The GOP has become the party of Putin, bin Salman, and Orbán, rejecting George Washington’s warning about partisanship replacing patriotism and, increasingly, rejecting the very idea of democracy...
The world is turning to fascism because of global corporations. They own the lion's share of everything and are, essentially, buying governments to cement their profit-making privilege via fascist policies. The also use their money to buy-off any regulation to keep the air, water and ground clean as they make their profane profits. It isn't just here; it's all over. These global oligarchs understand and pay dearly for the propaganda that convinces the gullible that blame should be heaped upon each other - their fellow citizens - not to those who have caused the messes. It's the black and brown ones, the uppity women, the gays and trans that are causing all the trouble. It is those history books that tell the truth about our history that cause problems. A Capitalist isn't particularly racist or sexist (they are both so within the structures of their communities), but use these surface differences to pit us against one another. There will be another global conflagration, mostly a result of global climate change and its impact on crops and weather. I hope there's something left of humanity afterwards. If China goes supernova, so goes the world.
Thank you Thom again for reminding us all of the dangerous Grand Old Party of Putin and their deranged support for obstructing democratic norms. The vast number of tRumper cult believers are in a group psychosis that we have never experienced before. Brought on by years of stoking racism, blaming POC for anything and everything they don’t like, misogyny and hysteria over LGBTQ, the right has collectively lost their ability to think rationally and participate in good governance. Sorry, but only one party actively attacked our capital and tried to overturn a legitimate election just because they didn’t like the results. Only one party is blocking and embracing something something called “woke” ( here’s looking at you, Tubberville- one of the questionable moronic members of Republican) and disrupting our service members lives and families for stupid reasons. Only one party consistently votes against helping veterans and seniors as well as low income citizens. Only one party has embraced authoritarian rule and gives legitimacy to a leaders who murder their detractors. The both siderism just doesn’t wash with me, there is no equivalence and facts matter to rational people. Are Democrats perfect? No ,of course not, but so far the majority of our Democrats are trying to improve the lives of Americans and need our awareness of the forces on the right that want to block legitimate democracy.
Where will the Republicans be in 10 years? Still worshiping an old, frail psychopath? Will they be finally waking-up to the demographic changes that are coming?
I've had some cordial disagreements with friends about whether this country needs them. Your spot-on description makes me think I was right to say no. If their party ends-up in the dust-bin of history, it won't be because we put them there.
The Democratic Party has a platform and a plan to make our lives better. They want to work on the climate crisis in every way possible, and they want to do that with the rest of humanity.
Republicans are moving backward. The rest of America is a diverse group, and they are NOT going with them. We don't have all the answers, but we sure as hell are looking forward and trying to find them.
I sat with a nurse at my doctor’s office this morning before the crowds got there, and. Listened as she told me that had she known what things were going to be like today in Florida and the rest of our nation, she never would have had a single one of her three children. She said she just cannot figure a way to say to the pre-teens, “ you have to be careful when you walk out that door. Because there are people out there who hate you and will kill you just because of the color of your skin.” She does not want that to be a lesson if hate, it she wants to help keep her children alive when going to the Dollar Store, grocery store, school , church or just jogging through the neighborhood.” This is the America, or more properly, the ‘Mercia” we have allowed to be created while we I fight over age or emails while giving election after election to the reprobates who would destroy this democracy. More than enough Floridians opted to stay home and let DeSantis get re-elected because they didn’t like “the traitor Charlie Crist.” I cannot help but wonder how happy they are with the totalitarian regime in the Florida capitol today.
Excellent account of the daily Travesty’s that the alleged “GOP” BS party
aligns itself with .
The ‘criminal wealthy ‘ are in charge of this country, having stopped all interest in Democracy with cash .
They are in fact the buyers of the Supreme Courts conservative appointees , aided by Mitch McConnell and his loathsome defection to Leonard Leo and the like.
Money is their power. Greed and a total lack of integrity their hallmark
" Rich Lowry argued in Politico that GOP voters simply can’t accept that Trump is “poisonously stupid” and “will say anything without regard for the truth and that he is profoundly selfish, easily distracted and vengeful.”
Her response to Lowry is "I disagree. I think most Trump voters know that. The problem is they like it. Shameless and malevolent is what they crave in their leaders. "
While true, she doesn't get to the root of MAGA. Trump is their avatar, He is the living personification of their Id, and as such, when it comes to politics and culture only one part of the brain lights up, the amygdala aka lizard brain, that responds to what it perceives as threats, by fight or flight.
In other words they look at Trump and see themselves. He is a mirror to who they really are.
To abandon Trump is to nullify themselves.
Only when it comes to fight, they lack the cajones for a real fight. My Dad was a Marine (WWII and Korea) he was a kind, gentle, sensitive man, his retired Marine friends and poker players were of the same cut, maybe not as sensitive. You would never believe these gentleman were hard charging soldiers (yet I know soldiers are Army), when in a group.
MAGGOTs are no different, loud mouth misogynists, rigors, racists, Dominionists, but full of b.s. and bravado when in a crowd, like the ones who pester Planned Parenthood clinics, marched in Charlotte, attacked the Capitol on Jan 6th and otherwise make lots of noise on FB, Xitter (pronounced shitter, GAB and social media.
Orwell is more gruesomely prescient as we go on. Perversion of the basic concept of "patriotism" and how about "pro-life?" (news today about nervous Repub's trying to modify to even more bizarre "pro-baby") "Freedom" means freedom to kill: with any kind of gun, or with your child's measles or polio, for heaven's sake! It's a whole new catechism of words turned into curses. Not even getting started on, where did Jesus teach indifference to harm to others and pure hatred and judgement?
Patriotism is a dangerous notion, as today it's liberals making the authoritarian judgment that anyone who mentions historical context or diplomacy in the context of Ukraine is somehow working for Putin. Patriotism is dehumanizing and an essential ingredient of American Exceptionalism, used by both political parties to justify the wrongdoings of their respective leaders in the interest of American imperialism. Patriotism is the "you're either with us or against us" of the War on Terror or the sacrificing of personal freedoms and privacy for the Patriot Act. And please don't say the Republicans have become the party of Bin Salman as it was Barack Obama who voluntarily aided and abetted his starvation and slaughter of the people of Yemen, continued by Joe Biden despite his lies about ending "offensive military aid" (get it?) and making him a pariah. Biden is the guy fiistbumping him with your making excuses because, well, we need the oil right? And if he didn't fistbump him then gas prices could go up more and that would politically be bad for Biden yes? Anything in the name of political expediency and "patriotism," even nuclear war. As for Putin he's not the reason 100 million Americans have inadequate or no access to health care, our life expectancy is decreasing, wealth inequality continues to skyrocket, ICE and CBP commit human rights violations on a daily basis, refugees are being denied their Constitutional rights by the tens of thousands and so on. I'll stick with humanism, you can pound your chest and ride your moral high horse with your right-center nationalism and tell me its progressive while Biden turns the other cheek as "pariah" Bin Salman summarily slaughters refugees at his borders. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/us/politics/saudi-arabia-migrant-killings.html
Who are these Republicans and how did they get here? Did they spring forth spontaneously from the head of Hydra or something? Who invited them to the party? How did patriotism become so perverted in the minds of so many people? Has the “destruction of public schools” by Republicans and conservatives already enabled them to undermine democracy and our way of life by dumbing down the population and setting them up for their relentless indoctrination by right-wing media?
Why are students not properly taught about our democracy and its high principles in civics classes anymore? Should politics not be a part of the curriculum?
In the same way, and for essentially the same reasons, that church and state are separated in our democratic republic, the rule for public schools is that politics should not be permitted to intrude into the curricular program. As a function of government, schooling must remain neutral.
The schools which are “public” in that they are funded with taxpayer dollars and in that attendance is mandatory under penalty of law must take great care not to promote one political viewpoint, party, or philosophy over another. Partiality would mean that the official governmental policy would favor one select group and one political orientation over others, creating an imbalance and an unfair circumstance.
The government represents inordinate power and influence, and in a democracy, it must not use its overpowering weight or resources to discriminate against a particular interest or political position or on behalf of a particular interest or position. Everyone knows this.
Two separate dilemmas should immediately come to mind for anyone who is familiar with educational issues, however. The first is that schools are expected to teach students about all things political as part of their training for citizenship. They need to know how government works, what the issues are which divide and unite various groups, the history of our country and related international affairs, and the various political organizations and relationships which have power and influence or a set of circumstances that require public attention. But teaching these things without being accused of taking a side or revealing personal opinions and biases which might be adopted by students because of their susceptibility to the influence of an adult authority figure is a very tricky business.
The second dilemma is that teachers are human. Teachers do come to the school with certain feelings, attitudes, and opinions, whether or not those are clear and well-defined in their conscious thinking and speaking. They cannot avoid a degree of subjectivity in their own thinking when controversial or sensitive topics of a political nature must be faced in a discussion of any subject matter.
Also, the teacher whose experience or development has resulted, for whatever reasons, in a more liberal orientation will have an approach to a variety of situations and a personal style which differs in noticeable ways from the teacher who has identified with and tracked more toward a conservative philosophy, approach, belief system, or mindset. In spur of the moment decisions or interpersonal actions involving students, teachers may be more patient, tolerant, or permissive, or they may lean more toward the strict enforcement of rules, rigidity in policies, and a tendency to use admonitions, warnings, shame or guilt and negative reprimands to elicit the behavior which they expect.
One should not underestimate how consequential those two dilemmas are for teachers and students. There is no reason to believe that they will be diminished or resolved with any degree of satisfaction in the foreseeable future. However, there is an even more significant and consequential dilemma which faces school personnel, students, parents, and the society as a whole with respect to education and politics. That dilemma is more of a question of an impossible conflict and contradiction for which there is no easy or visible resolution.
The dilemma which has confounded educators for generations is the simple fact that education is inherently political. The need to strip politics out of the process of education changes the process irreparably.
Learning to read (literacy) and learning numerical concepts or math (numeracy) are merely the bare bones and foundational beginnings of an education. To be educated is to have substantial knowledge and skills relative to how people fit into families, civilized society, institutions, organizations, economies, communities, and nations.
The requirement for teachers to skirt “politics” or risk losing their jobs places them in an impossible situation. All of those things which students need to know, understand, and apply in their personal lives and in participating in a democracy when they reach adulthood are off limits unless they are stripped of their most essential, meaningful, sanguine, robust, and controversial characteristics. What is left in that void is mush and useless abstraction.
Teachers must check their values, their ideals, and their personalities at the gate before they enter the school. If they have beliefs, passions, or a desire to impart principles and values to students, they should keep them hidden and unarticulated. Everything must be generalized and neutralized to be certain that students will not become indoctrinated or oriented in one specific direction. They talk incessantly about “good behavior”, “obedience to authority”, paying attention, working hard, social skills, etc., and they echo every platitude known to man, yet they cannot take a position or state a fact without worrying that they are engaging in forbidden political speech or indoctrination.
In designing a curriculum, only the most banal, superficial, and dispassionate language or framework is possible. Issues must be couched in vague or unstimulating terms. No chance that someone, somewhere will be offended or disturbed can be taken. Did people die? We must be cautious about assigning blame or casting someone as a bad actor lest there are people who see them as the honorable defenders of freedom or equally righteous or evil pawns in a chess game.
How could anyone be surprised that Republicans are insisting that the “positive benefits” of slavery for the enslaved be taught along with the negatives? School materials must not be politicized. Judgments cannot be made for fear of violating the rules and allowing a government agent to criticize someone such as Hitler or white supremacists who share values with Republicans.
I regret to inform everyone that this is the only possible outcome of turning schooling over to the government by passing attendance laws and codifying every possible aspect of the enterprise. We did this to ourselves. We invited these people. There is only one way to restore education to the public and wise them up to the duplicity of the Republicans. It cannot be government’s function to teach civics and political science while simultaneously remaining indifferent to the life and death significance of political issues. Schools must be severed from government and the only way to make that a reality is to strike down attendance laws along with about 80% of the control measures which accompany them as statutes. Stop pretending otherwise.
What an excellent job of connecting all of the dots Thom. It is pretty obvious the right wingers don't know or can't comprehend what patriotism is, after all it is a word with more than two syllables, so what should we expect? Patriotism goes with Communism and socialism and capitalism in their book. They do not understand those big words either and rational thought as well. Even though the word virtue has two syllables, the GOP voters cannot understand its meaning.
Someday pretty soon, when the stores are empty and there are no more jobs and China is the world reserve currency, the GOP voters May figure out, what goes around, comes around.
How is it we find the Gavel Of Putin bludgeoning our democracy with impunity?
Preemptively sending "thoughts and prayers" to the entire world should no official and decisive action be taken to corral these insurgents in patriot's clothing.
These are politics no longer. Make no mistake, democracy is being wheeled to the gallows.
The problem is that the fascist authoritarians won the right to our flag as a symbol of their patriotism. We democracy loving citizens reject nationalism as a symbol of our unity despite the obvious fact that we share the same nation. I embrace our Stars and Stripes and use their symbolism to show how our nation always emerges from its dark periods by renewing our constitution with amendments. I invite you to join Democracy Awareness and show your support for our democratic experiment by wearing a star spangled Möbius strip. Together we can achieve anything.
There’s Nothing Patriotic about Today’s Republicans
The world is turning to fascism because of global corporations. They own the lion's share of everything and are, essentially, buying governments to cement their profit-making privilege via fascist policies. The also use their money to buy-off any regulation to keep the air, water and ground clean as they make their profane profits. It isn't just here; it's all over. These global oligarchs understand and pay dearly for the propaganda that convinces the gullible that blame should be heaped upon each other - their fellow citizens - not to those who have caused the messes. It's the black and brown ones, the uppity women, the gays and trans that are causing all the trouble. It is those history books that tell the truth about our history that cause problems. A Capitalist isn't particularly racist or sexist (they are both so within the structures of their communities), but use these surface differences to pit us against one another. There will be another global conflagration, mostly a result of global climate change and its impact on crops and weather. I hope there's something left of humanity afterwards. If China goes supernova, so goes the world.
Thank you Thom again for reminding us all of the dangerous Grand Old Party of Putin and their deranged support for obstructing democratic norms. The vast number of tRumper cult believers are in a group psychosis that we have never experienced before. Brought on by years of stoking racism, blaming POC for anything and everything they don’t like, misogyny and hysteria over LGBTQ, the right has collectively lost their ability to think rationally and participate in good governance. Sorry, but only one party actively attacked our capital and tried to overturn a legitimate election just because they didn’t like the results. Only one party is blocking and embracing something something called “woke” ( here’s looking at you, Tubberville- one of the questionable moronic members of Republican) and disrupting our service members lives and families for stupid reasons. Only one party consistently votes against helping veterans and seniors as well as low income citizens. Only one party has embraced authoritarian rule and gives legitimacy to a leaders who murder their detractors. The both siderism just doesn’t wash with me, there is no equivalence and facts matter to rational people. Are Democrats perfect? No ,of course not, but so far the majority of our Democrats are trying to improve the lives of Americans and need our awareness of the forces on the right that want to block legitimate democracy.
Where will the Republicans be in 10 years? Still worshiping an old, frail psychopath? Will they be finally waking-up to the demographic changes that are coming?
I've had some cordial disagreements with friends about whether this country needs them. Your spot-on description makes me think I was right to say no. If their party ends-up in the dust-bin of history, it won't be because we put them there.
The Democratic Party has a platform and a plan to make our lives better. They want to work on the climate crisis in every way possible, and they want to do that with the rest of humanity.
Republicans are moving backward. The rest of America is a diverse group, and they are NOT going with them. We don't have all the answers, but we sure as hell are looking forward and trying to find them.
I sat with a nurse at my doctor’s office this morning before the crowds got there, and. Listened as she told me that had she known what things were going to be like today in Florida and the rest of our nation, she never would have had a single one of her three children. She said she just cannot figure a way to say to the pre-teens, “ you have to be careful when you walk out that door. Because there are people out there who hate you and will kill you just because of the color of your skin.” She does not want that to be a lesson if hate, it she wants to help keep her children alive when going to the Dollar Store, grocery store, school , church or just jogging through the neighborhood.” This is the America, or more properly, the ‘Mercia” we have allowed to be created while we I fight over age or emails while giving election after election to the reprobates who would destroy this democracy. More than enough Floridians opted to stay home and let DeSantis get re-elected because they didn’t like “the traitor Charlie Crist.” I cannot help but wonder how happy they are with the totalitarian regime in the Florida capitol today.
Excellent account of the daily Travesty’s that the alleged “GOP” BS party
aligns itself with .
The ‘criminal wealthy ‘ are in charge of this country, having stopped all interest in Democracy with cash .
They are in fact the buyers of the Supreme Courts conservative appointees , aided by Mitch McConnell and his loathsome defection to Leonard Leo and the like.
Money is their power. Greed and a total lack of integrity their hallmark
Conservatives, non MAGA types, fancy Maggots as simply deluded:
Here is an excerpt from Amanda Marcotte's Standing Room Only https://read.letterhead.email/standing-room-only/letter/20494?lh_aid=3594739&lh_cid=7efgnzf5w4&di=4b8cbf7a8cb1beb3715ea2acb16eee6b
" Rich Lowry argued in Politico that GOP voters simply can’t accept that Trump is “poisonously stupid” and “will say anything without regard for the truth and that he is profoundly selfish, easily distracted and vengeful.”
Her response to Lowry is "I disagree. I think most Trump voters know that. The problem is they like it. Shameless and malevolent is what they crave in their leaders. "
While true, she doesn't get to the root of MAGA. Trump is their avatar, He is the living personification of their Id, and as such, when it comes to politics and culture only one part of the brain lights up, the amygdala aka lizard brain, that responds to what it perceives as threats, by fight or flight.
In other words they look at Trump and see themselves. He is a mirror to who they really are.
To abandon Trump is to nullify themselves.
Only when it comes to fight, they lack the cajones for a real fight. My Dad was a Marine (WWII and Korea) he was a kind, gentle, sensitive man, his retired Marine friends and poker players were of the same cut, maybe not as sensitive. You would never believe these gentleman were hard charging soldiers (yet I know soldiers are Army), when in a group.
MAGGOTs are no different, loud mouth misogynists, rigors, racists, Dominionists, but full of b.s. and bravado when in a crowd, like the ones who pester Planned Parenthood clinics, marched in Charlotte, attacked the Capitol on Jan 6th and otherwise make lots of noise on FB, Xitter (pronounced shitter, GAB and social media.
Something else I hold against Republicans is their contribution to the destruction of our ability global and societal threats with their war against science. https://politicsofthelastage.blogspot.com/2023/08/paralyzing-dysfunction_27.html
Orwell is more gruesomely prescient as we go on. Perversion of the basic concept of "patriotism" and how about "pro-life?" (news today about nervous Repub's trying to modify to even more bizarre "pro-baby") "Freedom" means freedom to kill: with any kind of gun, or with your child's measles or polio, for heaven's sake! It's a whole new catechism of words turned into curses. Not even getting started on, where did Jesus teach indifference to harm to others and pure hatred and judgement?
Patriotism is a dangerous notion, as today it's liberals making the authoritarian judgment that anyone who mentions historical context or diplomacy in the context of Ukraine is somehow working for Putin. Patriotism is dehumanizing and an essential ingredient of American Exceptionalism, used by both political parties to justify the wrongdoings of their respective leaders in the interest of American imperialism. Patriotism is the "you're either with us or against us" of the War on Terror or the sacrificing of personal freedoms and privacy for the Patriot Act. And please don't say the Republicans have become the party of Bin Salman as it was Barack Obama who voluntarily aided and abetted his starvation and slaughter of the people of Yemen, continued by Joe Biden despite his lies about ending "offensive military aid" (get it?) and making him a pariah. Biden is the guy fiistbumping him with your making excuses because, well, we need the oil right? And if he didn't fistbump him then gas prices could go up more and that would politically be bad for Biden yes? Anything in the name of political expediency and "patriotism," even nuclear war. As for Putin he's not the reason 100 million Americans have inadequate or no access to health care, our life expectancy is decreasing, wealth inequality continues to skyrocket, ICE and CBP commit human rights violations on a daily basis, refugees are being denied their Constitutional rights by the tens of thousands and so on. I'll stick with humanism, you can pound your chest and ride your moral high horse with your right-center nationalism and tell me its progressive while Biden turns the other cheek as "pariah" Bin Salman summarily slaughters refugees at his borders. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/us/politics/saudi-arabia-migrant-killings.html
Who are these Republicans and how did they get here? Did they spring forth spontaneously from the head of Hydra or something? Who invited them to the party? How did patriotism become so perverted in the minds of so many people? Has the “destruction of public schools” by Republicans and conservatives already enabled them to undermine democracy and our way of life by dumbing down the population and setting them up for their relentless indoctrination by right-wing media?
Why are students not properly taught about our democracy and its high principles in civics classes anymore? Should politics not be a part of the curriculum?
In the same way, and for essentially the same reasons, that church and state are separated in our democratic republic, the rule for public schools is that politics should not be permitted to intrude into the curricular program. As a function of government, schooling must remain neutral.
The schools which are “public” in that they are funded with taxpayer dollars and in that attendance is mandatory under penalty of law must take great care not to promote one political viewpoint, party, or philosophy over another. Partiality would mean that the official governmental policy would favor one select group and one political orientation over others, creating an imbalance and an unfair circumstance.
The government represents inordinate power and influence, and in a democracy, it must not use its overpowering weight or resources to discriminate against a particular interest or political position or on behalf of a particular interest or position. Everyone knows this.
Two separate dilemmas should immediately come to mind for anyone who is familiar with educational issues, however. The first is that schools are expected to teach students about all things political as part of their training for citizenship. They need to know how government works, what the issues are which divide and unite various groups, the history of our country and related international affairs, and the various political organizations and relationships which have power and influence or a set of circumstances that require public attention. But teaching these things without being accused of taking a side or revealing personal opinions and biases which might be adopted by students because of their susceptibility to the influence of an adult authority figure is a very tricky business.
The second dilemma is that teachers are human. Teachers do come to the school with certain feelings, attitudes, and opinions, whether or not those are clear and well-defined in their conscious thinking and speaking. They cannot avoid a degree of subjectivity in their own thinking when controversial or sensitive topics of a political nature must be faced in a discussion of any subject matter.
Also, the teacher whose experience or development has resulted, for whatever reasons, in a more liberal orientation will have an approach to a variety of situations and a personal style which differs in noticeable ways from the teacher who has identified with and tracked more toward a conservative philosophy, approach, belief system, or mindset. In spur of the moment decisions or interpersonal actions involving students, teachers may be more patient, tolerant, or permissive, or they may lean more toward the strict enforcement of rules, rigidity in policies, and a tendency to use admonitions, warnings, shame or guilt and negative reprimands to elicit the behavior which they expect.
One should not underestimate how consequential those two dilemmas are for teachers and students. There is no reason to believe that they will be diminished or resolved with any degree of satisfaction in the foreseeable future. However, there is an even more significant and consequential dilemma which faces school personnel, students, parents, and the society as a whole with respect to education and politics. That dilemma is more of a question of an impossible conflict and contradiction for which there is no easy or visible resolution.
The dilemma which has confounded educators for generations is the simple fact that education is inherently political. The need to strip politics out of the process of education changes the process irreparably.
Learning to read (literacy) and learning numerical concepts or math (numeracy) are merely the bare bones and foundational beginnings of an education. To be educated is to have substantial knowledge and skills relative to how people fit into families, civilized society, institutions, organizations, economies, communities, and nations.
The requirement for teachers to skirt “politics” or risk losing their jobs places them in an impossible situation. All of those things which students need to know, understand, and apply in their personal lives and in participating in a democracy when they reach adulthood are off limits unless they are stripped of their most essential, meaningful, sanguine, robust, and controversial characteristics. What is left in that void is mush and useless abstraction.
Teachers must check their values, their ideals, and their personalities at the gate before they enter the school. If they have beliefs, passions, or a desire to impart principles and values to students, they should keep them hidden and unarticulated. Everything must be generalized and neutralized to be certain that students will not become indoctrinated or oriented in one specific direction. They talk incessantly about “good behavior”, “obedience to authority”, paying attention, working hard, social skills, etc., and they echo every platitude known to man, yet they cannot take a position or state a fact without worrying that they are engaging in forbidden political speech or indoctrination.
In designing a curriculum, only the most banal, superficial, and dispassionate language or framework is possible. Issues must be couched in vague or unstimulating terms. No chance that someone, somewhere will be offended or disturbed can be taken. Did people die? We must be cautious about assigning blame or casting someone as a bad actor lest there are people who see them as the honorable defenders of freedom or equally righteous or evil pawns in a chess game.
How could anyone be surprised that Republicans are insisting that the “positive benefits” of slavery for the enslaved be taught along with the negatives? School materials must not be politicized. Judgments cannot be made for fear of violating the rules and allowing a government agent to criticize someone such as Hitler or white supremacists who share values with Republicans.
I regret to inform everyone that this is the only possible outcome of turning schooling over to the government by passing attendance laws and codifying every possible aspect of the enterprise. We did this to ourselves. We invited these people. There is only one way to restore education to the public and wise them up to the duplicity of the Republicans. It cannot be government’s function to teach civics and political science while simultaneously remaining indifferent to the life and death significance of political issues. Schools must be severed from government and the only way to make that a reality is to strike down attendance laws along with about 80% of the control measures which accompany them as statutes. Stop pretending otherwise.
What an excellent job of connecting all of the dots Thom. It is pretty obvious the right wingers don't know or can't comprehend what patriotism is, after all it is a word with more than two syllables, so what should we expect? Patriotism goes with Communism and socialism and capitalism in their book. They do not understand those big words either and rational thought as well. Even though the word virtue has two syllables, the GOP voters cannot understand its meaning.
Someday pretty soon, when the stores are empty and there are no more jobs and China is the world reserve currency, the GOP voters May figure out, what goes around, comes around.
How is it we find the Gavel Of Putin bludgeoning our democracy with impunity?
Preemptively sending "thoughts and prayers" to the entire world should no official and decisive action be taken to corral these insurgents in patriot's clothing.
These are politics no longer. Make no mistake, democracy is being wheeled to the gallows.
Now what?
The problem is that the fascist authoritarians won the right to our flag as a symbol of their patriotism. We democracy loving citizens reject nationalism as a symbol of our unity despite the obvious fact that we share the same nation. I embrace our Stars and Stripes and use their symbolism to show how our nation always emerges from its dark periods by renewing our constitution with amendments. I invite you to join Democracy Awareness and show your support for our democratic experiment by wearing a star spangled Möbius strip. Together we can achieve anything.