Magister_26's Xanga

Republicans and Taxes

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:54:25 GMT

Politicians and journalists have freely used emotion filled labels to create a bias and stereotype attitudes toward political and economic philosophies as though one or the other is intended to work against the interests of the American People or even go as far as denouncing such a philosophical approach is outright Un-American. For years politicians seem that they are either Conservative or Liberal. Now such words as Ideologue or Neocon are becoming more common that are intended to paint a specific image and attitude in the public mind. During our last campaigning season we saw the reemergence of Socialist and Socialism as if it were synonymous with treason or an insurgency movement to overthrow the Republic as if that were probable or possible. That is a scenario for a completely new debate, but now we are faced with a financial crisis where recession could easily turn into depression. There are times when we need to rise above ideology and commit ourselves to a course of action, even if we cannot agree with it in its totality, for the common good of the entire nation.

This discussion reminds me of an assignment that most of us were asked to master in a Middle School Civics Class. That assignment was to memorize the Preamble to the US Constitution of which we should often remind ourselves.

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The one part of this Preamble which I think each Republican member in the House of Representatives needs to revisit and seriously contemplate is one that is short, simple and underlies the responsibility that he or she has to their constituents.

“To promote the general welfare” to ourselves and our posterity.”

For far too long the Republicans have had one solution to the economic woes of our economy and that is to cut taxes and reduce the expenditures of the Federal Budget. However, this philosophy of “trickle-down economics” has never worked and I would go as far as saying it has proven to be a complete failure.

Eugene Robinson expressed my feeling more succinctly and to the point in the conclusion of his Op-Ed Column in the Washington Post this morning.

Blind Unanimity

Congressional Republicans

What I've been hearing from Republicans in both the House and Senate has been a kind of attenuated, distorted echo of the economic doctrine that the party has preached, if not always practiced, since the Reagan years. It's perfectly appropriate, of course, to ask whether a specific spending proposal would have the desired stimulative effect; indeed, some items were removed from the stimulus bill for that reason. But underlying the Republican criticism has been a familiar formula: more tax cuts, fewer spending initiatives.

But Americans know that this philosophy has already taken us as far as it could. Americans know that taxes can be cut by only so much before the federal government's effectiveness inevitably suffers. Americans know that spending money doesn't necessarily mean wasting it. Americans know that the economic crisis means that taking the position that government is inherently oppressive, if not fundamentally evil, is now intellectually bankrupt, because government is the only instrument we have in the high-stakes attempt to induce financial and economic recovery.

If Republicans hadn't broken the bank with drunken-sailorish spending during most of George W. Bush's time in the White House, their complaints about the cost of the stimulus package and its impact on future deficits would be more credible. As things stand, we have to let actions speak: absolute solidarity among House Republicans in voting no.

It was a triumph of discipline over reason, of doctrine over observation. There is abundant evidence suggesting that we are in a new political era with new rules and a new lexicon. Those who ignore that evidence will have only themselves to blame if, like the air traffic controllers, they end up losing their jobs.

Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Remember, Be Happy and Be Safe.

Senex Magister

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:31:43 GMT

The following Editorial appeared in the Washington Post this morning which immediately caught my attention. I would have titled it The Afghan Quagmire and find very little with which to disagree in what John Kerry and Robert Gates had to say about continued military action in Afghanistan. Could a permanent success have been achieved against Al Qaeda and the Taliban if our financial and human resources had not been redirected to Mr. Bush’s War in Iraq? I have a hard time believing that the political stability which I assume has always been our goal and policy is realistic or achievable then or now. A quote that I have often used especially in reference to the current conflict in the Middle East is, I am afraid, still applicable and should be appreciated by our policy makers.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

~ George Santayana, The Life of Reason

The Afghan Challenge

Thursday, January 29, 2009

FOR YEARS, Democrats excoriated the Bush administration for not devoting sufficient resources to Afghanistan. But now that Barack Obama has taken office, some seem to be having second thoughts. "Our original goal was to go in there and take on al-Qaeda. . . . It was not to adopt the 51st state of the United States," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Kerry pioneered the Democratic argument to send more troops during his own presidential campaign in 2004. Now he says "the parallels" to Vietnam "just really keep leaping out in so many different ways."

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates seconded that skepticism at a congressional hearing on Tuesday. "If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of Central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose," he said, "because nobody in the world has that kind of time, patience and money, to be honest."

We're happy to agree that Afghanistan should not become the 51st state, or Valhalla -- but we're not sure who or what Mr. Kerry and Mr. Gates have in mind. So far as we know, the American objective in Afghanistan since 2002 has been pretty much what Mr. Gates says it should be: "an Afghan people who do not provide a safe haven for al-Qaeda, who reject the rule of the Taliban and support the legitimate government they have elected and in which they have a stake."

The problem, as Mr. Gates acknowledged, is that meeting that aim necessitates such tasks as stabilizing western Pakistan, rooting out the opium trade, vastly expanding the Afghan army and constructing a workable legal system. That, in turn, will require more money, more troops, many more years of commitment -- and higher American casualties.

"Bottom line is, it's going to be tough, it's going to be difficult, in many ways harder than Iraq," Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) put it to Mr. Gates. "Do you agree with that?" "Yes," the secretary responded.

So why make it sound as if the Obama administration is scaling back U.S. ambitions? Part of this may be pure politics, to assure the antiwar left -- not to mention other Americans -- that the United States is not about to follow Russia and Britain into an Afghan quagmire. Yet the new administration, and supporters such as Mr. Kerry, ought to recognize a greater political need, which is to make clear to the country that the war against terrorism -- whatever it is now called -- did not end on Jan. 20 and that Afghanistan in particular will require years more patience and sacrifice to get right.

The way to avoid a quagmire is not to hold back on U.S. military reinforcements or development aid but to assemble a national civil-military plan that integrates war-fighting with reconstruction and political reconciliation. As Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) points out, such a plan was the foundation of the U.S. recovery in Iraq, but the model has never been applied in Afghanistan. That's largely because the United States must share authority with some 40 allies, many of which place strict limits on what their troops may do, insist on managing their own development programs, or both. The Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai, mired in corruption and increasingly at odds with U.S. commanders, is also not on board.

Afghanistan doesn't need to become the 51st state, but it does need a single, coherent, integrated plan to become a state strong enough to resist the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Creating one will require some aggressive diplomacy and maybe a little political china-breaking. That's something for which the State Department's new envoy to the region, Richard C. Holbrooke, is known. But low-balling the scale of the challenge, or the costs it may incur, won't help.

“What Does Bipartisan Mean”

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:16:11 GMT

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Bipartisan is an adjective meaning ‘of, relating to or involving members of two parties; specifically: marked by or involving cooperation, agreement, and compromise between two major political parties.

Yet, we should consider who is a partisan and what partisanship is.

A Partisan is a firm adherent to a party, faction, cause, or person; especially: one exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance.

In a technical sense partisanship is simply the state being a partisan.

What is the importance or even relevance of considering and attempting to understand the meaning of such words on a deeper level and, I suppose, on a political level as well? Our nation is facing one of the worst financial crisis in our history and the continuing crisis of our military commitment (WAR) in Iraq and Afghanistan. I admit and realize that there are many well intentioned people who have varying opinions about how and why we find ourselves in such dire situation as we do today. I am one who is convinced that this day has come because of the ill conceived policies and the inept implementation of those policies over the past eight years. I also believe that both of these major crises are interrelated.

If you have been following my writing this past week, you probably noticed a common thread/theme or whatever you wish to call it. First, there is a need to take direct and immediate actions to address the financial strangle hold that a small elite of extremely wealthy individuals have imposed on this country. I don’t begrudge any business person in this economy earning a reasonable profit that benefits us all in the long run. However, this wealthy elite I was talking about has created an environment of greed that is both indifferent to how their actions will impact upon the lives of Americans and I would suggest are a greater threat to our National Security than from any foreign source.

The House of Representatives is voting on the President’s Economic Stimulus Bill today. The partisan political rhetoric that has preceded this vote is nothing new to Washington, but what is new is the fact there is a president who is willing to enter into a dialogue with his opposition in Congress. Will this dialogue result in bipartisan consensus in Washington? I seriously doubt it but I believe the bill which will emerge from the Senate, which has always been more collegial and less contentious than the House, will address at least some of the concerns from the opposition. If there were complete consensus in Washington, it would be the first step to one party rule. I would suggest partisan political discourse is crucial for any democratic society.

Yet, there is still the question of how should we expect Congress to react to a national crisis such as this one which is threatening an ever increasing number of American families. I do believe that spending needs to be brought under control, but I also believe it has a lot to do with how we spend our money. This goes hand in hand with what priorities becomes the basis of the formation of public policy. This is where a greater degree of consensus does become more critical. If I had the influence to affect public policy, I would extricate the United States from both Iraq and Afghanistan including a reduction of our financial commitment to both nations.

However, I know this will not happen because there is not a consensus on this issue especially as it relates to Afghanistan and I wrote about that yesterday. I am also opposed to an open ended policy on tax reduction. I am not opposed to a restructuring of our tax codes that bring greater equity and justice to how and who supports the government. Yet, the immediate result in whatever action Congress takes will entail increased deficit spending. If we want a larger military to protect us, an expanding intelligence network to control terrorism and infrastructure to support domestic commerce, and the list can go on; we have to be willing to pay for those expectations.

Hopefully political partisanship that is devoid of ideological gamesmanship seeking power for its own sake will allow us to achieve a reasonable resolution to the crises we are faced with today.

Senex Magister

Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Good Bye, Mr. President

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:10:14 GMT

“A Radical or what might seem to a few on the extreme right as a Radical Farewell Essay to George W.”

These are not my words and though I agree with most of it, there are parts that even seem extreme to me but very little. BUSHFLASH.COM has been one of my favorite sites since the real George W. and the intentional direction that his administration was leading our country began to emerge and made it clear that they were either indifferent to or did not care about the U.S. Constitution. There is an unresolved debate going on in Washington as to whether individuals who broke the law and violated the rights of Americans should be investigated and prosecuted for crimes that they could possibly or probably be deemed culpable of committing. These individuals were or are still agents of the government of the United States who claim that they were simply carrying out policy and orders at the direction of their superiors. This was a claim that was used by many who were charged with crimes at the end of World War II to justify their actions. There are certain moral imperatives by which any civilized society that believes in the rule of law must be guided.

Senex Magister

Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism. ~ Thomas Jefferson

From: BUSHFLASH.COM

Ends in three weeks

My fellow Americans and Fellow Citizens of the World

To all of us who have suffered, have been ashamed, have been trodden upon, and have been ignored and humiliated by the criminal administration that has run this country for the past eight years:

To all of us who feared that overt and blatant evil would eclipse the goodness that we know is at the heart and soul of our country:

To all of us who lamented that we had strayed too far from the path, and that we would never again be able to feel proud to be Americans:

To all of us who fought long and hard to keep the flickering and guttering flame of free thought and patriotic dissent alive in the face of corporate media ridicule and death threats from right-wing extremists:

To all who came to this site, and helped keep it alive with donations and encouragement:

After eight years of enduring outrage upon outrage, offense upon offense, crime upon crime, and insult after insult- after years of ceaseless effort, we can at last step into the light of day, and know that while there remains much to be done and much to change, the arc of history has once again been tilted towards justice.

Remember this day- and be proud.

To the human ball of failure and ignorance that has so corrupted this country,

George W. Bush, I have only the following to say:

Don't let the doorknob hit you, where the good lord split you.

You are leaving office as the most unpopular and incompetent president in the history of our nation- this caps off a lifetime of failure that is nothing short of shocking in its utter wretchedness. As an oilman, you accomplished the impossible, by being unable to locate oil in the Permian basin of Texas. You got your ass handed to you as a congressional candidate. As owner of a baseball team, you only succeeded at being a willing receptacle for nepotistic greed. As governor of Texas, you gave New Jersey a boost, as your state became known as having the most polluted air in the nation, along with the most ineffective and lackadaisical government.

You capped off this lifelong parade of failure by screwing the entire country over, and pissing off the entire planet.

I have heard your parting rambles about your legacy, and while it's clear that you really don't give a crap about what the American people thought of you, you've always stated that in some uncertain future, you will be vindicated.

Let me clue you in here, George: a million years could pass- a thousand administrations could come and go- robots from Alpha Centauri could invade planet earth, and attempt to wipe out the human species. As the last remaining human survivors scratch out an existence in deep caverns, living off of slime mold and rainwater, succumbing to starvation as they witness the extinction of the human species, they will at least take comfort in the fact that you are no longer president.

You will only be remembered as a hated, loathsome figure, and your sole value to future generations will be as an example of gross negligence and incompetence.

You see, George, if it weren't for the horrific damage you have wrought upon the world, you would be a laughable, comedic figure of tragedy- hell- you even failed as a father. It was only the heroic efforts of your secret security detail that prevented your daughters from becoming a drunken spectacle that would make Paris and Nichole look like a pair of Catholic nuns.

But I will grant you this, George- you have made me a more spiritual person.

You see, I have a problem accepting a purely atheist world view, where a greedy, selfish, callous, mass-murdering, thieving, hateful ass wipes like you will just die of old age (and I so much look forward to that day,) without any punishment for your crimes against your fellow man.

On the other hand, I can't accept your idiotic mega church version of Christianity where you believe as an article of faith that you can commit any crime, and be absolved, because you "Accepted Jesus."

George, if your treasured rapture should happen tomorrow, and you met Jesus face to face, he would turn his back on you, without shedding a tear for your soul, as you plummeted to your everlasting torment.

I am not a Christian, nor a Buddhist, nor a Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Jain, or any other faith, but I cannot sleep well, without the faith that I choose to hold within me that somehow, somewhere; you will receive the justice that you denied so many others.

There will be justice.

But enough about you, George. You are now officially gum on our collective heel.

To the future:

Much to the disappointment of some on the hard left, Obama's administration will not be a left-wing version of Bush's conservative ideological nuthatch.

Bush was incapable of governing properly, because he and his cohorts believed that their adherence to ideology was paramount. It didn't matter that the policies resulting from this ideology were disastrous- what mattered (and what was used as a measure of success) was orthodoxy and adherence to the ideology, no matter how discredited the ideology became..

If you disagreed with Bush, you officially became an "un-person" as far as he was concerned.

When we elected Obama, we didn't vote to put in a left-wing version of the Bush Bowl.

Two wrongs don't make a right, after all.

Bush has screwed up this country almost beyond recognition, and in order to make sure that Obama's desperately-needed repairs don't turn into political footballs, the moderate right needs to be brought on board.

It sucks supremely that once again, it falls to the liberals to govern like grownups, after an eight-year orgy of radical-right childishness, but those seem to be the breaks.

Oh- and by the way, I also hope the democratic majority in congress doesn't become a mirror image of Bush's post-2002 rubber-stamp republican personality cult.

Two wrongs never make a right, after all.

Obama will be a center-left president, and I'm absolutely cool with that. He will disappoint, from time to time- he will pursue a few policies that I disagree with, and will certainly make mistakes.

But I trust him. His intelligence is striking, his demeanor cool, his life inspiring, his words eloquent, his vision clear, his flaws openly admitted, and his story so unique to what our country is meant to be.

As I'm shutting down this site, in a few weeks, I am confident that in coming times, the liberal blogosphere will not follow the twisted path forged by sites like WorldNetDaily and Newsmax, and serve as checks to power, rather than an apologist for an abuse of power.

And if you doubt that will be the case, I suggest you do what I did- start your own site, and make your voice heard. If I can reach millions, you can, too. When Bushflash was at its height, it got more daily hits than Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, and Neil Boortz, combined.

Deficit Spending: Good or Bad?

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:45:22 GMT

Our former Vice President made it quite clear that deficit spending was not a serious concern but came with the expediency of the needs of government and whatever pressures drove government in that direction. Yet, President George W. Bush and the then Republican controlled Congress were quick to join this policy shift for a Republican Administration that resulted in probably the greatest expansion in the size of the Federal Government in our history as well as its intrusion into the private lives of American citizens. The tragedy of 9/11/01 demanded decisive and immediate action by our government and its leadership. I believe that our action in Afghanistan against the Taliban and El Qaeda was an appropriate and measured response. However, their Declaration of a War on Terrorism is an action that I have never quite understood and I have referred to it often simply as a ‘nebulous’ act. Nebulous is an adjective that is often defined as being “hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused: a nebulous recollection of the meeting; a nebulous distinction between pride and conceit”.

The implication is that such a policy that has no sound and reasonable course to make it achievable without a military presence in welcomed and unwelcomed places throughout the world for extended periods of time. This would be costly and detrimental to both the financial and social health of our society. However, it is not unreasonable for our government to be vigilant and take such actions that would reduce the threat of terrorism in the world. We cannot be an International Police Force for the world with the assumption that we possess the wisdom for every society and culture in the world. We have a value system that has separated the United States from many countries that has made us unique and distinct as well as a ‘Pillar of Hope’ for many deprived and victimized people throughout the world. That distinction over the past decade and especially during the Bush Administration has become less clear with a deterioration of our prestige and credibility with many nations who should be natural allies.

Was the expenditure of tax dollars in the expansion and reorganization of the Federal Government in the aftermath of the national tragedy of 9/11 necessary or justified? Was it a threat to our National Security that prompted George Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003? There is another factor which I think is worthy of discussion and debate, and that is why military action in the Middle East has been financed by ‘Supplemental Appropriations’ that were not included in the Federal Budget for any given year?

Where do we go from here? Should we increase our debtor status to China to continue the misguided policies of our government in Iraq and Afghanistan? The United States is now facing one of the most severe economic crises in our history and how can a political party that gave George Bush carte blanche in waging a war that we did not pay for but put that burden on our children and grand children and not support to the critical and essential Economic Stimulus Program of President Barack Obama. There seems to me to be an inherent contradiction when you will assume deficits for war and not for the working people of this nation.

Senex Magister

Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism. ~ Thomas Jefferson

In Case You Missed It

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:17:05 GMT

Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

We begin this year and this Administration in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that calls for unprecedented action. Just this week, we saw more people file for unemployment than at any time in the last twenty-six years, and experts agree that if nothing is done, the unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. And we could lose a generation of potential, as more young Americans are forced to forgo college dreams or the chance to train for the jobs of the future.

In short, if we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.

That is why I have proposed an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to immediately jumpstart job creation as well as long-term economic growth. I am pleased to say that both parties in Congress are already hard at work on this plan, and I hope to sign it into law in less than a month.

It’s a plan that will save or create three to four million jobs over the next few years, and one that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment - the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there’s so much work to be done. That’s why this is not just a short-term program to boost employment. It’s one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century.

Today I’d like to talk specifically about the progress we expect to make in each of these areas.

To accelerate the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy like wind, solar, and bio-fuels over the next three years. We’ll begin to build a new electricity grid that lay down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines to convey this new energy from coast to coast. We’ll save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient, and save the average working family $350 on their energy bills by weatherizing 2.5 million homes.

To lower health care cost, cut medical errors, and improve care, we’ll computerize the nation’s health record in five years, saving billions of dollars in health care costs and countless lives. And we’ll protect health insurance for more than 8 million Americans who are in danger of losing their coverage during this economic downturn.

To ensure our children can compete and succeed in this new economy, we’ll renovate and modernize 10,000 schools, building state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries, and labs to improve learning for over five million students. We’ll invest more in Pell Grants to make college affordable for seven million more students, provide a $2,500 college tax credit to four million students, and triple the number of fellowships in science to help spur the next generation of innovation.

Finally, we will rebuild and retrofit America to meet the demands of the 21st century. That means repairing and modernizing thousands of miles of America’s roadways and providing new mass transit options for millions of Americans. It means protecting America by securing 90 major ports and creating a better communications network for local law enforcement and public safety officials in the event of an emergency. And it means expanding broadband access to millions of Americans, so business can compete on a level-playing field, wherever they’re located.

I know that some are skeptical about the size and scale of this recovery plan. I understand that skepticism, which is why this recovery plan must and will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my Administration accountable for these results. We won’t just throw money at our problems - we’ll invest in what works. Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made public, and informed by independent experts whenever possible. We’ll launch an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.

No one policy or program will solve the challenges we face right now, nor will this crisis recede in a short period of time. But if we act now and act boldly; if we start rewarding hard work and responsibility once more; if we act as citizens and not partisans and begin again the work of remaking America, then I have faith that we will emerge from this trying time even stronger and more prosperous than we were before. Thanks for listening.

NSA Spying

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:32:59 GMT

There is still much that is still unresolved from the Bush Administration and much revolves around the NSA. Is the priority National Security or is it unneccesary and probably illegal intrusion into the lives of American Citizens.

Guantanamo Detention Center and the Legacy of George W. Bush

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:02:44 GMT

There is a level of frustration that simply won’t go away when members of Congress refuse to recognize and admit to crimes that have been committed by our government over the past eight years. If our government is going to exemplify the Values of America, it is a government that must respect and enforce the U.S. Constitution. If we are going to simply remain a government of expediency, then the same members of Congress who oppose the changes that President Obama is bringing to the governance of this nation should publicly admit their opposition to the Rule of Law as well as the Constitution itself.

There will always be a price to pay if we wish to live in a free and transparent society. Terrorism has existed since Cain murdered his brother Abel. I believe it is foolish as well as naïve to think that any single nation or group of nations could bring about a complete and total end to terrorism is a realistic possibility. Yet, we continue to have political leaders including President Obama who maintain that we are at war which seems to me be a very nebulous issue or question. Whether we are speaking of Iraq or Afghanistan the central issue is political power and who will be able to establish a stable and secure government. I am not sure that this is a realistic goal unless the American People are willing to commit our government to a policy of ‘total war’.

Such a policy would not enhance the national security of the United States or make the world especially the Middle East a safer place to live. A program on this scale would probably involve ‘Universal Conscription’ placing the children and grand children of the CEO’s of Corporate America as well as members of Congress in ‘Harm’s Way’. It should also be a war that is financed and paid for by collected tax revenue and not continued deficit spending that over the past eight years has transformed the United States into a ‘Debtor Nation’. One of my more serious concerns or possibly fears is a surge of American Forces in Afghanistan and whether such an action would result in a resolution of military conflict in Afghanistan. Could such a course of action bring about a stable, secure, and sovereign nation? My fear is that it would degenerate into an unwinnable quagmire far worse than what we faced during the Vietnam.

I believe that this is a result of the legacy of George W. Bush, and makes it even more important to support President Obama’s program of reform.

We The People

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:28:25 GMT

This is a speech that was delivered in Philadelphia by Barack Obama in response to the controversy created by remarks made by Reverend Wright.When I first heard this speech, I looked at my wife and said that WE NEED TO ELECT THIS MAN PRESIDENT.It goes beyond an African American Politician challenging our society to confront its perceived attitudes about race, but more importantly how can we make American Society a PERFECTED UNION where even with our disagreements we are in reality "WE THE PEOPLE".We must remind ourselves what it means to live in an egalitarian democracy and not a totalitarian society of an elite that attempts to use misinformation to delude and misguide us from the hope of 1776.

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way.

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters….And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Senex Magister

What Could Be - OMG, Let sanity reside somewhere!

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:05:48 GMT