Ya Been Took

There is a governing coalition and has been for the whole of the Obama presidency, the Democrats in the House along with a handful of establishment Republicans have passed all the budget bills, often after a proper bloodletting. The basic assumption is that compromise of this sort caused Cantor his seat, and McCarthy his shot at the Speakership. I have little doubt that GOP voters would punish Republicans that get caught "siding" with the Dems, and their Kenyan, Islamic, President.

It becomes easy to blame politicians in DC, but the GOP voting base largely does not want compromise. This is maybe one in three voters, hard core conservatives, inflamed by the radio right. A majority of them believe the President is a Muslim. In a recent focus group of GOP voters, ten of ten agreed with Carson that a person of Islamic faith should not even be considered as President. These folks are second amendment absolutists, true believers in arming kindergarten teachers and Baptist preachers in the sanctuary of their churches. They want smaller government, protesting loudly during the debate over ACA that government needed to stay out of their Medicare.

But this is the problem. There's a great speech in Spike Lee's Malcolm X movie. Apparently Malcolm never said the words. Lee cribbed them from another speech:

"Oh, I say and I say it again, ya been had!
Ya been took!
Ya been hoodwinked!
Bamboozled!
Led astray!
Run amok!
This is what He does...."

Yes, ya been hoodwinked. You're views are not predominate any longer. The governing coalition is younger, mixed race, mixed gender, and yes, even mixed sexual orientation.

You own lots of guns, more and more each year. Studies show, however, that while the number of guns is increasing, the number of gun owners is declining.

Climate science is just that. Science. I'm sorry, and I feel bad to have to tell you this, but the politicians waving snowballs on the floor of the senate, telling you this is all a conspiracy, are--you may want to sit down-- on the payroll of big oil! Countries around the world, including China are abandoning coal, and pursuing green energy. The President is not having a war with coal, and the foot dragging of the GOP has actually slowed progress that every other advanced country has already made, especially in the last 20 years. When we talk about America's greatness, most of us think of advancements in medicine and science, space travel, interstate travel, economic equality and access. Now the narrow coalition of Tea Party members of congress has managed to block even basic infrastructure bills. How is this possible?

Ya been bamboozled. There is no broad consensus to move against social programs, and no electoral path to reduce such programs. The ACA might still be overturned or weakened, but this won't happen while Obama is president. More than 16 million have ask access to medical insurance because of the ACA. They GOP can't tell you the truth so I will. They're all in with symbolic votes, but real repeal is increasingly out of political realm of reality.

Adjustments need to be made to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but these programs are going to be in place for decades. Your leaders keep grandstanding on food stamps but the real money is in defense, entitlements, and tax policies for corporations and the wealthy. Paul Ryan has taken his shots at Medicaid, a program which provides care mostly to poor people, but even his very detailed budgets have left Social Security and Medicare largely intact. Unable to address truths about the dimension of entitlement programs, Republican leaders work to further impoverish the poor and call it serious policy.

Me, I'm a single payer guy, but I know the political climate is not in place for the heavy lift that would require. It's call reality.

Ya been led astray, especially, most especially, those of you who are of moderate or limited means. Citizens United has unleashed a torrent of campaign cash. A lot of that is going to slick PR campaigns designed to convince you that there is some sort of silent, let's be honest, mostly white majority, if we all just showed up in the polls we could get some stuff done. I feel for you. Your leaders have been edging you out to the cliffs of oblivion since Reagan. They lied to you and didn't know how, and actually don't know how, to tell you.

Ya been run amok. You're not losing national elections because your party is not radical right enough. That calculation assumes an electorate made up of far more old, white, straight, and male voters claiming European ancestry than will ever exist again. The only place you have political numbers is state houses which define Congressional District lines, and by the gerrymandering that grows from that, the House of Representatives. A filibuster proof Senate is increasingly unlikely, and good luck in the Presidential election with a platform which attacks gay marriage, tries overturning the ACA, and proposes sending 11 million undocumented workers back to where they came from.

Meanwhile, know this. While we've been fighting over this bullsh** going all the way back to the Reagan years, the one constant, the only constant really has been the ongoing concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people. The pure economic impact of the tax plans of every GOP candidate who has announced one would continue and accelerate that pattern. The billionaires funding these campaigns do not give a f*** about your social issues. They want tax breaks for themselves and a lax regulatory environment for their businesses. Reagan ran on an anti-abortion platform, passed the first large trickle down tax package, which really benefited his rich friends, and didn't show up at the political events organized to attack Roe.

The money people don't give a f*** about the deficits either. Reagan and Bush II both exploded the deficits, Bush I made limited progress, but the GOP base slaughtered him for raising taxes. Clinton and Obama both made dramatic reductions in deficits, but the Koch brothers are aligning $900 billion in the cause of overturning the policies that led to that progress.

The problem is not only the Republican leaders in congress. They've lied to their voters though, so it's hard to feel bad for them. Many Republican voters have also lied to themselves. They've been betting for 40 years that an adhoc coalition with billionaires would both make them rich and overturn Roe. Billions have been spent in advertising convincing them of that.

Fear has been a great motivator. America's sickness on race, our utter dishonesty about it, even in liberal circles, has been absolutely debilitating. We've gone from Nixon's closeted bigotry, and cynical Southern strategy, to a war on crime that has devastated communities of color, to Reagan's Philadelphia, Mississippi campaign kickoff and vilification of welfare cheats. Then Willie Horton. Then the SCOTUS decision eviscerating the Voting Rights Act, and voter ID laws specifically spoken of as discouraging turnout among African Americans. Most recently we get self-deportation, then rapists, drug dealers and "illegals" with calves like cantaloupes, and then send them all back.

As the drama in DC unfolds, what is left for us? We take stock. We watch. Those so inclined say a prayer. Even as we hope for leadership, disillusionment sets in. America is not willing to face real truths.

Perhaps all we can do is whatever uplift each of us can do in our daily lives. Bide our time. Wait for sunlight and enlightenment. My sister has been working in her community this week to help those devastated by historic floods, likely exacerbated by global warming. My wife and I made a small contribution to that effort this week. What else?

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

― Robert F. Kennedy