05-10-2022 - Rich Strike Inspring to Democrats- Getting out the Vote - Liberalism Goes Awry - A Big Print Shop - Two Fine Columns

 

Rich Strike Wins Kentucky Derby Against Bigger Odds than Democrats Face

For those who don’t believe the Democrats will ‘win big’ on Nov. 8 and end up with even larger majorities in the House and in the Senate, and at the same time take control of a bunch of red State governorships and State legislatures, just look at what 80-1 long shot Rich Strike did in winning the Kentucky Derby on Saturday!  Anything is possible.

(Rich Strike didn't come out of nowhere. His inbred ‘bloodlines’ go back to some great horses, particularly the stallion 'Curlin,' who is his grandsire and also his cousin on his dam's side, just as the Democratic Party’s ‘bloodlines’ go back to some great leaders such as Barack Obama, Franklin Roosevelt and by adoption, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, both abandoned by the Republican Party.)

All it takes is very hard work and unwavering faith in what you believe.  It is up to you to get more voters registered. It is up to you to support the candidates you believe in. It is up to you to vote for them. It is up to you. It is up to you. It is up to you. Get it?

 

JL                   

 

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GettIng Out the Vote 

It’s easy for the Republicans to get out their vote.  All they have to do is appeal to the emotions of voters who openly or tacitly harbor an animosity toward non-whites, who are bothered by same-sex marriages and by people who are not ‘straight,’ who feel that our new tech-oriented economy has taken something away from them and given it to others who haven’t ‘earned’ it, and who feel we have strayed too far from the Bible or mistakenly, from the original intent of the Constitution.  They find easy targets to attack in the person of immigrants, minorities, and even teachers.  To get their votes, Republicans don’t have to make these points in speeches. Dog-whistles and hints are sufficient. They are good at that. 

It’s more difficult for the Democrats to get out the vote. They have to satisfy their voters with rational reasons for supporting them.  They have to satisfy academics and voters who don’t understand issues unless they are explained for them in the honest newspapers and magazines.  Dog whistles don’t work with them. 

Getting tangled up in arguing issues wastes their already scarce resources.  It is better to simply state that  Republicans never support legislation that is in the interest of women, non-whites, are on the wrong side of all LGBTQ issues and give no respect to non-believers in traditional religions. The don’t want the government to regulate anything, not even food or drugs and of course not the financial marketplace. They lie about continuing Social Security and Medicare, just as they lied about preserving a woman’s right to have an abortion. They want to go back to the final three decades of the 19th century and the third decade of the 20th century when business interests ruled the nation.  There is no reason for anyone with half a brain to vote for them.  But despite all that they are against, and despite their not being for anything constructive whatsoever, all too many still vote for Republicans.  Democrats have a hard row to hoe. 

Campaigning ‘positively’ is harder than campaigning ‘negatively,’ as Republicans do.  That’s why the best tactic for Democrats must be to simply ask Americans to vote ‘to save democracy.’  This blog does that.  Without getting deeply into issues, urging Americans to vote for Democrats is enough. (That’s why the appeal from the prior posting is reproduced somewhere below.)  

 

JL                   

 

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(Reproduced from the previous blog postings.)

 

There is only one issue of political concern right now. That is how to defeat Republicans on Nov. 8, about 26 weeks from now.  The future of democracy in the United States is at stake.  Really.

A tsunami of Democratic votes from persons of color and from women is needed to retain control of both Houses of Congress and to take over as many State Legislatures as possible. Republican actions at National levels and especially at State levels are never in the interest of these voters whose voices and votes are necessary.  

The Democratic Party must recognize this and not let intra-party disagreements deter them.

If Paul Revere were riding tonight, his message would be ‘The fascists are coming! The fascists are coming! Get out the vote!’ 

You must do your part.  

JL                   

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Voice of the Poet on 'Liberalism'

Frost

Robert Frost once wrote that ‘a liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.’  ‘Liberal’ was once defined as keeping an open mind, closer to the way ‘libertarian’ is used today in the sense that ‘anything goes.’  By that definition, liberals could be on the left or on the right or anywhere, including out in space.  But no more.  Today, ‘liberal’ has become synonymous with left-leaning ‘progressives.’

Frost's words, if you accept that latter definition, synonymous with progressivism, describe how such liberalism got us to where the position of the United States regarding abortion rights has become like those of undemocratic and backward nations, places where you would not want to live.  It explains how Democrats, satisfied with knowing that the Courts were on their side, remained almost silent while the right-wing minority screamed about repealing Roe vs. Wade for half a century.  Well, screaming loud enough has changed that and the broadmindedness of liberals has allowed that to happen.  

It is time to heed the sarcasm in Frost’s words and strongly, if not violently, take the side in which one believes in the great quarrels now going on.  This not only applies to abortion rights, but to other rights Americans have enjoyed for years and which are under attack. Doing things politely, quietly, broadmindedly, doesn’t work.  Screaming does. 

Let’s contradict Frost’s definition that ‘a liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.’  Get out there and fight for what you believe, every day!

JL                   

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IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG, PLEASE FORWARD IT TO AT LEAST ONE OR MORE FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS WHOM YOU FEEL MIGHT ENJOY READING IT. Suggest that they pass it on to others.

There’s a little envelope at the bottom left corner of each posting enabling you to easily do that.  It looks like this:  . Just click on it and follow the instructions.  It will forward the full text of the blog posting (but not any illustrations or images, like that little envelope with the arrow) to whomever you want.

JL                   

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 A Very Busy Printing Operation

Did you know that besides printing the South Florida Sun Sentinel (circulating mostly in Broward and portions of Dade and Palm Beach Counties), that newspaper’s printing plant in Deerfield Beach also prints the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, (and both papers’ ‘en espanol’ versions), the Palm Beach Daily News, the Stuart News, the Port St. Lucie News, the Indian River News, the Fort Myers News-Press, the Naples Daily News, as well as the New York Daily News, the New York Times, the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the weekly Barron’s Financial Review for these publications’ Florida readers?

Imagine what effect a power failure or other disaster would have on news dissemination if that plant were disabled.  Keep your TV and radio in working order.

What?  You don't read newspapers any longer?  That makes you part of the problem and not part of the solution to the problems besetting us!  At least read their online versions, or selected items, including their columnists, from them each day for a very modest  price, like $4 for a whole month (a few pennies more than the newsstand or delivery price of one issue of most daily papers).  Check out the New York Times or the Washington Post for deals like that.

 

JL

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Column by E. J. Dionne

 E. J. Dionne’s Washington Post column of 5/9/22 dealing with the SCOTUS and Roe vs. Wade is well worth reading.  To read it, just CLICK HERE or somehow find your way to:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/08/supreme-court-conservative-majority-extremism-not-limited-to-roe/

But If you’re not going to do that though, here are the first and final sentences of Dionne’s column.  The ‘meat’ is in the middle, so please try to read the whole thing.

First Sentence:  If the Supreme Court adopts the substance of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s draft ruling ending the constitutional right to abortion, the conservative majority’s radicalism will deepen the crisis of American democracy and further divide an already torn country.

Final Sentence:  Conservatives (as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. may be telling his colleagues) should understand that a change as radical as the one Alito contemplates almost always blows up in its authors’ faces.

JL

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Florida’s Election Battles

(If you're fortunate enough not to live in the Sunshine State, you can skip this piece.  But you still might like to read it because it might happen to you someday. National issues are involved.)

It is important that Democrats turn out to defeat Marco Rubio in November.  He is less than worthless.  And the Democrat candidate, Val Demings is excellent.  With the votes of women and persons of color, she should win.  

But that will only happen if you make certain you are registered to vote and vote for her on November 8, and that you urge others to do the same.  A Rubio victory will be your fault!

More difficult is defeating Florida’s extreme right-wing, if not dictatorial, governor.  Registered Democrats will choose a candidate to oppose the ‘Florida Fuehrer’ in a primary election this Summer.  Here is a column from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel concerning one of the three (Crist, Fried, Taddeo) running in that primary election.

Abortion – Guns -  Is it enough to wake up voters?

By Steve Bousquet

May 06, 2022 at 3:17 pm

Abortion and guns.  Guns and abortion.

·        Eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion after nearly 50 years.

·        Allowing legal gun owners to openly display firearms without a permit, in Florida of all places — the scene of two of the worst mass shootings ever at Pulse nightclub and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Abortion and guns.

If there’s another political issue that can more effectively motivate Democrats and independents and get them to go to the polls — especially women, who already vote more reliably than men — I can’t think of one.

We know a few things about midterm or non-presidential statewide elections in Florida. Republicans have massively more money than Democrats, a lot more Republicans bother to vote than do Democrats, and Republicans win — though often by very small margins.

We also know too many Democrats in Florida blissfully ignore political campaigns until a few weeks before Election Day.

If that ever were to change, you’d think it would be this election, with the anticipated repeal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court and Gov. Ron DeSantis giddily pledging to sign an open-carry gun law before leaving office. There’s a reason why even this pro-gun Legislature has not sent that to him: It’s highly controversial and opposed by much of the voting public and in the past by Florida sheriffs.

History shows us Democrats and independents need an overwhelming reason to vote in a midterm, and at the moment they have at least three: abortion, guns and DeSantis, whose intensely polarizing presence and increasingly extremist agenda is a campaign issue all by itself. He’s a serious contender for president in 2024 — if he’s not stopped in 2022.

Can anybody stop him? There appears to be only one person: Charlie Crist. At first glance, that appears highly unlikely, if not impossible, in part because this looks like a rough mid-term cycle for Democrats because of inflation and other factors.

Besides, DeSantis has $100 million in the bank and all the trappings of incumbency, and the Republicans have passed Democrats in registered voters in Florida.

But on abortion and guns, he’s on the wrong side of public opinion, on top of his bullying tactics toward Blacks, LGBTQ Floridians, protesters, private businesses, kids wearing masks, voters, school boards, Disney — the list goes on.

So cocky and certain of his re-election prospects, DeSantis is clearly playing to a political audience far beyond Florida, and he has likened the Democratic Party to a “dumpster fire.”

As for Crist, he lost his last two statewide elections before winning a seat in Congress in St. Petersburg. His story is familiar as a Republican-turned-Democrat and a perpetual candidate who in the past tried too hard to be all things to all people.

Crist will face Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Sen. Annette Taddeo of Miami in the August Democratic primary.

It’s time for voters to take a fresh look at Crist and for Crist to forcefully explain, news cycle after news cycle, why the stakes are so high, and to remind voters that we live in a treacherous moment that is unparalleled in Florida history.

Crist took a step in that direction this week with a forceful speech that made the case against DeSantis.

Marking one year since he entered the race, from the lobby of a law office in Tampa’s Ybor City and speaking with a TelePrompTer, Crist looked past his primary rivals. He called DeSantis a bully, compared him to the world’s worst dictators, like Putin and Maduro, and said what can’t be easily distilled into a snappy sound bite: Our political institutions, starting with the Legislature, are breaking down before our very eyes.

“In normal times, Floridians could count on the checks and balances woven into the fabric of our state to limit an authoritarian-minded, power-hungry governor. Not anymore,” Crist said. “We have a moral responsibility to stop him.”

The speech is on Crist’s Facebook page. As is so often the case, the news media paid only perfunctory attention and the public ignored it completely.

Does a majority of Floridians really want to keep living like this? That’s hard to fathom.

Slowly but surely, Democrats are coalescing around Crist.

“I think he has the best chance to win against DeSantis. I think we need to consolidate around one candidate,” said Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, who said she’s hearing from more voters who are scared about a future with more DeSantis. “I can’t tell you how much angst there is out there.”

Abortion and guns.  Abortion, guns and DeSantis.  Isn’t that enough?

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the South Florida Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee. Contact him at  sbousquet@sunsentinel.com, call 850-567-2240 and follow him on Twitter @stevebousquet.

JL

 

05-06-2022 - Paul Revere's 2022 Ride, SCOTUS's Credibility at Risk and the Fed Raises the Prime Rate

 

There is only one issue of political concern right now. That is how to defeat Republicans on Nov. 8, about 26 weeks from now.  The future of democracy in the United States is at stake.  Really.

A tsunami of Democratic votes from persons of color and from women is needed to retain control of both Houses of Congress and to take over as many State Legislatures as possible. Republican actions at National levels and especially at State levels are never in the interest of these voters whose voices and votes are necessary.  

The Democratic Party must recognize this and not let intra-party disagreements deter them.

If Paul Revere were riding tonight, his message would be ‘The fascists are coming! The fascists are coming! Get out the vote!’ 

You must do your part.  

JL                   

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A Supreme Court that Reverses Roe vs. Wade Loses its Credibility

The Supreme Court is supposed to be different from and above the level of the other two branches of our government.  The Supreme Court is supposed to be free from the politics which motivates our Executive Branch and both Houses of Congress.  The bargaining, the divisions, the ‘horse-trading,’ and the attention focused on public opinion encouraged by the First Amendment, are not supposed to be present in the Supreme Court.  It is designed to be above such things, better leaving them to politicians and appointees in the other two Branches of our government.

In the areas where it has jurisdiction, as defined in Article III of the Constitution, it seems that its undefined role is to determine what is, or is not, in accordance with law, precedent and finally, the Constitution itself, including its Amendments.  In Marbury vs. Madison in 1803, this doctrine of such ‘judicial review,’ this precedent, was firmly established, more specifically defining the SCOTUS’s role. 

Mostly, that has worked.  But when the American people elected the defeated former president to office in 2016, a man ignorant of government, these things changed.  He had specifically vowed, in running for office, to appoint justices who would overrule Roe vs. Wade, a case which established a constitutional right to abortion in 1973 and which was a vital vote-attracting campaign tool for most Republicans.  He didn’t understand that that was not the way the SCOTUS is supposed to work, from its position away from the politics which permeated everything else that went on in Washington.  But he got away with it.  No one called him on it or recognized the essential threat to the structure and operation of the SCOTUS which he proposed by making appointments based on a nominee’s political views. 

Our Supreme Court Justices then became no different from the political hacks who sit on the bench in many local courtrooms throughout the country, getting their appointments as a loyalty reward from their party after being ‘termed out’ from other positions or losing an election. Getting appointed to the SCOTUS now depended on a potential candidate’s politics.  It is not supposed to be that way but the defeated former president made it that way.  His actions changed the rules. 

Right now, the Justices, three of whom are there only because of their politics, are attempting to deal with this problem.  It is complicated by the half-truths, if not outright lies, they uttered at their confirmation hearings and the undemocratic words of Justice Alito in the leaked ‘draft’ which states that “We cannot allow our decisions to be affected by any extraneous influences such as concern about the public’s reaction to our work.”  

It is pretty clear by now that the SCOTUS will end up returning any regulation of abortion to the States.  That battle has been lost already, but it will take many years for the smoke to clear, since the majority of Americans will disagree with that decision.

If you want to see and hear the SCOTUS Justices lying, just CLICK HERE or visit: https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1521675878983475200

What Justice Alito wrote would have been a reasonable position had not the defeated former president changed the rules by insisting on a political basis for his three SCOTUS appointments.  Because of the politics involved in those appointments however, the rules were changed making ‘public reaction’ to the Court’s behavior a legitimate consideration.  Therefore, Justice Alito’s words come across as simply undemocratic.  Some believe that the ‘draft’ was leaked specifically to prevent the other Justices from being swayed by the public’s reaction, but it is now too late for that.  The furor of the country has been aroused by the politicized SCOTUS.

(A bit of history:  When the SCOTUS issued Chief Justice Taney’s opinion in the Dred Scott case in 1857, it ignored the same ‘public reaction’ that Justice Alito references in the ‘draft.’ Three years later the Civil War began, precipitated by this decision. This is what happens when the SCOTUS climbs down from its supposedly non-political pedestal and swears in Justices chosen for their political beliefs.) 

I anticipate that the SCOTUS’s final opinion regarding Roe vs. Wade will show some, if only token, respect for ‘concern about the public’s reaction’ and not be as viciously ironclad as Justice Alito’s words in the ‘draft.’ But even this will not restore the Court’s credibility, diminished if not destroyed by the defeated former president.  

Also feared by supporters of Roe vs. Wade is that a decision repealing or diminishing it would open the door to further attacks on Americans' rights, particularly those provided by the Fourteenth Amendment involving such things as gay marriage, contraception, LGBTQ issues and ultimately the First Amendment's free speech guarantees. Right-wingers see such actions as encouraged by this politicized Court. This is why Paul Revere is saddling up his horse.

This confusing mess exists only because too many American voters in 2016 were (take your choice) uninformed, inattentive, gullible, ignorant, stupid or actually hateful enough to elect a totally unqualified candidate as president, a man who was voted out of office in 2020 and is still too self-centered to acknowledge his defeat seventeen months later and who inspired a violent insurrection to prevent his successor from taking office. Honestly, he should be behind bars today; only fear of violence from his supporters prevents that from happening.  

Democracy has its flaws. Now, don't we know it.

 JL                   

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IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG, PLEASE FORWARD IT TO AT LEAST ONE OR MORE FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS WHOM YOU FEEL MIGHT ENJOY READING IT.

There’s a little envelope at the bottom left corner of each posting enabling you to easily do that.  It looks like this:   .   Just click on it and follow the instructions.  It will forward the full text of the blog posting (but not any illustrations or images, like that little envelope with the arrow) to whomever you want.

JL

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How the Federal Reserve’s .05% Interest Rate Increase Affects You 

Who borrows at that interest rate anyway? Banks do, and pass it on to their borrowers, especially mortgagors and businesses needing funds with which to operate and to expand.  Banks borrow this money from our Treasury, currently at rates below 1% which will rise by that .05%  (what they call 50 basis points).  Of course, banks pass these funds on to their borrowers at a higher interest rate. That’s what the banking business is all about.  That’s how they make money.  

A year ago, this money was available for mortgagors, for example, at about a 3% interest rate. In anticipation of what the Federal Reserve Bank has just done, this rate has already risen to over 4%.  As a result, with money becoming more expensive or ‘tighter,’ some jobs dependent on such loans to individuals and businesses will be lost, lowering demand a bit, which is not tragic in a period of low unemployment in our ‘safety-net-protected’ economy, and is believed by some to be a way of halting inflation.

Financial speculators, who depend on bank credit to make some of their investments, will be affected too, which honest investors should not mind. It might send the speculators back to the casinos where they belong.  

Contrary to what I read in the papers, consumer lending, such as credit card debt, will not be affected since it already costs far more, with double digit interest rates that are taken in stride by those who have been ‘suckered’ into borrowing at such ridiculous rates by banks to acquire such debt.  If you have a credit card, always pay the outstanding balance every month.  What you don’t pay is subject to interest rates ranging from 12% to 25%, which is awful, and you should consider existing without a credit card. 

The .05% increase in what our Treasury charges banks to borrow from them will slow down the economy, decreasing demand as explained above until happy equilibrium between supply and demand is reached, which ought to control inflation.  

(Automobile manufacturers, I am sure, will find a way to get customers to pay a higher interest rate to lease or purchase a car, and the continuing need for housing will not be curtailed by higher mortgage rates or greater construction costs either, but eventually, even these demand pressures will be matched by supply.)  

I understand that might require a few more .05% increases in what our Treasury charges banks to borrow.  It’s like a physician changing a patient’s blood pressure medication dosage, as the readings show an increase or a decrease.

  JL                   

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05-3-2022 - Roe vs. Wade, Five Pillars of Freedom, Dirty Hands and Three Pundits

 

Roe vs. Wade to be Overturned!

Blame it on Democracy!

Supreme Court Building in Washington,
contaminated by Republicans

The leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s decision on a pending abortion rights case indicates that the SCOTUS will rule to reverse Roe vs. Wade, enabling States to ban abortions.  

This is the direct result of the defeated former president appointing three ‘pro-life’ Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States and enough ‘pro-life’ Republicans being elected to the Senate, where they were confirmed, after lying under oath at their confirmation hearings regarding respecting existing decisions.  Bear in mind two undeniable truths:

(1) Republicans will lie to get what they want and (2) the defeated former president and the Republicans in the Senate all were properly elected through our flawed democratic process.

Pushing for the reversal of Roe vs. Wade has been a marvelous tool for Republicans, all of them, to use to secure a margin of victory in elections, which without it, they would have been losers, and this includes, besides presidential elections, congressional, governorship and State legislature contests as well. 

Now the shoe is on the other foot.  While we will be stuck with a ‘pro-life’ SCOTUS for many years because of those who voted for the defeated former president in 2016 and other Republicans, all of the many offices which are filled by voters are still up for grabs.  And the overturning of Roe vs. Wade will present a magnificent opportunity to drive the Republicans out of office, nationwide!  Permanently, I hope, or at least until that party has regained its integrity and sanity and reject its present leadership. 

Bottom Line:  Because people should vote for what is in their interests, it is now clear that any woman who votes for any Republican for any office whatsoever, at any level, is a traitor to her sex.  

It is time for a tsunami of women voters to speak at the ballot box in November to drive the Republicans out of State legislatures, governorships, and both Houses of Congress.  In 2024, they must be kept out of the White House, as well.  

For years, Republicans have used opposition to Roe vs. Wade to get voters to support Republican positions which were not in their best interests.  They must now pay the price for that.  It is time for the ‘pro-life’ movement, a minority of Americans, to be overwhelmed by those who respect the right of women to make their own decisions concerning their bodies, a view that a majority of Americans unquestionably hold. 

Democracy still permits good people to be elected as well as scoundrels.  There are too many of the latter in Washington and in our State capitals. 

But remember, right now, any woman who votes for any Republican for any office whatsoever, at any level, is a traitor to her sex.  Republicans must pay the price and be driven out of office. 

Unfortunately, nothing can be done about the SCOTUS at this point, short of the unlikely expansion of the number its justices.  The Supreme Court’s imminent reversal of Roe vs. Wade should be taken. however, as proof that the greatest flaw in American democracy is that far too many voters (74 million in 2020) can easily be convinced to vote against their own interests and wellbeing.

 

JL

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IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG, PLEASE FORWARD IT TO AT LEAST ONE OR MORE FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS WHOM YOU FEEL MIGHT ENJOY READING IT.

There’s a little envelope at the bottom left corner of each posting enabling you to easily do that.  It looks like this:   .   Just click on it and follow the instructions.  It will forward the full text of the blog posting (but not any illustrations or images, like that little envelope with the arrow) to whomever you want.

JL

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The Five Pillars of Freedom

 

Recently, after visiting the restroom at the Living Room Theatre on the campus of Florida Atlantic University, I exited the building by the wrong door and ended up in a courtyard where I had never been before.  In it I found a magnificent wall installation dedicated to the First Amendment installed on the corner of a wall that I had never seen before. When I ‘googled’ it to learn more about it, all I could find was an announcement regarding its unveiling nine years ago.  It is worth checking out by CLICKING HERE or visiting  https://www.fau.edu/artsandletters/jackmillerforum/pdf/constitution-day-2013-final-rev.pdf

The monument is called ‘The Five Pillars of Freedom” and includes the words of the First Amendment, its five pillars being freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble and freedom to petition.  Find the time to visit it behind the Living Room Theatre on the Culture and Society Building (CU) Promenade if you can manage to find that on FAU’s campus in Boca Raton.

It was important in 1789 when it was written.  It was important when this monument was created in 2013.  It is important today!

 JL

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 Another Letter Published

The  Palm Beach Post published (on Sunday, May 1) another of my letters, that read as follows:

 “One of the letters from readers in Wednesday's (4/27) Post was headlined 'Floridians need a wake-up call.’  If the almost daily actions of Florida's governor and his compliant legislators haven't provided that call, I do not know what can. History is filled with tragedies inflicted upon those who ignore hurricane warnings and air raid sirens.”

 

JL

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Are Your Hands Dirty?

How many who are reading this get their hands dirty doing whatever they do when they're not sitting at their keyboards, watching TV or on their cell phones? That is the audience the Democrats must reach. Right-wing liars successfully do it daily!  

 Democrats’ messaging must reach beyond CNN and MSNBC, beyond the late-night TV hosts, and beyond the NYT and the WAPO, and magazines (New Yorker, Atlantic, etc.) that their progressive and liberal cohort already access. Let's see some well-targeted commercials on TV outlets besides those mentioned above featuring veterans, country singers, rap and hip-hop stars, chefs (!) and athletes. There must be an organized effort to do this. It won't just happen on its own.

 

JL

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Three Pundits:  Heather Cox Richardson, Sun Tzu, and Pogo

Continuing the excerpts of my postings on Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s daily “Letters from an American,” here is what I wrote after reading her April 28 analysis of the history of anti-democratic movements in the United States.  I urge you to read it by visiting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/  or by SIMPLY CLICKING HERE.

Anyhow, here is what I wrote:

“When history professor HCR confesses that up until now, "It has been hard for me to see the historical outlines of the present-day attack on American democracy clearly," the sentence with which she begins her posting today, imagine where that leaves those of us who have far less expertise than she has. If we, and it is up to us, are to succeed in defeating this attack on American democracy, we must recognize Sun Tzu's admonition in "The Art of War" that we must "know the enemy and know yourself." HCR has clearly identified the enemy for us.  It is up to us to know ourselves.”

 My concluding eight words raise the question of whether we actually “know ourselves.”  What are we really like?

 

1.   Remember that 74 million American voters cast ballots for the defeated former president in 2020, and that American voters have elected many governors and State legislative majorities agreeing with his autocratic methods. Almost half of Congress does too. 

2.   Remember that Tucker Carlson, a racist, is the most viewed program on cable television.

3.   But we are a country where many, probably a majority, believe that our government should provide a safety net for the elderly and those at the bottom of our economic ladder, including guaranteed health care.

4.   Most of us believe that there should be some regulation of the business and financial communities as well. 

5.   Remember that we also are a country where many believe such measures (those in 3. and 4. above) impinge upon their guaranteed freedoms and the government should not do such things.

6.   Remember that while we preach ‘loving one’s neighbor’ in our houses of worship, elsewhere we also still allow discrimination based on skin color, gender, and ethnic background, either openly or covertly.

 

No one can deny that Americans are divided on many issues.

Here is Sun Tzu’s entire quotation from “The Art of War”:

 “Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.  If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.  If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”  (From Section III, ‘Attack by Stratagem’ - Paragraph 18)

At this moment, it is clear to me that we Americans have considerable disagreement as to our nature.  Sun Tzu might conclude that we do not know ourselves.  But Sun Tzu does not mention the specific condition of one’s knowing the enemy (which Professor Richardson and others make sure that we do) while not knowing ourselves, which seems to be our condition.

In reality, we indeed may ‘know ourselves.’  Professor Richardson’s analysis defining our ‘enemy’ may also define us! The negative attributes included in the listing above are part of who we are.  They cannot be ignored.  Another sage, Pogo, once said (parodying Commodore Perry’s famous words in 1812) that ‘We have met the enemy and he is us.’ That is not good.

 

JL

 

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