No matter how hard Republicans try to reinvent the Founders & Framers in the image of their libertarian billionaire patrons, the reality is that America was history’s first great liberal experiment...
You write of why I once loved this country and had hope for its incremental progress. Of why I chose to go to law school and spend my life in our legal system. Though I first felt the decline when Reagan, whose signature defiles my UCLA diploma, became governor of my state, California. We have been regressing slowly ever since through the efforts of the morbidly rich and their toadies, strangling public education, undermining voting and civil rights wherever possible, making guns a religion and religion a gun. Beware the Ides of November. We will know by then if we have been able to keep our Republic, as Ben Franklin cautioned we would have to strive to do. The darkness of fascism is again creeping across the world, as it did just under a hundred years ago. Let us hope its defeat will not be as costly and destructive as it was then. Make November blue, for red will be the death of you and all we hold dear.
I agree with you. This is not a Republican or a Democrat thing. "This an American think and if we love and cherish this nation. Then we must oust the tierney and strife that surrogates of Trump and the Billionaires, who support him and his quest for an authoritarian rule under his control. No longer will be America but Trumplandia
O m'gosh, I don't remember if Reagan is on my UC Berkeley diploma! I remember there was some outrage about him screwing with valuable books in the Bancroft Library. But I often contemplate my fantastic privilege of token in-state tuition; daughter of a mother who taught the returning WW2 "GI Bill" beneficiaries. I utterly cannot get my head around the demonization of public support of education in the furtherance of the "general welfare." My law career was as a Public Defender, and I also cannot get my head around the disregard of juries, grand and trial. Thom's assembly of original writings so completely crossways to the anti-liberal, pro-religious political monster we are facing is so vivid: but how many will see it?
A brilliant takedown of the vacuous delusion that our country was created as a Christian nation. Madison’s fear that church and state would entwine, encouple and spawn deranged monsters like Alito and his wife is well-founded in our present day….
Thank you so much for this straightforward truth of what America was founded for .
It amazes me the number of people who seek to deform the truth , in their quest for money and power.
They are wrong and love to misquote the Constitution in order to justify their bizarre, self serving narrative.
Democrats and others who revere Democracy, need to use this as a base for reality.
It cannot be stated enough that the lies of the Right , Trumps and his followers, seek only to destroy Democracy, no matter how many times, they repeat
those same lies to the contrary .
There is no word or implication in the Constitution regarding Trumps plan to wipe away the rights of people who disagree with him.
Listen to him , he is all about hate and ruin, destruction on a level this country has never seen .
Make no mistake.
His goal and that of his colleague’s in the Maga mess,is to destroy freedom of anyone who opposes his sordid views.
The Supreme Court , those Maga justices are fortifying all of the far right betrayal of their oaths to support the ideals and laws outlined in the Constitution.
This article of Thom Hartmann’s is a blueprint of the truth about Democracy.
It is a great reference for all of us who champion Democracy and need clarity to dissolve Trumps Maga attack on our nation, and on our lives.
We are starting to see now why separation of church and state makes total sense. We are also starting to see that the gun nuts really have nothing to stand on except their guns of course. The new American fascist party of America has a ways to go yet before they can institute a dictatorship in this country but they are starting to get close. It is time for all citizens to do their duty and vote for Joe Biden in 2024. Voting for the fascist convicted ,💩 felon is nothing more than a traitorous act against our country.
Almost all of the religions want to get their paws into the national treasury. Like Madison said, the religious individuals need to support their religious leaders. Giving the religiously mentally insane religions government money is how the religious groups steal from the non-religious or different religions. That is the beginning of fascism. Stealing other people's wealth! If you can take away their rights and torture them, then you must be superior to them is their thinking! All it really takes is outbreeding and being more irresponsible. Till this day, almost every theocratic nation, if not all of them, is a failed third world living hell! Being secular is what made America great for everyone. The victims of religious capitalist dictatorships are fleeing to America. Anyone who puts their religion or their political party before the common good of all Americans, needs to be flogged and imprisoned for life!
Men incessantly corrupt the best of intentions/philosophies/institutions.etc.....I don't know of my own experience, but Islam may have begun with a much more egalitarian humane framework....but like Christianity it has been corrupted by men intervening over the centuries for their own distortions and delusions of conviction or power. Women always specifically and deliberately lose in these permutations. Humanity likewise loses in these interventions. It is not "phobic" to make note of this human effect on virtually everything we touch.
To avoid the nasty labels...just name the subjects more generically...you will never be far wrong pointing out the foibles and cruelties of the human animal.
SJM. I have studied the Quran, as well as the hadiths even the Biography of Muhammad by ibn Ishaq. These last two constitute the sayings and doings of Muhammad and form the basis of Islamic jurisprudence, fatwa's and culture.
Islam has not been corrupted, well it has to the extent that it has been liberalized by some caliph's, King's, Imams, Mufti's ayatollahs truth is that the likes of the Taliban and ISIS are more true to Islam,than modern Islamic states.
But you are correct, all modern religions, Abrahamic or Hindu are patriarchal, hence misognyist, whether it to be Orthodox Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hindu or Budhism, women are relegated to sexual and domestic servants and walking incubators of the male seed, and the nursemaid of his mini me's.
And women, well all I can say is Stockholm Syndrome, that's the way they are raised, and it is through the maintenance of their culture, they believe they are spared the rigors of life, personal responsibility and are protected by man from the vagaries and insecurities of life. Until they are divorced or widowed, then it is too late.
I will take some exception to your comments on women generally...after I agree with you a lot. I grew up in a milieu that had many built in expectations...I was puzzled and questioning...but not rebellious. Lots of it didn't make sense and lots felt unfair (it didn't make sense and it was unfair). Fortunately, I bumped into Betty Freidan's "Feminine Mystique" when it was published and I was seeking and I was very young. Permission was granted to call BS on what felt like BS!!
Some of us are "Stockholmed".... some are definitely not. And then there is just the practicality of being where the goodies are....like men who stick like glue to the "Capo" hoping that largesse will come their way, women know where the goodies are too and some settle for waiting for some to fall off the male truck into their laps.
It is difficult to impossible to escape domination if the dominators have all the power....and men have/had rigged the system (pardon the use of this term in this Trumpian moment) to a fair-thee-well. And when all else failed/fails...use physical force one-on-one. We need male fairness heroes to help us escape and thrive.
And please believe me...few if any women are "spared the rigors of life" living with men and raising children and generally caring for all of the above. I've done both roles in my life...and I hope it won't surprise you to learn that the traditional male role is less stressful than the traditional woman's. I had single parent with no family support whatsoever, homeowner, citizen, no family and successful job roles simultaneously....I know both sides pretty well. The men have it easier (lots)...whether they know it or not!!
To say nothing of the perquisites of being a man in a man's world - all or most are mainly denied to women...not the least of which is the unearned but automatically granted respect as a full human being.
Since I agree with everything you said, I would like to know what you disagreed with, perhaps a misundersanding.
FWIW. Mom and Dad separated in Qantico, VA 4 months after the bomb was droopped on Nagasaki, thus my dad was spared the invasion of Japan.
FRom then till I was kicked out of HS and left home in 1956, I was raised by a single mom, along with two sisters, we moved into government project, she worked for tips as a waitres then in a bank as an analyst for $1 an hour.
Men she trained became her boos and got raises, when she complained she was told that they had families to support, she said I do too, and her boss said "find a husband".
I know full well the struggles of women, my mother, my aunts, my grandmother, my great grandmother. the only male that came into my life was my step father, and he told my mother that he couldn't marry her so long as I was in the house, but my grandparents who lived in Louisiana had been trying to have me move down there for years. So I got on a train, and went south.
Men do have it easier in one respect, taking care of a household, even when I first married back in 1960, was a chore and I didn't envy my wife, and she didn't envy me having to put up with commute, dressing smartly every day, and putting up with the bullshit one puts up with in the armed forces.
All those who play our roles in life, as Shakespeare intimidate, encounter stress, just different kinds of stress. My stress, in addition to the b.s. I put up with, was ensuring that I was able to keep my job, and provide for my wife and children.
We have different stressors. I sure wouldn't want to have a woman's though, on top of which is monthly menses, worry about pregnancy and childbirth
William...the upshot of my response (now lost) was that for me...the toughest part of the tension between the male and female societal roles is (after allowing as givens the obvious financial and social freedom and educational disparities worldwide) the pervasive disrespect visited upon women and girls. I have suffered mightily fighting my way through having to live with the plainly untrue mythology of women being less intelligent, less moral, less valuable, and less capable as human beings. It is a constant and heavy cloak of shaming that women must drag around with them...totally unjustly.
And I will take issue with the idea that "men provide and women and children receive". Men provide because they have - in large part - stolen the resources of the world from women and then dole it back to them as they see fit. When everything is "yours" all anyone can do to survive is "take" in the mind of the giver. Women hold up more than half the sky....to somewhat misquote a lovely saying. The scales have yet to fall from men's eyes.
I laugh ruefully when I think about the way I learned about "nature" from the male point of view....I was essentially taught that males ruled nature (as they ruled humanity) with males jousting for leadership roles as the females and offspring watched and waiting passively. Gradually the larger truth emerged...males had their own world of hierarchical politics and skirmishing (as in the human world) while females went about the "secondary" business of producing and nurturing the young and generally taking care of business while avoiding the males except during breeding season briefly. It seems to me that the really important business of the world is disproportionately done by women...with men taking the credit and the wealth for themselves.
Omigosh...I wrote a long-ish and satisfying (for me) response...and it somehow disappeared. You may see it come through somehow...??? I hadn't quite finished. I'll try to reconstruct it and resend.
Religious war is amongst us now. Some news about Catholic churches, (Texas?) that help immigrants being vandalized expressly as "not true Christians." Parallel to those of us who might give credence to the words of the American Founders that Thom shows here, and be castigated as "not true Patriots!"
A big misconception among the so-called "evangelists" and "Christians" is the conflation of morality and religion (Christianity in particular). For instance, as an agnostic, I am no less "moral" than immoral thugs like Alito and Uncle THOM-ass. In fact, some of the kindest people I have met have been atheists while, conversely, the crusaders have murdered millions of women, men AND children in the name of God as it is happening right before our lying eyes in Palestine.
Hitler was much preoccupied with Christianity and the catholic and Protestant churches in Germany.
We are not what we say we are...we are what we do. Your observations have always been true. Our spiritual moral journeys are best (and maybe only) suited to personal interior explorations. When we venture into man-made organizations...all hell breaks loose ....usually sooner rather than later. This is true in religion, business, the military, the PTA, you name it. Constant vigilance against the force of our flocking and hierarchical attractions is required to save us from ourselves.
I am reminded, pursuant to your eloquence, of President Xi of China who, upon witnessing in real time the events of January 6, 2021, ominously stated of the United States: "they are not who they think they are...and they are not who WE think they are either."
Yes...as a woman, I'll borrow a version of your "been knew"...we who have experienced the boot end of the hierarchy often have a wiser view into it. But, I remind myself not to get too smug...I suspect my oppressed group would do better overall if we were suddenly the dominant group .....because of our inherent biological psychological endowments...but not necessarily much better. It doesn't seem that any of us learn from the foibles of others or of history for that matter. But, I'd be willing to give women a shot ...they could hardly do worse.
Rohn....Um...as a woman of a certain age, I am painfully aware of the tentative nature of "status" for any marginal group....so I do "get it" in my bones. I have benefitted unwittingly from my racial relationship to the dominant group...but that tangential relationship only goes so far.....even to things like taking a solo walk across around the neighborhood...for my gender group, it is a risk assessment decision. It's exhausting!!
We primates are a nasty rasty dangerous group...but also capable of great flights of wonderfulness....let's hear it for the wonderfulness! .
Thom, How did your debate go over the weekend? You are so well versed in the historical context of so many complex issues. I wish that you were, at the least, a regular guest on MSNBC. Every day you talk about and have important takes on so many important topics. I wish that your messages could get to the masses!
Sadly, the guy who moderated it would not allow an actual debate. He mostly just wanted to try to go me and saying things about Trump so the audience could yell at me. It was really weird… not one single actual issue was raised.
I assume that you would have taken them to school if given the chance. Therefore, they were too scared to give you the chance to make fools out of them.
Our Mad King (wannabe) Donald's perverse hypocritical "evangelism" is possible to take down with this simple statement: Christian is as Christian does. Thanks, Thom, for another well stated and researched post! Great comments, as well.
The problem is, there's a strong, age-old tradition that what "Christian does" is persecute Jews for killing Jesus! But fast forward: now what "Christian does" is vandalise Catholic churches for aiding immigrants. "Christian" has been "co-opted." Never mind that Jesus bleeding heart.
When they are not preaching about preaching, Republicans tend to say that our government should be run as a business. Just as you said, Thom, they WANT their billionaire patrons in charge.
But what have they done? Picked the most incompetent business person in America to lead their party. Trump IS worried about welfare---his welfare and ONLY his welfare. You can bet any general welfare issue he can push-off onto the churches, he will, starting with vouchers for education. What a sweetheart deal that will be for the Catholics and Evangelicals. Suffer the little children.....
The Founders certainly knew about a crazy tyrant that liked to rant. They knew religious strife could ruin a country. And when the time came, they had a tea party to show what they thought of a big business that was part of the government.
Thom, thank you for this article, but the one thing that is missing here is how the DOJ, has rushed to shut down black shooting clubs, that were only training blacks in the proper use of firearms to protecting themselves against these groups such as the proud boys and their ilk, why have they not made a move against these groups who have shown their lawlessness over and over again.
with respect, futility is futile. All of these America-hating zealots took first-year Constitutional Law and are perfectly aware that the phrase "general welfare", for instance, is redundant in Preamble and Art. One. They already long since sold their souls to a malignant program, which includes fraudulently cloaking themselves in a marketing scam as "originalist," etc. for show. They think informed idealists are despicable patsies, and laugh at us as they board their next jet to nirvana; (or motor-palace to a Wal-Mart parking lot?)
But now, Mmerose, isn't what you just posted a perfect example of the futility of a few " informed idealists" (presumably us) bleating against the inevitable? And if so, what should or can we do?
Thom...why "nutty wives" but not "nutty justices"....they share the same views as the justices. Skewering women with depreciating dismissive adjectives is so old school.
I'm a proud feminist, and IMO you pick nits. IMO, these spouses are exceptionally mean, out proud, and actively harmful. I love the scene where Madame Alito goes off on the neighbors (a week AFTER her traitorous talisman flew!) and Sam is along for the walk and wusses out. oops. I just deprecatingly dismissed His Dishonor.
The real threats to our republic have always fomented on the right of the political spectrum...and there have been several scary moments in time. It seems that humans can be sorted (roughly) into two psychological groups, one that seeks an omnipotent authority and spawns rigid credos with the drive to evangelize and one that seeks to flatten the hierarchies and extend personal freedoms within the bounds of necessary community operating rules.
We have once again underestimated the power of the drive toward control by the authoritarian group. We have watched indulgently as they co-opted state governments and twisted the levers of the state and federal government’s norms and rules to endanger our very republic. And here we are.
If we escape this most dangerous moment and manage to build back to the necessary guardrails…how can we force our liberal-by-definition selves to stay vigilant without adopting the scary overbearing methods of the right wing?
Repubs lie in order to pretend to uphold righteousness. They truly are Satan's workers in misleading the people into paths of destruction. They want nobody to use the commons for the good of the people as they think only the rich have rights to it. Somehow the people are suppose to do it alone by themselves without the need for the help of society. A society of individuals that need nobody else. And how is someone with no supports suppose to develop naturally in a timely way suppose to gain an education to be able to participate in society when they have nothing except their natural talents. The Repubs answer is that they do not deserve any help. The Repubs do not want anyone to use the commons to progress society except for the rich that have little need for advantage. Repubs would use 90% of the wealth of the nation to give to the advantaged and society to gain nothing. Waste the wealth is their agenda because the people are unworthy. The Repubs put the excess wealth of the people into contractors that have already too much to hide it from view. They then say there is no money for the people in the budget.
You write of why I once loved this country and had hope for its incremental progress. Of why I chose to go to law school and spend my life in our legal system. Though I first felt the decline when Reagan, whose signature defiles my UCLA diploma, became governor of my state, California. We have been regressing slowly ever since through the efforts of the morbidly rich and their toadies, strangling public education, undermining voting and civil rights wherever possible, making guns a religion and religion a gun. Beware the Ides of November. We will know by then if we have been able to keep our Republic, as Ben Franklin cautioned we would have to strive to do. The darkness of fascism is again creeping across the world, as it did just under a hundred years ago. Let us hope its defeat will not be as costly and destructive as it was then. Make November blue, for red will be the death of you and all we hold dear.
I knew there had to be someone left that actually loved law. Your crack about Reagan made me laugh out loud, and the gun remark is sublime, Roy.
When viewing the movies and reading the books, all our lives we wondered how the hell the 30's and 40's could have been. Now we know.
I agree with you. This is not a Republican or a Democrat thing. "This an American think and if we love and cherish this nation. Then we must oust the tierney and strife that surrogates of Trump and the Billionaires, who support him and his quest for an authoritarian rule under his control. No longer will be America but Trumplandia
O m'gosh, I don't remember if Reagan is on my UC Berkeley diploma! I remember there was some outrage about him screwing with valuable books in the Bancroft Library. But I often contemplate my fantastic privilege of token in-state tuition; daughter of a mother who taught the returning WW2 "GI Bill" beneficiaries. I utterly cannot get my head around the demonization of public support of education in the furtherance of the "general welfare." My law career was as a Public Defender, and I also cannot get my head around the disregard of juries, grand and trial. Thom's assembly of original writings so completely crossways to the anti-liberal, pro-religious political monster we are facing is so vivid: but how many will see it?
A brilliant takedown of the vacuous delusion that our country was created as a Christian nation. Madison’s fear that church and state would entwine, encouple and spawn deranged monsters like Alito and his wife is well-founded in our present day….
Thank you so much for this straightforward truth of what America was founded for .
It amazes me the number of people who seek to deform the truth , in their quest for money and power.
They are wrong and love to misquote the Constitution in order to justify their bizarre, self serving narrative.
Democrats and others who revere Democracy, need to use this as a base for reality.
It cannot be stated enough that the lies of the Right , Trumps and his followers, seek only to destroy Democracy, no matter how many times, they repeat
those same lies to the contrary .
There is no word or implication in the Constitution regarding Trumps plan to wipe away the rights of people who disagree with him.
Listen to him , he is all about hate and ruin, destruction on a level this country has never seen .
Make no mistake.
His goal and that of his colleague’s in the Maga mess,is to destroy freedom of anyone who opposes his sordid views.
The Supreme Court , those Maga justices are fortifying all of the far right betrayal of their oaths to support the ideals and laws outlined in the Constitution.
This article of Thom Hartmann’s is a blueprint of the truth about Democracy.
It is a great reference for all of us who champion Democracy and need clarity to dissolve Trumps Maga attack on our nation, and on our lives.
We are starting to see now why separation of church and state makes total sense. We are also starting to see that the gun nuts really have nothing to stand on except their guns of course. The new American fascist party of America has a ways to go yet before they can institute a dictatorship in this country but they are starting to get close. It is time for all citizens to do their duty and vote for Joe Biden in 2024. Voting for the fascist convicted ,💩 felon is nothing more than a traitorous act against our country.
Almost all of the religions want to get their paws into the national treasury. Like Madison said, the religious individuals need to support their religious leaders. Giving the religiously mentally insane religions government money is how the religious groups steal from the non-religious or different religions. That is the beginning of fascism. Stealing other people's wealth! If you can take away their rights and torture them, then you must be superior to them is their thinking! All it really takes is outbreeding and being more irresponsible. Till this day, almost every theocratic nation, if not all of them, is a failed third world living hell! Being secular is what made America great for everyone. The victims of religious capitalist dictatorships are fleeing to America. Anyone who puts their religion or their political party before the common good of all Americans, needs to be flogged and imprisoned for life!
Very well said Bob.
I am called an Islamophobe, a racist, because I accuse of Islam of being intolerant, misogynistic (gender apartheid, homophobic, now this Indonesia sentences a comedian to seven years in jail for jokes about the name Muhammad, he violated blasphemy laws, good thing it was in Indonesia, if Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, or Pakistan, he would have bben beheaded, hung, stone, shot or burned alive. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesian-court-jails-comedian-joking-about-name-muhammad-2024-06-11/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Men incessantly corrupt the best of intentions/philosophies/institutions.etc.....I don't know of my own experience, but Islam may have begun with a much more egalitarian humane framework....but like Christianity it has been corrupted by men intervening over the centuries for their own distortions and delusions of conviction or power. Women always specifically and deliberately lose in these permutations. Humanity likewise loses in these interventions. It is not "phobic" to make note of this human effect on virtually everything we touch.
To avoid the nasty labels...just name the subjects more generically...you will never be far wrong pointing out the foibles and cruelties of the human animal.
SJM. I have studied the Quran, as well as the hadiths even the Biography of Muhammad by ibn Ishaq. These last two constitute the sayings and doings of Muhammad and form the basis of Islamic jurisprudence, fatwa's and culture.
Islam has not been corrupted, well it has to the extent that it has been liberalized by some caliph's, King's, Imams, Mufti's ayatollahs truth is that the likes of the Taliban and ISIS are more true to Islam,than modern Islamic states.
But you are correct, all modern religions, Abrahamic or Hindu are patriarchal, hence misognyist, whether it to be Orthodox Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hindu or Budhism, women are relegated to sexual and domestic servants and walking incubators of the male seed, and the nursemaid of his mini me's.
And women, well all I can say is Stockholm Syndrome, that's the way they are raised, and it is through the maintenance of their culture, they believe they are spared the rigors of life, personal responsibility and are protected by man from the vagaries and insecurities of life. Until they are divorced or widowed, then it is too late.
I will take some exception to your comments on women generally...after I agree with you a lot. I grew up in a milieu that had many built in expectations...I was puzzled and questioning...but not rebellious. Lots of it didn't make sense and lots felt unfair (it didn't make sense and it was unfair). Fortunately, I bumped into Betty Freidan's "Feminine Mystique" when it was published and I was seeking and I was very young. Permission was granted to call BS on what felt like BS!!
Some of us are "Stockholmed".... some are definitely not. And then there is just the practicality of being where the goodies are....like men who stick like glue to the "Capo" hoping that largesse will come their way, women know where the goodies are too and some settle for waiting for some to fall off the male truck into their laps.
It is difficult to impossible to escape domination if the dominators have all the power....and men have/had rigged the system (pardon the use of this term in this Trumpian moment) to a fair-thee-well. And when all else failed/fails...use physical force one-on-one. We need male fairness heroes to help us escape and thrive.
And please believe me...few if any women are "spared the rigors of life" living with men and raising children and generally caring for all of the above. I've done both roles in my life...and I hope it won't surprise you to learn that the traditional male role is less stressful than the traditional woman's. I had single parent with no family support whatsoever, homeowner, citizen, no family and successful job roles simultaneously....I know both sides pretty well. The men have it easier (lots)...whether they know it or not!!
To say nothing of the perquisites of being a man in a man's world - all or most are mainly denied to women...not the least of which is the unearned but automatically granted respect as a full human being.
Since I agree with everything you said, I would like to know what you disagreed with, perhaps a misundersanding.
FWIW. Mom and Dad separated in Qantico, VA 4 months after the bomb was droopped on Nagasaki, thus my dad was spared the invasion of Japan.
FRom then till I was kicked out of HS and left home in 1956, I was raised by a single mom, along with two sisters, we moved into government project, she worked for tips as a waitres then in a bank as an analyst for $1 an hour.
Men she trained became her boos and got raises, when she complained she was told that they had families to support, she said I do too, and her boss said "find a husband".
I know full well the struggles of women, my mother, my aunts, my grandmother, my great grandmother. the only male that came into my life was my step father, and he told my mother that he couldn't marry her so long as I was in the house, but my grandparents who lived in Louisiana had been trying to have me move down there for years. So I got on a train, and went south.
Men do have it easier in one respect, taking care of a household, even when I first married back in 1960, was a chore and I didn't envy my wife, and she didn't envy me having to put up with commute, dressing smartly every day, and putting up with the bullshit one puts up with in the armed forces.
All those who play our roles in life, as Shakespeare intimidate, encounter stress, just different kinds of stress. My stress, in addition to the b.s. I put up with, was ensuring that I was able to keep my job, and provide for my wife and children.
We have different stressors. I sure wouldn't want to have a woman's though, on top of which is monthly menses, worry about pregnancy and childbirth
William...the upshot of my response (now lost) was that for me...the toughest part of the tension between the male and female societal roles is (after allowing as givens the obvious financial and social freedom and educational disparities worldwide) the pervasive disrespect visited upon women and girls. I have suffered mightily fighting my way through having to live with the plainly untrue mythology of women being less intelligent, less moral, less valuable, and less capable as human beings. It is a constant and heavy cloak of shaming that women must drag around with them...totally unjustly.
And I will take issue with the idea that "men provide and women and children receive". Men provide because they have - in large part - stolen the resources of the world from women and then dole it back to them as they see fit. When everything is "yours" all anyone can do to survive is "take" in the mind of the giver. Women hold up more than half the sky....to somewhat misquote a lovely saying. The scales have yet to fall from men's eyes.
I laugh ruefully when I think about the way I learned about "nature" from the male point of view....I was essentially taught that males ruled nature (as they ruled humanity) with males jousting for leadership roles as the females and offspring watched and waiting passively. Gradually the larger truth emerged...males had their own world of hierarchical politics and skirmishing (as in the human world) while females went about the "secondary" business of producing and nurturing the young and generally taking care of business while avoiding the males except during breeding season briefly. It seems to me that the really important business of the world is disproportionately done by women...with men taking the credit and the wealth for themselves.
Omigosh...I wrote a long-ish and satisfying (for me) response...and it somehow disappeared. You may see it come through somehow...??? I hadn't quite finished. I'll try to reconstruct it and resend.
Religious war is amongst us now. Some news about Catholic churches, (Texas?) that help immigrants being vandalized expressly as "not true Christians." Parallel to those of us who might give credence to the words of the American Founders that Thom shows here, and be castigated as "not true Patriots!"
LMBlakAssOff Bee Jay (even though it is a macabre laughter, given gravity).
You ALWAYS bring it!
A big misconception among the so-called "evangelists" and "Christians" is the conflation of morality and religion (Christianity in particular). For instance, as an agnostic, I am no less "moral" than immoral thugs like Alito and Uncle THOM-ass. In fact, some of the kindest people I have met have been atheists while, conversely, the crusaders have murdered millions of women, men AND children in the name of God as it is happening right before our lying eyes in Palestine.
Hitler was much preoccupied with Christianity and the catholic and Protestant churches in Germany.
Go figure.
We are not what we say we are...we are what we do. Your observations have always been true. Our spiritual moral journeys are best (and maybe only) suited to personal interior explorations. When we venture into man-made organizations...all hell breaks loose ....usually sooner rather than later. This is true in religion, business, the military, the PTA, you name it. Constant vigilance against the force of our flocking and hierarchical attractions is required to save us from ourselves.
What a salient comment!
I am reminded, pursuant to your eloquence, of President Xi of China who, upon witnessing in real time the events of January 6, 2021, ominously stated of the United States: "they are not who they think they are...and they are not who WE think they are either."
Of course, those that look like me "been knew."
Yes...as a woman, I'll borrow a version of your "been knew"...we who have experienced the boot end of the hierarchy often have a wiser view into it. But, I remind myself not to get too smug...I suspect my oppressed group would do better overall if we were suddenly the dominant group .....because of our inherent biological psychological endowments...but not necessarily much better. It doesn't seem that any of us learn from the foibles of others or of history for that matter. But, I'd be willing to give women a shot ...they could hardly do worse.
IF you, even remotely, think you will get an argument from me, on that point, you are to be sorely disappointed.
That having been stated, be mindful that all men (and women) are NOT, legally, practically and societally in the U.S., created equal.
Rohn....Um...as a woman of a certain age, I am painfully aware of the tentative nature of "status" for any marginal group....so I do "get it" in my bones. I have benefitted unwittingly from my racial relationship to the dominant group...but that tangential relationship only goes so far.....even to things like taking a solo walk across around the neighborhood...for my gender group, it is a risk assessment decision. It's exhausting!!
We primates are a nasty rasty dangerous group...but also capable of great flights of wonderfulness....let's hear it for the wonderfulness! .
Thom, How did your debate go over the weekend? You are so well versed in the historical context of so many complex issues. I wish that you were, at the least, a regular guest on MSNBC. Every day you talk about and have important takes on so many important topics. I wish that your messages could get to the masses!
Sadly, the guy who moderated it would not allow an actual debate. He mostly just wanted to try to go me and saying things about Trump so the audience could yell at me. It was really weird… not one single actual issue was raised.
I assume that you would have taken them to school if given the chance. Therefore, they were too scared to give you the chance to make fools out of them.
You can't take the unwilling to school....especially in gaggles of "like-mindeds", they can't hear you. I love that saying..
"Never try to teach a pig to sing....it wastes your time and annoys the pig!"
Surely, Sir, you are not surprised.
I ain't.
Our Mad King (wannabe) Donald's perverse hypocritical "evangelism" is possible to take down with this simple statement: Christian is as Christian does. Thanks, Thom, for another well stated and researched post! Great comments, as well.
The problem is, there's a strong, age-old tradition that what "Christian does" is persecute Jews for killing Jesus! But fast forward: now what "Christian does" is vandalise Catholic churches for aiding immigrants. "Christian" has been "co-opted." Never mind that Jesus bleeding heart.
When they are not preaching about preaching, Republicans tend to say that our government should be run as a business. Just as you said, Thom, they WANT their billionaire patrons in charge.
But what have they done? Picked the most incompetent business person in America to lead their party. Trump IS worried about welfare---his welfare and ONLY his welfare. You can bet any general welfare issue he can push-off onto the churches, he will, starting with vouchers for education. What a sweetheart deal that will be for the Catholics and Evangelicals. Suffer the little children.....
The Founders certainly knew about a crazy tyrant that liked to rant. They knew religious strife could ruin a country. And when the time came, they had a tea party to show what they thought of a big business that was part of the government.
Thom, thank you for this article, but the one thing that is missing here is how the DOJ, has rushed to shut down black shooting clubs, that were only training blacks in the proper use of firearms to protecting themselves against these groups such as the proud boys and their ilk, why have they not made a move against these groups who have shown their lawlessness over and over again.
Outgoddamnedstanding!
Great writing, thom. Now please send it to the six SCOTUS Republicans that claim to be "originalists".
with respect, futility is futile. All of these America-hating zealots took first-year Constitutional Law and are perfectly aware that the phrase "general welfare", for instance, is redundant in Preamble and Art. One. They already long since sold their souls to a malignant program, which includes fraudulently cloaking themselves in a marketing scam as "originalist," etc. for show. They think informed idealists are despicable patsies, and laugh at us as they board their next jet to nirvana; (or motor-palace to a Wal-Mart parking lot?)
But now, Mmerose, isn't what you just posted a perfect example of the futility of a few " informed idealists" (presumably us) bleating against the inevitable? And if so, what should or can we do?
Yup.
Thom...why "nutty wives" but not "nutty justices"....they share the same views as the justices. Skewering women with depreciating dismissive adjectives is so old school.
I'm a proud feminist, and IMO you pick nits. IMO, these spouses are exceptionally mean, out proud, and actively harmful. I love the scene where Madame Alito goes off on the neighbors (a week AFTER her traitorous talisman flew!) and Sam is along for the walk and wusses out. oops. I just deprecatingly dismissed His Dishonor.
The real threats to our republic have always fomented on the right of the political spectrum...and there have been several scary moments in time. It seems that humans can be sorted (roughly) into two psychological groups, one that seeks an omnipotent authority and spawns rigid credos with the drive to evangelize and one that seeks to flatten the hierarchies and extend personal freedoms within the bounds of necessary community operating rules.
We have once again underestimated the power of the drive toward control by the authoritarian group. We have watched indulgently as they co-opted state governments and twisted the levers of the state and federal government’s norms and rules to endanger our very republic. And here we are.
If we escape this most dangerous moment and manage to build back to the necessary guardrails…how can we force our liberal-by-definition selves to stay vigilant without adopting the scary overbearing methods of the right wing?
Repubs lie in order to pretend to uphold righteousness. They truly are Satan's workers in misleading the people into paths of destruction. They want nobody to use the commons for the good of the people as they think only the rich have rights to it. Somehow the people are suppose to do it alone by themselves without the need for the help of society. A society of individuals that need nobody else. And how is someone with no supports suppose to develop naturally in a timely way suppose to gain an education to be able to participate in society when they have nothing except their natural talents. The Repubs answer is that they do not deserve any help. The Repubs do not want anyone to use the commons to progress society except for the rich that have little need for advantage. Repubs would use 90% of the wealth of the nation to give to the advantaged and society to gain nothing. Waste the wealth is their agenda because the people are unworthy. The Repubs put the excess wealth of the people into contractors that have already too much to hide it from view. They then say there is no money for the people in the budget.
Today’s children need to be taught civics, as do today’s “originalists”.
We need to stay true to our ideals and the essence of Our Collective even if many don't know or value the history!