There are times when it seems as if there is no rhyme or reason to life. After this long and hard fought presidential election, I had begun to hope that maybe America would settle down. That just maybe we could come together and share a common bond that places the future of our nation above our differences. The older I get, the harder it is to hang on to optimism.

Don't get me wrong, I am still absolutely certain that the number of good people in America far outnumber the evil. What amazes me is how dedicated to evil that minority is, and how no matter what happens they will not allow themselves to ever see themselves as having anything in common with those they are convinced are inferior to themselves. Throughout history we have seen that often an aggressive minority changes a nation. No place is this phenomena more clear than in the case of Nazi Germany where a majority of people stood by and allowed themselves to be taken over by an aggressive, focused minority. We saw it during the days of segregation in America where the majority stood by as organized minorities like the Ku Klux Klan rampaged without fear of being brought to justice. Radical social conservatives are keenly aware of this possibility which is why they never stop their campaigns to misinform and confuse the people, ever aware that misinformed people will often act against their own best interests and thus help create the climate in which they, like Hitler and his cohorts are able to take control by proclaiming themselves the saviors of the people.

My point in all this is the fact that I have begun to see what I call The Obama Effect. The Obama Effect is what I call the growing incidences in which it is made clear to me that some whites hold educated and accomplished non-whites in contempt in the belief that their success somehow is leading to an erosion in their access to opportunity. I have experienced this especially in dealing with bitter underprivileged white people, often unemployed or under employed who are convinced that a rising black ruling class in America spells disaster for them. They hold all liberals/progressives responsible and are a big reason why you see so many people who support the causes that benefit the ultra-rich despite the fact that this support works against their own best interests and in fact contribute to the factors causing the misery they attribute to educated and accomplished non-whites.

What alarms me is also the number of Blacks, Asians and Latinos who align themselves with these people, somehow lost in a misguided belief that their best interests are served by attempting to curry favor with them. Too bad they don't understand that history has proven that if such people as radical social conservatives do somehow become in control, the first people they subjugate and kill off are those who were willing to betray their own, even if it did benefit them. I defy in fact anyone to find anytime in history in which people betrayed their own and wound up better off in the long run as a result.

The most stunning example of the Obama Effect is finding myself in places of business in which I disappear. It has happened so many times recently in such wide spread and unrelated places that I cannot help but begin to see a pattern. In these places I simply am not there. Only if I speak up and insist that I be recognized am I served. At first I could not understand the point, but now I get it. I may seem affluent, educated and/or accomplished, but I am made to feel belittled by being forced to  demand to be acknowledged. It is in fact a very subtle and powerful way of discriminating, one in which it becomes very difficult to prove you are being mistreated, but very powerful nonetheless. If you become angry and demanding, you can easily be provoked to a point in which you become the problem and the police can now be called. If you handle it well, in a careful pragmatic way, you get what you came for but must leave with the knowledge that you had to make this extra effort to be served.

I do not know where this will lead. But I see clearly that there are those who will never accept anyone who is not white as equals. For these sad people the illusion of being superior is all they have.

The results are in and as an African American I have to admit they are awe inspiring. Four years ago America elected its first Black president. Now that first black president has been reaffirmed for another term.  Not only has his efforts been recognized and approved by the majority of Americans, it was done in a resounding fashion. These are days I wasn't sure I would live to see. While as a young man in my twenties I was sure I would someday see a black president, the older and more experienced I became, the more skeptical I grew. In fact, in recent years my biggest fear has been losing many of the hard won gains blacks have achieved socially in America. I still have great fear that my grandchildren may yet have to re-fight the battles that cost us so much.

While we celebrate the re-election of Barack Obama, we must quickly begin to also consider the other ramifications of what has happened. I would submit that if we are not careful, this could be the beginning of a great slide back to a past we do not want to see. I am certain that as the dust settles, there will be a great deal of soul searching among those who fought so hard but lost. Especially among those who spent so much money only to not achieve their goals, there will be a great deal of discussion about how that money would have been better spent. I predict that with the realization that elections cannot be bought solely through the use of media, we will see an increased commitment to other possible measures.

The one thing Obama's re-election has clearly proven is that the greatest fears of the 1% has been realized. The nations diversity has already reached the point where the old time power of the WASP ruling class can be overcome. While the main stream republicans debate how to re-frame their message to attract more diversity  the nefarious few, the far right conservative fringe exemplified by the 1% will take a different course, I predict. There is absolutely a desire by conservatives to eliminate altogether majority rule. We have seen this effort grow since the 80's, beginning with the Reagan revolution. Until now conservative strategists felt that control of the supreme court was the key to re-litigating and therefore re-defining the social change this country has gone through since the end of segregation. But now that long term control of the court has been thwarted by the re-election of Obama, I predict there will be an increase of more direct action to reduce the number of people who can vote in any election. Not only will there be a dramatic increase in efforts to rig the vote and to reduce voting rolls, there will be even more dramatic efforts undertaken to legally limit the right to vote that so many Americans think is guaranteed by the constitution that in fact are not. Historically the term conservative has always meant those who oppose majority rule. What the majority of Americans need to come to grips with is that this imperialistic minority want to be the ruling class, and so no matter what they say publicly, they do not care about the fate of the common person, Democrat or Republican.

If you go back and take a long look at what Franklin Roosevelt did to insure the success of the New Deal, you will also see the answer to our current situation. Roosevelt not only put people to work, employing them in public works when private industry could not fill the need, which produced the much needed revenues to pay the nations debts through the increased number of taxpayers, which actually benefits the rich and the poor, he also led a social change in our society. People were urged to become involved in local politics. Roosevelt knew the conservatives would do all they could to undermine his efforts, so he got democrats to become precinct committee people at their local election boards and to take active roles in making sure the process could not be rigged for failure by those who opposed him. In every area where conservatives tried to undermine his efforts, he took swift action to deal with them and the more obvious his policies were working, the more aggressive the people became in supporting what he did. This is how we overcame the great depression and this led directly to the industrial revolution and the creation of the worlds strongest middle class. This kind of action is what we need now.

It is very important that we remember that in just two years, 2014, there will be another election. Progressives must get involved now to take back the House of Representatives from the obstructionists of both parties and elect progressive democrats and republicans who will work together to serve the best interests of the people. The willingness to compromise and work together must become the new bench mark for measuring the success of our elected officials, and when they fail to do so, they must be replaced immediately. We cannot allow a repeat of 2010 which gave us the most dysfunctional congress in history. If we do not take these actions, and we revert to the kind of complacency that allowed 2010 to happen, we will surely be laying the foundation for what can only ultimately end in bloody revolution. We must also push our officials, Obama on down, to create a constitutional amendment affirming every citizens right to vote and setting the criteria by which it is to be carried out, with severe penalties for those who attempt to undermine or violate it. We must put in place tariffs and restrictions on access to our markets by those who manufacture elsewhere, and we must reaffirm the role of the supreme court as a legal body without powers to legislate, as was the purpose of the constitution. The time is now.

There is no greater irony than Latinos, Asians, Blacks and others like them supporting people like Romney and Ryan. What they don't want to accept is that these peoples greatest fear is that their kind will lose power to an ever increasing population of non white voters. Their plan is to empower a permanent ruling elite class in advance of the coming time when non whites will outnumber whites as voters in America. So what do you think they will do with those who they used, that they know will someday realize they were duped? The idea that these folks will be grateful and therefore they will reward those who helped them even if they are not part of the people they desire in their world is ridiculous. First off, why would they ever trust someone who betrayed their own people and their own best interests in the name of greed? No one worries about being robbed more than a thief. No, the first thing to do is rid yourselves of those who remind you of your own treachery. It is  a basic part of self preservation for the paranoid to feel you must remove those who you fear may someday retaliate. And no group of people are more paranoid than far right conservatives, who generally have enriched themselves by taking advantage of the less fortunate. Out of sight, out of mind.

Never in my 58 years of life has it been more important to vote, to stem the tide that has been the result finally of years of trying by the far right conservative and Libertarians (who are actually the most extreme in hiding) to finally undo Americas social and economic advances that go back to the New Deal. We have a clear choice, we can elect a man who will continue the trend of appointing justices to the supreme court who have no allegiance to the Constitution but rather desire to remake this nation in an image they have had for generations, to abolish majority rule and establish a plutocratic system in which all power is held by the ruling elite. This is not anything new, these types of societies have existed since the beginning of time, and in every case they are ultimately overthrown, often violently by the majority once they have finally had enough. But in the meanwhile they have generations to enrich and engorge themselves with wealth and power. The people who promote this approach are the offspring of many of the same people who supported Hitler, because they had the same long term goal. 

The most prominent and outspoken of the founding fathers of America were most afraid of this happening. They were all too familiar with the powerful East India Companies and what they felt could be the ultimate outcome of allowing such concentrations of money and power. In reaction to the Supreme Courts ruling on Citizens United, The Harvard Review published "What The Founding Fathers Really Thought about Corporations", by Justin Fox, which  contained within his blog an e-mail conversation with Brian Murphy, a history professor who is recognized as an authority on the aims of the founding fathers in writing the constitution. Among his comments: "Early Americans had a far more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of corporations than the (Supreme)
Court gives them credit for. When you read Madison in particular, you see that he wasn't blindly hostile to banks during his fight with Alexander Hamilton over the Bank of the United States. Instead, he's worried about the unchecked power of accumulations of capital that come with creating a class of bankers. They saw corporations as corrupting influences on both the economy at large and on government — that's why they described the East India Company as imperium in imperio, a sort of "state within a state." This wasn't an outcome they were looking to replicate." http://blogs.hbr.org/fox/2010/04/what-the-founding-fathers-real.html

Nothing will more surely lead to the final destruction of America as freedom loving people see it than electing the people whose ultimate goal is to establish an elite ruling class. And make no mistake, that is what Romney, Ryan,the Koch Brothers, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and others like  them are working for. 

Vote, and urge everyone you know to vote, because never has it been so important, and it is a right that may not always be something we can take for granted if we elect some of the people who are plotting the takeover of this nation. When I was a child, it was black people who struggled to be able to vote, soon it may be all who are not among the ruling elite, and that will be a lot of more of you than you realize.

The first presidential debate took place last night. Virtually everyone agrees that President Obama did poorly. I wonder if we will ever know what happened with the president, because we all know he is capable of so much more. Is he growing tired? You can't blame him if he is. Who has ever endured so much as he has had to since being elected. Between the general evil that just seems to be part and parcel of the Republican agenda, he has had to carry the added weight of his skin color, and what has to be among the greatest load of expectations that any president has had to face. But if there is one thing Barack Obama has shown us as president is that it is much easier to get him down than to keep him down, and only a fool would count him out even after such a poor performance.

What I find more compelling is the performance of Mitt Romney, and the reaction of his supporters and of those who claim to be still uncommitted. Clearly Romney did what he had to do. He was arrogant and bullying; displaying the kind of strong will some admire. But what he mainly did was to look down his nose at the American people and  lie. And he didn't just tell huge lies, he changed his lies in many cases from the lies he had been telling since he started campaigning. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have both set a new standard in telling lies about their lies. Many of these lies have already been proven to be lies. Even his own supporters have at times admitted that, well yes, he lied. More than anything else Mitt reaffirmed that he will tell any lie in order to get what he wants, which, of course, we  already knew. But what is truly astounding is the willingness of fellow Republicans, seemingly decent people, to accept and even embrace this strategy.

Among the things my mother taught me as a child was to never trust someone who lied so easily. Even if they were lying to someone else, and even if the lie benefited you, it was important to understand that people who succeed through lying grow ever more bold with those lies, and no matter how strong an ally you think they are, someday you will catch them lying to you. People who have become accomplished liars cannot really respect other people. How can you respect people who you can fool so easily? And ultimately you must have even less respect for those who know you are lying but support you anyway, because they have shown they are as dishonest as you, so whatever they ultimately get from you, they deserve. The most amazing thing about this all is that any of Romney's supporters believe that after all this lying, they can trust him to do what they want once he is in control.

Which to me brings up another point to consider, have the people of this country gone too far to ever be redeemed? I'm not saying that most Americans are so lacking in moral character, but how can the fact that we have allowed such a group of people, many among the richest and most powerful of our nation to become so arrogant that they openly demonstrate their disdain and utter lack of respect for any of us, not be a sign that the end of this nation as we have known it must be near. History has recorded that every empire that has ever existed eventually implodes, and that always happens when that nation becomes torn apart by those who become so obsessed with power that they work to undermine their nation, ensuring their own demise in the process. Whether you believe in any religion or not, it would seem just common sense that humankind's greed and obsession with power will eventually undermine it. But then it becomes even more crazy when you see the large number of so called Christians who support this man knowing full well he totally lacks any shred of moral decency.

The media celebrates his decadence, even as they occasionally admit that he is embarrassingly full of shit. The rest of the world stands astonished that the nation that for so long claimed the moral high ground so shamelessly panders to this charade. Not just the privileged few, but millions of those who don't have much more than a pot to piss in but delude themselves into believing they might someday become one of the wealthy privileged few listen to these lies, know they are lies, but aren't bothered at all. Meanwhile, these people like the Romney's barely are able to contain the obvious fact that it is their mission to do all they can to make sure as few as possible ever have that chance to be among them, even as they lie about it with that smirk on their faces.

How can we not believe that the prophecy of the bible is clearly coming to pass. How can we not see that we may have reached a point of no return in our willingness to put up with such evil. Even as we wink and laugh at how ridiculous Romney is, he is still accepted as a viable candidate to lead and represent this nation.

I fear, and I predict that no matter who wins this election, this nation is on a very short journey to its end. It is time for those who are decent thoughtful people to prepare, and to start considering where we go once this has all collapsed. Because it will. It must. Nothing built on lies and deceit can last. Surely your mother told you that.

Since March this year, 2012 I have been pretty much on the road non stop through out America. Ultimately I will visit all 48 contiguous states. Hanging out a lot in truck stops and low budget motels, I have had a chance to meet a lot of very interesting people. My mission has been to answer one question, what do Americans really think about the condition of this nation. Eventually the results of my journeys will be available to the general public, but right now, as we approach this upcoming presidential election, I have decided to share some of what I have learned.

It is, of course no surprise to find out that the majority of Americans are really good, decent people just trying to survive difficult times. It is at times difficult to digest all the many ways people perceive the state of our nation and sometimes really surprising to realize how many have very extreme, radical views. It is also a major surprise for me to see how many's views are very regressive and based on little more than revisionist history which many only know in passing, and accept as truth with little or no actual time invested in learning the truth. Most alarming is realizing how successful those who use the "Big Lie Theory", have been and how it has shaped the beliefs of a small but vocal and aggressive number of Americans. The Big Lie Theory, utilized by many throughout history, but most infamously embraced by George Rommel of Hitlers inner circle, is the idea that if you tell really big, outrageous lies and keep repeating them no matter how often they are challenged or debunked, a sizable number of people will believe them and adopt them as unshakable truths. We can cite many examples throughout history in which this ploy was successfully used. Most pertinent to me was the lie that black people lack the intellectual capacity of non white people and therefore could not be taught difficult concepts, a lie I grew up with and spent my life trying to prove wrong. Even after 400 years there are those who still believe this lie is true. Ironically they are often the most intellectually challenged among us themselves. Grasping for straws my mother would say of them.

This past week I stood with a group of long haul truck drivers and we talked about the upcoming elections and who was telling the truth, and who was not. One pleasant surprise has been meeting more and more people who would normally be staunch conservatives, but yet have come to realize that the people who represent themselves as conservative, like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, are not actually conservative, instead using this designation as a smoke screen to get power with the real intent of subjugating the middle class, regardless of political beliefs. But I have also been shocked at the number of people who have been brainwashed into supporting policies that clearly will not benefit them.

 Last week during a spirited debate there was one man who aggressively supported the policies of Romney/Ryan. He had earlier told me he had lost everything in a divorce and was living in his truck. Credit trashed and unable to get a manufacturing job like the one he lost when his employer moved the jobs to Asia, he was convinced that his problems were the result of too many people dependent on the government for survival. He took special umbrage at my asserrtion that there was something wrong with attempting to limit the number of people eligible to vote, arguing that the founding fathers never believed in majority rule, that they wanted to limit the right to vote to citizens in good standing who were property owners. He felt we should return to this policy, because he favored making sure Whites remain in control in the face of the nations growing diversity, after all he said, without European influence there would be no America as we knew it. He was totally in denial regarding the fact that he, because he owned no property would not be able to vote insisting that if this were the policy of the land, what happened to him would not have been. He, like a surprising number of others I have met this year have no problem with limiting education, the better  jobs, retirement benefits, etc to the privileged few, apparently convinced that this group will include them. They argue the conservative line that this will guarantee stability and promote a strong and prosperous nation.
And the freeloaders will be better off because they will not have to deal with the illusion that they matter.

 Maybe they reason, they will even leave.

It is rare when these people outright admit this is what they believe, but it is clear when you listen carefully to what they are saying. As I have said, these people are in the minority, but they are aggressive and growing. And I pray that the rest of us will be diligent in making sure they don't get the America they want. Please vote.

It is time for the majority of Americans to recognize and accept one uncomfortable truth. There is a segment of our nation whose sense of entitlement and whose basic sense of greed is so pervasive that they will never be able to accept the majority of us as fellow Americans. You know who they are. You see them on TV talking about how lazy and despicable we are. They believe that the rest of us are parasites, and that no matter how hard we work, how decent and law abiding we are, no matter how much wealth we produce for them, that we are beneath them and they would never be able to see us as equals. This is not an issue of race, even though many of them try to convince us that it is. But those of us with wisdom understand that this is just a ploy to keep us from focusing on what the true issues are. Its not really an issue of religious beliefs, even though they exploit those differences for the sames reasons that they exploit racial differences, because in the end they believe we are not smart enough to recognize that nothing else matters to them but money and power.

We, the majority, the hard working and dedicated patriots of America must recognize

•  that they have no problem with sacrificing our children by sending them off to fight in foreign lands, often solely for the purpose of making it safer for them to get richer by exploiting those lands. 
• They have no problem with trying in every way possible to limit the rights of as many of us as possible to vote because they believe majority rule is equal to mob rule and that only they deserve to make decisions that impact what happens in America.
•  These people do not want a middle class because they believe the nation will be more stable when everyone other than this ruling class has to spend every working hour focused on survival, and helping to make them richer with our labor. 
• They do not believe the majority need quality educations beyond that necessary for us to be able to do the work they need us to do because they are sure knowledge leads to instability because the more we know about how things work, the more we think our families deserve more than they want to allow us to have and that has a detrimental effect on their profits and sense of stability.

 These people will never identify with you and I, which is why you hear them constantly saying that the government wants their money. They say, the government thinks their money belongs to them. They do not want you to realize that we are the government. The government of this nation will be whatever we allow it to be and this is exactly what this nations founding fathers wanted, for the government to be the way that average people counter the power of the unscrupulous and greedy. They do not want to admit that what they mean is that they do not want to share the great wealth they have acquired as a result of  all the hard work and contributions to this nation we all have made in so many ways over so many generations that made their success possible. They were like us at one time, but the richer some people get, the more they want to separate from the rest of us. Everyone wants to share misery, but beware of those who gain an advantage and become obsessed with exploiting that advantage no matter who it costs. And saddest of all are those who have little and are so totally brainwashed by the greedy that they actually defend them and advocate for them in a the misguided belief that this will somehow allow them to become rich and elite like them.

This is the America Thomas Jefferson worried might be. This is the America George Washington warned us about. Dwight Eisenhower spoke constantly about the need to make sure these people never are allowed to undermine the middle class. Abraham Lincoln went to war to stop the last major insurrection that was the result of this same idea of a "socially conservative America", which is code speak for a nation divided against it self and thereby easy to control.

There is a lot of advantage in growing up poor in a relatively small, segregated town. I grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, on the East side of the tracks. That was how our world was divided. The East side is where you lived if you were black or Latino. The West side is where white people lived. Children are not born with prejudice, and because my mother, who I would come to understand had experienced much heart wrenching prejudice in her life was focused on earning Gods love, prejudice was not taught or passed to us in our house.

Next door to our small house was  the neighborhood grocery store. It was run by brother Amos, an aging man, huge, but gentle and loving. He always had his bible with him and everyone in the neighborhood knew if you needed something, he would find a way to help you. He felt being a Christian obliged you to feel that way. Brother Amos store is where in warm months, the elderly men of the neighborhood gathered to talk about the worlds issues. I was fascinated with sitting and listening to them, and only years later did I marvel at the fact that these men, who must have endured some amazing things in their time, never displayed anger or hate, but instead talked about hope and dreams and how things would not always be as they were.