Atticus
Atticus's JournalCPAC stands for "Childish Pretension And Calumny" nt
I think the Democratic Party and the United States are both at a crossroads and the party and
the nation will either triumph or perish together.
There is no way that the GOP can retake power in the near future by their own efforts. They have hitched their wagon to an amoral psychopath and those who do not jump off soon will go over the precipice wearing MAGA caps and chanting "Stop the Steal", whatever the hell that means. They cannot defeat us UNLESS WE LET THEM---and we will let them if we are unwilling to play "smash-mouth politics" just as they ALWAYS have and will again IF WE LET THEM!
Just for starters, we should deliver the $15 an hour minimum wage that we campaigned on, expand the SCOTUS to neutralize the Trumpian ideologues, pass a national voter's rights and election law and, oh yeah, pass some serious and drastic environmental measures. If we need cash for those, start by repealing Trump's corrupt 1.9 trillion dollar (coincidence?) tax cut AND start taxing capital gains as income as well as accumulated wealth.
I don't really care what "the Republicans will say".
I don't care how long we've suffered with the "tradition" of the filibuster; get rid of it in its present form.
I don't care if we need to do "shameless partisan actions" like overruling or firing parliamentarians or changing inconvenient rules.
We currently possess just enough authority to restore sanity to government, civility to the public discourse and respect for our democracy.
We can either cut the head off the snake or know that it will strike us again.
I say it's time to chop.
This is me---feeling a little sheepish after reading my OP last evening.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215159450#post6"Tomorrow" did come.
I assure all the good folks whose words I just read this morning that I am WAY too ornery to ever give up.
Let's do this.
I am not posting this for the purpose of getting either sympathy or suggestions. I just think
that maybe it will comfort someone just to know they are not alone in their feelings of helplessness, irrelevancy and despair.
I think I remember at least thinking that I mattered; that by words and actions I could have some positive impact on the way the world works. That not only no longer seems true, it seems embarrassingly naive---even stupid.
People I respect and admire---the folks who do their best to live honorably and generously---so often seem to be losing to "the bad guys". Lies seem more profitable than truth and kindness is considered weakness. Tolerance and civility are ridiculed and punished while bigotry and vulgarity are praised and rewarded. After three score and a dozen years of trying to "do the right thing", I feel like a fool.
Apparently, those who laugh at my ignorance and ridicule my values have been right all along.
I will turn in now and try not to think of anything. If tomorrow comes, I'll find some way to deal with it.
For the "trumpangelicals", the snake-handlers and those prone to the glossolalia that makes me
blush for them---
SEE: Matthew 6: 5 and 6---
"5. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
6 But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Way back when I was still attending Sunday school at the small town Methodist Church, these were called the "pray in the closet" verses. The message was that, if you REALLY believed, you understood that prayer was a sacred PRIVATE reaching out to your Maker. Loud dramatic public prayers were the mark of hypocrites whose words were meant for the earthly "audience".
Have things changed so much that loud "God-babble" for profit is now "Christianity"?
Anyone know what nasty "event" Speaker Pelosi just mentioned in her presser? She seemed
disgusted about whatever it was.
Note to TV's talking heads: if you MUST discuss the chances that "he who shall not
be named" will be the GOP nominee in 2024, could you please use the phrase "if he's not in prison"?
To omit this very real possibility from your speculations may lead some ignorant citizens---whose support HWSNBN depends upon---to forget all about the FACT that he is a criminal with blood on his hands.
In my opinion, those who state with certainty that "he will never be convicted of a crime or spend a day on prison" are surrendering the nation to the terrorist thugs who stormed the Capitol 1-6-21 and worship at "his" altar.
"If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a platypus!"---Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin,
at yesterday's hearing about the January 6th insurrection.
"Pity the Nation"--------------pass gently, Lawrence
Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”
--- by LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
This seems appropriate reading for several reasons.
Just to be clear, if you call someone an asshole who really is an asshole, said asshole
has no right to criticize you for speaking the truth.
Carry on.
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