The Solipsistic Tea Party

The Tea Party movement seems extraordinarily self-centered, selfish, self-interested and self-absorbed. Such an attitude could ruin everything we have thought of as America!
by Charlie Leck

My word of the day came through from Dictionary.com this morning – solipsism – and I found it interesting. It kept coming back to me as I sat back to read through the New York Times and then the Washington Post. The Tea Party movement would destroy Medicare and Medicaid and bring an eventual end to Social Security.

Word of the Day for Monday, October 14, 2013

solipsism \ SOL-ip-siz-uhm\, noun
   1. Philosophy. The theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
   2. Extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one’s feelings, desires, etc.;
       egoistic self-absorption

America has been great and unique because it has cared!
There is no doubt that America has been a unique nation among the nations of earth. Over the years, others have followed America’s shining example. Now, many of those nations watch in wonder as the Tea Party tries to reshape America into something far different than the words engraved in the interior of Lady Liberty.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

The quotation was taken from an 1883 poem by Emma Lazarus (The New Colossus).

France presented the remarkable statue to us as a gift. It was a response to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The French had been inspired by Lincoln’s courage and his tenacity and his utter belief that all men should be free and a part of the great dream that is America.

But now, the new far-right conservatives in America wish to attack the entitlement programs. Rather than viewing those who are not full participants in America’s wealth as “tempest-tossed,” they see them as dead-beats. What the Tea Party wants for America is frightening and revolutionary!

I have always felt it is the duty of the fortunate to help those who are less so. Now, the Tea Party members are rightfully going to cry out about those who are “dead beats” and “criminal” who are getting “helped” by the system. That complaint is justified, but it is one thing to arrange the system so that such people are cut out and quite another thing to cut out everyone because of those types.

America is unique! Long may it be such!

_________________________

Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.

What the Right Wing in America Really Wants

Bernie Sanders is an independent U.S. Senator from Vermont. He is one of my everlasting heroes (my paladin) and always will be. If I want the truth on an issue, I turn to Bernie.
by Charlie Leck

There are an awful lot of people out there who are supporting the actions of the right-wing of the Republican Party. I’m fully aware that they do not know what they are doing and they don’t understand what this very radical political movement really wants to do.

Here’s a video of what Bernie Sanders recently said about just this subject. I pulled it from his Facebook page… (be sure to follow Bernie on Facebook).

“The truth is that the current government shutdown and the willingness of right-wing Republican extremists to default on the U.S. debt for the first time in American history is part of a right-wing ideological agenda which goes far beyond defunding the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

“The Koch brothers, and their billionaire allies, want to end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the E.P.A, the concept of the minimum wage and virtually every federal program passed during the last 80 years designed to protect the well-being of working people, the elderly, the sick, the children and the poor. Everyone should understand that their long-term goal is to move this country into an oligarchic form of society where the political and economic life of the nation is controlled by a handful of extremely wealthy families.”

 

Watch Bernie on a recent MSNBC interview discussing these issues.

Sen. Bernie Sanders on MSNBC with Thomas Roberts --
Will govt. shutdown become financial meltdown
www.youtube.com

When I read some of the things that a number of my Facebook friends say about their support of the radical right movement in American politics, it really frightens me. The changes this movement wants to bring about it America will be very far reaching and will have a dire impact on so very many people! Oh, my! Medicare, Social Security and the environment would be in big trouble under their plan. So would many other institutions we simply take for granted in America these days. Please try harder to understand what these fellows (like the Koch brothers) want for America. I find it hard to believe it is what you want!

_________________________

Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.

When Republicans Are In Charge

     Photo by Van Winkle Law Firm

      (www.vwlawfirm.com)

North Carolina is one of my favorite states and places to visit
I’ve had extraordinary fun in Raleigh, Charlotte, Camden,
Columbus, Ashville and Pinehurst. The 2014 U.S. Open Golf
Championship will be played at Pinehurst’s wonderful #2
course. I had planned to attend. In protest, I think I won’t go.

Let us consider an example of what happens when this new brand of Republicans are in charge and then ask ourselves two questions: (1) Could it happen on a national basis if Republicans were in total charge? (2) Could it happen in my state if Republicans were in total charge?
by Charlie Leck

At this point, ideally, you should go read this NY Times editorial, The Decline of North Carolina, that appeared in this powerful and famous newspaper on 10 July 2013; however, since many of you will not want to, I'll summarize the important editorial for you…

A significant number of people in North Carolina have begun observing “Moral Monday.” These people gather on Mondays to demonstrate and protest “the grotesque damage that a new Republican majority has been doing to a tradition of caring for the least fortunate.”

You know, conservatives – especially conservative politicians – like to talk about honoring American traditions. One of the great ones, it seems to me, is our nation’s willingness to care for those who are down and nearly out.

I think conservative Republicans have forgotten this tradition. Oh, my! Not all Republicans. I know some of the best of them – men and women who are true to real conservative core values but who also deeply believe is caring for those in our society who are less fortunate and unable to climb up on the big, steady American bandwagon that moves toward success and comfortable lives.

The realistic understand that there will always be a segment of society that has not been fortunate – that is down on its luck – that has encountered serious set-backs – that has failed in ways that are not due to a failure to try. It may be what Jesus meant when he is quoted in the scriptures as saying, “The poor we shall always have with us!”

There are a large number of people in North Carolina who fear that their state is forgetting this. Certainly, the state’s legislative body seems to have forgotten a deep, abiding tradition to care for the less fortunate. The NY Times editorial says…

“But the bad news keeps on coming from the Legislature, and pretty soon a single day of the week may not be enough to contain the outrage.”

Republicans control both the executive and the legislative branches of government in North Carolina, giving them free hand to do pretty much what they want in terms of legislation. The NY Times describes what’s happening down there as “a demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education, tax policy, racial equality in the courtroom and access to the ballot.”

Here is what the Republican Party has done in North Carolina and what it could do in state after state in the south and eventually in the conservative states in the north; and this would create such havoc in blue states that its expenses would rise uncontrollably as people flock into them to escape a brand of politics that I can only call unAmerican.

Last week North Carolina ended unemployment benefits for 70,000 of its residents. In a short while they will end them for 100,000 more. The remaining North Carolinians on unemployment will have their checks cut by a third. Unemployment in North Carolina is the fifth highest in the nation. It was the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce that convinced the legislature to do this.

Then the North Carolina legislature has weakened an already shaky education system and, in the long run, that will only hurt any recovery from the high unemployment rates that North Carolina is experiencing. Teacher pay is falling dramatically in North Carolina. The state legislature wants to remove all limits on class sizes. Many are predicting that a teacher exodus will follow. So, of course, will the quality of education in that state.

·         The legislature in North Carolina repealed the Racial Justice Act.

·         They refused to expand Medicaid.

·         The look to reduce taxes on the wealthy while raising it on all others.

·         The state senate in North Carolina has voted to close all the state’s abortion clinics. The House is looking at it. The Governor will sign it.

·         The legislature wants to, and probably will, impose voter identification laws and cut back on early voting (while many states are moving to expand such voting). It’s protection insurance for all ultra-conservatives.

Remember?
It was not many years ago that progressives were taking note and hope in North Carolina’s acts of compassion, thinking this state might become a beacon for the entire south. Now comes the dismantling of all that hope.

Take note!
This is what Republican conservatives like Tom Emmer and Michel Bachmann support. Off-hand, casually, they will say they don’t, but an examination of their campaign comments and their voting records will show they do.

This is what could happen nationally with Tea Party types in charges. America could be dragged down into the ditches of despair and disrepair.

This is the kind of politics the horrible Koch Brothers fund.

America, beware!

________________

[UPDATE] The Texas State House of Representatives has approved, on strictly party lines, a new abortion bill. The State Senate could vote on it sometime on Friday. The new law would ban abortions after 20 weeks and only allow abortions in surgical centers.…

_________________________

Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.