missed that, too.

(Residents of those states continued to act as battered wives, awarding the most-decisive pro-Trump percentages in the nation to Sir Lies-A-Lot despite the fact he did nothing whatsoever for their economies.)

Illegal immigration has been brought to a virtual standstill thanks to his stupendous wall—financed by Mexico—along our southern border? It has slowed, but that's because of the pandemic that isn't really a pandemic.

The brilliant health care package he's been promising for nearly four years is ready for implementation? His 'America first' policy has rejuvenated the country and we again enjoy a quality of life unparalleled anywhere in the world?

'Cause I missed those, too.

I mean, Trump did stuff, yeah. 

He awarded Walmart and Amazon and Exxon massive tax cuts. He awarded our raft of billionaires and millionaires with massive tax cuts as well. He packed our courts with right-wing conservatives. Lied, cheated and stole. Undermined our faith in the U.S. mail and in our elections.

Created more division and unrest in this country than any mob of radicalized socialists could ever hope to.

Trump entrenched racism and sexism and our political divide.

But his greatest hit was his manipulation of COVID-19 for political gain.

Caught with his pants down, Trump made lemons from lemonade in the most-grotesque sense of the word as he allowed COVID-19 to sweep throughout the United States practically unabated.

And when he wasn't allowing it, he was provoking it.

His politicization of face masks ensured the virus's spread as rabid conservatives, following their president's lead, repurposed them as symbols of liberal tyranny.

While I admit it's tempting to encourage conservative's denial and anti-mask phobia, it's clear that the Corona virus will infect any and all demographics. Translated, this means none of us are safe. Or, um, immune.

(Well, except that one guy. But you know he's passenger number-one on the crazy train, right?)

Now that the angry and the hateful have had their anti-government, anti-PC tantrum it will be interesting to see where we go from here. I tend to think it will be along the lines of the sequence depicted in It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey sees his hometown as if he had never existed.

It will be coarse, confrontational and crude. Largely bereft of things like civility and kindness. This path is somehow more "real" and more "genuine" to addled Republican males for whom Lord of the Flies is a societal ideal.

Fearful of a world where white men no longer wield absolute power, they cling ever more desperately to ever more desperate models of power and control.

I've never been able to puzzle-out exactly what voting Republican did for working-class conservatives, except perhaps to validate their ethnic, religious, sexual and gender biases. Even at the cost of their own well-being.

But what the hell do I know?

All in all, I feel fortunate to be the age I am. I see a world emerging that is rife with hatred, distrust and manipulated endlessly by social media. Our out-sized egos have grown equally destructive, to the point where any leader who doesn't “look like us” is illegitimate.

This is at the forefront of our descent into tribalism.

Even aided by the necessary technology, I see a world unable to unite in the commonality necessary to stem global warming.

While we have temporarily beat back the Trump-styled darkness, it will retreat, reconfigure and reemerge until it has the necessary components to succeed.

Knowledge is both a burden and a responsibility. We know what we have to do to resist it.

The question is, will we? 

 

Sweet Relief

 

Thank God.

 

Thank God.

 

Thank God. 

 

The Dark Ages are over.

 

Oh thank God. 

Democrats? Vote Hard!

Fatigue. Anxiety. Depression. Rage.

For many of us, these are the words that characterize 2020. We've watched a radical conservative toss the one-percent (the one-percent!) a trillion-dollar tax break under the guise of a—wait for it—jobs act.

Watched him sneer as his servile lead bitch upends protocol and paves the way for Sir Lies-A-Lot to appoint three Supreme Court justices in a single term. We've watched him eliminate any and all constraints on business at the cost of the air we breathe and the water we drink.

We've watched him insult and disparage allies and befriend autocratic terrorists like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. Witnessed his winking approval of white supremacy and voter suppression. And relentlessly provoked chaos because it amuses him.

That it destabilizes nearly every element of life in the United States just adds to the fun.

We've witnessed him gut the post office's ability to sort and deliver mail in anticipation of a dramatic upswing in vote by mail. Seen him plunder his own charity, get convicted, fined and watched the lightly reported story disappear without a trace.

We've seen him blithely delete a much-heralded center for pandemic research merely because it had Obama's fingerprints on it. And besides, what ever goes wrong with cookware, anyway?

Even as the same continues to undermines his precious “fabulously beautiful” economy.

Cause and effect, Don. Cause and effect. Ever hear of it?

Most recently, we've heard him threaten to destroy Social Security and Medicare. Why? Because they fall into his hazy definition of socialism. And then there's the ongoing effort to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional—in the middle of a pandemic.

Crazy Don lies like the rest of us draw breath. He's a supremely manipulative fraud who has succeeded in convincing banks, Congress and a sizeable chunk of the American populace he's the guy to loan money to. Shape policy with. And above all, blindly follow.

And when the Trump-whore isn't lying or self-promoting, he morphs into Whiny Don. The fake news media. Liberal hoaxes. The deep state. Tell me Poor Poor Pitiful Me isn't the number-one most-played song on his Spotify playlist!

Funny how the Indomitable One can stand in front of the hypnotized and let that smarmy smile creep across his face. But alone and minus the adulation, he cowers in the dark with his phone and issues a torrent of blind criticisms, unfounded—even paranoid—accusations and juvenile rants.

Can I add Needy Don to the repertoire?

A Republicant told me in 2016 he thought Trump would “shake things up.”

As we wonder when our kids can again resume their full-fledged educations and when (and if) we'll get our jobs back and how long we can stave off increasingly impatient landlords and when we'll be able to attend a ballgame or go out to dinner or a night club and when will there be a vaccine and when will life in general return to normal I must ask: are you suitably shaken?

We Democrats are a funny bunch. By nature we're diverse and have many agendas. Like our president, we also get a bit peevish when things don't go our way.

We must stop that.

For the time being, we must act like Republicants and become a herd. A bovine mass completely unaware of free will. We must ignore the polls (remember 2016?), the early returns (be they good or bad) and not focus on anything that isn't physically casting a vote against Donald J. Trump.

While I enjoy portraying him as a feckless clown, the damage he has wrought is considerable. Much of it will outlast him. He is the obedient servant of a selfish and extremely wealthy minority interested only in cementing and sustaining its power and its wealth at the expense of us.

They must be stopped. Shattered—like a ceramic figurine.

We can be the hammer. But we must vote hard. And with a vengeance.

And if you can't vote for Joe Biden can you at least vote against Donald Trump? And the party of Mitch McConnell? And of Lindsey Graham?

Given the amorality displayed by this moneyed minority, it's likely more-urgent than we even realize.

 

Fear of Bernie

I find it wildly amusing that Democrats are apparently terrified of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and his (gasp) socialism. Never mind that perhaps two out of ten Americans could even explain what socialism is.

To blunt its headlong march across the United States, they last Tuesday turned to former Vice-President Joe Biden and clutch at him like a child does a favorite stuffed animal. “Save us, Joe!”

Kindly ignore the fact that of the six candidates recently pursuing the Democratic nomination, only Biden has an Achilles heel (his son's lucrative position with a Ukrainian energy company) Donald Trump can stand on and mercilessly exploit until November.

But at least we won't be subsumed by Bernie Sanders' socialism.

We can stretch out, fold our hands behind our heads and relax in the radiant warmth of four more years of Donald Trump and his oligarchy's rape and pillage.

I have never desired more-urgently to be wrong.

Dear Whiny Republican

Yes. We Democrats hate Donald Trump.

We hated him when he won an election engineered by Republican gerrymandering. 

We hated him when his childish and towering insecurity first reared its ugly head via an indefensible proclamation that more people showed up for his inauguration than Barack Obama's.

We hated him when he refused to share his tax returns. Being possessed of functioning brains, we knew what that meant. And still do.

(Which I hasten to point out, differentiates us from you.)

We hated him when he gave lip service to our men in uniform and then pissed all over a Gold Star mother because her son had brown skin.

We hated him when he mimicked a disabled child at one of his campaign rallies like the puerile middle-school bully he is. And then had the audacity to complain about satirical portrayals of himself and call them mean-spirited.

Seriously? 

We hated him when he neutered the Environmental Protection Agency for the benefit of our corporate parasites, endangering every man, woman and child on Earth in the process.

We hated him when he authored a trillion-dollar giveaway to the one-percent and Google and Exxon and Amazon and Wal-Mart. And we hated him when we realized corporate giants were paying income tax at half the rate of working Americans.

We hated him when he spat on America's allies and embraced our enemies. 

We hated him when he was found to have defrauded would-be students under the ageis of (don't laugh) Trump University.

(You want a world-class oxymoron? There it is.)

We hated him when he was found to have looted his own charity.

And we hated him when he arrogantly and capriciously put the security of domestic elections at risk by soliciting the help of a foreign government to dig up dirt on a presumed opponent in exchange for foreign aid.

Democrats did not provoke this impeachment. Our dislike and derision didn't place a phone call to Ukraine last July. Donald Trump did that all by himself.

Can I assume you're familiar with the expression 'give a man enough rope and he'll hang himself'?

Whine and cry about how Democrats have wanted this since November 8, 2016. You're right. You are so damn fucking right. Hate us for knowing in advance what an incompetent, venal, selfish, toxic bag of shit Donald Trump was going to be as president.

THAT'S WHY WE DIDN'T VOTE FOR HIM!!!

Do you retards get that???

I'm so sorry you're Republican. Like sheep returning from pasture, you know only how to follow the asshole in front of you.

Worse still are his enablers. The spineless, gutless cowards in the House and Senate. Their reflexive, unthinking support of this destructive and dangerous demagogue should have them in front of a firing squad. 

God willing, the political equivalent will present itself next November.

Two Things

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo is my new hero. 

Finally, there's someone in law enforcement calling out the NRA and their “Guns for Everyone” policies as well as the spineless Republican sycophants who enact them.

It's about time.

For reasons that are thoroughly lost on me, the balance of law enforcement apparently feels that criminals and psychopaths armed with automatic weaponry is a good thing. Maybe they enjoy the high-octane shoot-outs that result. I don't know.

But if I'm a cop, I want to be the only guy on the street with a gun.

But that's just me.

At any rate, thank you Chief Acevedo for injecting some front-line perspective into America's ludicrous gun debate.

After delaying the start of an impeachment inquiry, Democrats now want to ram one through Congress before presidential campaigns get serious. Which is why they're allowing the offal in the Trump administration to ignore subpoenas without fear of reprisal.

Great start.

Democrats need to win the war of public opinion, and rushing through an inquiry between Thanksgiving and Christmas ain't the way to do it.

Allow me to make a sports analogy: in a short series the Republicans are going to win.

They'll pound the floor with their fists and threaten to hold their breath until they turn blue. The brain-damaged folk who buy into Trump and watch Fox News will pump their fists with per-pubescent glee.

A short, noisy, concentrated burst of denial plays into Trump's hands—it's a Twitter-length tantrum to keep the base riled-up and supporting their martyr.

But in a long one? Those ADHD attention spans will wander. The intensity will wane. Or merely become tiresome. Like a child throwing a tantrum, they inevitably tire. Which clears the floor for a reasoned, fact-based inquiry.

With a majority of plainly amoral Republicans in the Senate, winning the war of public opinion is the only way to permanently delete the Trump virus.

Why It's Harder to Run As a Democrat

The most-illuminating moment of the first Democratic debate wasn't Kamala Harris' condemnation of Joe Biden's wildly-misunderstood comment about working with segregationists Herman Talmadge and James Eastland, but her response to a moderator's question.

After giving a lengthy explanation of her health care plan, I believe it was Savannah Guthrie who asked Harris how she proposed to pay for it.

Rising to the bait, Harris fired back. She pointedly questioned why no one asked the same of Donald Trump as he was giving away massive amounts of money to the wealthiest portions of our population.

Her reply shed light on a curious phenomenon in present day American politics: Entirely different things are expected of Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats need to bring actual ideas to the table and get buy-in from a bewilderingly diverse electorate. 

Republicans only need to appeal to gun totin' white guys, rich white guys and angry white guys who essentially hate anyone who isn't just like them, be it because of genitalia, country of origin, political belief, sexual orientation or religion.

Republicans need only to bellow louder than the candidate next to them to gain approval. It's a game called How conservative are you?, and the more obnoxious the answer the better.

Aided and abetted by Supreme Court-approved gerrymandering, it's no wonder defectives like Dick Cheney and Donald Trump assumed the presidency. (Oh—you thought George W. Bush was president? Awww. That's cute.) 

For a Republican, acting like the loudest drunk in the bar is a highly-effective campaign strategy.

As he works to undo the damage his feckless trade negotiations with China have wrought and publicly thumbs his nose at concern over Russia's interference in our elections, the Trump-whore tweets.

Yes, besides being the biggest dick in the room, Trump's most consistent personality trait is his Twitter addiction.

As if anyone were interested, Donald weighed-in with his thoughts on the Democratic debate. Among his profundities were “Boring!” and the incredibly ironic “How about taking care of American Citizens (sic) first!?”

Yes, the same guy who engineered the enormous giveaway to the one-percent and its corporations and routinely scales back work place, environmental and economic protections is now worried about American Citizens (sic).

Hmmm. Perhaps the error is ours that we haven't pressed Donald on his definition of Citizens (sic).

So while we tolerate things from Donald Trump even the staunchest of Democrats would have questioned had they originated with Barack Obama, we make Democrats stronger and weaken Republicans when we hold Dems to a higher standard.

Taking the high road inevitably means working at a higher elevation, and as any sentient being understands, the more-challenging the work-out environment the better the results.

We will use that muscle and kick Republican ass in 2020.

The Afterglow

Okay. It wasn't a blue wave. And as a Democrat (or more specifically, an anti-Republican), I'm confused, saddened and disappointed. I mean, if our contempt for Donald Trump doesn't unite democracy-loving Americans, what will?

We have a fact-checking report that informs us that Donald Trump lies an average of thirty times a day. About his policies, their effectiveness, his political opponents and what he had for lunch.

We have a president on the verge of killing a potentially damaging investigation into his cozy relationship with a superpower politically hostile to us.

That's an impeachable obstruction of justice, right?

I get it that Trumpers would rather have body parts forcibly removed than admit their guy isn't the swamp-draining messiah he promised he'd be. And that they'd rather he sleep with their wives or abuse their children before they'd ever think of renouncing him.

But for what? Are y'all really that concerned about the financial well-being of the one-percent? Because that's what your boy is working on. That's agenda item number-one. He's toying with gutting your social security and medicare to pay for the latest round of billionaire-centric tax cuts.

Eighty-three percent of the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act went to one-percent of the population. You know that's not you, right?

But golly—he did send the National Guard down to the border the day before the mid-terms. And that's gotta be worth something.

Exactly what has your hatred of immigrants and gays and women got you? Has it put you in different tax bracket? Are you tooling around in a brand-new BMW? Do you enjoy a heightened sense of satisfaction when you sense that those whom you hate are suffering the outrageous indignities you are?

Does it enrich your own impoverished existence? Does it nourish the parched earth of your soul?

Where is that indomitable Republican will, anyway? Where's that pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps self-sufficiency? Or are you just another example of American victimhood?

Oh that's right—you're a Republican. You can't be.

I've admitted that Republicans are expert marketers. And brilliant button-pushers. I laughed when I saw the Trump-whore's text alleging that Democrats had allowed cop-killer Luis Bracamontes into the country and then allowed him to stay.

I laughed even harder when I realized you'd believe it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: you're a tool, bro. Wait until you see where the car you're riding in is headed.

A wise old man once said be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

In Memoriam

My favorite FDR moment arrived during a speech he gave in New York City just before the 1936 presidential election.

Addressing those who felt his New Deal policies served him better than they did the country, as well as those who simply disliked him on principle, Roosevelt thundered “They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”

It was one of the strongest, most-galvanizing statements I ever heard a Democrat make. It reeked of defiance and purpose. Hearing it again in the midst of the Obama presidency, it seemed strangely powerful and provoked this question:

Given congressional Republican's abject refusal to even consider anything emanating from his administration, why haven't we heard similar words from the Obama White House?

Yes, Obama has faced protracted and entrenched resistance for most of his presidency. Obama could have invented sex and Republicans would just say they got screwed.

On the other hand, he too often played the role of Republican appeaser rather than the world's most powerful Democrat, and this was true before the GOP's takeover of Congress. Obama never grasped the dynamic at work, and squandered a fortune in political capital in the process.

It's no wonder frustrated Democrats (myself included) flocked to Bernie Sanders.

True, Sanders was soft on guns. And we're only too aware of his oft-ridiculed notion of free college tuition.

Yet Bernie Sanders was the sole candidate addressing the outrages perpetuated by our corporate banks and Wall Street and big business in general. Of the relentless march of corporate greed and its devastating consequences.

Sanders shone a very bright light on the corrosive effects of big money on politics and came thisclose to upending the conventional campaign model. Sanders moved Hillary Clinton's campaign decidedly to the left, which never would have happened otherwise.

He made Clinton a stronger Democratic candidate.

I am deeply saddened his campaign is all but over. He was that rare presidential candidate who inspired something as opposed to merely being the lesser of two evils. He was bold. He was different. He had ideas.

He wasn't the latest media-approved brand name our simple-minded culture could digest. If you believe Donald Trump is a rebel, and that by voting for him you are too, think again. He's a billionaire reality TV star. A celebrity. 

It doesn't get any hoarier. (Pun intended.)

Bernie was our best chance to slow the nation's unquestioning lurch to the right. Our best chance to combat what increasingly appears to be an emerging corporate-run police state, a dystopia fueled by slave labor yielding grotesque wealth for an even more-grotesque sliver of the population.

A nation which cuts the Three Musketeers' ethos of “All for one and one for all” in half.

Let's hope that Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign was a door opening, and not one closing.

Sometimes, a Democrat's Best Friend Is a Republican

It's hard to believe Donald Trump once stood with Bill and Hillary Clinton as an avowed New York City Democrat. But times change, don't they? 

Utilizing the m.o. that built his real-estate empire, Trump is seeking the easiest path forward which will yield the great-possible reward. Which in this case is being President of the United States of America.

But the Donald knows better than to run as a Democrat. It's too tough. Too much is expected of you. You have to formulate policies and programs. Ideas are expected.

No, it's easier to run as a Republican where, thanks to the Tea Party, all you have to do is shoot your mouth off like you're the most obnoxious drunk in the bar and the very people Republicans manipulate best will crawl out from beneath their rock and praise you for being “real”.

Yes, rip your opponent(s) a new one for failing to be conservative enough and voila! The nomination is yours.

Fearing being left behind, the other candidates will then ramp up their rhetoric in the hopes that they, too, will compete. That they, too, will be seen as “real”.

So after appeasing the noisy minority who applauds this kind of politicking, the front-runner then find themselves confronted with a much larger and very different type of race.

It's as if after proving they can play "Chopsticks" better than anyone on the block, they then have to prove they're the leading particle physics researcher in the nation.

Thanks to the distorting influences of their right-wing, Republican presidential candidates find themselves ill-equipped to compete in a race which (still) demands so much more than put-downs and half-witted accusations and half-assed smears.

It's like quality control in reverse. Their own nominating process ensures the least-competitive Republican candidate will compete.

Not that I'm complaining.

Positively Presidential

Underwhelmed by the prospective candidates for the 2012 presidential election, I set about creating slogans for their campaigns.

For Barack Obama it would be this: Republicans are people, too.

For Michele Bachmann, I have two. Number one: What have you got to lose? Number two: The President we deserve.

As always, comments are welcome.

Confronting Confrontation

To paraphrase Albert Einstein, Barack Obama is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

Given a mandate by an electorate fed-up with eight years of Republican policies, Obama seemed poised to lead America into a fresh, new era. Factoring in a Democratic-controlled Congress, the promise of January 20, 2009 seemed infinite.

But a funny thing happened. The electorate that thought it was getting a president committed to righting the wrongs of the Bush administration instead got a president routinely unable to corral congressional Democrats and get them on the same page to enact desperately-needed legislation.

A president who, despite being repeatedly subjected to the most-obnoxious elements of the conservative noise machine, attempted only to appease it.

We thought we were voting for the voice of change in November of 2008. It turns out we were voting for at-any-and-all-costs bipartisanship. In doing so, Obama has consistently snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

As a slight, bookish boy not given to athletics, I was familiar with bullies.

This came to a head one day as I was returning to school after lunch. I encountered Billy Smith on the sledding hill near my home, and for whatever reason, Billy was in a foul mood. He believed that giving me a beating would right all the wrong in his world.

I attempted to ignore him, gamely continuing on. But Billy would not be denied. And when he landed a punch to my face, I became enraged. I kicked and punched with a fury unknown to me. And as the fight moved to the steep slope at the rear of the hill, I saw my opportunity and pushed him down it.

It gave me great satisfaction to see him tumbling. To see him get scratched and bruised by the cement-like clumps of earth. And when he reached bottom, I heard a strange and unexpected sound—Billy the Bully was crying. I gathered my books and continued to school.

I felt empowered in a way I never had before.

Billy never touched me again, and even made an awkward attempt at friendship. But the enduring lesson I took from that day was that there is a small group of people who respect and understand just one thing: force.

It is sad. And it is unfortunate. But it is true.

It is also something Barack Obama will never understand.

In his news conference responding to criticism over a deal he cut with Republicans, Obama defended the compromise by saying that he couldn’t have working-class Americans held hostage by Republican threats.

What he doesn’t get is that by repeatedly kowtowing to the bully, he extends and entrenches the bullying. And consequently, the desperate state of the country he is entrusted to lead.

Mr. President, it's time to push Billy Smith down the hill.

How Tea Baggers Inspired Me to Bridge the Enthusiasm Gap

I just didn’t have the stomach for it. I was going to sit this election out. Such was my disgust with the party that rendered a congressional supermajority into a meek, sniveling, ninety-eight pound weakling.

That is, until I realized what the alternative was.

I realized what the alternative was when I heard people named Joe Miller, Sharron Angle, Rand Paul and Meg Whitman talk about “re-thinking” the minimum wage.

For those not familiar with teabag-speak, that’s code for eliminating it. Because the extravagance that is the minimum wage is stealing food from the table of America’s wealthy.

That’s right. You’re making too much money. Never mind the unpunished folk on Wall Street. Or our similarly unchastised ginormous corporate banks. Or even the unregulated businesses allowed to comport themselves like Bonobo monkeys under sanction from an addled presidential administration.

They’re not the problem. You are. Your indulgent lifestyle and skyrocketing wages are driving this country to the brink of ruin. And you must be stopped.

Taking a deep breath, I will admit this is unlikely to happen—even in the undeclared class war happening beneath our noses. But the fact the cast of Tea Baggers can say this in the midst of the worst economic climate in eighty-years sends up a giant red flare.

They have no fear of reprisal. No concern that the former office manager working as a part-time cashier at Wal-Mart or the ex-machinist working as a security guard or the downsized accountant applying at the local 7-11 will take exception to this outrage.

None.

The same folk who have the temerity to suggest that victims of incest turn lemons into lemonade are now calling for sacrifices from the working poor, the hardest-hit victims of Republican economic policies. And I can't help but wonder who's next.

Like you, the thought of CEOs forced to drive last year’s S-class Mercedes keeps me up at night. As does bankers having to scale-back their annual visits to the Amalfi Coast to just three weeks.

But will someone please tell me what can be culled from a lifestyle that often does not even provide food, clothing and shelter?

Republicans are the Viaga which keeps the diseased dick of wealth and power ready, willing and able to rape anything within its reach. And without unified and strident opposition, we become the pharmacists writing the prescription.

If I can’t support Democrats, I can oppose Republicans. Vehemently. Passionately. And with extreme prejudice.

Consider the enthusiasm gap bridged.

This Just In--Democrat Grows a Pair!

Oh my. Did this really happen? It did, didn’t it? Please tell me it did.

After a summer of being brutalized and battered, of remaining mute even as the most outrageous lies were being told, did a Democrat actually make a fist and hit back?

Yes!

Alan Grayson, a freshman congressman from Florida, inflamed and outraged House Republicants while addressing health care reform. In his presentation, Grayson had the chutzpah to lay bare the Republicant idea of health care, whose essence--in Grayson's words--is 1.) Don’t get sick and 2.) Die quickly.

When asked by Republicants to apologize, Grayson took the floor and apologized to everyone who has died because of insufficient health care. Then he apologized to their families. Then he told Republicants they need to give a damn about people--even after they're born.

Ha!

Republicants are indignant. Indignant because Democrats have been meek and obedient lap cats this long hot summer, and done everything in their power to give the impression of being, if not spineless, then neutered.

Grayson’s behavior must be a terrible shock to them.

Congressman Grayson, wherever you are, thank you. Here’s hoping your chutzpah is an airborne contagion which spreads rapidly throughout the House and Senate.

Playing Politics (a.k.a. The Art of War)

It pains me to write this, but Democrats just don’t get it. The party that wants to fight for human rights can't even make a fist.

They tote poetry to a street brawl. Confuse politics with picnics. And who could ever forget John Kerry answering the outrageous accusations of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth with silence?

While health care lobbyists mobilize the most-freakish elements in the conservative base to recreate The Jerry Springer Show at Democrat-led town hall meetings, Barack Obama and Harry Reid continue to speak of their jaw-dropping desire to include Republicans in the drafting of health care reform.

Are they masochists who secretly enjoy being humiliated? Are they prepping for a dramatic turn as battered spouses? What?

However lacking Republicans are in leadership and ideas, they are expert manipulators. They skillfully exploit humanity’s worst fears and unerringly find our lowest common denominator hot button.

Republicans could turn a monastery of Buddhist monks into a howling, finger-pointing mob.

They know how to appear as an unwavering wall of unity. They know how to follow each other to the nearest TV camera and parrot party policy.

These abilities have awarded them the White House for seventy-five percent of the past forty years, and given them political leverage when most of us thought they would be relegated to curiosity status.

If you’re unfortunate enough to be a Democrat, your elected representation is spine-free, and more concerned with appeasing knee-jerk contrarians than implementing thoughtful and inclusive policy. And if not that, they’re closet Republicans who only ran as Democrats to escape the long, dark shadow of the Bush administration.

A lumber yard after an F5 tornado isn’t as splintered as our current group of congressional Democrats. They are the answer to the question ‘When is a majority not a majority?’

I think it was Will Rogers who said “I am not a member of any organized political party—I am a Democrat.”

And then there’s us. We the feeble. If not our homes, we Americans at least inhabit healthy egos. We are the biggest, the strongest, the fastest, the smartest and the richest. We know so because we are told so.

This is America, isn’t it?

But countries all over the globe surpass us in life expectancy, infant mortality, per-capita income and education, not to mention access and quality of health care. To be kind, we are Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. We are a delusional populace clinging to a nation that exists only in our minds.

Ironically, it is Republicans—and only Republicans--who benefit from their dismal record on education. It's no secret that the least-educated are the most-malleable. And only the uneducated would gulp the swill health care toadies are dishing out: death panels and socialism and publicly-funded abortions, oh my!

The best thing we can do is to do nothing. And be afraid. Very afraid.

Personally, I’m just relieved that more of us don’t protest. Don’t contact our elected representation to demand explanations for their actions.

We are too busy copying the license plate number of the man who smiled at our toddler in the park to bother finding out what our congressmen are doing with our money and our country. That would get in the way of doing what we do best, which is prove P.T. Barnum correct.

Health care reform is very, very serious stuff. Which is why Washington DC sports six health care lobbyists for every U.S. congressman. It is why health care is shoveling money at this crazy talk about reform like a coal man in a nineteenth-century locomotive.

The ten-largest health care insurers have seen their profits rise 428% since the year 2000, which is even higher than the rise in medical-related bankruptcies and foreclosures.

Like I said, serious stuff. No wonder the Republican noise machine is cranked up to eleven.

One party wants only to keep the wealthy wealthy and the powerful powerful. The other can't agree on the day of the week.

That leaves us.

Uncontained health care costs are a threat to everyone, be they black, white, female, male, rich, poor, gay or straight. We need to make clear to our representation that we want and need a public option with our health care, and that we’re watching.

We mustn’t confuse the world's most-profitable health care with the world's most-effective.

If we do, grandma won’t be the only one in danger of being unplugged.