La même chose
It is a truism that elections have consequences. No doubt this Tuesday election will also, but it will not change much. All across the country voters dug into familiar patterns rather than alter course.
Nationally, President Joe Biden can lock in his legislative victories. Here to stay are the insulin price cap for seniors, lower prescription drug costs for Medicare and a cap on out of pocket expenses for Medicare patients. Republicans opposed these policies even though they cut the cost of living for millions of Americans.
Overseas, our Allies feel more secure. Republicans had threatened to cut aid for Ukraine. Ukrainian freedom fighters had been using NATO supplies to successfully drive Valdmir Putin and his thugs back to Russia.
While the Ukrainian liberation effort will likely take years rather than months, Putin’s impact on global prices is weakening. The original surge in oil and gas prices has returned to normal, relieving the pressure on commuters and businesses.
The long hangover from Covid 19 is also winding down for most of the world. Supply chains are being repaired, helping drive down the lumber prices at the hardware store. The global computer chip market is rebounding, helping slow the price increases for new and used cars.
In Texas, the Republican sweep of state-wide offices means our property taxes will continue to rise and our local schools will see more cuts. Criminals will continue to have easy access to guns, and we just have to sit and wait for the next school massacre.
While Seniors on Federal health insurance like Medicare and the Veteran’s Administration enjoy the benefits of socialized medicine, millions of workers remain uncovered. Texas has about twice as many uninsured citizens as the national average. Republicans are unlikely to help by expanding Medicaid.
Texas women will continue to face high maternal mortality rates. We don’t know how high, because Greg Abbott’s administration refuses to release a crucial report. Every pregnant women and her doctor are under the politicians’ microscope because of the no exceptions abortion bill.
The 2022 midterm election will probably do little to silence the conservatives who support armed rebellion against the United States of America. They have created for themselves an echo chamber of self-pity and paranoia.
We can expect more domestic terrorists’ attacks rather than less. While several high profile Republicans election deniers lost their races, dozens of others found local support and won.
So yes, elections have consequences. This week was a status quo election. We can expect liberals to continue building a middle class and conservatives fighting tooth and nail to tear it down.
Snake Oil Fraud
Leadership requires correctly identifying problems and developing solutions. Demagogues often recognize when others are in pain, but they then exploit the pain for personal gain. This technique helps the politician gain, and solidify, power.
Demagogues behave exactly like snake oil salesmen. Before the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906), capitalists crisscrossed the country offering a shimmering liquid to hopeful customers. The pain experienced by the buyer was often real enough; the “cure” wasn’t.
Snake oil left the underlining medical condition. If the consumer suffered from a degenerative disease, the person would get sick and die. The Food and Drug Administration deemed this behavior a fraud and outlawed the sale of snake oil as medicine.
The First Amendment prevents making similar laws for politicians. Demagogues are free to peddle their snake oil. Voters have to educate themselves about competing candidate claims. In a virtuous debate both sides would stick to reality.
But what happens when one side becomes untethered to reality? What happens when one side just makes stuff up? Are we really supposed to pretend that a snake oil politician and an educated politician are the same?
For example, the Biden Administration has arrested 1.7 million people trying to cross the US-Mexican border illegally. How does this fact compare to campaign claims? Greg Abbott falsely accuses President Joe Biden of having an open border. Beto O’Rouke says Abbott is duplicating federal efforts and draining the Texas National Guard resources and morale.
Compared to the Biden’s 1.7 million arrests, Abbott claims to have detained 21,000 people. The cost of this snake oil continues to climb. Abbott has wasted $4 billion of our tax dollars and recently diverted an additional $359.6 million from Texas prisons.
At one point during this sales pitch, Abbott duplicated the check points for commercial traffic along the border. State troopers disrupted the economy in a futile search for immigrants. The stunt tied up traffic and cost businesses $9 billion dollars in less than ten days.
We have known about these problems for decades. Congress has increased the Federal border patrol budget from $263 million in 1990 to $4 billion in 2020. This money hired an additional 16,000 agents.
Who was more fiscally responsible? The Federal Government spent $4 billion and stopped 1.7 illegal crossing. Abbott spent $4 billion and only stopped 21,000. On top of that Abbott cost US businesses $9 billion.
Can we please stop buying this snake oil? We need real immigration reform that defines legal crossing that would work for Texas families and businesses. Snake oil only works for politicians, not us.
Did You Get the Goldmine or the Shaft?
I used to love listening to country music in my dad’s pickup. He had an eight-track that played all of his favorites. Dad also knew where to find all his country stations on the radio. I had a steady diet of 60s, 70s and 80s country hits.
Dad always liked the playful songs from Johnny Cash to Jerry Reid. It seemed like I could look for hours at the album cover of Cash’s Everybody Loves a Nut as the LP spun on the turn table. I also never tired of singing along with Reid’s “She Got the Goldmine”… “I got the shaft.”
Reid’s satirical take on divorce deals with the frustration of getting less than a fair share. It is clear by the end of the song that Reid had moved beyond his prior love of his wife. Who could blame him? She got the gold mine; he got the shaft.
I guess that is why as an adult I don’t get conservative voters. Their politicians always get the gold mine and give us the shaft. Every year our property taxes go up and up. Our taxes never go down. The best we can hope for is having them frozen at age 65.
I can’t help but wonder “Who does get the tax cuts?” The answer is not hard to find. Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton are just like Donald Trump. They take care of their mega donors first.
Millionaires and billionaires already own the gold mines. Conservative politicians believe they are suffering and give them a tax cut. This process started with Ronald Reagan. He cut income taxes and raised Social Security taxes.
As tax payers, we are not the only ones hurt by this scam. Conservatives then defund services from schools and police departments to VA hospitals and Post Offices. How many of us had to sit and wait for a Driver’s License?
The problems we face range from a nuisance to an emergency. For some of us taking off work to sit for an hour in DPS might be a welcome break, but for others, an hour takes money out of their pay check. Our veterans may have learned “hurry up and wait” while in uniform, but do they really need to suffer for a doctor’s visit?
These crises are here by design. Conservatives win elections by promising that government can’t work. Once they are elected, they break the system and demand more cuts to public services. Rinse and repeat.
After cutting income taxes, Reagan shed crocodile tears for a growing deficit. Conservatives have spent the last 40 years attacking public schools and “entitlements.” They want schools, Social Security and Medicare in private hands. They want to finish redistributing wealth from us to their buddies.
I am tired of this song. There is no reason for conservative donors to get the gold mine while we get the shaft. We dug the mine. We created the wealth. We deserve better.
Life and Death in Texas
Texas Republicans want you to prepare for the next schools shooting. Greg Abbott is sending school children home with fingerprint and DNA kits. Abbott wants to make it easier for you to identify your child’s dead body.
Republicans have controlled Texas Government for the past two decades. They have cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires. They have made it easier for criminals and children to get their hands on guns. Republicans have defunded public education.
Conservatives have the power to pass any legislation they want. They even passed a law outlawing abortion at all stages of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape, incest or health of the woman. These laws mean that women have to face a death sentence before they can access lifesaving care.
Pregnancy is the most dangerous time of woman’s life, and Texas Republicans tied the hands of OB-GYNs. Why haven’t Texas Republican used this power to save the lives of our children? Is spending tax dollars on home DNA tests the best they can do?
Republicans love to scapegoat mental illness for gun deaths in Texas. But what have they done to improve mental health? Not much. Mental Health America, a non-profit dedicated to mental health wellness, ranks Texas dead last in care access.
If mental health did increase gun violence, why aren’t Republicans doing more? Wouldn’t improving mental health services be a priority? Not only would it improve people’s lives, it would also reduce violence and self-harm.
If conservatives can’t be trusted to take these easy steps, how can we trust them to take stronger measures? Why can’t we have what the Constitution promises: a well-regulated militia?
Texans agree on meaningful gun safety regulations to save lives. Common sense tells us that eighteen year old shouldn’t be allowed to buy a weapon designed for war. Texas should raise the age to buy an assault weapon from 18 to 21.
These weapons are the reason for the DNA kits. Assault weapons often leave their victims unrecognizable. They ripe apart flesh and shatter bones. After the school shooting in Uvalde, one parent identified their child by their distinct green shoes.
If Texas conservatives valued human life, they would join the rest of us and demand better. We should have red flag laws which temporarily remove firearms from homes experiencing domestic violence. We should close the private sales loophole that allows buyers to avoid federal background checks.
Once the horse is out of the barn, it is too late to close the door. Once your child is killed at school, a DNA test will never bring them back to life. We need solutions that save lives.
Straw Man
Boxers and soldiers often train fighting dummies. It is easy to understand why. Dummies don’t fight back. Eventually, however, a good fighters needs to train against another human as an opponent if they want to win a real fight.
Debates work similarly with words. Some debaters only fight straw men; others, preferring a challenge, argue against a real human opponent. Competitive debate requires a person to use logical facts or risk exposure as a charlatan.
Watching political commercials it is easy to see that conservatives prefer to argue against straw men. Every election year they manufacture a mythical liberal. Several years ago they created the lie that Barack Obama wasn’t American. Millions of conservatives believed and spread this lie.
The commercials this year demonize President Joe Biden. The commercials distort his record, creating a straw man easy to defeat. The logical evidence tells a different story.
Despite conservative efforts to sabotage America, Joe Biden has a remarkable record of success. Domestically, job growth was steady over the last year. The unemployment rate fell.
Biden guided meaningful legislation through Congress. Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act. It limited out of pocket Medicare expenses to $5000 and capped the cost of insulin for seniors at $35.
The Inflation Reduction Act also prioritized “Made In America.” It provided tax incentives to companies that provide alternatives to foreign oil. The tax code will reward companies that manufacture solar panels, wind turbines and batteries in America.
Joe Biden also signed into law the CHIPs and Science Act. The Covid 19 epidemic exposed America’s vulnerability to foreign manufacturing of semiconductors. Semiconductors are the brains of most modern machines from cars to cell phones.
President Biden also had success overseas. He rallied US allies against Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. NATO has imposed some of the harshest economic sanctions ever against Russia and supplied the Ukrainian freedom fighters with weapons to defend themselves.
NATO’s united front has made Putin’s potential allies think twice. Both China and India have backed away from their earlier support. Recep Erdoğan, President of Turkey, told Putin that he needs to leave all of Ukraine, including Crimea, before any peace deal.
Conservative political ads understandably leave this record out. They don’t want voters to know the truth. They create a straw man. Conservative politicians want to continue raising our property taxes, defunding public schools and neglecting our future energy needs.
Fighting against a straw man will never make us stronger. American needs the truth.
I Wish I Were A Rich Man?
I am always struck when I come to the end of the Good Samaritan parable in the gospel of Luke. The parable ends with the rich man begging Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers. Abraham ridicules the rich man.
Abraham said “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” For me, this line summarizes the entire Gospel and the meaning of faith. It lays out clearly the consequences for a believer.
The rich man was a Jew. He had heard the Law of Moses and the warnings from the prophets. Presumably, like other rich men mentioned in the Gospels, “he kept the faith.” He said his prayers. He made his sacrifices. He ate the right food.
When the rich man died, however, he found himself in hell instead of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is precisely, the fate another rich man wanted to avoid.
In the Gospel of Matthew, a man asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” He then boldly told Jesus that he had kept all the commandments, and then asked “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
There you have it. If you are a Christian, these words come straight from a man that was raised from the dead. The Jesus of the Gospels links Jewish law and eternal life. Unlike today’s preachers, however, Jesus wasn’t running around casting stones at people having sex. Jesus saved his anger for selfish rich people.
Jesus saved the poor. Lazarus was a poor, sick man. Lazarus was so poor, he longed “to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.” None ever fell. Luke tells us that Lazarus found his fill at the side of Abraham. Matthew also tells us what happens for people who help and care for a “Lazarus” in our lives.
Why is it then that Conservatives, who claim they want a Christian nation, always act like the rich man in the Gospel of Luke? They ridicule school lunch programs. They ridicule public health programs. They ridicule immigrant programs. They ridicule prison programs.
I understand why conservatives don’t listen to the research that shows these programs work. They are drowning in a world of lies created by Fox News and Talk Radio. But why don’t conservatives listen to the one who rose from the dead? I guess Luke told us when he said “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
Solutions, Not Fear
Conservatives politicians make two promises. They promise that government can’t work when they are elected. They promise to run government like their personal business. Why are we surprised when things turn out good for them and their friends but bad for us?
Conservative politicians are on television complaining about everybody else except themselves. They have been in power in Texas for the last generation. Their policies created the chaos around us.
Conservative politicians defunded our public schools. They have flooded our streets with unregulated guns. They have glamorized killing government officials. They loudly call on Texans to use “Second Amendment Solutions.”
Conservative politicians like Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton have been controlling Texas for the last 20 years. If Texas is broken, then they broke it.
This November we have an opportunity to pursue constitutional solutions. These solutions should work for us, the people of Texas, not conservative corporations.
These solutions work hand in hand. They have a proven track record of building the greatest country in the world: the United States of America. We can create a lawful society if we have a well-educated electorate and a well-regulated militia.
A well-educated electorate means saying no to school vouchers. We don’t need to take tax dollars out of public education and give it to Wall Street. Our money needs to stay in the classroom to pay for teachers and fund their benefits.
Teachers are leaving their profession because conservative politicians keep stacking on unfunded mandates. Teacher and staffing shortages force teachers into overcrowded classrooms and require after hours paper work.
Police officers look down the barrels of unregulated guns every day. They can’t tell the bad guy from the good guy. They have to shoot first and ask questions later. We ask too much of them.
As a matter of fact a better educated society is less violent. A better educated society is more compassionate. A better educated society encourages reading, writing, math and science. A better educated society teaches its children to respect their neighbors, not to fear them.
Beto O’Rourke, Mike Collier and Rochelle Garza offer solutions. They want fully funded public schools. They want regulations that make sure criminals don’t have easy access to guns. They want Americans to vote more, not less. O’Rourke, Collier and Garza want to expand health care for Texans.
We know what conservatives promise: a failed government that fills the pockets of their donors. We need a government that works for the people of Texas. We need a government that values our lives.
Is That An Elephant in Your Uterus?
When a woman walks into a doctor’s office should Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton walk in too? Should national Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and Ted Cruz watch a woman’s exam? Should these politicians make medical decisions for women?
Republican politicians in Austin and Washington think they should.
Pregnancy is one of the most dangerous and complicated experience in a woman’s life. Since the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973, women have been free to make medical decisions for themselves. State and federal politicians had to allow a woman to make decisions that impacted her health and life.
On Jun 24, 2022 the conservative Supreme Court took those freedoms away. The conservative court gave power to state politicians. State politicians can now place the life of a developing fetus before the life and health of a breathing woman.
The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision allows politicians to create a one size fits all regulation for all pregnancies in the state. Before Dobbs, Abbott and Patrick placed bounties on women whose pregnancies ended before birth, encouraging vigilantes to spy on their neighbors. They also drafted a radical “trigger” law just in case the conservatives on the Supreme Court gave politicians more power over women.
Doctors across the nation and the state are warning the public about the consequences of this new found power. For example in Ohio, a ten year old rape victim had to leave the state for an abortion because, like Texas, Ohio Republicans denied abortions to all rape victims.
In Louisiana, a woman had to leave that state because she carried a fetus without a head. It clearly could not have lived outside her body. Since the politicians decided a heartbeat defined a life, the woman could not get an abortion. The state law required her to carry the dead body to term and deliver it.
All across the country, women face these horrible realities because politicians want to legislate away medical complexities. Doctors now must deny women cancer treatments because chemo could cause an abortion. Under these new laws, chemo treatments could be prosecuted as murder.
All my life conservatives told me they wanted small government. Abbott, Patrick, Paxton, McConnell, McCarthy and Cruz now stand between a woman and her doctor. Is that small government?
Now, Lindsay Graham and the Republicans in Congress want the federal government to have these same powers. They want the federal government to restrict women’s medical choices. They want federal prosecutors to hunt women who defend their health and life during pregnancy.
If these conservatives impose themselves on women, there would be no escape. Pregnancy is one of the most dangerous and complicated experience in a woman’s life. I trust women, not politicians. Who do you trust?
A Republic, Not A Monarchy
The death of Queen Elizabeth II reminds me how lucky we are as Americans. We don’t have a monarchy. We have a Republic. The American Republic belongs to all the people, not a single person.
Our Republic, however, owes much to the history of the English monarchy. American constitutional history often traces its origins back to 1215. In that year English nobles forced King John to sign the Magna Carta.
This “Great Charter” was the first explicit limitation on monarchical power. After 1215 English monarchs had to respect the privileges of nobleman and churchman. For example, if the king accused the nobleman or a churchman of a crime, then the king had to present evidence before a jury. Eventually that jury system expanded to include all Englishmen.
Another key event happened in 1641 when Charles I tried to arrest Members of Parliament. Charles led armed guards into Parliament to make the arrests. The MPs, however, had already left the building and Charles left London empty handed and humiliated.
Eight months later Charles raised an army and declared war on Parliament. The English Civil War ended seven years later. Parliament won and tried Charles for treason. He was found guilty and executed.
This execution was a revolutionary act. Before this trial, kings considered the kingdom as a piece of personal property. Kings could never betray themselves. Now, kings had to answer to Parliament.
Over the next 200 years Parliament placed more and more restrictions on the monarchy. English monarchs learned their lesson. If they broke the law, they faced removal from the throne and a death penalty.
Charles II signed into law the “writ of habeas corpus,” agreeing to show physical evidence to criminal suspects. William and Mary agreed to an Act of Religious Toleration and Bill of Rights. William IV and Queen Victoria expanded voting in Parliamentary elections for more men. George V expanded suffrage to include women.
Gradually, people took power from monarchs in Great Britain. Elizabeth II reigned peacefully for 70 years. She learned her history. The will of the voters matters more than the will of the monarch.
Unfortunately, the majority of Republicans have forgotten these lessons. They have pledge their allegiance to one person, not the people.
On January 6, 2021 Donald Trump incited his armed followers to storm the United States Capitol to overturn our election. Like Charles I, Donald failed. Like Charles I, Donald continues to incite and encourage violence against the majority of citizens in the United States of American.
I have no doubt the people will prevail. Votes matter more than violence. History is on the side of the people, not tyrants.
Public Service vs. Private Profit
Conservatives have been pretty clear about one aspect of their governing philosophy. They say that they will run government like a business. Liberals, however, see government as public services. The results are dramatically different.
Liberal policies shaped American politics after the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt provided a role model for creating government services. The Great Depression exposed the limits of free markets.
During the Great Depression, unemployment reached 25%. For two years conservative President Herbert Hoover urged Congress to keep it hands off of the economy. Businesses were free to fail, and they did. The economy only got worse.
FDR responded with programs that he described as “practical Christianity.” FDR didn’t push a theology, or a set of beliefs, rather he took action. He used the government to feed the hungry. He used the government to employ the unemployed. He used government to electrify and to bring phone service to rural areas.
Once the overall economy stabilized, FDR tackled institutional or systematic poverty. He knew from research that Seniors, individuals with disabilities, widows and orphans experienced poverty more than other Americans. He created Social Security to keep them feed, clothed and housed.
This practical Christian approach was widely popular, and FDR won reelection 3 more times. It was so successful generation of politicians followed his example creating a GI Bill for Veterans and low cost college education for young people.
Conservatives had limited electoral and polices successes until Ronald Reagan. Reagan made a direct appeal to Southern Democrats who had previously supported the segregationist George Wallace. Reagan made vague statements about protecting traditional values, but in the context of a Civil Rights movement, Southerners heard the dog whistle.
Reagan Conservatives then set down the path of dismantling public services. Government would be run like a business. They defunded public transportation. They defunded public schools. They defunded public healthcare.
This business model spread to higher education. Conservative politicians cut state funding. Colleges and universities responded by raising prices to keep their doors open. This change forced working and middle class families to take out student loans.
This cycle has continued for the last forty years. President Joe Biden has provided a small measure of debt relief. We will not break the cycle until politicians stop treating government like their business.