“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
— Booker T. Washington
I wish more people would remember this. Too many people only want to tear people down to make themselves feel better. They know that if they can keep people they deem unworthy down, they can stay in power. Republicans are currently doing everything they can to discredit people who cherish equality. They use their political positions to take away the rights of others, especially the right to vote and representation in the government.
Alabama has been gerrymandering the districts of the legislature and Congress to make sure they remain in power. Thankfully, the federal courts, backed by the Supreme Court, has ordered Alabama to create a second minority majority district. Growing up in Alabama, I lived in the 2nd Congressional district and have also lived in the 7th Congressional district, which has traditionally been the only minority majority district in the state. I am very happy that the courts seem to be ordering that the 2nd Congressional district be redrawn to also be a minority majority district. While I hope to never live in Alabama again, especially in either the 2nd or 7th Congressional districts, I am glad that they are very likely to both be represented by Democrats.
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
—William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 – 18 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. In the above quote, Hazlitt makes a point that is relevant today as it was over 200 years ago when he was alive. As we see more and more right wing politicians striving for greater power by taking away the liberty of those they deem unworthy or a threat to their power. They attack those who are most vulnerable: transgender youth (and all other LGBTQ+ people), immigrants, minorities, and the list grows on and on. It’s not just Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and their followers, but this trend towards a 21st century fascism is on the rise around the world.
Thomas Paine began his pamphlet The Crisis with these famous words, “These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
The right wing politicians are definitely “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot.” They wrap their undemocratic laws and policies in the name of protecting democracy, yet they are really trying to destroy democracy. The greatest threat is that if they come to power, their tyranny will “not easily conquered.” The more laws they pass and the more the courts side with these policies, the harder it will be to undo the damage.
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1997)
In his 1997 book The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan warned us about the “dumbing down” of America. He warned of a time when our “critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…” Sadly, Sagan’s prediction is coming true, and that time is upon us. We must do all we can to prevent that darkness from taking hold. In his book Cosmos, Sagan wrote, “Our passion for learning … is our tool for survival.” We will perish as a nation and lose any freedom we have if we allow this “dumbing down” of America to persist.
Last month, Montana withdrew from the American Library Association (ALA). A few days ago, a Texas state commission will disassociate with the progressive American Library Association following accusations that it pushes Marxism and gender ideology through children’s literature. A right-wing group of women in Alabama calling themselves “Clean Up Alabama” are advocating that the Alabama Republican party push to disassociate with the ALA. Republican officials in at least seven other states (Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Wyoming) are also pushing to completely withdraw from ALA.
The ALA provides member libraries with resources and benefits like discounts on professional development, insurance and employment aid, continuing education, and other programs. They also provide a code of ethics for librarians, and we all know that many Republicans, especially those loyal to Donald Trump, do not believe in codes of ethics. They are no longer satisfied with banning books and classes that teach about LGBTQ+ and other minority histories. They want to get rid of the libraries that keep and lend them, too. Right-wing extremists are on the march to destroy the intellect of America.
In the 1930s, the German Student Union began a campaign to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, and sexologist authors among others. The initial books burned were those of Karl Marx and Karl Kautsky, but came to include very many authors, including Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, writers in French and English, and effectively any book incompatible with Nazi ideology. In a campaign of cultural genocide, books were also burned en masse by the Nazis in occupied territories, such as in Poland. Today, the Far Right and Christian Conservatives are wanting to ban books that were written by African Americans, LGBTQ+ authors, communist, socialist, anarchist, and liberal, authors among others. They may not be burning books (although some actually are), but they are taking them out of circulation in libraries and schools.
Sinclair Lewis First published It Can’t Happen Here, in 1935, when Americans were still largely oblivious to the rise of Hitler in Europe. The prophetic novel tells a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy and offers an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. In the book, Doremus Jessup, a Vermont newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state. While today, Democrats hold the White House and the Senate, Republicans control the House of Representatives, though with a slim majority, and are firmly in control of the Supreme Court. The rhetoric of right-wing politicians, not only in the United States but across the world, are claiming that when in power they can save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. They will also suppress the ability to think as they are taking away the tools to learn to think.
Sagan was quoted in Lily Splane’s Quantum Consciousness as saying, “It is the responsibility of scientists never to suppress knowledge, no matter how awkward that knowledge is, no matter how it may bother those in power; we are not smart enough to decide which pieces of knowledge are permissible and which are not.” I will take that one step further, it is not just the responsibility of scientists but all educators, librarians, and museum professionals to never suppress knowledge. The far right has always vilified college professors and intellectuals because they fear the truth. They are so afraid of someone thinking freely, that they brainwash people with 24-hour news channels like Fox News and Newsmax. They even seem to be gaining ground with CNN, though MSNBC holds steadfastly to presenting opposing viewpoints.
Sagan also said in The Demon-Haunted World, “The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.” However, in the current state of America and many other countries with far-right parties gaining ground, fascist conservatives (though not all conservatives are fascist), are fighting to make sure people are not able to hear a better argument. Susan recently sent me a joke that went like this, “How many Trump supporters does it take to change a lightbulb? None. Trump says it’s done and they all cheer in the dark.” It would be funnier if it weren’t so true. For the first 234 years of the nation’s history, no American president or former president had ever been indicted. That has changed this year. Donald Trump has been charged in four criminal cases which include 91 criminal charges over a four-and-a-half-month span, and yet, he is still the frontrunner, and by a considerable margin, for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Former President Donald Trump was indicted yesterday. It wasn’t the first time, nor is it likely to be the last. Yesterday’s indictment was specifically for several crimes associated with conspiring to defraud Americans about the 2020 election (conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding). Each of these indictments is a sad day for the country. Last night, I was watching news coverage about the indictments, and one of the commentators was so giddy, like a child on Christmas morning, that it was disturbing. I know a lot of people will rejoice over the series of indictments against Trump, and I am happy he is facing consequences for his complete disregard for the rule of law. However, I also think each of these indictments are also an indictment of the American people.
Trump never received a majority of the popular vote, but it still shows that there are a large number of Americans who do not care about the laws of this country or their fellow Americans but care only about having control over others. Supporters of candidates like Trump, Ron DeSantis, or Greg Abbott don’t measure the success of these politicians on what they have done for them but what they have done against those they hate, whether that means someone of a different race or sexuality (among numerous other groups because these same people strive on their hatred of those not like them).
Furthermore, I’m not going to rejoice just yet over Trump receiving his comeuppance, because indictments are only the beginning. I will rejoice (if you can even call it that) only when he has been convicted and sent to prison. As one commentator said last night, that’s a long way away. Even if he’s convicted, it will be a long process, and sadly, Trump is likely not going to prison until he’s exhausted all of his appeals, if he is ever sentenced to prison time in the first place.
The saddest part of all of this is not only that it shows that democracy in the United States is broken, but that there will still be Trump supporters who will still be Trump supporters when he’s proven guilty and escorted to prison. They’ll see this as purely political. This is a dark period of American democracy. The fact that a Trump was ever elected in the first place shows how broken the United States is. History will not look kindly on Americans of this era. The question we need to worry most about is: Will American democracy survive this era?
“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”
– Nelson Mandela
Yesterday marked one year since the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. A gunman walked into a school and killed nineteen children and two adults in the deadliest shooting ever at a Texas public school. It made me think about the priorities in the United States. As far as I know, lawmakers have not passed a single law to try and curb access to the weapons used in these shootings. Though Vermont might with several bills currently moving through the legislature, that is if our Republican governor doesn’t veto them. Even if Vermont does the sensible thing, lawmakers in several states have passed, laws to curb the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and the MAGAts are harassing employees at stores like Target for selling Pride merchandise during the month of June, and it’s not even June yet.
We must ask ourselves why some politicians are not afraid of a mass shooting incident in our schools, yet non-white and LGBTQ+ seem to scare them to death. Where are their priorities? Instead of having sensible gun laws like all other developed nations, which have significantly fewer mass shootings, they focus their fear on taking away rights and trying to shame “woke” individuals. They fear teachers mentioning anything LGBTQ+ related in the classroom. These right-wing legislatures are defunding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs because the thought of DEI policies scares them to death. They’ve banned drag queens from having Drag Queen Story Hour in public libraries or even performing in public. The greatest danger for these politicians is not worrying about students getting killed in their classrooms but that some may be transgender. They deny these kids healthcare because they don’t conform to these bigots’ ideas of heterosexual, Christian, and white racial superiority. They are scared to death that they will lose even the smallest amount of power and control over people.
When Nelson Mandela said, “When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw,” he was talking about apartheid in South Africa. But if a person is denied the right to dress in a way that doesn’t conform to “MAGA values” or even acknowledge diversity, they are making large sections of the LGBTQ+ population outlaws. Sadly, with the current ultra-conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, any lawsuits against these laws will probably stand, even if they violate the First Amendment, the most fundamental principle of freedom in the United States.
Let’s face it, if you are more afraid of what this might do to a kid in a library…
I haven’t talked about politics in a while, but recent news just makes me smile.
After flying back to Florida from New York on Tuesday, where he had been arrested and charged with 34 felony counts, the twice impeached and disgraced former president said, “I never thought anything like this could happen in America.” My response: neither did anyone else. The majority of Americans never expected a minority of Americans would elect a fascist wannabe, “billionaire,” reality television personality who ran on his “genius” as a businessman even after having most of his businesses go bankrupt because of his ineffectual business acumen. Who could have foreseen that in 2016, the Electoral College would elect a vindictive, racist, sexist, fascist, failed businessman as President? I know there are times in American history when that was desired by a minority of citizens (1930s or 1960s, to name two decades), but it had never happened. Those candidates failed.
His speech Tuesday night was filled with lies and misdirection, just like most of his speeches. You can read CNN’s fact check on their website. Sometimes, he just used the wrong words, as in the case when he said, “This is a persecution, not an investigation.” I think he’s confused. It’s a prosecution, not persecution. Besides, the investigation is over, and the charges have been brought. I hope in the end, he will be wearing an orange jumpsuit that will match his fake tanned skin color. I hope justice will prevail. Honestly, I’m not sure it will, but this is not the end of the charges against him.
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
—Galatians 5:13
The United States is supposed to be the “land of the free,” yet that is in jeopardy as long as conservative politicians pander to right-wing extremism. They want to deny LGBTQ+ people our freedoms, whether it is making drag shows illegal if children are present, banning LGBTQ+ books in libraries to keep them away from kids, or making it illegal for teachers to discuss LGBTQ+ issues in the classroom. They know that the younger generations tend to be more socially liberal and more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community because they have seen us as “normal” people. We are the same as them, we just love or have an attraction to someone of the same sex, or we are at odds with our biological sex.
In John 8:32, Jesus says, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” In that verse, Jesus is talking about being a follower of His, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32) Jesus’s teachings were about love and acceptance. If the truth (reality) of the world is hidden, then we are prejudicing people against those who are different and hiding any differing point of view. It is by telling the truth and teaching children to be honest and loving that we can truly make the United States the “Land of the Free.”
The USA has never been a “land of the free.” It began as a country that allowed slavery, then when slavery was abolished, new forms of slavery were created: sharecropping and Jim Crow laws. LGBTQ+ individuals were always in bondage because they were prevented from living their truth openly and honestly for fear of imprisonment, being committed to a mental institution, or in some areas, death. We are still fighting for our freedom. Coretta Scott King said, “Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.” If conservatives and hate groups get their way, not only will we lose the freedoms we have fought for, but eventually, they, too, will lose the freedoms they have become accustomed to. They just don’t see that yet.
I stayed up and watched the President Biden’s State of the Union address last night. As a general rule, I hate listening to politicians speak; however, I have always found Biden to be more pleasant to listen to than most. He has a few phrases that drive me a little crazy because he uses them too much and it makes him sound folksy, although that is also part of his appeal. He seems like a real person unlike a lot of politicians. I thought this was on of the most masterful SOTU addresses I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t the usual self-serving drivel. Instead, he baited the Republicans and did two things. First, he got them to look like absolute fools, even though McCarthy had warned them not to heckle Biden. They did anyway and for some of the stupidest reasons. Second, Biden laid a trap to get them to agree with some of his policies and and stand and applaud him. It was an interesting tactic, and Biden was so forceful at time. He wasn’t “angry racist white man” like Trump always came across looking like, but he came across as a genuine defender of the people and democracy. Trump always pandered only to his base and shipped them up into a frenzy like the fascist he is. Biden didn’t say everything just like all those in his party wanted. Instead, he spoke to the people, and I personally thought he did a great job.
The US Senate on Wednesday advanced legislation that would provide federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, endorsing the measure in a bipartisan vote that moves it closer to becoming law. The 62 to 37 vote for cloture on the bill was a crucial test of support for the Respect for Marriage Act. I know we sometimes hear about cloture, but we don’t always know exactly what that means. Cloture is a Senate procedure that limits further consideration of a pending proposal to thirty hours in order to end a filibuster. Therefore, once the thirty hours are over, the bill will go before the Senate for debate. At this point, there is no longer a need for 60 votes to pass the legislation.
The Respect for Marriage Act is expected to be put up for a final vote in the Senate tomorrow. Once that happens, it will go back to the House of Representatives for another vote. As long as the House does not change anything, the bill will go to President Biden for his signature. I honestly can’t imagine the House trying to change anything. If that were to occur, the bill would have to go to a Conference Committee to reconcile the differing language before being sent back to the House and Senate for another round of votes. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi knows that she does not have time to waste with a Conference Committee. She knows that she has to put it before the House in the same form that it was passed in the Senate because Democrats will no longer have a majority on January 3.
In a speech on the Senate floor before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Today, the Senate is taking a truly bold step forward in the march toward greater justice, greater equality, by advancing the Respect for Marriage Act. It’s a simple, narrowly tailored but exceedingly important piece of legislation that will do so much good for so many Americans. It will make our country a better, fairer place to live.”
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican who was among the group of Senate negotiators, highlighted the broad public support for same-sex marriage and noted that for most Americans, marriage equality is a settled question. “We’ve shown here through this legislation that these rights can coexist, religious freedom on the one hand, LGBTQ on the other hand,” Portman said. “It is my hope that with the changes we’ve talked about today and we’ve all now agreed to, we can pass this legislation with the same kind of overwhelming bipartisan majority we saw in the Houses of Representatives and therefore settle this issue once and for all.”
The Respect for Marriage Act repeals the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act and safeguards same-sex and interracial marriage by requiring the recognition of valid marriages regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity or national origin.” The bill was introduced after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. There have been concerns from Democrats that a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas left decisions from the high court protecting the right to same-sex marriage under threat. The bill easily cleared the House in July with support from 47 Republicans. Though several GOP senators initially expressed support for the plan, Schumer agreed to postpone a vote on the legislation until after the midterm elections after some Republicans worried it would endanger religious freedom.
To assuage their concerns, the amendment ensures nonprofit religious organizations will not be required to provide services, facilities or goods for the celebration of a same-sex marriage, and protects religious liberty and conscience protections available under the Constitution and federal law, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It also makes clear the bill does not authorize the federal government to recognize polygamous marriage and safeguards any benefit or status — such as tax-exemptions, grants, contracts or educational funding — of an entity so long as it does not arise from a marriage.
The amendment “recognizes the importance of marriage, acknowledges that diverse beliefs and the people who hold them are due respect, and affirms that couples, including same-sex and interracial couples, deserve the dignity, stability and ongoing protection of marriage,” according to the bipartisan group.
With the amendment, the bill will have to be taken up by the House once again before going to President Biden’s desk for his signature. The White House urged passage of the measure.
“The right to marriage confers vital legal protections, dignity, and full participation in our society,” the White House budget office said in a statement of administration policy. “No person should face discrimination because of who they are or whom they love, and every married couple in the United States deserves the security of knowing that their marriage will be defended and respected.”
Last Week after the election, Tucker Carlson of Faux News was spouting his usual drivel by claiming the “Democratic Party controlled media” cost Republicans the red wave they were sure was coming. My friend Susan sent me a post from Joe.My.God that had the quote by Carlson. She said, rather facetiously, she had “Not one freaking clue what information this jackass (Carlson) is trying to impart.” Here is what Carlson said, then I’ll translate.
“In some cases, candidate quality is not actually the most important thing. What is? Well, the mechanics of an election. They matter. In fact, they matter sometimes more than any individual running in the election.
“The way people vote makes a big difference to the outcome and so, by the way, does access to channels of communication. Why does that matter? Well, because you can say whatever you want, but if no one hears you, you’re not really speaking.
“And that’s the case for Republicans so often, as if Republicans can communicate their message unencumbered on a single cable television channel and a handful of relatively low-traffic websites. That’s it.
“The rest of the American media amounts to a gigantic filter designed to distort what Republicans are saying.
“It’s a campaign apparatus and only the Democrats have it. Now you can whine about that – ‘the media are liberal!’ – but it’s not about liberal or conservative.
“It’s about winning elections and Democrats can win because they have that. If Republicans want to win elections, too, they might spend some money to fix that, to achieve parity.”
Translation: “Republican candidates are stupid, ignorant fools who shouldn’t be elected, but we (Faux News) lie to you about them so you’ll vote for them anyway because more important than anything is that you vote Republican so we can make more money. Intelligent people actually watch real news channels that tell the truth, but we prefer stupid people who we can manipulate.”
She thanked me for the translation and said, “He just didn’t use the right words.” I responded, “He’s a Republican. If he used the right words some might notice that the man behind the curtain is a fraud.”
In yesterday’s post, I quoted Proverbs 1:7, which said, “But fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Carlson and others at Faux News constantly prove my point about how true this really is. It’s a perfect description of the Republican Party and those who support it. If you look at the “Don’t Say Gay” bills, the banning of books in libraries, dictating to teachers what they can and cannot teach, etc., there is no question that they “despise wisdom and instruction.” Even God says they are “fools.” But as James 1:5 tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” All we have to do is be open to the truth. The Republican Party is no longer open to the truth. It has become a party of lies based on the myth of a stolen election (not to mention a Lost Cause).
Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels is often credited with a quote that seems to be the current strategy of the Republican Party when he said:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
It is an excellent definition of the “Big Lie;” however, there seems to be no evidence that it was used by Goebbels.
The World War II American intelligence agency, the OSS, described Hitler’s use of the big lie in his psychological profile:
“His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”
If the Republican Party hasn’t already become a fascist political party, it is quickly becoming one under the leadership of TFG. The common themes among fascist movements include authoritarianism, nationalism (including racial nationalism), hierarchy and elitism, and militarism characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.
The “red wave” was more “like a light pink puddle,” as one friend of mine put it. The Republicans may still take the House, but if they do, it will be a very slim majority, yet enough to be annoying in their quest for revenge. The Senate will remain in the hands of the Democrats with the possibility of gaining one seat. It just shows how important it is to go out and vote.
Joe
The Closet Professor 