Herman Cane and the Brainwashed Negroes

I personally do not care that Herman Cane is running for the Republican nomination to be President of the United States. I think hes is a funny guy and I would love to have him tell me how he managed to arrive at his political beliefs. At best he strikes me as just another opportunist attempting to use the Newt Gingrich method of filling your pockets with the money of the easily misled.

But when he dares to apologize for African American people, which means by extension me, to the far right social conservatives whom I am convinced are dedicated to rolling back the clock on Americas social progress to the detriment of my grandchildren, I get mad. Herman Cane would dare to say that " African Americans are brainwashed into voting for Democrats." How can it be called being brainwashed to want to vote for people who clearly represent the issues which will benefit the average American. On virtually every issue, job creation, health care, schools, collective bargaining, environmental protection and on and on, what I see from the right wing that Herman Cane seeks to entertain seems to me to be a to want to move the nation many steps back in an effort to create a country with clearly defined class differences, greatly reducing economic opportunity for those not born wealthy. That any Black man could look and listen to the rhetoric pouring forth from these people and not see that no matter how successful Cane thinks he is, he nor anyone who looks like him is a part of the vision conservatives have for this country beyond the role of subservience. Anyone who cannot see this is clearly brainwashed or simply delusional.

But I give Herman Can more credit than he gives us. I feel sure he does not believe what he says, confirming my suspicion that he is a man lacking any amount of personal integrity. I have known men like him, who think they somewhere along the line lucked into some great wisdom and in his own mind probably believes that he is really clever in getting social conservatives to support him on any level. He is correct that even though he has no chance of winning the nomination, he will rake in large speaking fees as they trot Cane out whenever they want to have affirm how smart they are because, after all , he agrees with us.

To me though, this is the true definition of an Uncle Tom, the willingness to humiliate and bring harm to your own people in an effort to advance your own personal agenda . Believe what you want Herman, but don't try to disrespect and humiliate us to achieve your goal. You may not like the result.

Will the real Obama please stand up?

Watching the Obama administration play out is in every way like a well written and intriguing film. On one side we have the masterful manipulation of the highs and lows of the right wing, who have wrested control of the Republican party and have  miraculously used their domination of the media to convince people they are victimized by the media, who have conned dull witted Americans into believing the word entitlement has a negative connotation and who have launched all out class warfare against the American people, clearly targeting organized labor, public employees especially, any type of media not already under their control, public safety nets for the poor and/or elderly. On top of this they are clearly making an attempt to completely eradicate the middle class while all the time successfully convincing a sizable segment of the population that these policies are indeed to their benefit even as every obvious sign is that this is not true.  An accurate description of what conservatives have accomplished; it is as if someone drives a bus off the road, while telling the passengers that its really all their fault for needing to ride the bus.

For those of us who are fans of history, and who are objective in judging our history, it is eerily reminiscent of what Democrats accomplished in the lead up to the civil war, convincing thousands to go to war against their own people to preserve slavery despite the fact that slavery had no benefit for them at all. Then like now, the very people being manipulated into supporting these policies will most likely wind up being their most profound victims.

And then, along comes a hero.With the brains and cunning of Wild Bill Clinton, without the moral baggage, Barack Hussein Obama strides onto the stage and  the most improbable of plot twists takes place. America elects its first African American president who ran for office on a platform of bringing change to the nation. It was a stunning and emotional turn of events. The conservatives were energized to the point that policies that had been largely kept clandestine suddenly were fully revealed by those who believe that Americas legacy of racism would bring the desired people together under their leadership. Just as in the civil war, the specter of us against them could clearly be more powerful than the reality of the price the people would pay for goals so clearly designed to benefit the very few.

 But wait, another plot twist, even though the element of racism is clearly present for some, overwhelmingly Americans are realizing that this is indeed a war over who will own and control America, the very rich or the rapidly disappearing American middle class. It is class warfare in every aspect of the term. This is because, armed with the understanding of what is really going on, Obama has refused to be victimized by the cunning efforts of the conservative mob.

Obama takes office as president with class and dignity and immediately begins to try to build working coalitions. Over and over, to the horror and disgust of many of those who voted to elect him, he works to build consensus and puts forth real solutions to Americas problems. But the conservative mob is focused, organized and well funded and fights back aggressively, accusing the president of promoting the very class warfare they have been quietly waging against Americans for years. Conservatives, backed by their understanding of history are convinced that the majority will most likely sit quietly by while a vocal minority dictates the future of the land.

Obama is down, every poll confirms it and the dream of change is clearly on the ropes.But miraculously, to everyone's amazement, he gets his reform of health care, however butchered and altered to pass, giving notice that he is indeed a formidable foe.  But conservatives, doing what they do best convinces the people yet again that progress is actually failure and so the public does what conservatives hoped for and in their confusion elects a government that can only obstruct itself. But Obama will not stay down.

While the conservatives are busy celebrating the success of their ruse, Obama quietly orchestrates and leads the dismantling of Americas greatest foreign threat, finding and eliminating the leader of Al Qaeda and even now tracking down and destroying it wherever it attempts to revive it self. This is a stunning reversal of fortune and Obama's popularity soars again.

Slowly, painstakingly, conservatives work to convince the dim witted that Obama's victory was actually there's and could not have been done without them. In another amazing plot twist, the much maligned George Bush and Dick Cheney attempt to claim Obama's success as proving they were right, even though every documented fact shows that this is far from the truth. Clearly there is a measure of success from their efforts as Americans reeling from the fear of economic ruin turn away from Obama's great accomplishment, seeking answers to problems much closer to home.

Obama is down again, every poll confirms it and conservatives can hardly contain themselves. Some to the far right like Andrew Breitbart begin to openly encourage the idea that their momentum is so great  the country can now simply be overthrown with the backing of conservatives with guns, invoking a truly surreal vision of Americas future. Some might say this is unrealistic, but history has shown over and over that this type of scenario happens and usually as a result of the type of political turmoil we see in America today. Conservatives again cling to the concept that if the radical right insists that all America needs to be restored to greatness is for the power to be put back in the hands of the right group of people, wealthy, white, male and they are allowed to roll back all vestiges of diversity, God will be pleased and the land will be blessed. History shows that even among those who reject this idea, many can't help hoping that maybe conservatives are right and it could be that simple.

But Obama won't stay down and in the most amazing plot twist yet, Obama comes forward with a dramatic plan, continuing to push the only ides that could work to reduce the nations deficit and restore it to solvency, only now the pragmatic diplomat has given way to the forceful warrior. Understanding that timing is everything, he recognizes that now is the time to take the fight to the people. Force them to educate themselves about the issues and to understand that throughout America's history, from the post revolutionary war economic disaster to today, raising revenues is  the only method that has ever worked to pay off debt created by war and general malfeasance. In an a now tired and worn effort conservatives act as expected and howl with derision as they invoke the fear of class warfare, but could it be that America may finally be getting it? One of the things I most admired about Bill Clinton was his understanding that people without integrity will always eventually reveal themselves, after all that is what they really desire most. Will America finally see that class warfare is what we have been in for a long time?

I can hardly wait for the next episode.

Limited Government, what does it really mean?

It is very popular among Republican right wing politicians to promote the virtues of limiting the government. Just this morning I saw a video clip of Texas Governor Rick Perry saying "we want to make government inconsequential in the lives of Americans." On the surface, this sounds very inviting. Who, no matter your political affiliation does not see having as little interference as possible from government, all governments; federal, state, city or county in your personal life as a good thing? But what does this really mean? I submit that this is a far more complicated issue than the average American realizes and America's history, when clearly understood, does not make this seem very attractive at all.

Literally from Americas beginning the same forces of humankind have been in play that have existed throughout human history. Put bluntly, the greed and ambition of the few has always interfered in the lives of the average person. Throughout Americas history, the daily fight to simply survive has dominated most peoples lives from birth to death. Until the advent of the organized labor movement, few people ever envisioned the day when they might ever have significant leisure time for themselves or their families. The concept of quality of life was solely the domain of the wealthy and most people lived and died knowing very few personal pleasures outside of the simple love they could share with those they shared their life's journey with.

People worked hard, shared sacrifice and mostly could not miss what they had never known. This sounds very nice and romantic, and in many ways may have been far less complicated and difficult than many of the life's challenges we face today. But before you get carried away with this vision, lets consider the other side of this coin.

Most towns were dominated by someone. It might be the rich rancher, banker, railroad magnate, oil   man, miner turned wealthy  land developer or could just have easily been the town drunk and/or bully. Fact is, few lived in a vacuum even then and most people lives were impacted by forces they had no control over. Americas legacy of westward expansion was fueled by the same desires that their earlier ancestors had which drove them to cross the oceans, to find a better life, free from domination by evil despots.At every interval along the way people hungered for freedom and protection from those that prey on the simple honest person. Every vestige of government at every level was created and grew because of the desire of the people to have their freedoms protected from those who would subjugate and deny them.

America has a legacy of fighting for its freedom, most Americans will proudly boast of this. But most don't seem to understand that the greatest fight for those freedoms has always been right here at home. No foreign power has ever represented the kind of clear and present danger to the average Americans life that the crooks, despots, con artists, dominating wealthy and other distinctly local characters have presented in every part of America throughout its existence. At every turn in American history which we proudly point to as turning points in American economic evolution, greed driven criminal acts and the violence that accompanies them has been the unacknowledged companion that has driven the growth of government. Air pollution, water pollution, entire towns dominated by criminal gangs, corruption, brutality, murder all are not only a part of Americas history, but still is a problem at times in our country. Imagine an America in which there was no independent police force, fire department. No local government to regulate business and provide leadership on behalf of those who have little personal power. No federal government to monitor and regulate the activities of the ruthless greedy who even now exploit every loop hole to gain every dollar they can no matter the cost to you and I. The criminal acts that led to the collapse of Enron, the collapse of the banking industry brought on by illegal and unscrupulous activities, stock manipulations by wall street insiders and the power of ruthless criminal empires would go unchecked in a society devoid of or having only severely limited central checks and balances as can only be provided by an independent government responsible only to us citizens.

It is easy to understand why the ruthless among us would want to return such a time. It is hard to understand why you, the honest hardworking citizen of America who only wants to provide a quality life for themselves and their loved ones would want to repeat a cycle that never results in anything other than the benefit of the few at the suffering of the many.

 I urge Americans to be come more active and more diligent to help make sure the government serves the peoples best interests. Limit wealthy interests ability to stack the deck against the interests of the average citizen. It is our right to demand that the government provide as best it can according to our joint agreed upon desires. It is normal that this process will be at times difficult and will not please everyone, but I urge you to resist being brainwashed by the the Limbaughs, Becks, Hannity's, Bachmanns, Palins,Perry's and others who serve a very limited group of masters. No matter how friendly they seem and how forcefully they tell you they have your best interests at heart, history tells us nothing can be farther from the truth.

Be careful what you wish for.