On the Contrary

I would be the first to tell you that a strong opposition party is an important and balancing element in a functioning democracy.  But what we are seeing is an opposition party controlled by the conservatives that are mindless and obstructionist rather than offering alternative solutions.  This I have chronicled here before and simply to offer either a resounding no to Democratic ideas or offering ideas about cutting taxes and capping spending, neither of which address the issues before us, is to have no ideas at all.  But now they are focusing on issues that have no relevance to our real problems and are simply distractions from the real issues that face us.  Let’s bring back the cultural wars.

In Iowa the State Supreme Court ruled what is obvious to most of us, that under the equal protection clause of their State constitution, you cannot deny gays the right to be married.  If you do, then you are creating different classes of people with different rights and believe it or not, our government was create to prevent just such abuses.  But then the conservatives found themselves an issue.

“This isn’t over, not even for this year,” said Bryon English, a spokesman for the Iowa Family Policy Center.  “Everyday folks who get up and go to work were shocked at what happened here, and it’s really gotten people activated,” (New York Times).

Now this statement in itself is really interesting.  Apparently people who think gays and lesbians should have equal rights don’t get up and go to work, but just lay around thinking up perverted things to do to screw up the conservative’s ordered world.  Second, the economy is in the dumper, we may be facing the biggest economic crisis of our history, and gay marriage has got people riled up?  You can always count on conservatives to focus on the big issues.  Couldn’t they throw in an amendment for prayer in schools and the teaching of creationism, and then all our problems would be solved?

But it would take two legislative sessions before these fine American citizens could deny their fellow citizens their rights, and in that time they may just find out that the sky is not falling, that heterosexual marriage is not threatened, and unless they were a closet gay who was hoping government (you know that thing they hate) could keep them from acting out their perverted fantasies, nothing has happened other than some of our fellow citizens are finally being treated equally.

The conservatives really have only three issues other than cut taxes and spend less and they are all variations of “be afraid fellow citizens” issues.  They are of course “terrorists are everywhere, torture, torture torture”, “Gay marriage will destroy marriage as we know it, control what goes on in the bedroom”, and immigrant bashing, “all our problems are because of those barbarians taking our jobs.”  They are all about fear politics which is aimed at appealing to your emotions so that your rational mind is handicapped and cannot deal with rational dialogue.  Since the terrorism card is wearing thin, they are starting the immigrant fear card again.  You know, if it wasn’t for all those illegals, everyone would have a job now, wouldn’t they?

So rumor has it that President Obama wants to address the immigration issue.  Most of us would agree that the issues are as follows:  Allowing workers we need to come into the country legally; securing our borders; and dealing with illegals and their children who are already here.  Now the conservative solution is much like their approach to gay marriage, fear and loathing.  “We don’t need no stinking foreign workers because Americans need the work.”  But then reality seeps in when most Americans simply won’t do that work, and studies have shown that a steady influx of immigrants keeps our economy vibrant.  Oh those damned details.

Securing the border is important, but building fences is destructive and counterproductive, and cannot be our first line of defense.  Since the economic down turn, illegal workers are not what are coming across the border, but drugs from Mexico and guns from the U.S.  Sooner or later we are going to have to deal with the reality of immigrant labor and a way to legalize it so that border incursions truly are illegal activities that threaten us instead of hombres quien quieren trabjo (who just want work).

Ah, but here is their favorite: illegals already here.  “We are not going to reward law-breakers.”  But then there is no practical way to remove 20 million people from our society and what do we do about their children who are innocent victims of our selective vigilantism?  This country is supposed to be about justice and fairness and what these conservatives want is to scare you into thinking that justice and fairness only applies if you are a member of the right group.   What we want is citizens who work hard and contribute to our society and that is what most of these folks do.  So it is time for a rational approach to these problems without the scare tactics which is all the conservatives have to offer.  “Be afraid America, these barbarians are stealing your jobs, lowering wages, bringing in diseases, becoming part of the criminal community, and destroying our economy.”  All we need is a bigger fence and more prisons and everything will be fine.

So once again our opposition party is focusing on all the wrong things and trying to use fear to distract us from our real problems.  The big question is are we going to go down this dead end road again or are we finally going to marginalize these morons and start dealing with bigger issues?

I am starting to get really disillusioned.  To understand what is really going on, one has to step back from the media which is focused on their incestual chatter and conventional wisdom and look at what is really happening.  From analysis of the stimulus package to what to do with your money, we are getting advice and sage wisdom from people who are repeating the same talking points over and over again.  Barack Obama had it right when he said the earth has moved under their feet, but even he fails to understand what that really means.

I have expressed my disgust at the economic stimulus package which has been gutted as to be totally ineffective by trying to cater to the Republicans.  Paul Krugman this morning eloquently laid out that argument in the New York Times.  I guess what is most disturbing is listening to Republicans gain traction on their failed economic ideas and watch Democrats try to make nice with them while they are in the process of creating a massive economic train wreck.  It is the same tired arguments we had during the election and apparently the election settled nothing.  I guess we will have to be lying in the wreckage of the train wreck before we finally get it.

But there are other things which need to be done and I am afraid we are backsliding.  Here is my list of things that could and should be done immediately:

• Stop air bombardment in Afghanistan and Iraq – Whether by drone or by aircraft, this policy of fighting a guerrilla war with proxy bombs kills innocents and is counterproductive, not to mention immoral.  Collateral damage is by definition failure in a war for peoples hearts and minds.
• Never, nunca, torture, ever – The whole premise of torture is that under extreme pain someone will tell you the truth.  It is a false premise.  They will tell you what you want to hear and that has nothing to do with the truth.  In the movie “Taken” the hero wires up a guy to the power gird to get him to tell him where his daughter is.  The guy spits in his face so he lights him up and he spills his guts.  Really?  I would have given him a convincing lie and it would have worked out better for the bad guy.  Oh, did I mention the moral argument for you Jesus freaks who think this is a good idea?
• Close Guantanamo and no “special trials” – If you buy the argument that there is evidence that is so secret that you just have to believe the government, it is the end of justice as we know it.  Our system of justice has evolved over 2000 years beginning with the Greeks and evolving into what we have today.  This is no time to deny that wisdom.  Find out what evidence there is, prosecute or release.  I am tired of watching “good” Americans clamber for a lynching.  Note that fool Lindsey Graham, who everyone thought was such a peach coming up with the military tribunal system, is also giving us wonderful advice on our economy. Any more help from him and we will finally hit bottom.
• Iraq and Afghanistan – The war party is over.  If most of you actually knew how much we were spending over there you would be appalled especially looking at the major whining that has gone over some of the minor items in the stimulus package.  Time to set a date and be out.  We simply can’t afford it anymore and why do we want to prop up nations that don’t believe in women’s rights?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be part of bringing another theocracy into the world.
• Cuba – Just End the blockade and get on with normal relations.
• Marijuana – Just get over it, legalize it like alcohol, control it, and tax it.  It’s here, everyone uses it at one time or another and we are wasting precious time and resources playing cops and robbers.
• Immigration – Note this one has fallen out of view with the economic crisis.  That should tell you it was never really a problem in the sense that Mexicans were taking jobs away from Americans.  Get a reasonable program in place that legalizes those that are here, makes guest workers easy to accommodate, and does not punish their children because their parents brought them here.
• Get over the moral approach – Whether Cuba, Marijuana, or Immigration, this moral conservative approach to these issues has been bankrupt from day one and still we continue doing stupid counterproductive things.
• Refocus incarceration of criminals on rehabilitation – We have the largest gulag in the world.  Our approach to this problem is to take criminals and throw away the key.  In California the budget for prisons will soon exceed our budget for schools.  Something is not working so why do we continue to do the same stupid things.  Because conservatives use the fear card and the masses fall for it every time.
• Healthcare – I listen to more stupid discussions about how to provide universal healthcare than one can endure.  Watch my lips:  SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM.  It is the only thing that has worked elsewhere and yet once again conservative America holds us back from the obvious solution to an ever increasing problem.
• Abortion, gay marriage, and flag burning – Non-issues.  We have reasonable laws restricting abortion, but this issue is really about the basic right of women to control their lives.  Gay marriage is also a human rights issue as flag burning is a free speech issue.  If you don’t approve of any of the above, don’t do them, but don’t utilize government to take the rights away from others.
• Religion and Government – They don’t mix.  Religion is basically about faith and the definition of faith is belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.  Our government of free debate and majority rule (don’t forget minority rights) is based upon the ideas from the Enlightenment that rational thought and discourse could convince the majority to do the right thing.  Get the disconnect?  One uses reason and logic to arrive at the appropriate course of action and the other ignores reason and logic to continue beliefs that belong in the dark ages.
• High Speed Rail – Build it and start focusing all big transportation projects on mass transit.  What part of petroleum dependence don’t we get?

So we muddle on going nowhere while conservatives continue to tell us they have the right path.  What appalls me is that anyone listens to them anymore.

There is a belief around here that the way California goes, so goes the rest of the country.  California sets a an example for most of the rest of nation in its approach to the environment, alternate energy, and global warming.  Well in some cases let’s hope not.

California has made some very bad choices in the way it governs itself.  First and foremost in bad mistakes is the two-third super majority requirement to pass a budget.  What that super majority requirement has done is gridlock our government, kind of like the filibuster in the Senate.  But here in California we are held hostage by a small minority of conservative Republicans who will never raise one tax.  When the Democrats came to them and said we will compromise, for every program cut we agree to, you will allow us a potential tax increase, they simply said all taxes are bad and nothing doing. It is cut or nothing.  Like all good conservative Republicans, it is their way or the highway.  The result is gridlock and an ever increasing state deficit.  Even the Govenator is frustrated with them when he proposed a 1 cent sales tax to help with our deficit and they balked.  But like the national elections, there is a chance that their one-third tyranny may be over if enough Democrats get elected.  On a positive note, if the Republicans keep up their intransigence, they may not be around much longer.

Second, since nothing gets done in the state government, everything is a Proposition put forward to the voters on election day.  Now there are two problems with this.  First these Propositions are complicated and a tough slog through to figure out just what they really do.  I have a degree in electrical and structural engineering and I have a hard time figuring out if what they are advertising is what the bill actually does and what could be the unintended consequences.  The second problem related to that issue is that there is no give and take like in a legislative process with amendments to fix an otherwise flawed bill.  It is what it is, take it or leave it.  Basically in this system the things that need to get fixed get thrown to a confused electorate to figure it out.    One of the favorite tactics is to take something like funding for education or firemen that we all think is important and pass a state constitutional amendment to guarantee a certain amount of state funding.  This might seem like a good idea, but it reduces the state’s ability to balance budgets when shortfalls occur, and we have so many of them now, that there is really very little discretionary spending left to manage.  This is no way to run a government and California is long over due for a financial restructuring.  Some think the constitution ought to be just thrown out and we start over again.

Speaking of Propositions, my favorite here in California is Proposition 8, the proposition that will amend the Constitution to deny gay marriage.  The California constitution guarantees equality for all its citizens and the ruling by the judge overturning an earlier proposition to outlaw gay marriage went something like this:

“The state Constitution’s guarantees of personal privacy and autonomy protect “the right of an individual to establish a legally recognized family with the person of one’s choice,” said Chief Justice Ronald George, who wrote the 121-page majority opinion. He said the Constitution “properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as opposite-sex couples.”” (San Francisco Chronicle)

Now the fruit loops on the right immediately began their activist judge chant.  I think Malbury versus Madison is lost on them, but so is rational thought.  Let’s face it, not even Sarah could name this case, but that should not be a surprise given her politics.  Worse are the moronic ads for the Proposition, paid for primarily by Morons from Utah.  No I am not kidding.  The Mormons were flooding the state with calls and money.  The basic argument is it is against their religious belief.  What I can’t ever figure out is if they are against it, then don’t marry a gay person, but don’t force your religious beliefs on the rest of us. I guess this little piece of logic just can’t enter their heads. This is always coming from those who shout the loudest about freedom, but are the first to take your freedom away if you are not like them.

Their latest ad claims that they will teach about gay marriage in schools and somehow your children will be irreparably harmed.  Right, like when I was young and somebody told me I could marry a man it would have made a difference.  It is either in your nature or it isn’t you morons.  It’s really sad when mob mentality is going to try to disenfranchise some of our citizens and make them second-class citizens under the law because they are afraid and intolerate.  Hopefully it will fail, but like the Republican machine, fear and misinformation is their tool of choice and unless the young vote, all the old homophobes will do something stupid on election day and embarrass us all with their ignorance and intolerance.

The last bit of stupidity from the Golden State is their get tough on crime.  Politicians are amazingly gutless wonders and we have passed all these mandatory sentencing laws to look tough on crime, but now their stupidity is coming home to roost.  In the last ten years prison cost have grown by 50%, will soon exceed what we spend on education in the state, and eats up 10 percent of the total state budget. It cost more to incarcerate someone than to send them to Sanford.  And it is a great system as 66 percent of parolees are back in prison after three years compared to about 40 percent nationally.  The parole system is horribly unfair, treats all offenders alike, and makes it difficult to re-enter society.   Clearly some sentencing modifications, reform of our parole system, and more focus on rehabilitation would pay big dividends, but then you might look soft on crime.  Well you gutless wonders who have thrown so many people on the heap pile of the human race, you can no longer afford it.  You can’t just look away any more.  Maybe many of them are redeemable and we simply can’t afford, meaning real money, to ignore them any more. (New York Times – California Prison Disaster)

So even in the golden state where I live in the middle of a beautiful vineyard, I am surrounded by ignorance, intolerance, fear, and stupidity.  Maybe it is the human condition.  I wonder when we will ever grow up.