I'm tired of battles in a war I thought was won. The Junior Senator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky said right after he took office he felt the Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional. The Federal Government had no right to tell a business who they had to serve. It should have been left to the free market. Indeed, that was working so well in the South of the early Sixties. If Woolworth was still around we could ask them how that went. Their lunch counters were such a beacon of equality.
In a rational world that statement should have made Senator Paul completely irrelevant. Instead he is considered a leading contender for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination.
Governor Rick Perry of Texas has said his State has the right to secede from the Union. Sorry, that question was settled in the bloodiest war this Nation has ever been involved in. He ran for President and was considered a serious candidate.
Michelle Bachman once said on Hardball Members of Congress should be investigated to see if they are Un-American. I could only assume at the time she didn't realize the House Un-American Activities Committee was a thing of the past. I was wrong. She has since proved she wanted it's return. Well, Joe McCarthy was from the neighboring State of Wisconsin.
Ms. Bachman has shown her ignorance in the public arena loudly and often. It is an ignorance she wears as a badge of honor. She has blamed the HPV vaccine for mental retardation in spite of there being no scientific correlation ever found. She feels anecdotal evidence is proof. She feels the United States is a Christian Theocracy. She believes the Government must make a woman's health care choices.
Ms. Bachman demanded there be an investigation to expose deep, high level, infiltration of the Federal Government by the Muslim Brotherhood. This woman praised the Military coup in Egypt not as the overthrow of an elected Government but as a victory in the war on terror. In a more reasonable time she would have been ridiculed into political oblivion. Now she is a heroine of many.
In 2012 she was a candidate for the GOP nomination for President. At one time she was leading the pack.
State Legislatures have enacted laws restricting a woman's access to safe, legal abortion as they limit access to birth control. These people ignore science and impose their faith based views on the population. Not so long ago science was fact and religion was faith. They did not commingle to produce policy.
For most of our history we did not go to war preemptively. An actual attack was needed. Or the semblance of one. Like the firing on Fort Sumter. The sinking of the Battleship Maine or the Lusitania. The Gulf of Tonkin incident and the invasion of Kuwait.
We allowed George Bush to establish a doctrine justifying first strikes. That ideology would have plunged us into a nuclear war with the Soviet Union over missiles in Cuba in 1962. Curtis Le May and others pushed for it. The Kennedy's pushed back saying that is not how America does things.
Until Iraq we never went to war and cut taxes. Even when the war was off the books like Vietnam in the beginning and Iraq/Afghanistan.
In previous conflicts war profiteering was frowned on. It happened as a proud American tradition but wasnot to be done in public. That changed with Iraq and Halliburton. That was flagrant. In an earlier time they'd have been drug before a Congressional Committee and thrown under the bus. High level people would have went to jail to preserve the myth it is rare.
The Republicans went batshit after the passage of Social Security and Medicare. They always tried to find a way to end it. However they NEVER held the Country hostage to force it to be dismantled. The GOP were realists and knew it wouldn't work. Not so much now.
We are now seeing a party totally out of touch with reality and what is and isn't possible. A minority of the majority in one House of Congress feels it can undo election results through extortion. There are open skirmishes between the various factions. Outside groups are throwing money around for ads to threaten those who fail the Conservative Purity test.
Once these fights were waged out of sight. The Speaker was able to exert power and influence over his Caucus. Not now. There is a faction of the Republican party in open revolt and not beholden to the traditions of political power. They are zealots on a mission to mold America into a more pleasing image, to them at least.
Once these fights were easily settled. A Member of the House stormed onto the floor of the Senate and beat an anti slavery Senator senseless with a cane. A Vice President and the Secretary of the Treasury had a duel
Now a faction that is hell bent on undoing the progress of the last century and a half. The reject science that contradicts their beliefs. They reject established history they don't agree with. They embrace conspiracy theories at the drop of the hat. No idea seems too crazy to be espoused. There is no penalty.
I once was talking to someone when I expressed amazement that a member of the House Science Committee did not believe in science.Her reply was his constituents elected him so his views were valid as a representative.A statement like that shows the problem we face.
There will be disagreements and divergent points of view. However we all once shared a common point of reference. You were entitled to your own opinion and not your own facts.Politicians did not get to decide what was real science and what was real history.
Public education was seen as a duty of Government and not anti christian. You don't rewrite history because you don't like it.
If you disagreed with the President, fine. But you don't accuse him of being a sleeper agent and traitor. You buck up when you lose an election and try to convince the nation of the validity of your views and win the next one. You don't get to decide who votes and disenfranchise them because they may not vote your way.
When you lose you don't take hostages as you wrap yourself in the flag and brandish a cross.
If we don't return to the path of reason we betray the faith the Founders of this nation had in us.
I'm through being the nice guy. You say something really stupid that is wrong I will tell you so.You want to codify your religious beliefs, I will call you out as a theocrat and not in a good way. I am sick of stupid and ignorance being extolled as courage. Courage is facing the truth and moving on.
We have to regain control of this nation. The anarchists can not be allowed to wreck that which been achieved.
They want a fight? Fine.
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.
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