President Donald Trump’s first year in office reminds me of President Ronald Reagan’s two terms. When Reagan was first elected President in 1981, ultra-conservatives and the religious right reveled in the “return to moral values” for America. The Moral Majority and Baptist minister Jerry Falwell rose to their political peaks. And the GOP’s big new idea was Supply-Side Economics. Tax Reform Like Trump, the Reagan […]
Liberals always try to forget who they are and what they stand for. It’s like some group-think version of moral amnesia. It’s one of the (many) things that drive me nuts about many liberals, including most of the Democratic party. Do Democrats support a more robust safety net, particularly for heath care? You’d think they should, what with all the shouting about how Republicans destroying […]
There’s an old argument: control the language, and you control the argument. The GOP is very good at reshaping language to their needs. And they use that skill exclusively to swindle us. In another post (Democratic Moral Amnesia), I talked about how, when the GOP brands a liberal idea with scare words, Democrats promptly hand over their lunch money. My beef there was with […]
America has been generous, arrogant, idealistic, and self-centered as a world leader. Have we done much good for the world? We had to stop trying to find out.
Jeff Sessions lied to Congress again today, at length and in obvious denial of known facts, common sense, or even his own earlier words under oath. Everyone there knew that’s what he was doing as he lied, and they accepted it. How can I say that? Easy. Everyone knew the questions they were going to ask Sessions. They’re easy to predict, most especially for AG […]
For all my disgust about each new accusation against a public figure, and each new revelation about sexual harassment, abuse, and rape, I think we’re all hopefully wondering if that means we’re changing our attitudes. The news media are reporting women’s claims about sexual harassment and abuse, sometimes in their complete and horrifying detail. And we’re publicly accepting the claims; more people say ‘we believe […]
There are a lot of pundits trying to explain the Virginia election using broad, sociological trends peppered with all the current political buzzwords. And I think most of them are empty, bloviating suits. This was a victory for common decency, but it wasn’t inevitable. It was a personal victory for Ralph Northam, and it was more fragile than we admit. Ralph Northam is Virginia’s new […]
Why I’m a Racist
I’m a racist. I’m nervous saying this out loud, but yes, of course I’m a racist. It isn’t something I want, don’t get me wrong. Nobody wants to be a racist. But I am. I’d change that if I could, and I do change whenever I can, but I’ll never find all the racism in me. It’s not something I’ll realistically be able to do. And […]

