HOPE IS THE MESSAGE

HAPPY 2012

To win in 2012 Republicans must feed voters' fears, hatred of Obama, and their desire to return to the “good old days” of Bush. Democrats need to convince us the economic troubles Bush caused are being corrected and things are getting better, the country is safer, and Obama is prepared, and eager, to do battle with the lords of Wall Street. The GOP has no choice but to run a negative campaign while the Democrats can, and must, focus on the positive.

What makes it an especially tough year for the GOP is that their convention takes place in Tampa, Florida on August 27.and is followed on September 3 by the Democrats' in Charlotte, South Carolina. The country will have to endure a week of lamentation, hair pulling, and “Obama is the problem!” speeches. A week later the Democrats will throw a party to which we're all invited. The speeches will be upbeat, the music will be lively, and the Obama family (and dog Bo) will smile, laugh, and cheer. (Maybe Bo won't.)

My guess, or prediction, is that Americans are ready to feel good again after a year of tears, struggle, and fear. I think the nation is ready for a truly happy 2012. So let's let auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind as we embrace hope once again.

TRIP TO HELL

IF PEOPLE WERE CARS

When an uninsured driver totaled my car, my insurance company sent me a check for what Kelly Blue Book said it was worth. Cool. In California all drivers are required to have insurance, so the guy who ran into me lost his license. Very cool. Now, if people were cars everybody would be required to have insurance on their bodies like they do on their cars. It's called Romneycare in Massachusetts, and if the Supreme Court doesn't screw things up it will be required in all states soon. Totally cool.

What I don't understand is why some people are screaming that it's socialism, or worse. They didn't have a Tea Party extravaganza to shout down the laws that require car owners to have insurance. Were they asleep, or do they think making tax payers foot the hospital bill for people in ER is okay while getting their insurance company to pay if their car's in ER, also known as a repair shop, is swell?

Rather than further belabor the point, let me reflect on concepts laid out in the Christian Bible and the Qur’an. Both those holy books tell the faithful they must care for those in need or they'll go to hell. That being the case, Ron Paul faces spending a very long time in hell for his demands that we stop all foreign aid and repeal Obamacare. He wouldn't be alone “down below” All the other wannabe GOP nominees agree with most of his Libertarian views. (Which translates: liberty for me and screw you.)

The Good Samaritan saved the life of an injured Jew who was supposed to be is enemy. Other Jews who'd walked by the man had ignored him, the Samaritan came to his aid. That is the lesson all of us must learn. We are all our brothers' keepers. Remind those who don't want to pay for health insurance that can save another's life that it is damned hot in hell. .

POLITICS IS A DIRTY BUSINESS

ELEPHANT POOP

The old joke says the worst job in a circus falls to the one who has to shovel up the elephant poop.That job is now impossible as the GOP elephant has begun to suffer from acute diarrhea. And the shit is hitting all its fans. The brutal Iowa campaign – to win a meaningless victory – has forced the contenders to spit in each others' faces. Racism has reemerged (thanks to Dr. Paul,) wealth is an attack word, and anti-gay and anti-abortion attacks have once again alienated moderates and independents. The one who wins the rigid Evangelicals and Tea Party-ites votes in the Iowa caucuses will almost surely loose in the general election.

But it is even more of a problem for Republicans this year because the local battles have gone national, thanks to the endless string of “debates.” It used to be that what happened in Iowa stayed in Iowa, now it stays, and stays, and stays on Fox and msnbc. Gingrich's praise of Romeny-care will hurt Mitt in the Super Tuesday primaries, Bachmann's attack on Perry's position on immigration will erode the Hispanic vote even more, and Santorum's Christian crusade will reduce the Jewish vote for Republicans in Florida and across the country. And have no doubt, those bits from the Iowa campaign will be the stuff of Democratic TV ads month after month.

I'm not the only one who thinks all this shit can doom the party in November. Recently the conservative National Review and uber-conservative William Kristol have expressed dismay and called on more electable candidates to join the race. Who? Another Bush? Chinless Bobby Jindal? The fatso who rides in a limo because he can't even walk to his kid's ball game? The GOP isn't just in trouble in 2012, they also don't have any strong candidates waiting in the wings for 2016.

Watch where you step, Republicans, the ground is awash in what the elephant can't digest.

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DUMB AND DUMBER

WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE

I read The Nation every week and usually find it informative and agreeable. In the current issue (Jan 3) I ran across a bit that I assumed was a joke so I read on, expecting a punch line. Finding none, I reread the paragraph, hoping to find I'd missread the joke. I hadn't. The author urged, nay, demanded that Obama “move in the direction” of The American Dream Act, an omnibus bill the Progressive Caucus created. It is every thing us progressives could hope for and, of course, has absolutely no chance in hell of passing either house. I doubt it could pass even if Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate.

Switching from that, I prowled through stories about America Elect. It has just gotten on the ballot in California, and a bunch of other states. Its boss insists it is not a political party, but that's how it is described in all of the states where it will be on the ballot in 2012. Their idea seems simple enough: people vote on-line to pick a candidate, who must then pick a vice presidential running mate from the other party. So voters would end up with what. Obama and Gingrich? Or Ron Paul and Michelle Backhmann? Don't those dummies know that the vice presidency is a pot of warn piss, as Vice President John Nance Gardner put it. His (or one day, her) only constitutionally assigned job is to serve as titular president of the Senate. The President tells his veep what else he can do, or can not do. Period.

The bigger question, however, is not why America Elect is so stupid, but who put up the millions it has cost them to pay for all the signatures that got them on those ballots. Do the backers of this bizarre movement have a Koch addiction? AE won't get anybody elected but it has the potential of drawing some independents from Obama, and even some semi-smart Democrats who are weary of the two party system. My guess is that that's what its financial backers had in mind now that there's no Ralph Nader to screw things up.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

Under the Christmas tree in the White House there is a gift box from the Republican National Committee, but there's nothing in it. The gift won't come for weeks, maybe not until Super Tuesday, or the GOP convention. But eventually Obama will opening it to find who the GOP nominee is, and what he finds will be just what he asked Santa for. Meanwhile, back at the campaign headquarters in Chicago, the staff is packing goodies into three boxes. One is labeled Romney, one Gingrich, and one just has a black “? “

These days the polls are looking good for Obama in 2012. In them, he's ahead of Romney or even with him, he easily tops all the others, and the campaign hasn't started. And there is the possibility that billionarie New York Mayor Bloomberg will toss his fedora in the race as a third parry canaidate, which would be a fatal blow to the GOP.. But none of this has stopped the professional whiners from attacking Obama for not giving them what they wanted in their Christmas' stockings.

The latest of these prompted me to cancel my subscription to Harper's magazine. The publisher of that once-responsible magazine, John MacArthur, recently wrote that Obama should not be reelected because he has “lost his moral authority.” It strikes me that anyone who says that has lost his, and his common sense too. Obama got bin Laden, ended Bush's Iraq war, got his health care bill passed, has cut taxes on the poor and middle class, killed “Don't Ask,Don't Tell,” and has restored true “family values” to the White House.

But the MacArthurs of the country, few as there are, will have zero affect on the 2012 vote. Before November of next year it will be Obama versus one man, and whoever that is his campaign is ready to launch block buster campaigns against him. (And it will be a Him now that Backmann has turned to dust.) There will be a southern campaign that reminds Evangelicals of Governor Romney's support of gay marriage and a woman's right to choose; a mid-west campaign that focuses on Romney's record as a jobs killer when he ran Bain, a company that is still paying him; and an east and west coast campaign that focuses on the recently “born again” Tea Party reactionary. All of those Romenys will loose and a truly moral man, who has read the Constitution, will be reelected.

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AN EASY RIDE?

I AM VERY CONFUSED

Can you help me understand what's going on in politics? What am I missing? I've been studying the Hedgehog Report which collects data from all the major polls and it shows Obama beating Gingrich in the Electoral College by a vote of 426 to 112. That's what is called a landslide victory. And Gingrich is tied with Obama in Arizona and has only a 1% lead in Ohio but Hedgehog gives them to the Republican. The Hispanic vote could tip Arizona to the Democrats and Independents could swing Ohio. That would turn an Obama landslide into a tsunami.

There is, of course, a year to go before election day but one would think those numbers would have Republicans quaking in their Gucci loafers and hunting for an “anybody but Newt” candidate. Why aren't they and what is the GOP thinking? That's my conundrum.

I had one thought. Maybe there's a George Smiley-type agent in the GOP. You know, John le Carré's master spy in Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy. He would have been the one who plotted all their disastrous debates, sought out the women in Herman Cain's past, fed Rick Perry a drug which made him forget what agencies he wanted to abolish, and talked Gingrich into saying Freddy Mac hired him as an historian. Oh, and he convinced Romney that Americans had lousy memories and wouldn't be able to recall what he's said yesterday about gays, abortion, or universal health care.

Their Smiley chap (who never smiles) has also gotten into Karl Rove's head and GOP pollster Linda DiVall's. Rove said the Obama campaign has a “sort-term view” and a very bad long-term problem. Ms. DiVall was prompted to note that the Obama campaign “should not feel in the least comfortable.”

Short term? Don't they read The Washington Post? That sometimes good paper finally noted that the Obama campaign launched the “two Mitts in one body” TV ad with sole objective of helping Newt get the nomination That was damned smart long-range planning and the campaign staff is feeling quite comfortable as they meet in the White House today. .

Or maybe the GOP rigged all the polls and concocted the Hedgehog report just to give the Obama campaign a false comfortable feeling. Now that would really have been a major coup for their Smiley-face. Or they could be echoing the line, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” to victory in 2012.

THE ONE PERCENT

GREED IS GOD

That is not a typo in the title of this piece. Congressman Paul Ryan and many others worship greed and Ann Rand's Atlas Shrugged is their bible. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck also adore the book as do many right-wing Republicans and some, but by no means all, Wall Streeters. In the book, published in 1957, Rand describes the hero as, “Having been born without the ability to consider others.” This is, of course, characteristic of psychopaths, one of whom Ann Rand idolized: the homicidal maniac William Hickman who slaughter a 13 year old girl.

In The Fifteen Biggest Lies About Capitalism author Joshua Holland details Rand's obsession with the concept of a world without empathy, a world in which each of us seeks only to achieve personal wealth and power. She doesn't even invoke Adam Smith's mysterious “invisible hand,”which he said is somehow able to reap a bit of benefit to all from the avarice of the few. Rand's dream of a world without concern for others leads Newt Gingrich into wanting poor kids to map the floor of their school while the well off students mock them, and to Ryan's plan to slice apart the fabric of what is left of our ragged safety net.

I read an advance copy of the book in the spring of 1957 and hated it. But when I was told to go up to the Brown Derby restaurant to interview her I gathered the film crew and headed up the street. She was sitting in a booth along the north wall with men I presumed represented the publisher. When she saw me and my film crew she hissed that we were schwein, (pigs.) I tried to smile as I spoke in my poor German; Ich nicht ein Schwein, Fraulein, ich bin ein Reporter.” The men in the booth laughed. Ann Rand tossed her glass of water in my face. NBC news carried the spot that night unedited.

However it is not the hard faced German's rudeness, nor even her books, that trouble me now. It is the way her philosophy of soulless selfishness has become an acceptable way of doing business in the world today. Recent research has revealed that even rats have empathy. When another rat is trapped the one who is free attempts to chew off the trap. But if the Randites have their way we will abandon all concern for others and serve only the god of greed. I hope her vision doesn't become reality, but I hope to live long enough to see my government boldly act to punish pathological capitalists.