Time to Come Out Swinging

I'm using this analogy, even though I am opposed to any kind of physical or verbal violence used for the purpose of forcing or bending the human will.  Of course, I'm not suggesting that there be any physical aggression in our politics, and verbal aggression that is aimed at achieving the same kind of result is also abhorrent to my worldview which is based on Quaker values.  

However, I am not opposed to the kind of verbal rhetoric that is aimed at getting the truth over the cacophony of right wing extremism intersecting with hijacked Evangelicalism, and making a loud, shrill, firm case for people to have a clear choice when they enter a voting booth to cast a ballot.  Preserving democracy, which is the core value of freedom, sometimes requires a measure of enthusiastic debate and some passion inspired not only by the preservation of values, but by the clear motivation of those who are bent on manipulation and control, and who want to take away freedom from anyone they think isn't worthy of it.  Values are worth defending and there's a difference between verbal violence and intelligent rhetoric. 

A Brilliant Moment Showing Exactly What Democrats Need Going into 2014

Representative Jasmine Crockett, of Texas, provided an example of exactly what the Democratic party needs when she got the floor yesterday in the first impeachment hearing instigated by the extremist right and permitted by Speaker McCarthy.  Wow.  That's flashing around social media now, exactly as it should be.  She exposed duplicity and dishonesty, laid out information that contrasted what a real impeachment, or two, actually looked like as opposed to this political sham, and made a salient point.  

It was, in fact, a whole day's worth of such examples from Democrats on that committee.  They buried the opposing party, many of whose members on that committee want nothing to do with a pointless, baseless political attack that will only raise Democrats' chances of winning in 2024, and particularly of defeating those on the committee who know it's too close for comfort in their own district.  Rather than appear on camera, some of the members left the chamber during the hearing, running off rather than confronting the truth with lies.  

This is what we need.  We need this kind of thing making the news cycle every day.  It will counter the deference that the media gives to Trump, who doesn't have to do anything now to be the subject of daily coverage.  And having sensible, coherent, intelligent Democrats passionately stating reasonable positions that are supported by facts will be quite a contrast to the often unintelligible, demented ramblings of Trump and of other Republicans who invent the facts to support talking points.  What commentator or reporter wouldn't welcome an intelligent discussion rather than having to do something with blabber?  

This is what our party needs now, folks!  We need a John Fetterman--Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez--Jamie Raskin--Jasmine Crockett approach to the way we appear in the media.  

No More Mr. Nice Guy 

It doesn't violate the integrity of the manner in which Democrats conduct their politics to raise the volume, take the best and clearest ideas out of the policy proposal, set down the thick volume of pages that only policy wonks will read, and confront Republican extremism and hypocrisy dead on. I've lost count of the number of times Democrats have asked the question of Republicans, "So what is your plan for dealing with inflation?" and got some standardized set of talking points leading away from a clear answer to the question.  

This morning, on a local talk show, I actually heard a former Democratic state representative, who is now a county elected official, point out the Republican hypocrisy in trying to shut the government down by forcing spending cuts when they let the most recent GOP President run up an $8 trillion with a "T" debt on the American credit card.  Why were they not concerned with government spending when Trump was giving away trillions in tax dollars to billionaires?  Why do we not keep the pressure up by mentioning this over and over and over and over again?  It's time to start making some of this mud stick to those who made it and threw it first. 

Frankly, we are losing the media battle, because our traditional way of approaching politics and our thinking that if we just put enough information out there, people will find it and make good decisions.  This is how we lost, over a period of almost two decades, control of state legislatures, governorships, and local governments.  We don't get voters to the polls for those elections because we spin our wheels with timidity and decorum.  It doesn't require rudeness to get the point across, it requires some passion, a little bit of anger, and a simple message that is to the point, contrasting truth with falsehood and action with inaction.  

Democrats have some real rock stars, in the best sense of that word, in the House of Representatives and in the Senate.  Outside of that hearing yesterday, when some Democrats rose to the occasion and deserved a standing ovation, John Fetterman has really made himself visible in recent weeks and we need to see more and more of him.  And we need to press for this, by pointing it out, supporting it and helping keep it in the media.  

So thank you, to each member of the oversight committee from the Democratic party, for holding the line, doing your homework, and your job, and standing up for what is right in a firm, assertive, loud, attention-getting way.  Keep it up.  We are depending on  you, and on others who need to step up and put their country before their political ambition.  That earns my vote more than anything else.

The Republican Party's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Alexander, who is the main character in the children's book from which I borrowed part of the title, knew it was going to be a terrible, no good, very bad day because he went to sleep with gum in his mouth and woke up with gum in his hair.  When he got out of bed, he tripped over his skateboard and by mistake dropped his sweater in the sink with the water running.  There were lima beans for supper, and there was kissing on TV.  

It was that kind of day for Republicans in the House of Representatives, and for Speaker Kevin McCarthy.  First of all, the Senate, including most of the Republican members, have shown the way toward working out a deal to avoid a government shutdown.  So he is faced with the choice of selfishly trying to protect his own rear end, and in so doing, creating misery for millions of Americans who will distinctly remember this as his and the small extremist minority in his party doing, which means his speakership is going to end after the 2024 election anyway, or doing the right thing, something which has been an increasingly difficult dilemma for Republicans over the past forty years or so.  

Then, right down the line, the witnesses in the impeachment hearings that started today unanimously testified to absolutely nothing that would lead to any conclusion of wrongdoing on the part of the President.  In fact, one of them actually said, there's no evidence here.  If that wasn't bad enough, the Democrats on the oversight committee actually did their homework, looked through everything that was there, made a fine, virtually ironclad case that there is no grounds for impeachment, and then, if that wasn't terrible and no good enough, the number two Democrat on the committee found, and called out, an attempt to fabricate evidence by pointing out the obvious and deliberate deception, embarassing the congressman from Florida who had created the phony text message slide.  

It can't get much more terrible, no good, very bad than it did today.  Remember back at the the beginning of President Biden's term, when a few disagreements had the media declaring that the Democrats were "in disarray"?  This is disarray to the tenth power.  

It was such a clown show that Republican members of the committee, realizing they were in the middle of a terrible, no good, very bad day, left the room in embarassment.  This is so important to them, and they are so confident that they are doing the right thing that they can't even keep their own party members engaged in the process!  Does that tell you how ridiculously bad this really is?  

I'm Almost Tempted to be Grateful 

Republican behavior like this is handing the 2024 election to President Biden and to the Democratic party.  I think we passed the point of no return on this shortly after the Republicans botched their first attempt at House leadership right after they got this minimal control.  They've been on their heels ever since, right along with the composite pollsters who re-wrote the story of their predictions and odds shortly after the election they predicted to be a "red wave" turned out to be a pink trickle.  

To the Republicans who seem to just now be waking up out of a Rip Van Winkle kind of sleep, I've got news for you.  You're at the very last possible moment to save your party from electoral disaster.  Push the extremists aside and figure out what's going on.  Call their bluff.  Let them bring a motion to vacate the chair, who are they going to propose who can win?  No extremist is going to get enough votes for that to happen.  But I can absolutely guarantee something that can be taken to the bank.  If Republicans let the government shut down, that's all, folks.  They're done.  There's a whole new group of younger voters who are as far away from traditional Republicanism, let alone the extremism, as any group can get.  It might be several generations before you can put together a party that can win nationally.  Think "Whig Party."  

And God help you if your members of the House keep moving forward with these impeachment hearings.  

With the former failed President 45 facing 92 criminal counts in four indictments, this is really a Democratic party political dream.  As hard as the media is trying to make this not the case, as hard as they are trying to get voters to focus on Joe Biden's age as an issue, and as hard as the pollsters are trying to mute the reaction to the indictments of Trump, we are seeing the radicalization of a major political party which will lead to its dissolution.  Godspeed to that happening.

What Good Can Come Out of This Mess? 

A Democratic sweep of federal and state elections in 2024 would be the place to start.  And I think, with what we've seen as a prelude, in special elections and in what happened and didn't happen in 2022, that's coming.  But beyond that, we have seen places where so much that has been taken for granted, or ignored, and which has turned out to be weak points in our democracy, must be shored up in order to avoid further threats to our freedoms and to the Constitution. 

We've observed foreign interference in our elections, not just attempts to interfere, but actual interference.  Alarm bells went off, an investigation was conducted that produced mountains of evidence, but the partisan political divide has ensured that nothing has been done about it.  After much dawdling, fussing, hemming and hawing, we finally got indictments against a former President after a Congressional investigation and hearing produced a mountain of evidence of his involvement in seditious conspiracy in inciting a riot against the Capitol, and after public pressure pushed further investigation with a special counsel.  But the Justice Department is still bending over backward, treating the former indicted and twice impeached failure of a President with kid gloves, letting him do his darndest to taint any potential jury pool with not much more than a tsk tsk tsk and pointing a finger as a warning.  Anyone else who did what he has done up to this point would be held in jail until trial. 

On top of that, it seems we expect that judges appointed to the federal bench owe the President who appointed them a favor.  That's the very definition of corruption.  And yet, it seems just a ho-hum matter of course that Aileen Cannon will do whatever she can to keep Trump from justice if she has anything to do with his trial.  She's already run plenty of interference for him.  And we tolerate this, "we" being a more collective term for the lack of noise and public pressure being brought to bear to make a real change and maybe enough to point her to the exit door, resignation in  hand.

I don't know what we're waiting for or what we expect.  But if we want to avoid a terrible, no good, very bad day of reckoning with the failure of our democracy to protect its citizens as a constitutional, representative Democracy should protect us, then this all needs to be fixed quickly.  Once it is lost, it will be impossible to get it back.  

A Man was Almost Executed in his Hometown for Being "Woke"

One of the best explanations for the solid support exhibited by white, American Evangelicals behind Trump, even though he claims no adherence to the biblically defined Christian faith they practice, and whose lifestyle is diametrically the opposite of the morals and values and character traits on which Jesus centered the Christian gospel is offered by Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist and Evangelical Christian who is professor of sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and who earned his Ph.D. at Baylor University.  According to this piece in Baptist News Global by senior columnist Greg Garrett, in his new book, American Idolatry:  How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church, Whitehead offers this explanation: 

"The reason so many American Christians are committed to idolizing self-interested power, power that only serves 'us' is that we've been taught and discipled to see that route as a faithful expression of the Christian faith.  We were told over and over that the only way to be a morally upright American citizen was to vote for a particular political party to ensure our specific and 'chosen' moral issues--like abortion and homosexuality--were front and center in the culture wars and to ignore other issues--like racial injustice--as merely politics."  

The political position has tended to overwhelm doctrine and theology, since it is more visible and more familiar to people than their church's doctrine and theology.  That's a very unfortunate statement about the state of preaching in today's Evangelical churches, and about their educational ministries, that people are willing to shift loyalties and are unable to distinguish between church doctrine, theology and practice, and something that is of a partisan, political nature.  This has led to movements within churches where pastors have encountered opposition and criticism for emphasizing some of the basic, core doctrines of Christianity, things which Jesus himself preached, taught, and made part of the Christian gospel.  

While I understand that some of my friends who are Democrats would just as soon avoid a discussion about Christian faith, and see no validity in its practice, I think it is important for them to develop an awareness of the kind of hypocrisy and corruption that is occurring as a result of this infiltration of far right wing extremism intersecting with Christian doctrine in conservative churches in order to be able to clearly point out the hypocrisy and help reverse the trend that has been held by a majority of white Evangelicals since back during the Reagan administration.  

Knowing that this kind of religious right politics cannot be supported by the Bible is important when it comes to countering it, and then preventing it from being a decisive factor in the next election.  As Garrett mentions in his article, there are Evangelicals, including some leaders, who have long been discontent with Trumpism's creeping invasion of the GOP and of the church, and they are taking note of the facts in books like this one by Whitehead.  As things shape up for 2024, if this keeps 1 or 2% of GOP voters at home on election day, that's a win.  From my observation point, it will do more than that. 

A Lynch Mob Threatens to Toss a Man Over a Cliff for Promoting Justice

What's happening in many churches today runs parallel to similar historical events.  About 2,000 years back, a local man who was gaining a reputation as an exciting, engaging preacher who was winning converts and changing the status quo decided to go back to his hometown one Saturday.  His reputation had preceded him, though most people in town knew him as the carpenter, Joseph's, son.  So it was that he was invited to read the scripture in Synagogue that Saturday. 

Jesus read this passage from Isaiah: 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."  

Rolling up the scroll, he said, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  

Apparently, though they did not use the term "woke" back then, reading the prophet was one thing.  Declaring one's self to be its fulfillment, especially this particular place where there's an emphasis placed on, uh, social justice and helping those who need a hand up, was over the edge, pardon the pun.  So the leaders of this congregation, a synagogue of Jews in this case, grabbed Jesus, dragged him up to the edge of a cliff and intended to throw him off.  Miraculously, he escaped from them.  

Jesus was almost executed, by the members of the congregation in which he grew up, for what essentially amounted to being "woke."  

Thanks to Andrew Whitehead for pointing this story out and including it in his book. 

Blind to the Truth

Christians are Disturbed When They Find Out Jesus was Woke

Clearly, failure to discern truth is not a new problem.  In the zeal that white, conservative, Evangelical Americans display for extremism on the right in politics, they must abandon biblical principles and teachings.  What we are seeing now would indicate that they are not just abandoning these things because the political pull is stronger, they no longer associate issues related to justice, especially for the poor and disadvantaged, with the Christian gospel. It's a strong temptation to think that these blessings are only for those who are the self-proclaimed righteous.  

Every time I see an author or an article or something along these lines, I promote it.  It's possible to remain completely committed to Christian faith and practice and be a proud, loud, enthusiastic supporter of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.  Those things are not mutually exclusive.  

I was raised in an Evangelical church and have spend a lot of time in them.  I know exactly how deep superstition, ignorance and stubborn resistance to the truth can run.  I also know that there are people who are committed to the practice of these Christian values which are real and they are not locked in a dungeon of right wing extremism.  Many pastors fear retribution, or being "starved out" by a congregation that will turn on them if their politics don't reflect cultural religious conviction rather than genuine Christian gospel values.  

There can't be a connection between Christian faith and practice, and the use of political power to achieve those ends.  Whitehead points out that this has become a common conviction for many Christians who miss passages of scripture in which Jesus deliberately separates the Christian gospel from the political authority of the state, and never establishes any kind of theocratic rule.  That was the old covenant, which Jesus claims to have fulfilled, according to Matthew 5:17.  He told Pontius Pilate, just before his crucufixion, "My kingdom is not of this world."   And one of his more often quoted answers to this difficult question was "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's."  

So voting for the "right" candidate, based on perception of their position on a few moral or social issues is not a demonstration of faith or of any kind of moral "uprightness."  And thinking along those lines creates a divisiveness that runs counter to Christian morals and values and everything that Jesus taught.  

Jesus was the one who said, "You will know the truth and it will set you free."  

 

Christian Nationalism and Extreme Politics Will Make the 21st Century "The Age of Apostasy" for American Evangelicals

Trumpism is Tearing Apart the Evangelical Church in America

For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who long beforehand marked out for this condemnation , ungodly persons who who turn the grace of our God into indecent behavior and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.  Jude, V. 4, NASB 

The epistle of Jude, the Apostle is often neglected when it comes to content for sermons.  One of the shorter books in the Bible, and the only one written by Jude, traditionally identified as one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and possibly a half-brother or cousin of Jesus, the theme of the epistle is to encourage Christians, most likely in a specific church or region, to "contend" for what had been established as the theology and doctrine of the Christian church.  There were those among the churches who were being both deceitful as far as doctrine was concerned, and immoral in their lifestyle, both things which were counter to the core principles of the Christian gospel.  Jude's epistle is a warning to Christians to reject these intruders, their false teaching and immoral lifestyle.  

Though Jude was addressing a specific issue in a specific place when he wrote his epistle, in spite of its short length and specific address, it managed to be included in the canon of the New Testament because its words have proven to be prophetic, since false teaching and attempts to hijack churches for political purposes or personal gain have occurred multiple times across two thousand years of Christian history.  

Jude's words are once again relevant to what is happening in some segments of Christianity in the United States.  Under the influence of far right wing and extreme politics, many Evangelical churches have abandoned their evangelistic mission and purpose, along with their former church-state separation principles which were once considered a distinctive practice for conservative Christians in the United States, and are doing exactly what Jude warned that intruders would cause.  They are denying the core doctrines and practices of the Christian gospel, preached and taught by Jesus, and are giving their loyalty to a political perspective and a politician, whose personal brand is the kind of indecent behavior Jude describes.  

"Tearing Apart" The Evangelical Church

For those who aren't familiar with the Evangelical branch of American Christianity, it is not a "church" or even a "denomination" in the way that Catholics, Methodists, or Episcopalians are structured and operate.  Most congregations are independent, and autonomous, even those who affiliate with a denomination.  This leads to a wide variety of interpretations of key points of biblical content, and differences of opinion over their practice as it relates to Christian living.  It also allows for the intrusion of ideology and practices which are not based on an interpretation using a literal, historical context and linguistic study of the Bible. 

In most churches, the only person in the congregation responsible for making sure the church remains faithful to orthodox, correct doctrine and theology is the pastor.  So if the pastor is someone who is politically engaged, or a conspiracy theorist, or a control freak, all of which are common occurrences in local churches, combined with an anti-educational bias, the door is wide open for heresy, in the form of Trumpism or any brand of extremist politics, to become the standard for belief and practice.  And at that point, the church ceases to be Christian. 

Christian faith and practice cannot be separated from the gospel, which is a relatively simple set of principles that guide human beings to live by a set of moral values which Jesus preached and taught, and which he commissioned his twelve disciples, who became the early church's apostles, to also preach, teach and use in their ministry to those who followed this lifestyle.  Being Christian requires spiritual conviction and personal commitment.  The deeper principles of faith cannot be coerced or mandated by law.  

It's quite clear from the words that are recorded as being from Jesus himself that the church he would establish would not be a theocracy, but would be a spiritual kingdom which could exist under any law or political system.  He separated the church from the state, and two of his apostles made it clear that Christians were to respect the authority of the civil government which had the responsibility of keeping the social order, while the church had the responsibility for faith practice.  

Intruders are Moving Into Churches with a Political Agenda 

By contrast, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against such things...If we live by the spirit, let us also be guided by the spirit.  Galatians 5:22-23 and 25, NRSV  

There's no law against any of these virtues, all attributes which, if part of one's faith practice, are marks of their Christian identity.  At least, that's what the apostle who wrote these words was saying.  There are some Christians who are discovering, by experience, that these things are signs of "wokeness," especially to those who are intent on using the influence, and power, of Christianity on the part of a more extreme political agenda.  The question I have for them is that if they are Christian, how does being "anti-woke" exhibit any of these core Christian characteristics?  

How, indeed, does the anti-woke agenda, which is attacking leadership in some Evangelical churches, as the link to The Atlantic article above points out, exemplify any of the teachings of the Christian gospel?  

The Apostle Matthew wrote a comprehensive narrative, called "The Sermon on the Mount," quoting Jesus' preaching and teaching, which scholars believe probably represents several settings where Jesus taught in front of groups of people.  There's a longer, more comprehensive listing and description of moral virtues and characteristics theoretically demonstrating what Christian living should look like, starting with things like "Blessed are the poor in spirit," and those who mourn, and those who are meek, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and those who are merciful, who are pure in heart, and who are peacemakers.  That is the very core essence of Christianity, that's what Jesus said it should look like.  

So does it? 

A political intrusion, to which many Evangelicals have become susceptible because they cannot get past the turning of abortion rights and human sexuality into political agenda issues, has removed the practice of the Christian gospel from many churches through misguided leadership.  Instead of having a worldview based on the Christian gospel, they have a distorted worldview based on a political agenda, with Trumpism as the primary influence.  So it is that a man whose lifestyle exemplifies a worldliness that is diametrically opposite the values of Jesus and the Christian gospel has deceived many Evangelical Christians into exchanging their loyalty to Christ for loyalty to him.  He can't tolerate the other.  

The "Age of Apostasy" for American Evangelicals is Here

To call David Platt a "woke liberal" is as laughable and ridiculous as it gets.  A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Platt became the youngest pastor of a megachurch in the country when he was called as pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in the Birmingham, Alabama suburbs.  A Southern Baptist, with three theological degrees from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Platt served as Executive Director of the International Mission Board of the SBC, the largest international missionary sending agency in the United States, before becoming lead pastor at McLean Bible Church, one of the largest, multi-campus megachurches in the Washington, DC area. 

Anyone who has read any of his books, listened to his preaching and teaching, and has observed his ministry could not objectively label him as anything but a sincere Christian minister of the gospel of Christ, doing what is expected, by biblical instruction and standards, of a Christian serving in his position.  Pastors who avoid political statements or endorsements, or who, out of conviction, are openly opposed to the immorality, deceit and corruption of certain candidates are increasingly under attack from those who want to turn the church into a political action committee, unable to comprehend the difference between spiritual conviction and a political agenda.  

So far, it appears that the leadership at McLean Bible Church has been able to recognize these intruders and have neutralized their influence in the church, though I think it will probably only be a matter of time before they rear their ugly heads again, and cause more trouble. They are blind to the fact that vengeful hatred of those who are different is not a value of the Christian gospel and they appeal to the biases and prejudices of others to convince them they're right.  

Russell Moore and Beth Moore, no relation, both experienced pressure from anti-woke extremists in their respective ministries.  Beth Moore is a highly regarded and very successful writer and teacher, especially among women.  She has been the best selling author at Lifeway Christian Publishers, which belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention, for multiple years. Her products that are still available there are still outselling everything else.  But Beth Moore has been accused of being "woke," though that hasn't diminished her popularity.  She has left the membership of the Southern Baptist church where she once belonged for more compatible territory among Christians who understand the free-practice of faith.  

Russell Moore, the former executive director of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), was pressured into leaving his position because he was an outspoken opponent of Trump's candidacy and presidency.  That's it.  There's nothing to identify Moore as a liberal in any way.  But the effort to try and push him out, instigated by a Georgia pastor who was on the Executive Committee, not even on Moore's trustee board, was not about the job he was doing or the positions he was taking in representing Southern Baptists in Washington.  It was because he was a never-Trumper, a position that has zero to do with anything related to the Christian faith.  

So I will conclude, if David Platt, Beth Moore and Russell Moore are considered "woke liberals," as far as their fellow conservatives are concerned, then their fellow conservatives have listened to the intruders and are deceived apostates in their respective churches. They are leading Evangelical churches into apostasy.

 

Kick Back With Some Popcorn, and Watch the Republican Party Collapse

The Republican Party has had control of the House of Representatives for about nine months now, and the way they are managing to accomplish absolutely nothing is reminiscent of the Whig Party in the 1850's, right before it collapsed into nothingness because of the pressures of abolitionist and slavery proponents within its ranks.  Read some of the history of that time, change the issues, and you'll marvel that the ink is dry on the page.  

Back in the late 1970's, one of my favorite college professors predicted that the Republican Party would not be able to sustain itself because of the conflict that was working its way into its ideology and its platform.  Cross purposes between longstanding practices and politics favoring things like "trickle down economics," dropping tax liabilities for the wealthiest Americans, removing safeguards and protections when it came to gun control legislation, deficit spending which took off like a jet during the Reagan administration, and the moral, "family values" agenda introduced to get conservative, Evangelical Christians to the polls in larger numbers cannot mix without a lot of deception and subterfuge.  

If I remember correctly, he thought the party's demise would come right after the turn of the century.  But he wasn't counting on the media propaganda bubble conservatives created which has contributed to promoting the deception and which keeps Republicans from knowing the truth. I'm pretty sure he'd join me in laying the blame for the attacks on democracy and the influence of ridiculous conspiracy theories at the feet of Rush Limbaugh, who helped create the hatred of the "us vs. them" mentality of today's political atmosphere.  And it's been this kind of media propaganda, half-truths and outright lies that has promoted the continued animosity, fed the hatred and brought us to the point where we are seeing the cracks in Republicanism widen and the structure start to collapse.  

Celebrate good times!  Come on!  The words to the song by Kool & the Gang are going through my head these days as I watch the news and see what is developing in Congress.  When was the last time we had Republican members of the House openly talking to Democrats about working together to defeat their own party's speaker and keep the government from shutting down.  It's almost unfortunate that there are some Republicans, probably enough to avoid the disaster of a government shutdown, who see what's coming and are taking steps to avoid it.  Almost.  But we are getting close enough to disaster that the damage to Republicans is a certainty.  

We're in that period of time, to use an analogy that works well, after the victim has already drank the poison, waiting for it to take hold and bring death.  The poison has been delivered in the irresponsible blasting of ridiculous words from their former orange headed buffoon of a President who insists on continuing to talk as if that matters at all.  The man can't deliver a coherent speech, he just has several monologues that he plays over and over.  He's lost in his own world, not realizing he's tanking in polls and his rallies are not even half-filling small venues.  He's so out of touch that he doesn't realize a government shutdown will not stop his prosecution, but it will end his party's slim chance at winning a congressional majority in 2024, as well as ending what little possible chance he might have at winning back the White House.  

It will be interesting to see how the shutdown threat will eventually play out in the House.  Some Republicans, mostly those who know what is at stake and are no longer willing to stay silent, are really creating a major dilemma for McCarthy.  It's 50-50 at this point as to whether some Republicans will break off and work with Democrats to avoid the shutdown.  I personally think that's what will happen and then we will see a House in "disarray" like we've not experienced in our time.  

Are we on the verge of seeing Republicans, also fed up with the shenanigans going on in their party with the orange headed buffoon as their leader, realizing that they're going to have to take a stand, even if it means breaking up the party at this point, to restore any chance they might ever have at a successful conservative political agenda at some point in the future?  I see that scenario talked about on social media now, after months of achieving absolutely zero.  I now see Republicans openly opposing the ridiculous, partisan trash, like attempting impeachment hearings, and desiring to get their representatives back on track.  

The collapse of the Whig party eventually let to the formation of a successful Republican party which dominated American politics from the Civil War into the early 20th century, even with major failures happening, like Reconstruction and the Rutherford Hayes debacle.  It took a World War and a major economic depression to end their dominance.  The hostility in our current political atmosphere would prevent political productivity now, but then, if the GOP dissolved, or broke apart, the animosity and hatred might also disappear.  

Until then, go get the popcorn, kick back and watch what happens.  It looks like it will be quite a show.  

Why All Elections Matter: Republican County Supervisor in Arizona Defends Corporate Agricultural Business Against the Local Farmers and Ranchers

A Mega Dairy and a Sinking Aquifer

Sierra Vista Herald link (paywall for individual stories)

A major dairy and agriculture producer, relocating to Arizona's Sulphur Springs Valley, near the town of Willcox, is drilling for water in an underground aquifer that supplies other farmers and ranchers in this eastern part of Cochise County, as well as several towns, including Willcox, the largest in the area, with a population of 3,500.  Unlike ground water supplies in other parts of the county, refilled by rivers and streams, the aquifer under the Sulphur Springs Valley is in a basin, refillable only by precipitation that falls locally.  It is a deep aquifer, however, the deeper farmers and ranchers must go to pump water, the more expensive it gets. 

There's been a reasonable balance up to this point between water taken from the aquifer and its recharge by precipitation, though the extended drought that has affected much of the Southwest has caused water levels here to drop as well.  But in 2014, a company known as Riverview LLP began buying large tracts of land in the Willcox basin, and opened two huge dairy farms, growing feed for approximately 100,000 cows and, of course, providing them with the 20-40 gallons of water a day that each cow needs to be productive.  Since then, many local farmers have had their wells go dry, and have been forced to pay exorbitant prices to dig the wells deeper to get water.  One farmer reported having to haul water to his house, mostly 5 gallon jugs, for several years before he could raise the $45,000 necessary to deepen his well.  

And even that was a temporary solution.  The aquifer is dropping six feet per year, which means that before this particular farmer retires, wanting to hand his property off to his children, he will likely have to go deeper to get water.  

"At some point," he said, "it will no longer be cost effective to do that."  

The Willcox basin is like a giant bathtub, according to local agriculture producers.  Rainwater and other precipitation is the only source of water going into the aquifer.  Even before the current levels began dropping so fast, the amount of water being pumped out was still greater than the amount going in, though reduction in the aquifer levels was small.  Then Riverview built its two huge dairy operations.  Now, there are warning signs on local roads and highways, because the aquifer is being depleted so fast, that fissures are opening up randomly around the area.  

Riverview, according to the state registry, has added 667 wells to the aquifer since 2015.  It now pumps out more water than the rest of the area combined, including the town of Willcox.  It has the money to sink wells as far down as 2,000 feet.  As a result, surrounding farms and ranches are waking up to dry water taps, having to endure the cost of hauling water until, or unless, they can come up with the thousands of dollars they need to deepen their wells, or drill new ones.  

The Politics, Local and State, of Getting Water in the Desert

According to the article in the Sierra Vista Herald, Riverview came to Arizona because of its lax, almost non-existent groundwater regulation.  It should not be surprising that a state which has had a Republican controlled legislature for as long as Arizona has had one would attract exploitative corporate businesses after cheap natural resources which have taken advantage of tax exemptions required by the state and local taxing entities.  What that means is that the cost of infrastructure improvements getting water to the city of Willcox will have to be covered by local taxpayers, since the corporations aren't paying any taxes. Local farmers will have to bear the cost themselves. 

And one of their fears is that Riverview will pump the aquifer dry, then pull up and leave the area with no water supply and the economic consequences of that, while making millions on its dairy operation .  While they would not speak with the Herald, their spokesperson denied this was the case, though the company is based in Minnesota, and raises heifers in Arizona for dairy production there because it is less expensive in a desert state where there is little corporate regulation, no restrictions on groundwater use and where they pay no taxes.  

State legislators were silent on this issue, predictably.  But of course, it is hard for Republican politicians to resist corporate tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, lack of regulation or restrictions on the use of natural resources, and favoring big money interests over those who work hard for a living. And predictably, a local Republican who should be defending the small farmers and small businessmen who are the backbone of Willcox and the agricultural basin of the Sulphur Springs Valley, has stepped forward to support Riverview, defend what they are doing and help blind people to the reality of what's going on.  

Republican county supervisor Peggy Judd, of Willcox, says that she doesn't believe Riverview will just pick up and leave after investing millions of dollars in their two dairy operations in Cochise County.  And of course, the good that they do for the local economy outweighs the fact that they could pump the aquifer dry and put every farmer and rancher in the Sulphur Springs Valley out of business and out of a home with water.  Judd claims that they've invested millions in their operation, so leaving would be counterproductive, though if the water supply is depleted, they couldn't operate their business.  And apparently, local residents are not seeing, or feeling, any effects of their presence on the local economy.  

"I haven't seen it," says local farmer Mark Spencer, who lives near one of the Riverview dairy operations.  What Spencer has seen, and experienced, is a large bill for having to drill his well deeper, down to almost 700 feet, with the aquifer dropping six feet per year.  

While there's not really a whole lot that a county supervisor can do about a situation like this, she could stand with her neighbors and fellow members of the community she represents, and who elected her in the first place, and show some understanding of their plight.  She could, at the very least, become an advocate for them against an out-of-state corporation that employs no locals, does very little business with local merchants and providers and pays no taxes to help with the problems they cause to other local farmers.  She could speak up and use the influence of her position as a means through which the local farmers and ranchers could get their message to the attention of politicians who need to hear what they have to say. 

But, it is too much to expect of Republican politicians, even on the local level, to stand up for the common people who have to work for a living against corporate exploitation.  They just can't bring themselves to do it, even if they are members of the same community.  And to save the water in the shrinking aquifer in the Willcox basin, local farmers and ranchers are going to have to set aside the conspiracy theories, the phony social agenda, and all of the lies and falsehoods and cast ballots for politicians who represent their own interests and will support their own community.  And those politicians, even down at the county supervisor level, are likely to be members of the Democratic party.  

Local farmer Mark Spencer says he hasn't seen any economic benefit, certainly nothing like Judd is claiming.  Riverview's presence has created, according to her, about 50 good paying local jobs.  It is unknown what it has actually added to the local economy, since it does not pay any taxes.  And on a tour of Coronado Dairy, one of the two in the basin operated by Riverview, Spencer said he asked what percentage of the dairy's employers were citizens.  The response, 5%, was defended by Judd, who said that they have to bring in what they need because the area doesn't have enough skilled labor to hire locally.  

What kind of skilled workers does it take to operate a dairy, that can't be found in an area where 80% of the jobs are in agriculture?  And why would it be hard to find local workers in an area of the state that has relatively high unemployment compared to the rest of the state and country, and is also one of the poorer areas of Arizona?  Of course, Mexican labor keeps the corporate dairy company from having to pay living wages to their workers, and you can bet that's exactly why 95% of their employees come from Mexico.  So of course we have a local, Republican county supervisor supporting the practice. 

I guess she's missed the connection that the availability of these kinds of jobs so close to Mexico, for Mexican workers, might be contributing to the problems along the border that those of her ilk are whining about?  

"Rank and file Arizonans' property rights are being ignored as out of state and even foreign entities swoop in to take advantage of Arizona's ground water free-for-all, sinking wells twice as deep as second and third generation farmers, placing at risk these farmers' property rights while taking a nearly instant toll on residents' wells in these areas, not to mention the collapsing of state highways and county roads due to earth fissures caused by over-pumping," said Spencer.  Countless acres of private land will become worthless, robbing these property owners of their land values if we continue on the same path." 

I'd suggest, Mr. Spencer, with all due respect, that you go to the ballot box whenever there is an election, whether for supervisor or state senator or representative, or governor for that matter, find out which politicians will stand up and defend you, and cast your ballot for them.  Your water and your property rights have been put at risk by Republicans.  It's time to vote for change.

 

     

I'm Trying to Figure Out How Lauren Boebert Ever Got Elected to Congress

A close examination of Lauren Boebert's background may give some insight into a politician who doesn't seem to have the ability to settle on an identity.  From the perspective of a Democrat, it is difficult to avoid the temptation to just write her off as a kook, the product of a deep red congressional district in a blue state where almost 70% of the population lives within a 90 minute drive of the state capital building in Denver.  So she can easily be fodder for the mocking of her as an extremist.  I'm guilty of doing that kind of writing her off myself.  

One of my best friends from high school moved with his family to a farm outside of Grand Junction, Colorado shortly after graduation.  We shared a lot in common,  Our Dads both worked for the same government contractor, were both union advocates and members, and were both working class Democrats.  In our high school civics class, we worked together on a project assigned by the teacher, requiring us to define our politics in terms of the two major parties, and support our definition.  He's been a business franchise owner for more than three decades now, and of course, as a resident of Boebert's district, has a much better position for perspective on her than I do.  

Single Issue Politics

Though Boebert claims to be an Evangelical Christian, an experience she says occurred in 2009, there are not a lot of Evangelicals in her district.  The highest percentage of Evangelical voters in Colorado are found in District 5, around Colorado Springs, which is the headquarters of several large ministries with national membership and scope.  My high school friend, who attends an Evangelical church by the way, says that the key to Boebert's support is the fear of government interference in gun ownership.  The conspiracy theories flow like water out of the mountain glaciers in the rural areas of this part of the state, fed by money from gun lobbyists and manufacturers.  In the local daily newspaper, still a big deliverer of news around Grand Junction, and on local radio and television, perceived threats against gun owners are exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness.  But who checks facts?  

Everything about Boebert focused on this issue, down to her ownership of a restaurant called "Shooter's Grill" in the town of Rifle, a few miles from where she lives.  When she's campaigning behind the microphone in a small, Evangelical church, she's giving her incorrect interpretation of the first amendment's guarantee of religious liberty and separation of church and state.  She's been a loud opponent of Roe v. Wade, a position that, according to most pundits, 55% of the people in her district don't share with her. But most of her campaign focused on the non-existent, nationwide conspiracy to grab everyone's guns.  

Through the lens of someone else's perspective, that of my high school friend, there are some things about her that aren't issues for a lot of the people in the area.  The culture being what it is, her lack of education, and her having obtained a GED only recently, isn't really a negative.  There are a lot of high school dropouts in western Colorado.  My friend owns four hotel franchises and three fast food franchises and with the exception of his management personnel, few of his employees have a college degree, and almost half don't have a high school diploma.  So someone with a GED, who poses for most photo ops with high powered rifles, who spreads the gun restriction conspiracy theories, sounds like a big chunk of the people who live in the small towns and rural enclaves of her district.  

Inconsistent and Erratic Behavior is a Factor 

What has cut into her support, again according to my friend's perspective, is her erratic, inconsistent and often rude and aggressive behavior.  They see a lot more of this from her than we do.  Courtesy, respect and manners are community expectations.  This is a place where neighbors help neighbors without regard for their religious or political affiliation and in most cases, without regard for their ethnicity or racial background.  Many people, even some of her conservative supporters, have been embarassed by the profile and image of herself that she has created.  

There is also some doubt about whether the public image that is being shown is actually the real Lauren Boebert, or whether, because she was inexperienced in politics, once she won her seat in Congress, Republican party insiders convinced her to do some playacting and create the image of a loud mouthed, Trumpie supporter who waves her fist and points her finger like he does, even using many of his limited expressions.  It comes off as fake, and it's more for the benefit of the Republican establishment, rather than her.  The fact that the rest of the country sees her as representing all people who live in rural, western Colorado has been an embarassment to the people who live there, including some of her own supporters and fellow Republicans.  

And from my own perspective, the lack of consistency she has recently displayed regarding her Evangelical faith also has to be troublesome to at least some of her supporters in that constituency in her district.  The casual manner in which she handled the news that her teenage son had impregnated his younger girlfriend was way outside the rhetoric she had previously used, on the record, when it came to Roe v. Wade and abortion.  Those women who get pregnant out of wedlock were, in her opinion, degenerate sinners, criminals and victims of "liberal politics."  And while the manner in which she handled it should be a private matter between her, her son and his girlfriend, passing over it by saying she wasn't going to get "biblical" and well, at least they were keeping it, made it a very inappropriate political issue. 

Likewise, her separation and divorce from her husband, is also well outside the bounds of the kind of example Christians who are public figures and leaders are expected to set.  Trump and his sons have made a mockery of marriage vows, torrmenting and publicly humiliating the women to whom they once spoke commitment vows.  Jesus himself is the main source for Christian doctrine regarding the sanctity of marriage, a deliberate reversal of the practice of polygamy, and declaring the old law permitting divorce among the Israelites the product of hard-heartedness, equating the remarriage of one divorced without cause with the commandment about adultery.  

And that's the backdrop for the latest photographs of Boebert, from a live theater production in Denver, making out with her date as if no one else is in the room, casually vaping and not really being very careful about what's being seen.  Clearly, on the Republican side of the aisle, the moral and ethical standards of behavior for members of Congress have deteriorated down to nothing since Trump set the example for the party and they went ahead and nominated him anyway.  It's quite an assumption that such a public display won't matter to her supporters.  The closeness of her re-election bid is a clear indication that if this offended even a small fraction of those who voted for her, it will make the difference in the next election.  But it doesn't appear that this is going over well at all, and if the apology now was kind of weak, I think the regrets on November 6th will be very powerful.  

Character Speaks

How does one go from spouting hard core Evangelical faith blended with extremist right wing politics to making out in a public theater with a date, on camera?  

Well, there are plenty of examples of people who built a career around their Evangelical identity, preaching on television, holding crusades, building huge churches and revelling in the fame who let temptation get the better of them, insulated by fantastic prosperity inside their earthly mansion built with the dollars of trusted followers.  I often wonder, without ever really knowing, whether the prosperity was the trigger, or whether their image was a carefully constructed means of gathering fame and fortune they couldn't get any other way, and once they arrived, their true character came out.  

This most recent faux paus makes me wonder if the Lauren Boebert who initially got elected to Congress on a gun rights platform as a conservative Evangelical was an image created for her, by Trump campaign interests, to get elected.  Now that she's been there for a while, she's having trouble covering up her true identity and she's grown weary of keeping up appearances.  Both political parties recruit candidates to run for office, and a lot of that is based on the image they think they can project.  It's hard to keep true character bottled up and out of sight all the time.  

Or are we seeing Lauren Boebert in the process of being corrupted by her success within the extremist right wing, the pressure of politics and the association with some of the most incredibly immoral, machiavellian, corrupt politicians we've seen in our long history wearing her down and causing a public performance far worse than any drag queen entertainment.  

Acknowledging her apology, considering it sincere, and extending her the benefit of the doubt in forgiveness still does not require one to vote for her or consider her qualified or fit for office.  

w