NEON GODS

Newt comes home to roost. Republicans freak out!

Oy!  What Charles Pierce wrote about Newt! Pure poetry on a sword:

Newt Gingrich should stay in the race, doing exactly what he's doing, for as long as he wants to do it. If he wants to show up in Tampa come August to hurl invective at the walls of the convention center, he should do precisely that. And I am not saying this entirely because I know such a development will be wonderful theater and will drive Willard Romney batty. I am saying it because, for over 20 years, I have watched the Republican party embrace Gingrichism. I have watched it profit politically for having done so. I have watched it become coarser, more ignorant, and more vicious perhaps than any national political party has been since the days when actual fistfights broke out around the hard-cider barrel in the town square. I have watched it adopt retrograde policies that have damaged the country. All of these are products of the politics created and practiced by Newt Gingrich. If we are now at the gotterdammerung of that age, then, goddammmit, let Newt Gingrich be its agent. It's only just.

--Trakker

Indiana, my Indiana, going all stupid

Oh my God Zeus!  I'm not sure which is worse.

First, the Indiana Republicans controlling the state Senate Education Committee voted to allow creationism to be taught in the state's public schools(!).  Then, the Muncie (IN) StarPress newspaper ran an editorial titled, "What's so bad about creationism in public schools?"(!!) Yes, a prominent newspaper in a city with a large state university (Ball State) thinks teaching creationism in Indiana's public schools is okay.  Why?  Because the editorial writer doesn't have a clue what the word "theory" means especially as used in science.

Theory: 1) a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena: Einstein's theory of relativity. Synonyms: principle, law, doctrine.

The writer believes that by tacking the word "theory" onto creationism that makes it equal to the theory of evolution.  The writer took a lot of hits for that in the comments section (what do you expect in a city with a large university?).

This bill, now ready to be voted on in the Indiana Senate, and the editorial, have now gone national and is becoming a huge black eye for Indiana.  Here's my comment:

I have a diploma from an Indiana high school and I graduated from Indiana University. When Hoosiers like me apply for jobs in this extremely competitive job market, often all candidates have similar credentials and the decision who gets the job comes down to little thing like where you went to school.

In one fell swoop, the Republicans in the Senate Education Committee, who equate creationism with evolution, and an editorial writer at a prominent Indiana newspaper who doesn't know the definition of the term "theory" in science, have just made Indiana look stupid, and those who have been educated in this state look suspect.

This issue has now received national attention and it will mean job seekers educated in Indiana will have a harder time competing against those educated elsewhere...and maybe that's as it should be because one can easily presume that the educational system in Indiana is not prime time judging by the bills proposed and editorials written recently.

Might I suggest that if Indiana wants employers offering good paying jobs to move there, and it's graduates to do well in the job market, their elected leaders should focus less on busting unions and concentrate more on developing intelligent and responsible leaders who have the guts to put an end to pandering to the myth-purveyors.

--Trakker

The fleas have fled

I see my readership levels have dropped back to near normal and the mind-bending comments from the "we're smarter than the experts" crowd have ceased. 

I grew up in a family like them, smart enough to understand issues if they tried to research them, but unwilling to accept answers that might conflict with their religious or political beliefs.   That's bad enough, but then they choose to listen to radical myth-makers that convince them that all the highly educated experts are wrong.  The myth-makers then present other "experts" or dissenters who they claim are SMARTER than all those educated experts.

Here is what drives me crazy.  I daresay most of us find ourselves having to evaluate the validity of two opposing ideas.  Once we make up our mind which makes most sense to us, do you then embrace that position and forever close your mind to the other?  Of course not.  But these people do.  The one thing that defines them is certainty.  There is absolutely nothing the opposing camp can present that can change their mind.

For an example, Dagny T wrote in a comment on one of my posts:

And yes, I am a Global Warming Denier, as are most people with functioning brain cells.

According to Wikipedia,

In the scientific literature, there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view, though a few organisations hold non-committal positions.  [note: Wikipedia here is not commenting on the truth of global warming, just that there is strong consensus in the scientific community that it is true.]

So Dagny, in one blithe statement, implies that all the experts who have concluded that global surface temperatures are increasing and that it is human induced, are stupid.  In science people who hold a minority view have the responsibility to convince the majority that they are wrong.  I'm quite certain that by insisting that those who disagree with them are just too stupid to understand is NOT a good strategy. 

Certainty appears to be the bedrock upon which the post-Reagan right is built upon. Certainty and hubris.  Certainty appeals to intellectually lazy people because they prefer being told what to believe.  They do NOT want to have to figure it out for themselves because they are either insecure in their knowledge or judgement, or they just don't want to have to take the time to think and evaluate every idea or proposal that comes along. 

It is this certainty (and hubris) that will eventually be the downfall of the new right.  People who don't have doubts, people who are not open to new evidence or ideas can't adapt and are left behind.  I think we will see the new right crash and burn in the next few years.  It will be a relief (and a pleasure).

--Trakker

 

Are Republicans living in bubbles?

We all live in bubbles.  Some bubbles are imposed on us (e.g., small towns) but most are of our own making.  I grew up in a small factory town where almost everyone was very religious and very conservative.  If you were not religious or conservative you had trouble making friends.  This was my bubble until I joined the Air Force.

After training I was sent to an Air Base in Germany for three years.  I soon found myself building a new bubble of friends who, like me, preferred reading and discussing life to the bar scene.  However, much to my astonishment, my new bubble contained people of different races and different politics. Few were religious and many were liberals.  Exposed to different ideas and being exposed to new parts of the world, I became more liberal (and less religious) myself.  From that point on my bubbles were pretty liberal: college, government job, PTA, etc. and I just began to believe the majority of people outside the south pretty much believed like me.

So imagine my surprise when Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980. And re-elected in 1984!  "Whoa Nelly," I thought, "what's going on here?"  What was going on was that I had mistakenly projected the beliefs of the people in my relatively small bubble onto the rest of the country because I had not had a chance to leave my bubble.

Why do I mention this?  Because I suspect many on the right are living in bubbles in their conservative towns, counties, even states, where the vast majority of people believe the way they do.  If they go online, they do as most of us do - seek out the news providers and blogs who agree with them.  Judging by their comments on news outlets like washingtonpost.com, they appear certain that the vast majority of Americans share their far-right philosophy (based largely on the 2010 elections) and that only a small group of silly, misguided liberals - mainly in the big cities and on the coasts - believe otherwise.  They are certain of a huge Republican victory in 2012. 

From my vantage point I don't think this is going to happen.  Yes, the Republicans might take the Senate and/or even the Presidancy, but it will be close and hard fought, and it will become apparent to all that the tea party influence will only be helpful in the most conservative states (like South Carolina).

Normally I don't worry about people who suffer defeat in elections.  We've all been disappointed, even shocked, by election results, but the level of anger on the right worries me.  Many on the right now see politics as a battle between the real Americans and the evil others who want to destroy America.  When angry people believe the country has been stolen by those who want to destroy the (mythical) country they love, watch out!

--Trakker

State of the Union Address. Impressive.

For the past two years little would entice me to listen to anything President Obama had to say.  I knew that his words and actions hardly ever jibed.  Despite what he said for two years he always ended up giving the Republicans almost everything they demanded.

But I decide to watch his State of the Union address last night, and believe it was one of his best speeches to date.  Obviously I don't agree with about a third of what he proposed, but I liked the way he challenged Congress (especially on ending the use of the filibuster).

After watching some of the Republican debates - and especially the performances of the two front-runners - I believe President Obama is going to be hard to beat in 2012, especially if he spends the next few months casting a spotlight on the Republican's determination to let nothing get passed in Congress this year.  That doesn't mean I now trust Obama to follow through on his promises, but if he wants to be re-elected he will have to follow through on his promises this time.

--Trakker

Oh my! New readers (temporary, I'm sure).

Evidently Neon Gods has been discovered by readers of a conservative blog or website (woo hoo!).  No problem.  I don't hate conservatives, but I do hate stupidity, and if you deny the reality of evolution, or believe that man is not affecting our climate, or believe that the alignment of stars can predict the future, or believe in ghosts, or believe that the world is flat, please move on.

I grew up Baptist in Indiana, joined the Air Force, spent time in Germany, and now live in the Washington, DC, area.  My family was to the right of John Birchers, so obviously I grew up conservative.  Fortunately, I escaped.

Do understand that this blog is my outlet for venting frustration at our political system, so, yes, I am sometimes less than civil in my posts.  We all have a right to scream at our broken political system from time to time.

--Trakker

Are Republican voters tricked into voting against their self-interest. No.

I often hear liberals ask why so many Republicans vote against their self-interest, like for example, supporting huge tax cuts for the wealthy while demanding that the poor pay more.  We have to understand that they AREN'T voting against their self-interest, they are voting against OUR self-interest.  They want a different America than we do.

We want a country that has good public schools for all and a higher education system open to the rich and the poor and we don't mind paying more in taxes for this.  We believe government can - and should - do things that the private sector and the private individual can't.  We believe workers should have enough leverage to earn a working wage and we want a vibrant middle class.  We strongly believe that a person's race should not matter but we recognize that racism still exists and we have a responsibility to do what we can to mitigate (and eliminate) it.  We also believe there must be a wall between religion and government, and that no one should be forced to obey someone else's purely religious edict.  So when we vote we vote for our self interest.

The Republican base has a different ideal.  They are suspicious of public schools or national standards, preferring that the local community get to decide what to teach kids.  Many see nothing wrong with teaching Christianity and Biblical myths rather than established science that contradicts the Bible.  They believe the free market should rule and that government should not get involved.  That this will result in a degraded environment, increased deaths from dangerous products, or a society of just two classes of people: a small group of the very rich, and a very large population of people constantly living on the edge does not seem to concern them.  Many Republicans I've talked to believe that this is God's will, and that poverty spurs people to work harder.  Sadly it appears that a significant portion of the Republican base see African Americans and Hispanics (and now Muslims) as enemies of their America.  To them, blacks are lazy and probably less intelligent who believe whites owe them food stamps and a welfare check, Hispanics are like ants that have invaded our country and are taking jobs away from us, and Muslims have come to America to eventually take us over and impose their religion and their law on us.  Obviously not everyone on the right feels this way, but in general this is the America they are voting for.

So, please, no more compalins about how Republicans are "tricked" into voting against their self-interest.   They know exactly what they are voting for.

--Trakker 

This man could be your President next year.

Kathleen Parker writes about how Newt Gingrich was able to turn the interview with his second wife around and make himself the victim.

A Catholic friend captures the operative sentiment in terms Gingrich surely would appreciate. When she sees someone succumb to temptation or betray some other human frailty, she says: “I have those weeds in my garden.”

Forget the weeds, this man was cheating on his wife at the same time he was angrily demonizing liberals for our supposed moral failures.  He and his Republican party have seized power by demonizing the opposition for moral failures that they were engaged in themselves.

I have nothing but contempt for these Republicans, not because they are human and make human mistakes, but because they parade around clothed in their cloak of righteousness while underneath they are often more degraded than the people they are pointing their accusatory fingers at.

--Trakker

Rep. Joe Wilson: another reason to avoid South Carolina.

Charles Pierce is in South Carolina blogging about the Republican Clown Show Presidential primary race.  So are a lot of other blogger.  So why do I read him first?  Because of gems like this:

If [Republicans] couldn't be victims, I swear some of these people would simply dissolve into their composite chemical elements in a pile on the floor.

This one was directed at Joe ("You Lie!") Wilson, (R-Asylum), who was interviewed by Chuck Todd (why encourage them, Chuck?), but it could have been directed at any of the remaining candidates, couldn't it?

--Trakker

 

A rant against those who consider African Americans "parasites."

If you read the comments on local news sites or even national ones like the WaPost you know that there are a lot of white people, mainly in the nearly all-white rural states in the middle of the country who are in a perpetual fury about "those people," who are parasites living off the tax dollars of hard-working white people.

We all know who "they" are. I've even tried engaging some of the commenters in debates about the subject, but the bottom line is always the same, "they" are by nature violent and lazy, and it's time we stopped the government from taking money from the good people and giving it to the parasites.

My wife is one the the "they."  She attended a historically black college and has stayed in touch with many of her classmates.  Also, she comes from a large family so over the years I've spent a lot of time with people many on the right consider parasites.  Two weeks ago we had dinner with some former classmates at one of their homes.  The house was large and expertly decorated. The grounds were beautifully landscaped.  It was the kind of house you would expect from two successful professionals.  It's also important to note that their house was in the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood with hundreds of similar homes, nicer than ours by a mile.

My wife's classmates and their husbands are smart, knowledgeble, and well-traveled, smarter than me by a mile.  These are people who got an education, worked very hard, invested wisely, and are now retired and spending the money they have earned.  Hardly parasites, they are actually the class of consumers who still have money and are keeping our economy afloat right now.  The thing is there are hundreds of thousands just like them living in the suburbs of Washington and every large metropolitan area in America.

Why am I writing this?  To first make a point that these are the beneficiaries of Martin Luther King's sacrifices (and those who put their lives on the line to march with him).  The laws that resulted from the civil rights movement opened the doors for African Americans to get a good education, jobs, and a chance for the American Dream, and many, many African Americans did just that.  This is why we have a national holiday to celebrate MLK's accomplishments - and to all those white Americans who vehemently opposed it (I'm looking at you Ron Paul): screw you!.  Secondly, but just as important, it seems that no matter what the facts, the haters on the right continue to consider people they don't know or understand perfect targets for their constant need for enemies and people to look down on.  Many whites who write bigoted comments are shocked and angry when blacks, or whites who have black friends, coworkers, even family members, call them out as bigots and respond to their comments with anger and disgust.  They appear to honestly believe that blacks (and Hispanics) are parasites on white society.  I just can't keep quiet when I see these idiots express their hatred for people they know nothing about.

--Trakker