American Exceptionalism. How the Right is destroying it.

              Our numbering system uses Arabic Numerals. Algebra is an Arabic word, as is algorithm. 2/3 of the named stars have Arabic names. Why?

From 800 C.E. til around 1100 C.E. the Islamic Caliphate was centered in the great city of Baghdad. This city was the crossroads of civilization after the collapse of the classical Roman Empire and the decline of the Eastern Empire. It brought together China, Persia, North Africa and Europe in an intellectual stew.

The collapse of Rome left Europe in disarray. With the lack of traditional nation states far too much power was ceded to the Church. They controlled education. The tomes that were salvaged from Rome were transcribed by monks. In Europe the Catholic Church was the gatekeeper of education and existent knowledge for all practical purposes.

With their dogmatic views the conditions in Europe were not conducive to unfettered research.The major advancements in Europe were related to the construction of Cathedrals and other religious edifices. Architecture, engineering and related mathematics.

Baghdad however saw the mixing of ideas and cultures. The classical knowledge and ideas from the Greco-Roman era. Ideas and knowledge from India and China. Muslims, Jews and Christians mingled freely exchanging insights.

The result was an explosion of scientific knowledge and preservation of the earlier scientific gains threatened by the collapse of Rome.

Astronomy flourished hence the Arabic star names. Mathematics was expanded. Algebra and the adoption of the Arabic numerals.Those replaced the use of the cumbersome Roman numerals eventually in the West. The use of zero as a mathematical concept was refined.

Books from all over the world were translated into Arabic. Knowledge was saved, shared and preserved for the future.

Science, arts and literature flourished for around three hundred years then stopped.

Why?

The rise of Islamic fundamental thought where knowledge was seen as the work of evil put an end to the intellectual dominance of the Caliphate. It showed scientific thought and discovery can not exist in an atmosphere of fundamental rejection of human knowledge as evil and ungodly. This fundamentalism effectively killed progress and innovation in the Arab world. A thousand years later it still hasn't recovered. Who knows what advancements were sacrificed on the alter of a point of view that sees everything in religious terms.

Now we hear a lot about American Exceptionalism from conservatives. The irony is they may be killing what they are extolling.

American exceptionalism isn't a myth. The explosive emergence of The United States onto the world stage was fostered and fueled by intellectual freedom. A refusal to take "I can't understand this" as a limit to progress. Americans have always sought answers.

Freed from religious hegemony and the resulting intellectual shackles by the Enlightenment, America was born. The men who founded this great nation were steeped in the intellectual, philosophical and scientific revolutionary thought of their time. Secular Humanism was replacing Dogmatic Religion as the driving force in human advancement.

When faced by a problem in science answers were sought and the default position of "Known only to God" was rejected and a solution was found.

Americans took European ideas and made them distinctly ours. From the founding of this nation Americans rose to the front of the wave of modern science. We blazed the paths that severed our bonds to the Earth as we learned to fly. We took the British Industrial Revolution and showed the world what it could be.

Americans in the 19th and 20th Centuries took scientific advancement in stride seeing it as a birthright.
Science and technology made the United States the Arsenal Of Democracy during the Second World War. It enabled the defeat of the Nazis and the Japanese Empire in years rather than decades.

The American dominance in science is seen in the Nobel prizes accumulated. There are a lot of elements that have uniquely American names. We opened up the Solar System. Americans expanded the size and scope of the Universe. We've explored the building blocks of reality. Only Americans have walked on another celestial body.

Science gave us hope for the future. History taught us about our past. Intellectual freedom made us what we are today. Both disciplines were seen to be neutral as fact based education should be.
So why do modern conservatives feel that science and history is a la carte? Pick and choose what's true. One from column A and one from column B?

The only reason I can see that makes any sense is the unholy marriage between social conservatives and what once was fringe Evangelical churches. There has been a disturbing growth in the literalist, Fundamentalist, Evangelical Christian worldview.

Due to opportunistic political decisions made in the 70's, 80's and 90's the Christian Right and the willfully ignorant have gained positions of power. They control school boards. They are in State Legislatures and Congress. Think Tanks are pushing anti-science and history agendas. PAC's, Churches and other organizations back up these policies with money. There are people seen as so-called experts extolling these views in the media as rational positions. They are aided by cynical outlets promoting a reactionary agenda.
I realize many hold these positions as a matter of true belief. Zealots are extremely resistant to differing points of view. Many reject it as blasphemy.

Others hold these views as a bedrock political position and compromise is seen as weakness.
Many though have adopted these beliefs as simple political expediency. Simply taking money and support to hold power.

Combined, these movements are deadly to America's future.
Most of a persons core beliefs are formed in childhood. This is how America's future is threatened.
Since our manufacturing base has been decimated by shortsighted corporate and Government policies our economic future rests on technological advances and innovation. This is not possible without a scientifically literate population. Policies that are being adopted preclude that future.

How?

It's a cascading effect. When a cornerstone of scientific thought is denied, other scientific truths must also be denied.

The two most reviled scientific principles are Climate Change and evolution.

Evolution. Where to start?

Intelligent design is being touted as a legitimate scientific alternative. This is simply creationism dressed up in a gown and mortarboard to avoid church/state issues.

First off, Intelligent Design does not hold up to the basic scientific process.

The rap against evolution is it's "only" a theory. Well, so is gravity and I don't see them jumping off tall buildings to test it. The basic premise of Intelligent Design is not measurable in a lab or the field like the well
tested theory of Evolution.

Evolution is the bedrock of modern biology and medicine. You want to see evolution? Antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Intelligent Design does not explain our sharing a majority of our genome with the great apes. It also doesn't explain shared genes with lifeforms that aren't mammals.As a scientific position Intelligent Design is a nice fairy tale.

There is a school of thought in Creationism that because something wasn't witnessed it didn't happen. This applies to evolution and the creation of the Universe. That is as ludicrous as it sounds.

Creationism also has spawned the "Young Earth" movement. This embraces the idea Earth and the Universe is only 6,000 years old. This rejects multiple sciences.

Astronomy has determined the age of the universe by measuring the Doppler shift in light from distant objects.This is applied physics. This is explained by young earthers like this. We know the speed of light here. Since we haven't visited other stars to measure we don't know the speed of light for that star. Thus, it invalidates the idea the Universe is around 15 billion years old. A variation on if you did not witness it it didn't happen.

Geology is rejected along the same lines when pegging the Earth's age as 4.5 billion years old. We can't know for sure decay rates have always been constant.
Since we didn't witness how fossils are made we can't know their age. Thus Adam rode a Dinosaur like Alley Oop.

So, basically all science and history is rejected if it contradicts the idea that anything is more than six thousand years old. The Bible as text book.

If all this accumulated scientific knowledge is flawed the technology the world runs on couldn't exist.
As this view spreads into our educational system America will slide into irrelevancy. Discovery and innovation will move to more enlightened environments. As will the intellectually curious.Say good bye to a proud tradition of discovery.

The right is so worried about creeping Sharia Law(which doesn't exist) they are blind to their own imposition of religious law here. One is reviled. One is revered.

Without innovation we are doomed as a civilized nation. Teaching Creationism is tantamount to intellectual child abuse.

We are about to recreate the fall of the Caliphate into superstition and divine law.

To survive we must reclaim American thought from extremists that wish to enforce Bronze Age views as all that's needed. There are those in power who call science lies from the pits of Hell. We need to reestablish the founders faith in rationalism or just hand off our future to whomever will take it.

If we fail, this great experiment is a failure.

We can't allow that.

The future is now. We need to save it.

The Naked City. A Noir TV gem.

          With the switch from analog to digital Television, Stations wound up with sub channels.For example the NBC affiliate here in Columbus, Ohio is channel 4.After the switch there is channel 4.1, the primary that broadcasts the NBC lineup. There is also channel 4.2. The PBS affiliate WOSU has three channels of programming. With these new outlets, programming had to be found.
For these sub channels new networks sprang up. ME TV, Antennae TV and THIS are the three here in Central Ohio. ME TV and Antennae TV show sitcoms and dramas from the 50's through the 80's. Most cable systems stick these up in the high channels on the box, if they even carry them.
I may be mature but I don't remember a lot of 50's TV. Superman and the Mickey Mouse Club, of course. Howdy Doody and Captain Kangaroo.Most of the so-called "Golden Age Of Television" aired after I went to bed.
Some were early enough or I got to see them somehow are etched in my memory. "The Honeymooners". "The Twilight Zone". "Perry Mason". "Peter Gunn" with that amazing Mancini theme and Noir sensibilities."The Phil Silvers Show".And of course "I Love Lucy". So if I can really remember only a few well, what better than these?
Since I don't have cable I have rediscovered shows I vaguely remember or those my family didn't watch.
"Perry Mason" in the early seasons had an intriguing pulp feel. I have found the vaunted "Untouchables" OK. "Combat" with the late Vic Morrow had it's moments. For some reason WWII France looks a lot like Southern California. "Wanted Dead Or Alive" is a gritty, formulaic little western with a very young Steve McQueen.
A show I had heard of but had never seen airs in ME TV's Sunday late night Noir block. "The Naked City". The show's ending tag line was "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them."
This police drama was unusual for being filmed on location instead of a studio back lot. It was also filmed in New York City which became a dominate character, setting the mood and feel.
Looking at these old shows I am struck by the quality of writing and acting. Those are traits that are sorely lacking on a lot of today's offerings. I would much rather watch Jackie Gleason in his prime than say, "Two Broke Girls" which is inexplicably a hit.
In "The Naked City" they used a semi anthology format that highlighted the stories of the guest stars, rather than the regulars. The writing was taut. The black and white cinematography had a gritty feel and was superb by late 50', early 60's standards. Though I owned some of the cars seen there I had forgotten just how big they were. The era of big Detroit Steel. You could impale yourself on the fin of a Sixty Chevy.
The show premiered in 1958 starring a young James Franciscus. He was replaced in 1960 by Paul Burke who played a sensitive, cerebral cop, an anomaly in that era.
Since it was filmed in NYC they used New York actors, many who later become stars. For a lot of them this was their first appearance in a TV drama. The talent exposed by this series is amazing and reads a lot like a who's who in American film.
A partial list.
Robert Duvall. Rip Torn. Telly Savalas (with hair). Jack Klugman. Peter Falk. Gene Hackman. Vic Morrow. Ed Asner. Cecily Tyson. James Caan,. James Coburn. Alan Alda. Robert Redford. Peter Fonda. Bruce Dern. Dennis Hopper. Tuesday Weld. Suzanne Pleshette. Jean Stapleton. Rod Steiger. Dustin Hoffman. William Shatner. Christopher Walken.  Simply amazing. It is wonderful to see the early work by these people.
"The Naked City" was respected enough to attract established actors also.
Again, a list.
George C. Scott. Lee J. Cobb. Walter Matthau. Kim Hunter. Eli Wallach. Jack Warden. Claude Rains. Mickey Rooney. Burgess Meredith. Keenan Wynn. In a rare film appearance Sanford Meisner the acting teacher was cast
Without strong scripts many of these established actors would not have come to New York to work in a TV show. I have found this show a delightful diversion. It is always a treat to see actors I respect in their early work. Sometimes you catch a glimpse of whom they will become.
As a Noir fan I am drawn in by the gritty look which is perfect for a police drama set in the Big Apple.
After watching "The Naked City" and other gems this may have truly been a golden era. Too bad many of the live drama anthologies didn't survive to be seen today. I'll enjoy what we have. Take a chance and look the old B & W shows over. You may have a bit of fun.

Neo-Isolationism and Syria.

            It has been a couple of years since The Arab Spring spread into Syria. Assad has been either more adept or brutal at holding on than either Qaddafi or Mubarak. President Obama, since the start of the uprisings has been rather consistent for an American politician. The reluctance to commit American military resources has drawn fire from both Dems and Republicans. However I feel his reluctance stems from a worldview that American military power should be used sparingly.
Some of the more moderate and hawkish Democrats have pushed The President to intervene in Syria. These Democrats find themselves surprisingly closer to the GOP Hawks than most in the party. I would credit this to a remnant of the Post Vietnam hangover.
Since the early Eighties many Dems have supported military actions, that in hindsight, may not have been prudent.. This has been a reaction to the massive loss sustained in '72 by Senator George McGovern and trying to show the Democratic party is not weak on defense. That is a tag they've been dealing with since they turned on LBJ over Vietnam and clashed with Nixon opposing  that tragic mistake of a war.
There are Republican members of Congress who have consistently criticized President Obama over Egypt, Libya and Syria. These Republicans have called for a more robust, intensive intervention in Syria. Things like covert and overt arming of selected rebel groups. They've called for an enforced no fly zone. Let's not think of the flack The P resident took over Libya and allowing NATO to take the lead.  They dislike it when we aren't in charge even though we were fulfilling treaty obligation like grown up countries do.
There seems to be, as a counterbalance, a growing isolationist movement both in Congress and the Nation itself.
On the public's part I would ascribe this to over a decade of constant military engagement. There is a bad taste left by the actions of the previous administration's run up to Iraq using ginned up lintel. That feeling is primarily in the Democratic and unaligned camps.
With the GOP voter it seems to be a strain of isolationism we last saw prior to Pearl Harbor and our involvement in WWII. The refusal of the United States to step up after the fall of the Colonial and Ottoman Empires following WWI left a power vacuum the Germans exploited. Republicans in Congress opposed  directly siding with the UK. This forced FDR to utilize sleight of hand to support the British and Soviet defensive actions against Nazi Germany.
This isolationism died when Japan struck Pearl Harbor.
After WWII the US took on the mantle of a super power to counter the other super power, Soviet Russia.
Over the next forty-five years we had our fingers in everything countering the Soviet and Chinese moves. Korea, Vietnam, Latin America and the Mideast. We propped up our Dictators to counter theirs. We stockpiled a massive nuclear arsenal to counter the ones held by the USSR and China.
We maintained a massive military presence in western Europe to discourage a Soviet invasion. We formed NATO and SEATO. We helped form The Organization Of American States. Containment was the goal and resulted in undeclared wars, sponsored coups and confrontation. This constantly kept us on the verge of a nuclear holocaust.. MAD, mutually assured destruction. We counted on fear of extinction to keep us safe.
The problem in this post cold war era isolationism is simply not an option. When your defense budget's larger than the next ten nations combined you are expected to act. For good or ill, despite all their protestations, western Europe looks to us for leadership. They pressure us into action then usually sit on their wallets and troops. Or make token shows of assistance.
As isolation calls grow we need to remember that if a power/leadership vacuum occurs it will be filled. Russia is resurgent after the chaos of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. They have the second largest nuclear arsenal on the planet. The Russians still have a massive inferiority complex that dates back centuries.
They have always pushed to be a power on the world stage. The Soviet era was rife with Russian machinations to counter or thwart American power and influence. The Cold War was a deadly dance of dominance. The western outlook and the Soviet outlook. The visions were very different. Following the collapse of the Soviet control of Eastern Europe the USSR imploded into anarchy and irrelevance.
Western Europe has only Germany to step up to possibly fill the vacuum. Since Germany was only a united nation for about Seventy years and started two world wars I would look upon a dominate Germany with suspicion.
When it comes to military capabilities and remaining influence only Russia and China have the means.
China is an enigma as they always have been. The Chinese foreign policy seems  predicated on economic influence and mainlining the status quo.
Like it or not during the twentieth century the United States has established itself as the world's enforcer.
The voices in Congress seem dissonant at times.
There are the Conservatives who have clamored for a very robust interventionist foreign policy. Now that The President they seem to despise has decided to act as if they are suddenly aghast at the idea of military action.
The libertarian leaning minority are saying we should't intervene because we can't be sure of the winners becoming allies and we know the Assad regime aren't. There is also the usual xenophobic rants the right is known for. The rebels don't protect Christians as Assad does. They are interjecting religion into American foreign policy. They are talking as if their ideas are reshaping the Republican Party. It is unlikely the Hawks have had a come to Jesus moment. It is far more likely the isolationist stance is being used as cover to attack President Obama politically.
From the Left I hear echoes of the anti Vietnam rhetoric.
This is a civil war we shouldn't intervene in. Any deaths in the action is unacceptable and morally wrong. We should not act because there is no clear and present danger to the US or our allies. War is always bad.
I made the same arguments when I was 18.
When you have these viewpoints coalescing in Committee hearings both side tend to over-analyze. The administration and Military representatives are grilled on every conceivable scenario. The constant what ifs are paralyzing. You can plan for contingencies but never account for all of them. Action entails risk.
The risk here is letting a risk averse Congress lecture on risk.
Far too many in the House are in gerrymandered safe districts at home. They can have an entire career and never take a substantive stand on anything. They rail at the world. They try to codify religious views. They do this knowing full well little of what they do can ever become law. They are now the dog who has caught the car.
Of course most of these Members of Congress hold their views as principle  and conscious. They have legitimate concerns they are trying to address. and there are those who are simply against supporting this President on any issue.
Now you also have people like me who have a strong aversion to military action. I have seen  unfounded wars and interventions. Grenada, Panama and Iraq come to mind, Then we have our stand against genocide in the Balkans. Our ignoring Darfur. Picking and choosing our interventions is a traditional American geopolitical action.
So now we are faced with a decision. Do we act on an ultimatum we put forth? Will not following through weaken our already limited ability to effect change? In the absence of solid global backing do we act unilaterally? Does a stand mean anything in a modern world where policy is driven by a 24/7 news cycle? Is there such a thing as negotiation anymore when every word, action and movement is analyzed for gain and loss?
My feeling is a limited strike is needed. Too long Assad has waged a war of attrition on his own people. Since Syria is allied with Iran it is in our strategic interest to at least get Assad's attention. Any reduction in his ability to wage chemical war is a plus. Arming the opposition is needed to put them on a viable footing to resist.
As the world's only remaining superpower we really have no choice but to act as we said we would. If we hope to influence anything we need to be a credible deterrent.That is why the partisan bickering in Congress could be disastrous. The Resolution passed by the Senate Committee is reasonable. Any filibusterer, as threatened by Rand Paul, does not serve the national interest. The time for Congress to act, actually do something, is here,
This screed may seem wandering, confused and conflicted . The reason is I am sorely conflicted but I realize things are never black and white. The answers always hide in those shades of gray.

The Civil Rights Act. As usual the GOP forgets their History

          August 28,1963. I was ten, pushing on eleven. Once more I saw history unfold through lens of CBS News and covered by Walter Cronkite. That network and his voice covered unprecedented social change with a calm elegance, treating the audience as thinking, intelligent people. The voice of news as I grew through the tragedies yet to unfold.

Of course I refer to the March On Washington and Reverend Martin Luther King's amazing "I Have A Dream" speech.

The most reliable estimates I have found put the crowd at 200-250,000 people.

There's no reason to repeat what I heard at home. My parents were products of their time. As were too many, north and south, who never tried to overcome the wrong they learned. To listen to their better angels seemed futile in the face of such hatred and anger.

That March in the summer of '63 was massive. It was peaceful. And many hoped once the coloreds blew off some steam everything would go back to normal. Progress at geologic speeds.

The rhetoric of the speeches was uplifting. King's voice wasn't the only one that day raised in hope. Raised in a cry for freedom and equality.

Earlier that summer President Kennedy called on Congress to act. After the violence in the South he decided the time had come to forever change America. Kennedy knew it was going to be a brutal political war and decided to wage it. He was going to need his Vice President, Lyndon Johnson, the former Majority Leader of the Senate, to twist arms to ensure passage.

The mood of the nation was changing. We saw Bull Connor's deputies beat demonstrators to the ground. We saw the dogs loosed on men and women. We watched as fire hoses were turned on people only wanting the American Dream. Equality. As we watched in horror people were accepting Jim Crow was an evil chapter of American History far overdue to be closed.

Kennedy had the bill introduced in the House, a more liberal body ready to take on the issue. Unfortunately, Jack Kennedy never lived to see the bill pass. He was gunned down in Dallas on 11/22/1963. President Johnson was determined to pass the strongest possible bill.

The Bill passed the House on February 10,1964, 290 for, 130 against.

In the Senate it was filibustered on introduction.

Johnson was a consummate political deal maker and knew where the bodies were buried. Hell, he'd buried many of them. The President knew no amount of pressure, arm twisting or political favors would bring The Segregationist, Southern, Democratic Senators back into the fold. Another way had to be found to break the filibuster and force cloture. He turned to Everett Dirksen(R-IL), Senate Minority Leader.

Both men knew this would be tricky. They met often in The White House and charted a course of action over drinks. The Minority Leader knew he'd have problems using Republican votes to bypass a mutiny by a wing of a sitting President's party.

Dirksen had reservations on the bill, mostly doubts about constitutional issues. He also realized something had to be done.

Dirksen was an orator of the sort the Senate hasn't seen much of since the first half of the Twentieth Century.
I recall his low stentorian voice from appearances on TV. Like Johnson, he knew how to work the Senate.

He did so.

He offered a flurry of amendments, using them to gauge positions held by his colleagues. He seemed lukewarm at times, drawing out a better picture of the stances being taken. The President and the minority leader moved in May of 1964.

He presented the Republican version and immediately faced a mutiny of his own, led by Senator Hickenlooper (R-IN).

Senator Dirksen called a press conference.

Using his considerable speaking skills he lectured the press about the moral need for a Civil Rights Bill. He claimed and held the moral high ground as he revealed his unequivocal support of the bill. This amazing example of leadership quashed the revolt. Now it was simply a matter of keeping the Caucus in line till the vote.

On June 10,1964, Senator Everett Dirksen took the floor of the Senate and gave a quiet,moral argument to the Senate and the nation about an idea whose time had come. He was exhausted.

The eighty-three day filibuster was broken, clearing the way for passage of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964.
This would not have happened without the Senate Republicans and their leader working in concert with a Democratic President poised to crush the GOP presidential nominee. They did this for America. In an election year.

Needless to say this could not happen today. there is a different tenor in the strident rhetoric of the GOP. Rather than visionary, patriotic leadership, there is petty, partisan bickering passing as America's only hope to stop the tide of progress.

Can anyone see any way that landmark bill could be passed in this poisonous political climate? A climate where it seems to be a badge of honor to gut the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act. Both bills were helped to passage by Senator Dirksen. Can anyone imagine Mitch McConnell showing that level of political courage?

The Fiftieth Anniversary of the March on Washington was this week. Rather than step forward, acknowledge their role and claim their place in History the GOP decided to not attend. It wasn't the usual crowd of wackos only that stayed away. it was all of them. Every. Single. One.

When they realized the optics a desperate attempt at spin was hurriedly put forth. The damned Liberals didn't invite them. That was quickly exposed as the lie it was.

So, when they had a chance to reach out to a diverse crowd the GOP passed on it.

When they had a chance to stand with America, they passed.

When they had a chance to show everyone how petty and out of touch they were, they jumped on it.
The party of stupid, indeed.



                 

Tin Soldiers and Nixon coming. May 4,1970 (REVISED: Video link added)

          I was a High School Senior on May 4,1970.
       
I was at Whitehall-Yearling High School, in a suburb of Columbus Ohio.
       
I didn't know the world was going to change.

I came of age in the Sixties. Walter Cronkite showed me the world every night on channel 10, the CBS affiliate. I saw Jack Kennedy speak in Berlin and murdered in Dallas. I saw the dogs, fire hoses and clubs in Selma, Birmingham. Watts and Detroit went up in flames. I watched too many cities burn. I saw Martin Luther King say "I have a dream." I watched the aftermath of his being gunned down in Memphis.

I watched in awe as Bobby Kennedy campaigned for President in 1968. I saw the hope he brought to America. I was moved by the impassioned crowds, the soaring rhetoric. Bobby's speech the night Martin died, in the ghetto of Indianapolis, from the back of a flatbed truck was what may be the best speech of the last half of the twentieth century. In June of '68 Cronkite, like he did with JFK, tried to make sense of Bobby's death in L.A. for a stunned nation.

I saw the Days of Rage at the '68 Democratic Convention as the Chicago Police beat press and protesters alike into the ground.

The Soviets crushed the Prague Spring. The United States and The Soviet Union were locked in a deadly dance of madness. Walter reported every night. The Sixties were not just fun, sex and music.

And there was Vietnam.

Always Vietnam. It wound itself through the psyche of America like a vicious parasite, dividing the nation. Young versus old. Longhair versus hardhat. Hawks and Doves. If you were white and had some means at all you could beat the draft. If you were poor or black you were in Saigon. The children of privilege supported the war and draft knowing they would never be in harm's way.

We young hit the streets to protest this travesty of a war. We tried to open the eyes of America to issues that festered and needed attention. We were called Commies. Un American. All we heard was Love it or leave it. My country right or wrong. It was the closest a white kid could ever get to being black. Stopped and searched for your looks. The way you were dressed. The music you were listening to. Police violence directed at you without recourse. America.

The anti-war protests were dismissed by many as the work of the East and West coast elite intellectuals. Columbia and Harvard. UCLA and USC Berkeley. The middle of the nation was rather quiet as the big cities dealt with the anger of their children. There were protests but they were smaller in scale and rather well behaved.

The times they were changing.

Something we have never learned here in the US is when you violently try to crush a movement you risk radicalizing that movement.

There were calls for violent resistance and revolution. There were bombings. There were a few kidnappings. Protests turned into riots as rage built. And the body-count went on.

LBJ was the first President since Lincoln to use the word divisiveness in a speech. America for the first time in a century was poised for a civil war. All the bottled up issues we'd been in denial about were boiling and bubbling to the surface. Like the Civil War, the United States was turning upon itself. Father against son. Brother against brother. Mother against daughter.The racial divide was explosive. The war was not only a foreign policy issue it was a racial issue as well. It was a generational issue. The protests were the largest ever seen. Washington was a city under siege by it's own offspring.

In 1968 Bobby Kennedy may well have won the Presidency. On that night in June, in the Kitchen of The Ambassador Hotel, the future was irrevocably changed. We'll never know how America would be today.

Instead Richard Nixon, consummate politician he was , devised "The Southern Strategy" and "The Silent Majority" riding the politics of race, us versus them and fear to the White House. His vaunted "Secret Plan" was not to end the war but to win power at all costs. It blew up in his face.

There was a convergence of actions that would change the Nation occurring.

The SDS and others were wanting to show that opposition to the war wasn't simply a coastal rebellion by the intelligentsia. A show of widespread support in the heartland was needed.

The other action was Nixon invading Cambodia.

No one knew how badly this was going to end.

At the end of '69 and into 1970 members of the SDS and other groups spread out through the Big 10 talking to and organizing  students across the midwest. I met a woman in an apartment just off the Ohio State Campus. All of us talked about the war and stopping it. I left after about an hour or so. It wasn't till years later I realized I had likely been talking to Bernadette Dohrn.

The war and events of '68 had pushed this white kid from a white blue collar suburb far to the left. I'd grown up on John Wayne and the Lone Ranger. We were the good guys I couldn't square that with what was happening in 'Nam. Many of us had that problem. We might be a bunch of naive white kids in the midwest but we were pissed.

The tinder was ready. All we needed was a spark. We just had to wait for Nixon to do something outrageous and arrogant. As usual the Trickster didn't disappoint.

In the spring of 1970 Nixon ordered an incursion into Cambodia. There was heavy resistance from the North Vietnamese Army. We suffered high casualties. A helicopter pilot during that invasion had a life expectancy of about thirty-five seconds. Unfortunately we weren't at war with Cambodia. Nixon also neglected to mention this little invasion to Congress or the American people.

When the story broke there was worldwide outrage. The Nixon administration was doing frantic damage control as college campus' across America exploded into chaos.

Here in Ohio to cope with a Teamster's trucking strike Gov. Jim Rhodes had called up the National Guard. When Ohio State and the other Ohio colleges erupted in protest Rhodes deployed an already exhausted Guard to quell the outcry.

Even in 1970 Ohio State was a huge University dominating a large portion of the north side of Columbus economically and socially.We high school kids went to campus to buy music, clothes and just to hang out with the Hippies. Or get into the bars, with a friends Draft Card, to see bands and maybe learn how to score.

Like most protests the one at Ohio State started as a non violent student strike on April 29,1970. The protests were about the creation of a Black Studies Department and adding Women's Studies to the course offerings. Campus buildings were picketed. The Ohio Highway Patrol(which has authority over State property)barricaded roads and moved in with loaded firearms and mace. The situation went to hell in a handbasket.

The crowd moved off campus and on to High St. A group of about 2000 students(and this High School Senior) gathered at the intersection of North High St. and 15th Avenue, the entrance to the OSU campus. There stood large iron gates that were a gift of an early twentieth century class. The students closed those gates symbolically closing the University. The reaction from the Ohio Highway Patrol and The Columbus Police Department was swift and brutal. The intent was to crush these "radicals"

Bricks and Molotov Cocktails were thrown, store windows were smashed and there was looting.
The protest at Ohio State was now massive and in response to police overreaction turned extremely violent. As usual the Columbus Police Department came in swinging. Badge numbers were concealed. The infamous "D" Platoon cut a bloody swath through the protesters.

A few weeks earlier Vice President Agnew had advised police treat protesters as enemies. He suggested police should imagine protesters as Nazi Brown Shirts or Klansmen wearing white sheets and act accordingly. CPD took Agnew's advice to heart.The CPD used tear gas and live ammo on the crowd.

This was my first experience with tear gas, a billy club and the full force of a nascent police state . It wasn't the last.

This confrontation went on into the night until at 10 PM Governor Jim Rhodes deployed the National Guard.

The sight of tanks and armored personnel carriers rolling down the streets of an American city and on a Major College campus stopped the disturbance that night. An occupying army does seem to have a chilling effect. In the aftermath it was discovered seven people had been shot and wounded.

A little side note During the day OSU Football Coach Woody Hayes tried to stop the violence, unsuccessfully. During the entire student revolt Hayes would be the only member of The Ohio State University's Administration to actually talk to the students in person.

The next day on April 30th 4000 students took to the streets again in response to Nixon and Cambodia. The violence continued throughout the day. There were 400 arrests and 131 were injured in clashes with the Ohio National Guard.

Over the next week there were occasional confrontations as The Guard and law enforcement kept the area shut down. There were checkpoints manned by troops.Tanks and halftracks rumbled down the major north/south thoroughfare of Columbus Ohio. A couple weeks later I was on campus for a State American History Achievement Test competition.(I placed second) The cloying smell of tear gas still hung in the air. The Ohio State University Campus looked like Prague in '68 after the Soviet's moved in. Troops were everywhere, M-1's slung over their shoulders.

Security was stifling as news of the shootings at the much smaller Kent State University broke. On May 6th OSU closed until the 19th.

Like many I was shocked and angry when the killings at Kent State occurred. I became more liberal. (Radical to some of my friends. even today) The culmination of the Sixties had instilled a deep distrust of Government and the GOP. Rhodes and Nixon were responsible for that. I actively disliked Jim Rhodes and despised Richard Nixon.

Nixon's public response was to the KSU shootings was callous and pandered to his "Silent Majority" base. The tone and other comments by members of the Administration implied it was the dead students fault they were gunned down. John Halderman cited Kent State as the start of Nixon's slide into paranoia. It would culminate in Watergate and the attendant shenanigans.

Nixon's hard line pushed me farther and farther left. I made it a point to participate in every action against the war I could. I protested in favor of establishing women;s studies and African American History departments at Ohio State. I joined hundreds of thousands nationwide in the two Moratorium marches.

Kent State galvanized the left. It resulted in the nomination of George McGovern, our version electorally of Barry Goldwater. Nixon's use of race and fear was nearly overt. Massachusetts stood alone in opposing the reelection of Tricky Dick

.http://youtu.be/68g76j9VBvM

The Pentagon Papers were leaked. My Lai and other war crimes became public. America was finally turning against the Vietnam war, slowly, but irrevocably. We signed a peace treaty the day after Lyndon Johnson died. We could have gained the same terms four years earlier but Nixon kept the war going to insure his reelection. The additional names on the wall are his legacy to venal, political fuckery.

The Sixties are remembered for peace, free love, civil rights, the mainstreaming of the Women's Movement and music. It was all of that and more.

Yeah, Rock and Roll changed the day The Beatles hit the States.

America finally responded to the Legacy of Reconstruction and acted to end Jim Crow.

A social upheaval unprecedented in American history unfolded in a decade.

In the space of five years I completely remade myself. I rejected ideas my parents had instilled in me. I embraced equality not as a concept but as a way of life. I rejected war as a first response. I rejected blind patriotism. If you love your nation it is a duty to make it better.

I am liberal. I wear that term as a badge of honor.

I participated fully in that era. I learned lessons that have served me well.

That time has left scars that still affect America today.

We've yet to come to terms with the aftereffects of Vietnam.

The Right today is trying to undo all the advances we made in equality and social safety nets. They condemn that decade for being responsible for all of America's social woes. My response to them is shut the fuck up. We are now fighting new battles in a war I thought we had won. I took beatings then and am prepared to again. Unfortunately, I don't heal as quick as I once did.

The huge violent revolt at Ohio State is largely forgotten now. The State and City tried to play down what happened in the national press. Kent State also pushed all the coverage off the front page.

Kent State, Ohio University and Ohio State cost Jim Rhodes the Republican nomination for Senate in the Tuesday May 8th primary. Rhodes would serve two more terms as Governor. He has a statue and a 30+ story State office tower named after him. Both are on E. Broad St. across from the State House.

The Oval, a large grassy open area in the heart of OSU's campus is crisscrossed with foot paths. The brick walkways were replaced with asphalt because the bricks were thrown in 1970.

The massive iron gates at 15th and High were replaced with two ornamental concrete columns to prevent them from ever being shut again.

The National Guard Unit deployed at Kent State was cleared of wrongdoing in a Grand Jury. No one was disciplined for violations of The Army Field Manual for having loaded weapons in a riot situation. It is still not clear if there was an order to fire. The initial claim of firing in response to a sniper collapsed nearly immediately.

Crosby Stills Nash and Young wrote, recorded and released "Ohio" in about thirty days. The urban legend is Neil knew one of the four killed that dark day.

A monument to the slain and wounded at KSU had been built and dedicated on campus. The Site itself is on the National Historic Register.

I attended an anti war protest when we launched the invasion of Iraq. I took some flack from some young frat rat and managed not to kick his pompous, privileged ass. People who had no intention of serving cheered on the uncalled for invasion. Vietnam redux.

When Occupy Columbus was forming I went to an organizational meeting in the small amphitheater on the Oval at OSU. As I was talking old times with some contemporaries, I overheard a remark from a young woman. She told a companion the people in the Sixties ruined protesting for everyone. I may have told her she was ill informed, pretentious and elitist. She glared at me scornfully as she adjusted her Coach handbag. The protest outfit she was wearing likely cost more than I pay in rent. But she wanted to protest income inequality, bless her heart. Later she made a statement that men's ideas on women's rights were irrelevant since they were the oppressor. I left. Yeah, I am turning into the cranky old guy bitching at the kids for getting on my lawn.

We need to remember the past in order to change the future. That is the forlorn dream of historians.

We need to fight these battles again to restore America's place as a great nation. Unfortunately we are fighting battles today in wars I thought we had won.

America has a rampant resurgent racist rhetoric going mainstream as we are hell bent to reestablish the worst of our past under the guise of tradition and patriotism. Racism is no longer covert as many embrace it calling the 60's as the reason America is now, godless and in decline. We demons on the left are vilified as Un-American.

Love it or leave it? Not so much. I put up with that shit over forty years ago, not going to do it now.

Let's learn our lessons and move forward.

http://columbusneighborhoods.org/video/political-unrest-riots-on-osus-campus/

Remember these people

Allison Krause.
Jeffrey Miller.
Sandra Scheuer.
William Schroeder


From the May 4th Memorial at KSU--"Inquire, Learn, Reflect."

The I word. GOP policy of rejecting election results they don't like.

          Since 1992 and the election of Bill Clinton it seems to be Republican policy to assume any Democrat elected President is a usurper of power. It is therefor their duty to remove the threat through a bloodless coup. Let's impeach the bastard.

We'll ignore the fact St. Ronnie should have been Impeached for Iran-Contra. Reagan only ignored Federal law and sold weapons to Iran. It was St. Ronnie so that's cool. He also covertly funded the Contras in Nicaragua in contravention of law. Again if Ronnie did it, cool. If Bush the Elder had not pardoned Ollie North he would have done time and could hang out with G.Gordon Liddy in the felon as conservative icon club.

As it is though when Bill Clinton was elected President the GOP, led by Newt Gingrich, went off the rails. they spent the entire Clinton Presidency trying to find a way to remove him from office. The high approval ratings in polls Clinton enjoyed meant nothing. America was under the spell of a Southern scalawag and had to be saved from itself. Clinton, along with Hillary, murdered Vince Foster, committed fraud in Whitewater, even though they lost money in that investment, and was an evil philanderer.

So after years and millions of dollars they found an excuse to impeach. It was also along mostly party line votes. That should, I guess, prove it wasn't a partisan rejection of two presidential elections. The fact when he was impeached president Clinton's approval rating was 60% and there was no possibility of the Senate convicting was irrelevant. The Republicans felt justified in attempting to nullify the will of the electorate. Because, the public was deluded and wrong. The GOP simply could not accept that having the White House for twenty of twenty-four years had not become their right. A Democrat could not win without shenanigans or a mass delusion of the American voter.

After Bush the younger was elected(sorta) their feeling of ownership returned. Having control of the Congress helped fuel their sense of entitlement. The GOP controlled House and Senate rubber stamped an era of profligate spending and an extremely aggressive foreign policy.

After lying us into an unnecessary war, cutting taxes, blowing a surplus, racking up record debt, their laissez-faire policies derailed the economy.

When Barack Obama was elected the Republicans went around the bend so far their behavior towards Bill Clinton seemed reasoned and polite.

Absurdist conspiracy theories, paranoid beliefs and rejection of his legitimacy became the political norm on the right.

The election was stolen by massive voter fraud perpetrated by ACORN to get a fellow community organizer elected. The President was a secret Muslim. He was a socialist. He was a Kenyan plant following a massive conspiracy to con us into believing he was actually an American citizen. A communist sleeper agent. He was a black terrorist bent on destroying the United States.

These extreme and in many cases delusional views were actually given airtime and column space by reputable media. They were espoused by office holders. Fringe wackos who not long before would have been laughed out of the public arena were treated as actual scholars, serious intellectuals and investigators.It seems that any pretense of rational political discourse has been discarded in favor of absurdist political theater.

The House of Representatives has had myriad investigations, that in a more rational climate, would be called witch hunts. They have examined every use of Presidential policy for attempts to destroy America.

Traditional Presidential actions are called usurpations of power.Appointments by a Democrat are held up for not being reactionary Republican enough.

Since day one there have been Republicans and so called pundits calling for impeachment. The usual reasons given shows a total lack of understanding of how the Federal Government works and a total lack of understanding of the Constitution.

The calls have moved out of the fringe into what is passing for mainstream.

Rep. Steve King(R-Iowa) tried to force repeal of every law signed by President Obama. I can't follow his reasoning it was so convoluted. Another Rep. told his constituency there were enough votes in the House to impeach.

The right has spent the entire Obama Presidency undermining, blocking, attempting nullification, rhetorically rousing the base into calling for open rebellion and civil war. A total rejection of election results, still.

The farthest right wants impeachment over imagined violations of the Constitution. They say they want their country back. This is the most disturbing aspect of today's political climate.

The United States has a long sacred tradition of peaceful transfer of power. Elections stand. You don't agree or want a change, win the next election. I have lived through some tumultuous times in America and have never seen such wholesale rejection of election results. The calls for armed rebellion. The calls for the removal of a popular, twice elected president because he is not American. Talk of Secession. Rampant attempts at nullification.Constant calls for impeachment over things that don't even remotely meet the Constitutional test. Again an impeachment that could never result in conviction in the Senate.

Look guys, you lost. Get over it. Trust me an armed rebellion is not going to work. Impeachment is not going to happen. The President is a citizen so he won't be removed and tried as a usurper. When you lose an election here calling for insurrection because you didn't win is sedition. And Un American. Period. Many of you are lucky a broad interpretation of the First Amendment is being applied. There are still sedition laws on the books. And many of you are in violation of them. So a word of advice. Shut up. Deal with it. Put you gun away unless you think you can take out a tank, a drone, a cruise missle or Ranger team.
In other words grow up. You lost. So, the country you want back is still here, last time I checked. Go sulk and leave the rest of us alone.

*Update*

Already some GOP officeholders say that if they regain the Senate, they will impeach and remove president Obama from office. There is no better reason to get off your ass and vote Democratic. Holding the Senate and making gains in the House are imperative, The stranglehold of GOP/Tea Party hysteria must be broken. It is the only way to move America forward. We must show we reject sedition and constant rejection of the will of the electorate. Vote!

Ohio. Again. The Heartbeat is on a comeback tour.

          Ohio. Again. I am so tired of typing those two words. This State was once moderate and sane. In the Seventies and Eighties we had two Democratic Senators. John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum. John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. A decorated fighter pilot. An extremely effective and respected Senator. Senator Metzenbaum vied with Ted Kennedy as the most Liberal voice in the Senate. Now we have Sherrod Brown, a strong progressive voice and Rob Portman, George W. Bush's former Budget Director. This man has forgotten his history and is now somehow a Deficit Hawk.
After Republican control of Ohio for nineteen out of the last twenty-three years Ohio Republicans have, like the party Nationally, lurched blindly to the extreme right. This in a State that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both carried twice. There are those who feel Ohio was stolen in 2004 by George Bush with the aid of the extremist Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.
Following the 2010 Census GOP lawmakers met in secret to carve up Ohio into safe districts. They rented a hotel room in Columbus with taxpayer money and excluded Democrats from the process. Needless to say the public was also excluded. The result was basically election proofing the Ohio Legislature to maintain GOP control of both houses and the Congressional delegation till 2020.
These extremist Ohio House members passed the "Heartbeat Bill" in 2011. It would have banned abortion once a fetal heartbeat was detected. Since that usually happens at approximately six weeks, before most women know they're pregnant, it would have effectively banned abortion in Ohio. The Ohio House had "Testimony" from a fetus via ultra sound. Ohio became a national laughingstock. Again. There was also testimony from so-called "Abortion Survivors".
This bill was extreme enough to split the anti-abortion movement in the State.
The bill's backers were open that this bill was designed to challenge Roe v.Wade. The phrase ending abortion in Ohio was thrown around a lot. Many leaders in Ohio's anti-abortion movement felt this was the right bill at the wrong time. They saw such a blatant rejection of established Constitutional law would be a loser in front of SCOTUS. The result would be overturning Ohio's existing restrictive laws. They were hoping for a GOP Presidential win and a more conservative court before having such a draconian law passed.
These concerns didn't deter the Ohio House. They passed the bill in 2011 and sent it to the Ohio Senate. There it languished in committee until it was quashed by the Senate Majority leader.
With the Gerrymandered map Ohio wound up with an even more extremist Legislature in 2012. Both Houses had enough Republicans to steamroller any Democratic opposition.
Following the GOP attack on Public Sector Unions in 2011, when they had their asses handed to them by Ohioans via a ballot measure The Ohio Legislature decided to go after women's reproductive healthcare and rights by using the budget process.
Planned Parenthood and responsible medical providers were moved to the back of the funding line simply for making abortion referrals as were Rape Crisis centers. After all a child of rape is a gift from God. The so-called Pregnancy Crisis Centers are front and center for State family planning funding. In other States these groups have been caught giving misleading information and lying outright about birth control. They only support abstinence for single women and the rhythm method for married women. So organizations that don't believe in birth control are the ones providing advice.
The Budget also redefined pregnancy. The AMA defines the beginning of pregnancy as the implantation of a fertilized egg to the uterine wall. The State of Ohio, in their superior wisdom, defines pregnancy as beginning at conception. This plays havoc with some forms of birth control.
This budget is an anti-woman repression template for the rest of the Reactionary State Legislatures. To see the lengths these people have gone to I recommend an excellent Ohio political site, Plunderbund.com .The budget coverage here has been supurb. The appalling regulations are laid out in detail as are the consequences.
This repressive attempt to relegate Ohio women to simply being a life support system for a fetus doesn't go far enough for these Legislators. They plan to reintroduce The Heartbeat Bill. After all Ohio can't be outdone by Texas for slut shaming and stripping women of their rights as American citizens.
The bill is designed to force a direct challenge to Roe v.Wade. None of the supporters deny this. However at this time it is simply a moot pander to the base. North Dakota already has a similar law. It has been blocked by a Federal Court as an unconstitutional attack on established law. The current SCOTUS is unlikely to over rule this court's opinion. This would also make the Ohio and Texas versions void as well.
Since Governor John Kasich of Ohio has Presidential ambitions and signed the extremist budget he would likely sign a Heartbeat Bill. It would solidify his position as an anti-choice crusader. Ohio doesn't seem to get sustained coverage of it's attack on women. The media prefers the idea this is simply a Southern aberration. Texas gets the press. Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin and Kansas seem to get a pass. These States have passed awful laws on restricting women's access to safe abortion and family planning services. They are all Northern States. This shows this isn't a regional or Old Confederacy issue. I know this give scant comfort to women in the South but their Northern sisters are under a concerted attack also.
So sane women and men in Ohio and Nationally must be prepared to stand against this attempt to reestablish the time when women were trapped by biology in roles that kept them from fulfilling their potential as human beings.
Women are not walking incubators. They have an inalienable right to decide how their bodies will be used.
They are equal citizens with all the inherent rights that come with that.
The best way to remove women from the public and political arena is to keep them pregnant during most of their reproductive years, Keep them at home, too harried and busy to do anything else.
We can not allow this to happen.
Women across the country must stand with their sisters.
Men must stand with their wives,lovers, sisters, daughters, aunts and mothers.
Draw the line in the sand,. No farther.
Stop this war on women.
Through inaction comes defeat.
Through defeat comes slavery.
Act now. Raise your voice and an army of support.
Now. Time is running out.

You can't fix stupid.

          I've been known to sit back and relax at times. I'll fire up the blu-ray and watch a whole season of a favorite show. Fringe. SG-1. Doctor Who. Sometimes I do it with movies. A bit of Film Noir. The Duke. Star Trek and numerous others. A wonderful way to enjoy the small pleasures of life.
Then I will turn on the news or hit a news site on the web. Perhaps a link on Twitter. My calm is then seriously damaged.
All it takes is hearing the latest GOP attack on voting or women or any other insanity du jour.
Ron White is right. You can't fix stupid.
What I try to do is decide how much is stupid, how much is simple willful ignorance and how much is planned political partisanship. A chance to gain power through intimidation and fear. Unfortunately I think it's all of the above.
There are extremist evangelicals who have won seats in Congress, Statehouses and Legislatures. There have been Tea Party members elected with them. So, we have reactionary ideologues in power. Single issue zealots. People who would burn down the house rather than fix a leaky pipe. People who believe women are the reason for the so-called destruction of the traditional family. People who believe their version of God needs to be inserted into American life by law. Some because they dislike or disagree with history and feel it didn't happen that way. It is some kind of conspiracy to hide the truth.
There are others who reject science on religious grounds. They feel they have a right to impose their vision on everyone.
So let's take a trip through their alternate reality.
Since the Eighties we have seen an unprecedented rise of a strain of conservatism that would appall William Buckley and Barry Goldwater. The intellectual conservatives that founded the American Conservative movement knew that the extreme fringe were antithetical to the American values
Buckley and others were espousing. Thus the Ku Klux Klan, The John Birch Society and the American Nazi party were pushed out and banished from mainstream conservatism.
As the thoughtful leaders of the movement died they were replaced by men without the intellectual discipline needed to maintain the right's integrity as a viable, sane political power. So without an ideological standard the movement started to splinter into assorted factions. Some stayed true to the Buckley/Goldwater view of America. Others wandered off into the weeds of single issue or uninformed, reactionary views of what America should be.
These splinter groups mostly fell into two categories.
1) Reactionary evangelicals. Those who believe The United States was founded as a Christian Theocracy favored by God to spread our way of life.
2) Single issue and extremist reactionary political ideologues.
Down the rabbit hole we go.
Both are the result of Nixon's play to the so-called "Silent Majority" in the 1968 election. It was a blatant attempt to woo Southern voters angry about the Civil Rights Act. By claiming the mantle of "traditional American" values they fostered an us versus them mentality. Us being white men and them being everybody else. George Wallace went after the same voter and was far less subtle in his appeal to racism and the anti youth/Peace movement sentiment.
After Lyndon Johnson decided not to run there was a bloody Democratic Primary fight between Bobby Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy.
In April of 1968 Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee. in Indianapolis, Indiana Robert Kennedy heard the news right before a scheduled campaign stop in the African American area of town. Local police said they couldn't protect RFK in the heart of the Ghetto. His aides urged him to leave. Kennedy refused and gave what many feel is one of the best speeches in modern political history. The speech lasted four minutes and fifty-seven seconds and was given off the back of a flatbed truck. Bobby spoke of King's vision and told the crowd he could understand their grief and anger since his brother had been gunned down in Dallas. This was the first time he had referred to John's murder in a public forum. Kennedy quoted the Greek playwright Aeschylus, he called for peace, wisdom and compassion.
Cities across America burned that night. Indianapolis was not one of them.
Bobby Kennedy may have clenched the Democratic nomination that night.  Two months later RFK fell to an assassin himself in Los Angeles after winning the California primary.
The Days of rage turned the Chicago Democratic Convention into a war zone on TV. Humphrey won the nomination in a bruising floor fight with the Kennedy delegates. Even with this baggage Humphrey barely lost.
Nixon decided to go after the older, angry white voter. "The Silent Majority". The Southern Strategy. This was the first openly racist campaign waged by the modern GOP. Us vs. them equaled Black and young vs. white and angry. It was worse in '72. Almost overt. Code words flew every time Nixon or Agnew opened their mouth.
After Nixon was kicked to the curb Ford ran a rather clean campaign. It was about the last.
Southern Dixiecrats and many Dems became Republicans. In the North the same thing happened as white voters felt threatened by black political and social gains. The Southern Strategy had matured into a solid generational Republican voting block.
The Evangelicals and extreme conservatives were used as ground troops in knocking on doors and getting out the vote.
In popular culture these people were derided as hillbillies and holy rollers. As I've said before many looked at "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Hee Haw" as documentaries.
In the movie "Oh God", God got snarky with the Televangelist.
In the anger over how they were treated and lack of political power in a country they saw slipping away the GOP solidified this population.
Ronald Reagan used his folksy charm to wage a campaign of covert racism. He also demonized the Democratic opposition. They made the word liberal an insult. Anyone who disagreed was smeared as being Un American A socialist bent on destroying traditional American values and waging war on Christianity. Even reasonable moderate voices were tarred as Liberals.
During the papacy of St. Ronnie a war on Unions was declared. Corporations and the rich were vaunted as the basis of the American post war economic miracle. Union workers were lazy and overpaid. Taxes were cut. Deficits exploded and taxes were raised.
The cultural war against secular life was heating up. Hollywood was destroying American life. Homosexuals were plotting to take over America. Women were abandoning their traditional roles upsetting the natural order of things.
The Robertson's and Falwell's were being taken seriously. The expert use of Television was spreading their word, filling their coffers and growing their political clout. These preachers were frequent guests  at the White House. Political endorsements were sought and turned elections. Fewer people
identified as members of the traditional Religious denominations and were calling themselves Born Again.
Evangelical conservatives railed against the secularization of the United States. Hollywood and Collegiate elites were condemned for destroying American values. Women no longer stayed at home. They wanted careers.They enjoyed sex. African Americans no longer knew their place. They were uppity and wanted equality. Homosexuals were plotting to convert everyone and let their pedaphile prolictivities loose. Lesbians were going to beat up men and take their jobs in construction, law enforcement and the military.
The nation had fallen from the path of God and there would be dire consequences if the Almighty wasn't restored to daily life
The political conservatives were natural allies of the evangelicals. They both distrusted change. So they joined forces.
Both groups felt the GOP was simply paying lip service to their causes and taking advantage of them. They were right. The Republicans were not about to turn the party over to zealots. So, the insurgents took it. They ran against incumbents in primaries and won.
Since the late 90's we have seen moderate voices driven out of the party. The result is as they came into power they were lurching farther to the right. With no moderate power structure to keep them in check they reveled in their newfound ability to legislate to their heart's content.
There were no old warhorses to teach them how to govern. These neophytes saw the lifeblood of government(compromise) vilified as selling out. There was no one to tell them their concept of the Constitution was flawed at best, completely wrong at worst. Most fell over themselves running to the worst case scenario.
This coalition has decided to undo all the progress made over the last century plus. They are fed validation by media sites that would have been laughed out of existence a generation ago. The Fox news model of disinformation, half truths and lies has been adopted and expanded. We are deluged by a tsunami of willful ignorance, lies and hate, 24/7.
The audience that receives most of their information from these sites are deluded into believing we are on the verge of civil war. They are convinced they are under attack.
This has gone from people not understanding how governing works to wanting to destroy what they see as a monolithic, secular government wishing to establish a godless, socialist utopia.
Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups. Even more so if they are frightened. They latch on to anything that makes them feel safe.
I lived through the sixties and I have never seen division and hatred the way it exists here today.
Rather than make fun of the Militias we should be concerned at their explosive growth. How many McVeigh's are out there?
Rather than make fun of these extremists we should be concerned. There are likely people North and South who would love to fire on FT. Sumter again.
We need to out work them.
We need to out vote them.
We need to out evangelize them.
Too long have we let the right control the message. We need to fight back against the the lies with cold hard facts.
We can no longer be concerned with hurting their feelings. We've been punching bags for too long. Time to punch back.

Ohio joins up with Pregnancy Centers for Women's health. What??

          In  the rush to judgement over the abortion restrictions in Ohio we have lost sight of the deep, caring commitment the GOP legislators are showing to Ohio women. After all, these rules passed in Ohio's budget are for the health and safety of Ohio women. Just ask them.
Clinics that provide abortion services are required to have transfer agreements( A precaution in case of medical complications). These clinics are now forbidden from having transfer agreements with Public hospitals. Since most private hospitals in Ohio have religious affiliations clinics may have problems fulfilling this requirement. It is an excellent idea in a medical emergency,when time is a critical factor, to increase the distance a patient needs to be transported. After all any life saving procedure would be tantamount to an abortion and we can't have public money used to save a woman's life. We all know if she had not had sex she wouldn't be in this situation. Obviously it is the stance of the State of Ohio that sluts don't deserve compassion.
Another way to prove there is no war on women in Ohio is to defund Planned Parenthood. Or sorta defund.
What Ohio has done is change the funding priorities. Any family planning service provider, even if they don't offer abortion services, move to the back of the line for funding if they even make abortion referrals. This includes Rape Crisis Centers. Everyone knows children of rape are gifts from God. Since being a Republican legislator in Ohio makes you a de facto OB/GYN, you can decide if medically responsible treatment can even be mentioned. Once again, had the tramp not gotten knocked up there wouldn't be an issue.
So under these rules Christian anti-abortion, push for carrying to full term propaganda groups are funded. Planned Parenthood, not so much.Thus to ensure the health and safety of Ohio women, which is what these regulations are all about, contraception services will be provided by groups that don't believe in contraception. Natural methods are front and center. Rhythm and abstinence. Two methods that are proven to control a women's reproductive options.
Now, just because these groups have been caught lying in other States doesn't mean they will lie in Ohio. They won't tell women that condoms don't protect against STD's or pregnancy because they are naturally porous. They won't tell women that birth control causes mental health issues. They won't claim abortion can cause the formation of antibodies possibly forcing her immune system to reject a fetus causing a miscarry. Side effects not on the warning sheet are possible.
I am so very proud to live in a State that feels women need to be lied to, humiliated and considered too stupid to make important decisions concerning her health and future. Facts are stubborn things. They only get in the way of caring for women. Giving faith based groups public money to advance their anti-science agenda is needed. God knows women are willful creatures needing a strong hand to guide them. Now, let's go after other rights that are an affront to God. It's the new American way.

The Extremist war on education

          Few things push my buttons faster and harder than attacks on a solid fact based education system. Evolution v."Intelligent Design"(Creationism dressed up as science) garners the headlines. It's sexy. It sells. It brings to mind the Scope's trial and "Inherit The Wind". What flies under the radar is the attack on traditional education itself as a secular plot to destroy conservative thought and religion.( Conservative Christianity)
There is a long tradition of contempt and mistrust of education in America's history. It may come from the educated elite dominating society at the expense of the agrarian, frontier nation we were at our founding. Socioeconomic control of the many by the wealthy, powerful few is nothing new. Farmers in hock to banks for seed money and the Company Store come to mind easily. As does market manipulation, slave wages and laissez faire Governmental policies. There was adequate reason to hold the elite in contempt and mistrust them.
Education on the frontier was seen as a necessary evil. It was felt all that a person needed was to know how to sign your name, rudimentary reading skills, enough math to figure what you owed, was owed you and market value of your crop. Anything else was superfluous. When day to day survival is front and center an expansive education is seen as an unneeded luxury.
Among the populace was a tradition of not being educated to overcome. My Daddy did OK without book learning. I'm doing OK without book learning. And boy, you'll do just fine too.
Even with this attitude education was seen as a vital Government function. During the expansion of the frontier land was set aside by law for the establishment of schools. This was the embodiment of the Jeffersonian idea that an educated population, exposed to new ideas would be able to work out their differences and move the nation forward.
As the Nation grew the benefits of education was recognized. Families realized if their children were educated life would have more opportunity for them. The general curve of an educated populace has historically been upward.
Following WWII the dominance of the American manufacturing prowess was based solely on having the best educated workforce on the planet. Our schools and Universities set the bar for everyone else. The explosive growth of the American Middle Class drove the engine of industry and fostered the goal of universal education for all.
The GI Bill enabled millions to obtain a post secondary education when it had been only a dream for their forebears. An educated America was pivotal in the improvement of the health and welfare of the nation.
So why the Conservative war on education now?
There seems to be an unforeseen side effect of a good, solid learning experience. Educated people seem to be more liberal and progressive. It must be a secular plot to destroy America.
There has been an idea in mainstream conservative thought since Buckley that American Universities are dominated by a liberal elite intent on indoctrination. This is called education. As one is taught critical thinking and are exposed to new and varied ideas your outlook evolves. As you learn old misconceptions are exposed and usually rejected. This is what happens as you learn.
Now the political idea that there is a secret American History not being taught is gaining acceptance in local and State Governments. You have people like David Barton and Glen Beck pushing it's a liberal, secular conspiracy to hide the truth. They have no credentials, knowledge of, standing, grasp of history or historical context. In other words, clueless.
OK, I admit history tends to be written by the winners. However that's where research and scholarship comes in. The purpose of a historian is to sift through the bias of contemporary accounts to glean what was actually happening and WHY. See, if you understand the why you should be able to avoid it happening again. That is the forlorn dream of us who are interested in History.
Beck is a big fan of a worldwide secular conspiracy to reestablish the Caliphate. Let's pretend that idea isn't totally absurd to start with.
What Beck, through intention or ignorance never mentions is what existed under the golden age of the Caliphate.
While Europe was engulfed in the Dark Ages following the collapse of Rome there was a shining light of science and knowledge in the world. It was the Arab world. The Islamic world.
Algebra is an Arabic word. We use Arabic numerals rather than the limited, unwieldy Roman numerals. Science, mathematics, art, architecture and the preservation of knowledge flourished. The Caliphate was the center of intellectualism in a dark western world.
What happened? (See? The why.)
Religious fundamentalism is the short answer. The systematic rejection of anything that conflicts with religious dogma. This is a historical lesson modern Americans need to take to heart, burn into their brains and teach our children.
We see this constantly now. Science denial is rampant, based on religion. Today my focus is on history. And historical denial is also rampant for the same reasons.
The most prevalent myth being pushed as fact is The American Revolution was a conservative movement founded on taxes and the desire to establish a "Christian" nation. The vaunted shining city on the hill.
The activists that pushed the Colonies into open rebellion against the Crown were radical men from Massachusetts. They were the first to openly take up arms against the British Army.
In the Continental Congress in Philadelphia the idea was to find a political accommodation with the Crown. The very concept of declaring independence and establishing a new Nation was alien during the height of Colonial Empires. It had never been done.
The delegates anger over taxes were that they were imposed with no input from these American Colonial subjects of His Majesty. Taxation without representation. They knew taxes were needed for Government to function. These men knew a standing army was needed to protect from internal and external threats. A standing army was expensive to maintain.With this came other unilateral affronts. They wanted seats in Parliament. They wanted a voice in governing these disparate Colonies. They wanted the rights of full British citizenship. The founders didn't care to be second class citizens.
These Delegates were the best educated, most influential men in The Colonies for the most part. There were brilliant orators. There were consummate politicians. There were the best and brightest. There were also political sycophants, intellectual dullards and fools. The trick was consensus building.
In this mix was an abrasive radical firebrand, John Adams. He represented the hotbed of American radicalism. Boston. It's safe to say without Adams' constant cajoling, his annoying persistence and drive the Revolution may not have happened or would have been an entirely different rebellion.
These Founding fathers were well educated men and products of their time. They were living in the middle of the Enlightenment or the Great Awakening. Thousands of years of traditional political thought was being rejected wholesale. Divine Right monarchy was no longer seen as the preordained natural order of things. Science and reason was replacing blind faith. They saw themselves as Humanists. Secular Deists.
They mistrusted organized religion. They mistrusted an absolutist government with no checks and balances on the whims of a King.
The Monarchical whims pushed these men into the realization a political solution to the Colonies grievances were unlikely.
The armed rebellion began in Boston resulted in widespread British retaliation. An army was raised and the conflict was lit. And this was not an extremely popular course of action.
A third of the population remained loyal to the Crown.They were the actual conservatives(Listening Misters Barton and Beck?)Most fled to Britain or Canada.
A third didn't care one way or another. A traditional American political reaction.
So, the great rebellion consisted of a third of the people. (I am proud to say I had Ancestors who were armed participants and members of the Continental Army. Irishmen,so taking up arms against the Brits wasn't that big of a stretch.)
So the history deniers claims this war was only about taxes and religion is not accurate at all. There were strong liberal and radical philosophical underpinnings. It is never as simple as the misinformed make it.
Without extensive military aid from France the Revolution would likely have failed. That sound you hear is GOP heads exploding re: France.
After the war a means of governing these former colonies had to be devised. There was no real precedent. Previous documents were examined and had varying degrees of influence. The Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, The Declaration Of Independence, The Virginia Charters and statute of Religious Freedom among others were consulted. The result was the Articles of Confederation. A weak central Government with strong, semi-autonomous States. This was an abject failure.
A group of delegates gathered in Philadelphia to fix it. Upon examination they decided it was beyond repair and scrapped it. They exceeded their authority and wrote The Constitution.

Baffled, bothered and bewildered: The rejection of the 21st Century

         I guess I read too much. In modern America there seems to be a price to pay for being informed. For me it's Spontaneous Head Explosion Syndrome. I read or hear statements made by Conservatives in power and my head explodes.The right seems to suffer from a disturbing dissonant disconnect to recognized reality.
I came of age in the Sixties. Science and the pursuit of knowledge was seen as a by product of a free open American society. A vindication of the American experiment. The post WWII explosion in science and technology was unprecedented in human history. In sixty-six years we went from the Wright biplane, to supersonic aircraft, to landing on the moon. In 1969 there were a lot of people who saw this happen in their lifetime.
The Government and industry took a long view of R&D. Pure research was funded because it was recognized that any discovery could lead to serendipitous and unforeseen results. For example the vacuum tube was replaced by the transistor which in turn was replaced by the chip.
Through private and public funding not one, but two, polio vaccines were developed. I remember the Sabin on Sunday drive where millions lined up at churches and schools to receive the oral vaccine. And it was free. It was public policy to eradicate polio and smallpox.
A segment of the population, rather vilified now and perhaps rightly so, older white men were the driving force behind this era of scientific discovery. Admittedly it was because they dominated society. Their near universal view that progress was a good thing in and of itself lead to amazing scientific and social progress.
Under consecutive Republican and Democratic Administrations we built the Interstate highway system. We had an active, push the envelope aerospace program. Long range R&D produced incredible discoveries. Hormonal birth control was introduced. This had the effect of freeing women to pursue their potential by giving them control of their reproductive options. Better living through chemistry wasn't simply a corporate ad slogan. Progress is our most important product was a statement of corporate philosophy.
Our educational system was the envy of the world. Unfettered thought attracted the planet's best and brightest to our Universities to learn and do research. Ignorance was something that was seen as a national duty to eradicate.
So what happened? We now seem to be bombarded by WTF moments. Willful ignorance is now seen a desirable badge of honor.
In the sixties conservatives embraced science and knowledge as a plus for the nation. An educated workforce enabled new manufacturing techniques to be embraced. R&D was something seen as a potential profit center. A means to introduce new technologies and products. Progress was a way to enhance a brand. A modern infrastructure was seen as necessary to efficient movement of goods and services. A right and proper use of government.
In the seventies, to counter Democratic power, the Republican Party reached out to and wooed the so-called Moral Majority. The leadership of this segment of the population was dominated by fringe, reactionary religious leaders. They were derided as holy rollers and as a product of a socially stunted backwards South. The pundits ignored the fact the Bible belt runs through the center of the country.
The GOP did not foresee the result of legitimizing the fringe. At the time they were fringe for a reason. Actual science, history, great literature and critical thinking was the foundation of American education. A liberal Arts education was the norm. It was an extension of the old classical education given the elite. There was a need seen for universal education to eliminate ignorance.
The Twentieth Century will be remembered for many things, good and ill.
Devastating wars followed by the collapse of Colonial Empires.
In the United States the Corporate Oligarchy was reined in as an era of egalitarianism was unleashed. Jim Crow was finally dismantled in the Old Confederacy. The covert racism in the North is fading. Women have more options now than ever before. The curve of liberty was and for the most part still is, upward.
Unfortunately there has always been a love/hate relationship with education in American history. On the frontier, in an agrarian society, the three R's were seen as all that was needed. Reading, riting and rithmatic. As the nation became more industrialized and urban the need for higher education was grudgingly accepted and became the norm. The high school diploma became the standard for The American workforce. As society evolved universal education for women and minorities slowly also became the norm.
Still there is a segment of the population that is threatened by change. They see it as destructive to their worldview. They have been embraced by the Republican Party as a way to stay in power. The true believer is a person who takes every opportunity to expand their influence ans enforce their belief system.
The embrace of the fringe by the GOP sowed the seeds for the cultural wars being fought today. These reactionaries were used as shock troops to register voters, knock on doors, get out the vote for the Republicans, and act as an ATM for campaigns. After the elections they received only lip service to their issues. Needless to say they felt used and abused by the Republicans. So, they acted.
Using the political lessons learned they hit GOP officeholders with Primary challenges from the right. Since they were the majority of Primary voters they won. A lot. Office holders that survived moved right to save their political skin.
These people were not skilled pols, they were zealots. They were driven, focused on single issues or imbued with a perceived moral and cultural superiority. The ideal was to return America to an imagined golden era when Christian values were law. A time when tradition was revered. It was time to turn back the clock.
In the nineties they took Congress. They went after science and arts funding. There was enough pushback by Democrats and remaining Republican moderates to limit the damage. They did manage to Impeach President Clinton in a frenzy of moral outrage led by a House Speaker who, himself was a serial adulterer. But, after a disastrous Government shut down their power was curbed by outrage from the American public.
During the Bush years the hubris returned. Two wars were started. The misguided adventure in Iraq was built on lies, misrepresentations and half truths. Taxes were cut, the wealthy coddled and worshiped as job creators. A balanced budget and surplus became a historical artifact as unprecedented deficit spending became the norm. Attacks on rights were attempted only to be slapped down by the courts.This did nothing to dampen a belief that in spite of voting patterns Americans were conservative.The elections were obviously being stolen.
In 2008 we saw a field of GOP Presidential candidates that would not unequivocally, when asked if they believed in evolution, say yes. They mouthed soft platitudes about a balanced education.(A nod to creationism) Only Mike Huckabee said he did not believe in evolution. He also was the candidate that challenged McCain hardest and longest for the nomination.
McCain in a move to placate the base chose an obscure, untested Governor as his running mate. Sarah Palin. She purposely played to the proponents of ignorance in the base. This was the direct result of Spiro Agnew's attacks on the educated. He called them pointy headed intellectuals. Nattering nabobs of negativity. The George Wallace campaign echoed that as they went after the racist vote in '68 and '72. This strain of anti-intellectualism had spread like a virus in the political lifeblood of the party during the ensuing years.
When a bi-racial moderate Democrat was elected the very idea of fringe views seemed to evaporate. No idea was too absurd to be reported. No proponent was too crazy to get airtime and be treated as a serious historian or political philosopher.
The tea party was born to harness this rejection of modern America as the Moral Majority was once used. But these upstarts refused to be used. They beat party endorsed candidates. They coined the term RINO. Republican in name only for those who actually thought their job was to reach a consensus and govern. Compromise was evil. The idea was to throttle the government's move towards progressive ideals and move society backwards.
The moves against Unions were intensified as they were the only groups working for the protection of working Americans.
Regulation was decried as job killing interference. The idea that banks and corporations could be forced by the market to self police was pushed by those who hated government. And surprisingly, banks and corporations.
After all one could count on them to do the right thing voluntarily in spite of a long history of disaster.
These policies went hand in hand with an extreme pushback on social issues.
Progressives were fighting battles in wars that we thought we had won. Religious extremism had gone mainstream.
Following their rise to power these Christian zealots felt they had a divinely ordained mission to make America a christian theocracy. They started with abortion. It became the norm to equate abortion with murder. Harassment of women at clinics was an accepted strategy. As they won office this tactic spread to legislative harassment.
At one time they were held in check by moderates in the GOP. So, to further their mission these voices were driven out of the party. Where they gained a majority they went after women. This was done on moral, traditional and religious grounds. After all women were the main reason of the decline of the Traditional family. They had abandoned their traditional role as subservient help mate to go forth into the world. This upset God's ordained natural order. Women were systematically stripped of the right to decide her reproductive options. The goal seemed to be a return to her status as a life support system for a fetus.
History was being attacked as secular propaganda. People with no credentials in history (Disclaimer:I have no degree in History. I did major in it however and still remember it)and an agenda to do a rewrite saying the American Revolution was a Conservative religious movement. A movement that resulted in the establishment of a Christian Theocracy.
To push this the extremists took over school boards. They fought to have text books changed to reflect their desire to replace history with religious indoctrination. They have had a modicum of success. Texas comes to mind.
This religious zealotry has resulted in the push to have biblical ideas taught as science. The theory of evolution is under attack as it was in the Scopes trial in the Twenties. These Christian extremists feel creationism should be taught as a viable alternative. They push a controversy where none exists. This is also a rejection of most settled science. Biology. Archeology. Medicine. Physics. Science is reviled as satanic lies. And this is  done on computers, the internet, television and radio. Huh? A major disconnect from reality.
Vaccines are reviled and parents fight to keep their children from being inoculated. Thus we are seeing the comeback of diseases we had beaten into submission.
Unbridled corporatism and coddling of the rich is resulting an income inequality and a lack of opportunity not seen since the Gilded Age.
The problem is the sane among us have sat back and allowed this to happen. We treat school boards as unimportant offices. We assume sane thinking people will serve. So, we hand it to the extremists. We let the them take power through complacency and apathy. We wing our hands as we see Modern America under attack.
This can not continue. We have to reassert America is a secular, diverse nation of law not enforced theological dogma.
Equal means equal. Religion and tradition was used to justify slavery and subjugation of women. There is a movement to reassert that idea.
Knowledge is not to be a la carte.
Facts are stubborn things. They don't care if you believe in them or not.
We need to fight this ideological coup being carried out. Birth control is being attacked as immoral. The safety net is shredded to coddle the wealthy. Women are evil, harlots and the cause of our societal ills.WTF?
Christianity, the dominate religion is being persecuted. WTF?
Fight back against the establishment of a wilfully ignorant, repressive reactionary theocracy.
Stand together or burn at the stake alone after an actual witch hunt. The revival of the inquisition is not impossible.
Stand.
Raise your voice.
Organize.
Fight.
Now.