Voting is a Big Deal, and an Informed Electorate is Essential to the Preservation of Democracy

As the teacher of a high school honors civics class in the early 1990's, I always encouraged my students to register to vote when they turned 18.  I gave them a 100% as a test grade when they showed me their registration card.  They got another grade bonus if they could prove to me they voted.  

When these students would come to my honors class as juniors and seniors, their lack of interest in both American History and American Government was appalling, and I mean appalling.  The quality of Texas' education system is already seriously lacking.  It took a lot of energy to come up with ways to get the students interested and engaged.  I was big on group research and presentation, and it helps when they are finding the information and they have to make it relevant.  

But, I also shared a practical anecdote.  

I told them that I was a member of the baby boom generation, born literally right in the middle of this largest of generations at the time.  I said that their lack of interest in their government, economy and history didn't bother me.  My generation understood the importance of being informed voters and doing their civic duty.  There were more of us than there were of the generation of the students seated in my classroom.  

"Don't get too interested," I said.  "My generation is informed and votes at high percentages, and when we get old and are facing retirement, we will just elect politicians who will steal you blind, and put it in our Social Security and Medicare.  So don't vote, OK?"  

I don't know how well that reverse psychology worked, but two of my former students are now county district attorneys, one is a county sheriff, and one works as a Congressional intern.  So maybe they got the message.  But there's a lot of truth in that tongue-in-cheek statement.  In a constitutional democracy, the power is in the ballot box.  And if those who have the responsibility for it are uniformed, or not interested, it can become dangerous to the preservation of the democracy. 

More Required Social Studies Education 

I'm going to get on my soap box here, and rant for a couple of paragraphs.  The emphasis on school improvement in this country falls to math and science, because American students don't score as well on international assessments in these subjects.  But as we look at the dynamics of this election, it's pretty obvious we need to improve what students need to know about civics and American history in order to preserve our democracy.  How else is it possible for a convicted felon and rapist who himself organized a failed, but deadly attempt to attack Congress in the middle of counting electoral votes, to even be re-nominated by a major political party?  The rest of the world is asking that question.  Why can't we explain it? 

Several years ago, my wife and I hosted a foreign exchange student from Switzerland.  He was 16 years old, in his third year of what would be the equivalent of an American high school, spoke three languages, including his native Swiss-German, English and French, and was taking Russian in school, was placed in a Calculus AB class, in which he earned A's, and had enough of a working knowledge of American History to get A's in the class and help other students understand the objectives.  He was able to identify and explain political ideology in terms of both philosophy and government policy and understood differences between Democrats and Republicans more than almost all of his classmates.  And in Switzerland, he wasn't considered an honor student, though his grades were good enough to get into the University of Bern, where he earned a law degree. 

And for Swiss students of his age, that's typical.  The Swiss managed to remain neutral in the center of the hostile political environment of Europe, through two world wars that raged right up to their borders and to the edge of their airspace, and preserved their nation.  They value both their neutrality and their independence and they understand that an educated and informed electorate is the key to preserving both of those things.  It's a requirement for students in their educational system, and failure isn't an option, they must pass before leaving school.  

Their education system may also be one of the reasons why they have one of the highest percentages of personal gun ownership in the world, and no mass shootings.  John Dewey, considered the modern father of American public education, believed that education was the key to social reform for the benefit of a free society, and he was absolutely correct.  

An educated and committed electorate, made up of true patriots, would never tolerate such an insurrection, would have prosecuted the instigator along with the participants, and would never have been in the situation of having him become the nominee of one of the two major parties.  That must be fixed as soon as possible. 

Breaking Up the Commercialization of the Free Press

There is a free press in the United States, genuinely free, unencumbered by obligations that prevent it from telling the truth.  The problem is that because it has freed itself from corporate interests and ownership, it has a very small audience.  It tells the truth, can be trusted, holds politicians accountable and is actually fair and balanced.  

The Pacifica Radio Network is a good example.  It is a non-commercial, not for profit entity that owns five radio stations outright, in Houston, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Washington, DC and New York and has a larger network of affiliates.  Another of my favorites is The Texas Observer.  It may be considered a liberal leaning publication but it most definitely fits the definition of a free press.  And another favorite, Baptist News Global, has a religious context, but is Baptist in the historic, cultural context of what that means, not in the Evangelical context.  

I've been particularly frustrated at the fact that our corporately owned media is turning out to be more of a propaganda outlet than a free press.  It's become an apologetic mouthpiece for Republicans and for Trump, who has been the main subject of most of its reporting for over nine years now.  I can't remember a single day since the man first started running for President that the media, fascinated by his corruption and his ability to get away with just about anything, hasn't reported some news item that mentions his name or something he's done.  And if that's not a personal propaganda outlet, then I don't know what is.  

And let's be honest.  If reporting had been fair, balanced, and followed any rules of journalism, he would not have been elected the first time.  

Fighting to Keep Democracy Alive is Hard Work

Our own prosperity may be collapsing in on top of us.  Something once considered the most enlightened idea of the enlightenment, the American Republic, is dying.  It's dying because intolerance which I believe is the product of prosperity, has created such a rift along racial, ethnic, economic, social and religious lines that some Americans cannot stand to be around other Americans and cannot tolerate things protected by freedom of conscience. 

The projection from the far right is fascinating.  They accuse us of planning to do everything they are planning to do if they win.  Many of them seem to think that people who don't get in line with the conservative, religious right's way, the world will be destroyed.  They believe, wrongly, that God's judgment is just waiting to put the hammer down because of America's corporate "sins" in spite of the fact that there is no such thing.  

I do find it funny, and horrifically inconsistent, that those who believe that God is going to judge the United States for its sin, specifically for allowing abortion to occur within its boundaries, have chosen a worldly, corrupt, rapist, convicted felon and pathological liar as a presidential candidate.  Somehow he will be the one to save the country.  Not the prosecutor who has spent her entire life fighting crime. 

We are the ones to whom the task of saving America's constitutional democracy has been left.  We will have to do it at the ballot box.  Once we're able to make that happen, we need to seriously think about doing some of what I've suggested to keep this from ever happening again.  It's going to take a long time to get Trumpism out of American political life and culture, if we can ever even do so.  It will have to be something that happens among the younger generations, and involves our education system.  

Pro-Choice, Pro-Life and LGBTQ Rights Explained For Those Right Wingers Who Don't Get It

Before you pass over this article and move on to something else, give this a few minutes of your time and consideration.  For progressive, liberal, woke, Democrats, this is a perspective you can use when those Evangelical family or friends in your live back themselves into the corner of defending all of Trump's anti-Christian, anti-Patriotic, lying, cheating immorality because they are pro-life, and they stand for morality "against the onslaught of LGBTQ proliferation into our culture and society."  

And so does Trump.  And by eliminating abortion rights, and stopping the proliferation of LGBTQ intrusion into our culture, he will "make America great again."  

Get ready for what will be part rant, part sermon, part Bible lesson, part common sense.  That's all coming.

A Faulty Perception of "Abortion Rights" With Hot Button Words Like "Baby Killer" Applied

I'll get back to the "proliferation of LGBTQ intrusion" in a few paragraphs.  But let's start with the elimination of abortion rights.  I hope we can clear up a lot of ignorance. 

Most Evangelicals who have made this their top political issue have almost no understanding at all of what happens medically when a law is written that essentially dictates how a medical procedure can be performed.  The only thing that comes to their mind is that an abortion is murdering the life of an infant, because life begins at conception, and abortion is nothing more than birth control.  

Does life begin at conception?  

That would be an exclusively religious perception, if it is true. However, in Evangelical doctrine, any assertion of the truth of a statement must be supported by a correctly interpreted scripture, applied according to its context.  And there is no specific place anywhere in the Bible that makes this statement and declares it to be true.  There are, in fact, very few places where there is any kind of teaching on when human life actually begins.  There are a couple of examples where a child in the womb was identified, or, in the case of John the Baptist, "leapt" for joy when Mary came into the presence of her cousin Elizabeth, John's mother.  But there is no conclusive support for a doctrine stating that human life begins at conception.  It is inferred, but inference is not authoritative in Evangelical theology.  So they have come to a doctrinal conclusion without sufficient evidence to support their claim.  

Is all abortion performed exclusively for the purpose of birth control?  

This would be so much easier if that actually were the case.  Unfortunately, it's not, and that's why the simplistic "ban" of abortion that most Evangelicals are seeking is an impossible issue.  

Abortion is an invasive medical procedure.  And any time such a procedure is regulated by law, it removes all of the medical benefits the procedure was developed to deal with.  That's exactly the aspect of this that Harris' campaign has been demonstrating, by their use of examples.  They're not showing mothers who wanted to get an abortion because the pregnancy was unplanned and unwanted.  They're showing examples of women who couldn't get the medical care they needed to save their life because doing so involved removing the fetus to stop the spread of sepsis or some other potentially fatal infection.  But the restrictive abortion bans in the states that passed them since the Roe v. Wade decision was made have not taken that into consideration.

This occurs in about one out of every four pregnancies, not an insignificant number.  That's way too many women to put at risk for the government to control how, or if, a medical procedure can be performed.  It should be up to the family members, husband and wife, to make the decision about what happens at this point, not the government.  As long as there is a necessity for an abortion to save the life of the mother, in a grave and tragic situation, then it cannot be legislatively restricted, even if this kind of decision only represents a fourth of all abortions.  If just one mother's life is at risk, then a ban is not worth the cost of a life.  

And while smart-ass retorts are not the point here, the fact that the mortality rate among women with pregnancies gone wrong in these states has soared since the bans were put into place makes those legislators and governors "mother murderers," right? 

A More Thoughtful Approach Which Takes Constitutionally Guaranteed Freedom of Conscience Into Consideration

Kamala Harris is exactly right when she claims that putting a mother in a situation where her life is in danger, and a doctor will not provide life-saving care for fear of being sentenced to life in prison is immoral.  She's also right in saying that this is a choice which is a matter of conscience, involving the mother, and her pastor, rabbi, priest or imam, not the government.  Determining at what point life begins is a matter of individual conscience.  Believing that life begins at conception is solely a religious belief, not a scientific conclusion, nor something on which everyone agrees.  

Personally, I believe an abortion should not be used as birth control, but should only be performed in cases where the life of the mother is in danger. That's based on my own convictions, which are derived from my Christian faith.  But, as a male, I'll never be in position to have to make that kind of decision.  And when I have been involved in decisions about my wife's health, I've left those up to her, since she is the one who must live with whatever consequences result.  The complications of the presence of a reproductive system in a woman's body make her health care more complicated.  That is not the domain of government. 

And the fact of the matter is that the life of the mother doesn't really appear to be a consideration at all, as women have been denied care altogether when reproductive health is at stake in many of these states, left to bleed out and die in hospital parking lots because no choice is offered, as doctors fear being imprisoned for life under the penalties.  That's not a pro-life position.  

Trump's Position is Not Pro-Life

Those who hang on to their support for Trump because, well in spite of all of his immorality, lying, cheating and general worldliness, he's still pro-life are going to be sorely disappointed by this information they have been deliberately side-stepping.  Trump is not pro-life.  

His position is that abortion legislation should be decided "in the states."  Falsely claiming that "everyone wanted this to go to the states, that's what they said, the Democrats, the Republicans, wanted the people in the states to decide," he said first of all that he was "fine with it" if a state wanted to make abortion legal, as long as the people had a chance to vote for it.  

"We were kind of surprised at some of the conservative states," he said, referencing pro-choice referendums that have overwhelmingly passed everywhere, including Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky, among others.  "But that's OK, if that's what they want."  

And during the debate with Harris, when the subject of a six-weeks limit on the window for getting an abortion for birth control purposes, he said "six weeks is not long enough."  That's exactly what he said, and it's just as clear as a bell right there on video. 

Trump's abrupt shift in position, while at the same time duplicitously lying to his core followers about his choice of three justices on the Supreme Court who did overturn Roe, which he takes credit for, is just one more example of the man's dishonesty and lack of integrity.  He's been told by his campaign managers that his support for overturning Roe v. Wade is at the top of the list of reasons why a clear majority of voters, over 67% in the cases where it's been on the ballot, are opposed to his re-election.  So he had to come up with this "they wanted it in the states" nonsense to try and counter that, and in so doing, he was willing to throw his Evangelical supporters under the bus, because he thinks they're losers and suckers.  

And frankly, if any of them keep supporting Trump after this, it would be difficult to deny that.  

LGBTQ "Rights" Are Not Being Forced Down Anyone's Throat

After we clear out some ridiculous conspiracy theories, such as your little boy going to his kindergarten class in the morning, returning in the afternoon as a little girl, because he got a sex change operation at school, is not true.  That's really very understated.  Believing something like that is beyond stupid and ignorant, but I want to keep this civil, and it's hard not to just come apart at the seams over the ignorance a statement like that represents.  No wonder people think conservatives, many of them also Christians, are gullible and feather headed idiots.  

Every American's personal freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution.  That includes those who are of a different race or ethnicity, religion or denomination, level of income, level of education, whose family doesn't have one white dad, mom and two kids.  It means that an atheist has the same rights as the pastor of the country's largest megachurch.  

No one is forcing anything down anyone's throat.  The Constitution guarantees the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  That does not have to occur within your personal frame of reference or convictions to be legitimate.  But I have a word here for my Evangelical friends, to read, and to apply as they would something they believe to be divinely inspired, inerrant, infallible, and the written "word of God."  

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"  

He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets."  Matthew 22:36-40 

"You have heard that it was said, 'love your neighbor and hate your enemies.'  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in heaven."  Matthew 5:43-44

It might be kind of difficult to love both your neighbors and your enemies, and then advocate for taking their rights away because their life is lived in a different way than yours is, or their skin color is darker, or they are lesbian, gay or transgender.  I don't see any exceptions to this principle anywhere in the Bible.  If there's something sinful about the way they've chosen to live their life, they need to resolve that between themselves and God.  It seems that our responsibility, which is actually a demonstration of the sincerity of our own faith, is to love them the same way we love ourselves.  

Whether a person is gay, lesbian, transgender or bi is, frankly none of anyone else's business.  If that's sinful, it's not anyone's place to determine whether it is or to pronounce judgment on them, according to Matthew 7:1-5.  To step into their life, or to advocate for some kind of persecution as a result of their life is tyranny.  They answer to no one, out of their free will, other than God.  But however they decide to live their life, that has no effect on anyone else.  We are all free to live the life we choose, and whether or not others are gay, lesbian, or transgender is not tyranny to us.  

It's a fact that religious liberty and the constitutional provisions for a free conscience benefit white, conservative Christians more than any other group of Americans.  There's no persecution or tyranny at all, and any claim that there is should be accompanied by proof.  

There is no Christian Justification For Casting a Ballot For Trump

In 1998, a prominent, well known Evangelical pastor, Dr Adrian Rogers, went to his pulpit and preached a sermon he called, "Does Character Count?"  It was a Christian argument, using the scriptures, against casting a ballot for Bill Clinton, basically disqualifying him based on his immoral behavior more than on his positions on issues, such as health care, which many Christians supported.  

If those statements and arguments applied to, and disqualified Clinton as a viable President, then they haven't changed, and they apply to, and disqualify Trump as a viable Presidential candidate.  

It's because of Trump's lack of character that this Christian won't vote for him or support his run for office.  Along with that, his incitement of the January 6th attack on the Capitol, his opposition to Constitutional democracy, his openly immoral behavior, including multiple adulterous affairs and his rape of E. Jean Carroll, just about everything he did in his first, failed term in office, his insistence on maintaining worldliness and immorality as his "brand," his claim that he hasn't done anything requiring God's forgiveness because he "doesn't see God that way," his current tariff and economic policies, his intention to cut Social Security and Medicare, his flip flop on abortion from pro-life to pro-choice and his horrendous lack of knowledge of women's reproductive health care, and his racist bigotry and misogyny, are the main reasons this author, who considers himself Christian, has not in the past and will not now cast a ballot for Trump, or for any other Republican who supports him.  

When Evangelicals Endorse Trump With Their Support and Their Vote, They Are Also Endorsing Everything That Goes With Him

For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.  And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness.  Their end will match their deeds.  2 Corinthians 11:13-15, NRSV

Trump has made no real effort to hide his bigotry and his hatred for persons of color, lumping all of them into a category of people he considers outsiders in a white, Christian nationalist America.  I was a little bit shocked, however, when one of the speakers at his rally in Madison Square Garden, billed as a "comedian", Tony Hinchcliffe, came out spewing all of that vitriol and hatred at people of color so openly, and in such terms.  There's no hiding behind excuses for this, Trump approved booking the guy, knowing exactly what he was going to say and now is making the ridiculous claim that he didn't have anything to do with it.  

Liar.  And those who are Evangelical supporters of Trump own the lies, approve of lies, and are liars themselves. 

Most pundit comments about the MSG rally suggest that Trump's campaign management senses the base might need a little shoring up, and lumping all black and brown Americans together makes it actually seem like immigrants are all over the place everywhere, and telling vulgar jokes, like a lot of bigots do when they think they're in the company of other bigots, deliberately offensive, insulting and crude, including some off color sexual innuendo, is just a lighthearted way to address the "problem."  And, of course, there's that idea Trump has in his head that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes.  When he says that, he is showing what contempt he has for every one who supports him, that they have no conscience and no ability to think critically.  He's laughing up his sleeve at the ignorance of his own supporters on which he is depending to win him votes.  

Every Evangelical--and I'll stop short of using the word "Christian" because that has a definition that doesn't accurately characterize most Evangelical Trump supporters--whose posts I see on the two social media sites where I visit has provided a typical response today to the crude, disgusting vulgarity he invited to speak at his rally.  It's silence.  What could they say?  They cannot openly support something that is so clearly anti-Christian in its degradation of fellow human beings, equal creations of God in Evangelical theology.  

These same people will not avoid speaking up and speaking out at anything they judge to be a departure from the orthodoxy they claim to follow when a politician from the left takes a position they consider to be out of step with Christian faith and practice.  They are harsh in their criticism, willing to consign their "godless soul" to hell over simple infractions.  Many of their criticisms are based on their own perceptions, not on the factual reality of the position the more liberal, Democratic politician has taken, and I went ahead and said it because that's really the dividing line, not an actual evaluation of the rightness or wrongness, biblically, of the position taken. 

Trump Can't Be "God's Anointed" if He's Not Converted, and He Isn't   

Their "out," from a spiritual perspective in Christian practice, is their very subjective belief that "God's hand" is on Trump, mainly because they were willing to bargain off their unqualified support for a few political bones he threw their way, is characterized in some Evangelical circles as an "anointing," and in others, as a conversion experience.  Their problem with this is that Trump gives absolutely no evidence at all of having had a conversion experience, nor an "anointing," which is, among the Pentecostal and Charismatic branches of Evangelicalism, accompanied by the visible sign of speaking in tongues.  

Sometimes Trump's words are unintelligible, but that's more due to dementia than to a demonstration of Pentecostal glossolalia.  He denies having confessed Christ, because he denies having committed any sins requiring forgiveness from God, and he claims he "doesn't see God that way."  That makes him, by definition, found in I John 4:2-3, antichrist.  

So, without this "out" being in effect, these Evangelicals are endorsing and owning everything that goes with Trump and who he is, an worldly, corrupt fraudster and grifter, accused of sexually assaulting 39 women, convicted of assaulting at least one, as well as convicted on 35 counts of fraud in the Stormy Daniels case, where he bedded a porn star while his third wife was pregnant with their son, and then tried to use business transactions to launder the money he paid her to be quiet about the affair.  

It sends a very inconsistent message to claim from the pulpit of a church, which is supposed to be a sacred desk from which the word of God is preached, that the Bible is a true revelation of the Christian gospel to humanity, and at the same time, with an action like a political endorsement, or the claim that one is voting for a man like Donald Trump, whose public life exemplifies the diametric opposite of the Christian gospel.  As the Apostle James wrote, "Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water?" [James 3:11]  

The answer of course, is no.  And that explains why, at a political event that is supposed to represent the closing argument of a political campaign, there was not a single mention of anything having to do with Christianity, or American Evangelicalism, through the whole event.  And the clearer message from yesterday's event, in spite of the insults hurled at Latinos, Blacks, Jews and Muslims, was that choosing Trump means abandoning Christ.  Because the hatred and bigotry directed at all of these people by Trump, and by his cult of followers, is all clearly labelled as sinful behavior in the Bible, and it goes against one of the core principles of the Christian gospel, which is the equality of all humanity.

The Christian gospel is focused on spiritual transformation, though some of the more Calvinist branches of the conservative and Evangelical movements think Christianity is a system of intellectual assent and conformity to a set of doctrines put together by removing the historical, literary and cultural contexts in which various parts of the New Testament were written.  Trump is still the same licentious, immoral liar that he was before he ever engaged in far right wing Christian nationalist politics.  

So, bottom line, what every Evangelical endorsing Trump with their vote is saying is that their faith is not a priority, and not as important to them as their politics.  

Those Specific "Issues" Involving Abortion Rights and LGBTQ Rights Will Be Addressed in the Next Post, "So How Can a Christian vote for Kamala Harris, who Favors Abortion?"

A Very Wise and Correct Decision as Arab American Leaders Endorse Harris for President

New Republic: Stunning Endorsement of Harris by Arab American Leadership

We've been saying it here ever since Israel began bombing Gaza.  The best chance the people of Gaza have to see this bombardment and destruction end is the election of Kamala Harris to the Presidency.  

Protest votes, in critical times, never achieve their intended outcome.  Israel is at war with Gaza right now, a war that, in spite of it being prompted by a very evil, destructive, tragic, Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, has gone beyond acceptable boundaries when it comes to civilian casualties.  Even though it is Hamas that uses the tactic of embedding itself among the civilian population, there is a measure of responsibility for a military with the technological advances of the IDF when it comes to deciding to go ahead and accept collateral damage among civilians and civilian infrastructure in order to achieve a military objective.  

The idea here is simple, really.  One is a cease fire, immediately, and then an assessment of the military situation.  The second is to make sure that humanitarian aid, including sufficient food, water, shelter and all kinds of medical supplies make it into Gaza and relieve the suffering population.  They are no less deserving, no less worthy and no less human than Israelis or Americans.  The time for political negotiation is later, this is the time for all of us to stop being political asses and racial and religious bigots and start showing some of the humanity that we claim as our own.  

Political Options for Arab Americans

Please pick up a copy of Project 2025 and give it a good, thorough read through.  

Project 2025 is the Trump agenda.  It is a thorough blue print for the establishment of a Christian nationalist dictatorship in the United States, and its authors, who are far right wing Evangelical Christians, representing an extremist faction that, if Trump succeeds in winning the White House, will enact its agenda to turn the country away from constitutional democracy into a living hell of tyrannical assault on anyone who is not white, Christian and lined up with the idea of a Christian nation.  

Individual constitutional rights will be removed, and the first people to be attacked, vilified, deported if possible, or pushed out if that's the case, will be Arab American supporters of the Palestinian people.  

Jill Stein cannot protect you from this.  Stein has never been able to deliver on a single promise she has ever made politically, because she has never exhibited anything close to the kind of leadership necessary to attract more than a tiny handful of supporters.  Her political understanding is dubious, she is not a patriotic American, but she is a dupe of Vladimir Putin.  She exhibits no leadership qualities and doesn't attract anyone to lead except a political party that doesn't seem very motivated to achieve its own objectives, because it never really tries.  

Donald Trump is your enemy.  He's the one who is going to push you out, more than likely in some illegal way, like turning his army of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers loose in your communities.  Hamtramck will resemble Gaza in more ways than one.  The restraint Arabs desire to see on American participation in this war, in its supply of ammunition for the Israelis, will not materialize.  The Christian nation that is part of the vision of Project 2025 has no room for an Islamic minority.  And since a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump, and a vote for Trump is a vote for the destruction of  the American Muslim community, this is not a wise choice.  

I certainly understand the reluctance to support Harris and exercise a political option that might get more attention from the administration.  But here's the reality of the situation.  The United States was one of the major world powers which used its influence to help create the state of Israel, and has been its biggest supporter.  Few Americans have any idea of the history of the Middle East and many of them have no concern about something happening on the other side of the world.  It's not possible to reverse a major foreign policy position in one single move.  And unfortunately, the political posture being taken by the Arab American community, a protest vote, is a weak gesture, probably futile since there are not enough Arab American votes on the same side to pull this off.  

But Harris is the best chance the people of Gaza have for a cease fire, which they need to survive, and to ensure that the humanitarian aid reaches the people without the interference of Israelis.  She is also the best chance for a full, workable solution to the problem.  Read that Project 2025 narrative again if you need to, the resolution they provide is to push Palestinians out of Gaza and off the West Bank and give the land to Israel, making 2.5 million Palestinians take to the road, become refugees and try to get help from the Arabs in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Egypt, never to return to their homes.  Harris stands for something much more substantial, realistic and beneficial for all involved.  She's the one with whom you should be taking your chances.

Don't Defeat Your Own Cause

Politicians are not always able to act on all of their convictions.  Learning how to win elections means learning how to negotiate, how to balance issues of character and leadership with political ambitions and actual, achievable goals that are empowered, not by the office for which one runs, but by the people who put them there.  For example, has Harris actually changed her personal convictions about fracking?  Not likely, but she is sending the signal that she is willing to negotiate, recognizing what others think along with those working in the field, and then making an attempt to balance those needs with those of the other side.  That's how politics in a democracy works.  

Neither Islam nor Judaism lend themselves to the empowerment of their people.  They are not democratic, they are theocratic and there is a strong belief that God's will is a specific end to which no compromise or negotiation must be made.  We need to recognize non-negotiables with the understanding that, in a democracy, our rights are only equal to all the other rights of the people.  And in this democracy, religion is a separate matter from politics entirely, which is exactly the opposite of the way it is in most Islamic-run countries.  The boundary of one's religious practice cannot be imposed on that of another, regardless of their religious belief.  

Palestinians have the right to self-determination and self rule.  But the Israelis have the same rights, and that has been affirmed by recognition of multiple world powers, including the United States.  That cannot be reversed or turned back, and that's a fact that everyone must recognize before there is peace. Arab Americans need to understand this and work from this framework, because there is no way to change it.  And those who are in the position to negotiate and have the power to enforce solutions, which includes the United States, must make the decision to enforce, and not cut corners or look the other way when there are violations, such as permitting Israeli settlement in the West Bank.  

It is obvious that there are elements on both sides who do not want peace, or who only want it on their own terms.  When those breakouts occur, they need to be handled accordingly, not by over-reacting or taking advantage of the opening, but quickly, sending the message and making it clear that this will not be tolerated.  Politicians who negotiate this must be fair, willing to listen and willing to take the kind of steps necessary for a resolution.  In Kamala Harris, we have this.  In Trump, all the Arab American population has is an enemy.  His mind and his position will never be friendly toward Islam.  

Let's Talk Honestly About the Fear We Are Facing in This Election

In the morning, I will get up, feed the dog, take her for her walk while the coffee is brewing, and then, if its not too cold, I'll sit out on my balcony and drink my coffee and read the news.  I used to love thumbing through a print copy of the Chicago Tribune, and could get through the news and sports section before I had to leave for work.  Now, the print copy only takes about 15 minutes to look through and read, so the rest of the time I read some other news sources on the internet.  

I'll make the 30 minute, six mile drive to work, listening to Richard Chew, on the morning talk show on WCPT, the progressive radio station in Chicago.  All the time that I'm driving, I'm passing people in the traffic, walking along the sidewalk, riding buses.  I'll be nervous, increasingly nervous, about the upcoming election and all of the implications related to the fact that in this government of, by and for the people, we have allowed a demagogue who showed nothing but contempt for the country and its constitution by trashing it when he incited an insurrection against the Capitol for the purpose of disrupting the peaceful transfer of power, to run for the office again.  

He should be in prison, and would have been if we had cared enough to make sure the justice department prosecuted him in a timely manner.  They didn't we didn't and here we are.  

But, I'll be aware of the fact that half of the people driving by, walking by or riding by do not have a clue about what is going on, aren't paying any attention, and while many of them are of Latino and Puerto Rican descent, have no idea at all that Trump insulted their ethnicity by inviting a surrogate to speak, making vulgar, racist jokes about them at Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden in New York this afternoon.  Insult is really not strong enough of a word.  This guy called them trash and labelled them subhuman.  At Trump's rally.  His name was on it. 

Yet half of the people all around, in their cars or houses, already at work, or on the bus or train on the way, are not even registered to vote, and will not take the time or have the inclination to do so.  They know little about politics, democracy or what it means to them, and they don't really care.  So while I am wondering if I am living in the last months of the freedom I have really taken for granted all of my life, and have supported by being a registered voter, contributor, volunteer and writer, and worried about what it might look like come January 20th, half of the people I encounter have absolutely no idea of what is going on, and they really don't care.  

Not only that, but even among those who do know what's transpiring, who are registered to vote and planning to do so, the level of information about the real issues, the character of the politicians and what is at stake is very low.  Add to that the fact that relatively few people are really concerned, or care, about how many women have accused Trump of sexual assault, now up to 39 by the way, or who his dictator friends are, or his morality or his dementia, which is getting increasingly worse, or his fascist politics, and it's clear that preserving democracy in America is taken for granted.  

I usually go to church on Sunday, but this morning, I just didn't feel like worshipping in a room where half the people are too apathetic to even be thinking about where the country is headed, and don't want to make the effort to bother with it by voting, and where another fourth have been deceived into believing that this man is somehow anointed and chosen by God to be president and believe that God's will was overturned by a stolen election in 2020.  Personally, I see nothing in the vulgar, potty-mouthed, lying, immorality and open denial of any need for confession of sin by Trump that warrants the support of Christians and supports the belief that he is somehow anointed by God.  He doesn't meet the first qualification for such an anointing, God doesn't anoint such unrepentant immorality, at least, not if we trust what the Bible has to say about it.  He's just using their ignorance for his own benefit.  

We're losing our free press to the billionaire corporate culture that buys whatever it needs to preserve its own interests.  When two major daily newspapers shut their editorial staff off from making an endorsement based on their conscience, because that endorsement bothers the owner, then the model of ownership of the newspaper, as a business, is wrong for democracy.  One of those papers, the Washington Post, has, as its motto, "Democracy dies in darkness."  But the owner of the paper is the one who is turning out the lights.  

We may have, after 235 years of constitutional democracy, come to the end of a government of, by and for the people.   Intolerance, bigotry and hatred are running rampant.  When what's billed as a political rally starts off with a disgusting, sickening, vulgar, hate filled spew that people let pass as "comedy," if that's not a wake up call, then it is a death knell.  The problem is that 250 million Americans will never hear or be aware of that whole disgusting scene in MSG Sunday afternoon.  

And that's why we're in trouble.  If we do wind up saving the country for four more years, by electing Kamala Harris and a Democratic Congress on Tuesday, reform must be the first item on the agenda.  It starts with doing whatever it takes to re-educate a nation that is basically ignorant and uninformed about its democratic government, and which takes it completely for granted.  

I hope we have that opportunity.   

To Those Evangelicals Who Lurk and Read Here: Heed the Warning

There's been a litany of things said, actions taken, statements made and behavior coming out of all of the Trump campaign that has clearly identified both the candidate, and those who are in his campaign, and potentially in his administration, who are clearly, openly and in some cases defiantly anti-Christian.  This is so visible, it is impossible to look at what is happening and not draw the conclusion that those who continue to support him share his racist, anti-Christian, anti-American, fascist views and attitude.  

Casting a ballot for him and demonstrating support for him destroys any Christian testimony.  Even secretly, in the ballot box, support for this man fits the definition of the spirit of the anti-Christ found in I John 4:2-3.  

The vulgarity and open racism, bigotry and hatred that filled Madison Square Garden today, the Lord's day, was open blasphemy toward God.  People who claim to be followers of Christ, and yet still participate in, and support that, are kidding themselves.  They've been deceived by evil, masquerading as an angel of light.  

It is not possible to support Trump and claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  The two things are diametrically opposite each other.  So make your choice.  Stick with Trump and that is abandoning Christ.

And live with it.  

Democracy Dies in Darkness, and We're in the Twilight

We, the people of the United States of America, have just over a week to save our Democracy.  That's what this election is about, it's never been more clear than that, and we have lost much of our free press in a way that is crippling our ability to use our votes to save our country.  

When the Washington Post ownership censors its editorial department, and stops a political endorsement, that's a sign that we are very much in the twilight, and the sun is about to go down on our freedoms.  The newspaper of our nation's capital has a motto, "Democracy dies in darkness."  The Post, owned by a billionaire, has been censored by him, and is no longer able to live up to its motto.  And that's the biggest sign, among others, that we have lost our free press.  It happened to the Los Angeles Times as well, but the Post, among what were once the big American daily newspapers that were the primary source of information, especially on politics, is the biggest symbol of America's free press.  

Any American with even the smallest understanding of constitutional democracy and the individual liberties it guarantees should be in mourning.  And, we should also be afraid. 

Hindsight Is Always 20-20 Vision 

The undermining of democracy is never as obvious when it is actually happening as it is in hindsight.  We can look back at history now, and say, "Oh, they should have seen this coming."  And in fact, there are signs that are visible, and there are many people who are issuing warnings and pointing to examples of the erosion of our freedom with evidence of its effect.  But its only after the effect becomes obvious, and we're looking back, that we see what we should have done, and didn't do, and we wound up paying the price for it..  

People like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, for example, were very open in their discussion of how far right wing conservatives could amplify their political power when they weren't able to win elections consistently at the statewide level, or at the national level, after their apparent invincibility evaporated in the defeat of George H. W. Bush's bid for a second term.  They aimed at winning at the state legislative level, by putting resources into those state legislative elections, and then, once they had majorities, in using their power to gerrymander congressional districts to gain congressional majorities, and then, when they did  have the power in those states, to appoint judges to the bench that would not call their efforts "gerrymandering" or take legal action.  

They told us they were going to do this.  Limbaugh talked about it regularly.  Democrats were warned, but even after it started, it seemed like this caught the party leadership unaware.  The winner-take-all attitude exhibited by these extremists, as opposed to the old line "negotiate and compromise" politics that Democrats still followed, cost us dearly, and we are still paying for it in lost congressional seats and in states where hard line conservatives have a lock on the state legislature.  

We are still fearful, as this election approaches, that the legislators they have put in many of those state houses will try to find a way to overturn a Presidential election they don't want to lose.  We see this clearly now, but didn't pay much attention to it when it was happening.  The Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, in 2000, is still haunting us.  We didn't see it coming. 

How Do We Respond? 

In the obscured and hazy manner in which we now get our news, the response at WAPO has been internal turmoil, and the resignations of editorial staff, and an apparent surge in cancellation of both advertising contracts and subscriptions.  Whether that prompts a reversal of the decision of its owner remains to be seen.  I tend to think it will take a little more than that, like a major boycott of his main business interest, to make a difference.  It takes a lot to have an affect on the bottom line of a billionaire, though the response to this might just be big enough to do it.  

Newspapers, even though they have expanded into the electronic age, and have far more subscribers on-line than they do in print, are still pretty much dinosaurs.  The shift in emphasis in American education away from long-term development of communication skills in language, to a more technical style of reading means that there are increasingly fewer people who spend more than a few minutes scanning photos and pictures online, or even clicking and watching a video report of something.  

I find it very satisfying to get up early enough to pick up my daily print copy of the Chicago Tribune, and sit on my balcony with a mug of hot coffee, reading through the news and sports sections before finishing my routine of getting ready for work.  It's a half hour of intellectual stimulation at the beginning of the day, prompting thoughts, sometimes worth jotting down.  I also have the luxury of reading through the electronic version at various other times, especially to get updates of something during the day in which I'm interested.  But I wonder, really, how many people actually look through a newspaper, understand the journalistic standards behind it, and make that their preference over some online tabloid that appeals to sensation.  

And that poses just as big a danger to American free press as the bridling of editors at a major daily newspaper.  Reading junk is one thing, relying on it for accurate information is quite another.  That's frightening, if you ask me.  

The Bottom Line is to go Vote

There may be a bit of a reverse effect from this now highly publicized censorship of the editorial board of the Washington Post, a negative response that triggers some additional votes for Kamala Harris.  I hope so.  I'm still somewhat surprised that the New York Times has endorsed her, with the headline that she is the only "patriotic" choice.  The failure of the Post and of the L.A. Times to do so will cost them more than it will her  

We have a long list of election issues, judicial issues and political issues, including determining that a convicted felon is not eligible to run for public office, ethical standards for the Supreme Court, that must be resolved once Harris is elected, and has a Congress that is workable.  and other reforms that will set us back on the road to a workable democracy, if that's possible.  For now, regardless of what happens or does not happen anywhere else, Democrats must focus on getting Kamala Harris in the White House in a way that precludes any possible post-election fight over certification of electors.  

I certainly hope Democratic party leadership is on top of this, has anticipated every possible angle that the opposition can take, including violence, and is prepared to meet the challenge.  

One thing is for sure.  Our media cannot fall under the control of a few billionaires, especially those who are looking out for their own interests.  Democracy does indeed die in darkness, and as close as we are now coming to the very edge of a blackout, we need to do something to pull ourselves back from the precipice.