Category Archives: Politics

Vote Ideas, Not Candidates

Joe Biden is a walk waiting to fall.

But Donald Trump is a creeping fracture on the hip of America’s democracy.

Biden is a danger to himself.

Trump is a danger to the republic and the freedom for which it stands. 

Do I think Joe Biden is too old for the presidency? Yes, I do. But that problem will eventually take care of itself, as it does for all of us. 

We must stop thinking about 2024 as a contest between two men, one who has clearly lost a step, the other hell-bent on lying his way back to the presidency.  

The 2024 election is not about Biden or Trump; it’s about good versus bad ideas.

It’s about whether we move the country forward or backward. It’s about whether we expand rights or restrict them. It’s about whether we try to bridge our gaps and differences or widen them. In 2024, either we embrace and promote the ideas of western Democracy, or we don’t. 

Trumpism – the metastasizing malignancy of malevolence and malfeasance has taken root in the Republican party. Trumpism is less of a political platform and more of a manifesto of intolerance, anger, fear-baiting, and grievance. And that’s today’s GOP.

To move the country forward and to trigger a “re-set” for the Republican party, we need to bury it under an avalanche of votes that screams DEMOCRACY MATTERS! 

Today, banning books, demonizing “the other,” promoting one religion over others, and protecting unfettered access to weapons, even in the face of mass shooting after mass shootings, are Republican ideals, but they’re not American ideals. 

While Republicans bitch and moan about pronouns, wokeness, and drag show readings, broken parents relive the scene of janitors mopping up the blood of their children from the hallways and classrooms in schools.

Most Americans are tired of nonsense in the face of real-life challenges and hardship.

The 2024 election, more than any other past election, is about ideas. Foundational ideas. The ideas upon which America will stand or crumble. 

MAGA Nation

Culty MAGA members sing

they bend their knee, they kiss the ring

deny they see a naked king

Banning books and fanning flames

toting guns like Jesse James

thoughts and prayers to stop the bleeding

 screaming at a drag show reading

Stripping healthcare, mining coal

pushing myths about the soul

damning those who don’t obey

denying women of their say

 Casting stones, suppressing votes

grab our country by the throat

locked into a MAGA craze

they pull us back to darker days

Drinking Kool-Aid from a cup

yelling up is down!

and down is up!

spinning lies and crafting fables

twist the truth to turn the tables

Deny the facts and praise the liar

collectively they all conspire

to set democracy on fire

Culty MAGA members sing

they bend their knee, they kiss the ring

deny they see a naked king

Be woke and …..

According to a new poll, America is pulling back from the values that once defined it, such as patriotism and religion. One might look at the poll results and think, “Damn, that’s not good,” — but maybe we should look at the results as an awakening.

A Growing Disconnect

There’s a growing disconnect between the values Americans traditionally associate with religion and patriotism and what we witness behaviorally in society regarding religion and patriotism.

Christ is no longer Christianity’s messenger.

Instead, rich and powerful opportunists weave narratives that intertwine cherry-picked aspects of Christianity with firmly held socio-political beliefs. Deep pockets allow these opportunists to promote that narrative through lobbyists, who feed it to money-grubbing, power-hungry politicians.

Christianity isn’t about love and charity anymore. Instead, it’s transparently transactional – and more Americans (especially the skeptical and educated) view politically infused transaction-based religion with disdain. When you combine transparently transactional religion with the equally transparent absence of God in our lives, people will pull back from religion as a value.

The function of religion in American society has moved away from the individual and towards a political collective. This shift has transformed religion from a set of beliefs for coping with a chaotic and hate-filled world to a political directive that disrespects marginalized communities, restricts rights, and promotes hate.

Our Patriotic Divide

Concerning patriotism, America is split between the loud crowd of MAGA-hat-wearing Republicans hell-bent on transforming the country into a dystopian America-First Christian Nationalist society and progressives who want to expand rights and freedoms to everyone.

For patriotism to take root, citizens must agree on what it means to “be patriotic.” If there’s disagreement, the unifying knot of patriotism begins to fray. For example, millions of Americans view the assault on the capital as an act of patriotism and the protests against systemic racism in our justice system as un-American – while just as many (if not more) Americans hold the opposite view. Until most of us can agree on what is and isn’t patriotic, we’ll continue to retreat from patriotism as a value.

So, it’s no surprise Americans are rethinking the values around religion and patriotism. We’re woke to religion and patriotism being hijacked and manipulated by individuals and entities for political or personal gain, altering the meaning of both fundamentally.

Being aware is the first step to instituting change.

This is America

A child weeps while on the bus leaving The Covenant School following a mass shooting at the school in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, March 27, 2023. (Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP)

This is the America Republican politicians say we can’t do anything about.

This is the America where we raise our children.

This is the America that our children wake up to every day, sitting nervously at the kitchen table and wondering if today will be the day they die in a school shooting.

This is the America where parents send their kids to school and wonder, as their child enters the building, if they will come out alive.

This is the America where children practice active shooter drills and are coached on fighting off a deranged person with an AR-15 intent on slaughtering them and their classmates.

This is the America where that deranged person can easily obtain a weapon of war designed to afflict devastating injuries and mass casualties.

This is America, where even though most of the citizens support regulations that would make it more challenging to obtain these weapons, politicians refuse to enact legislation to make that so.

An Ugly Lust for Power

Floating in his own orbit

absent from the ethos of ethics

he was driven by an ugly lust for power

fueled by an insatiable desire for attention

bootlicked and buttressed by a sycophantic public

and buoyed by yes men

The man was wholly unhinged from truth

divorced from morality

and devoid of integrity

Gripped by insecurity

and the crippling fear of being labeled a loser

he cultivated lies and deceit

Like a Shakespearean witch

hunched over a cauldron

of poisonous misinformation

he hatched his plan

to cling to the reins of power

just long enough to topple the republic

For a few hours that day

our democracy flickered and dimmed

teetering on the dark edge of an authoritarian abyss

and if not for the courage of a few

and the rationality of the rest

We’d have lost our democracy

and the hope and freedom it brings to us

It would be a fatal mistake to think

the bullet we dodged cannot be reloaded

The confederacy of cowards

who defended the snake

and helped perpetuate the crime

still walk the halls of congress

and just beneath the ashes

of the failed attempt

are the smoldering embers

of the next

Democracy on the Ballot

Price hikes and inflation are cyclical and are tied to global events – things will return to normalcy regardless of which party wins the majority in Congress.

Your democracy (and the freedoms it provides) is tied to local events – specifically, election day voting.

If you fail to vote against the party that espouses nationalistic and fascist views, your democracy will disappear.

If you fail to hold politicians accountable for supporting a former president’s attempts to overturn a free and fair election, your democracy will disappear.

If you vote for a party that wants to restrict freedoms and rights rather than expand them, democracy and the freedoms it provides will disappear.

Don’t be short-sighted this coming election.

Fodder for Felons

Mar-a-Lago’s a henhouse

guarded by foxes

with top secret files

in taped cardboard boxes

Classified docs

spread all over the floor

fodder for felons

trying to even the score

Millions of lost souls

and Q-cultist bigots

they lap up the lies

from electronic spigots

Looking for purpose

while grasping at straws

praising their savior

despite all his flaws

Empty of knowledge

full of deep longing

Q fits the bill

and their need for belonging

Fingers raised up

they sing and they sway

“The storm is-a-coming”

and so’s judgement day

Engaged in a story

which casts them as heroes

too dumbstruck to know

that they’re dancing to Nero

drinking the Kool-Aid

they’re dope-sick on Q

freebasing lies

and shouting fuck you

There’s fear in not knowing

how this will end

how far Q is going

to strongly defend

the lies of a con man

unwilling to bend

Rise Up

Don’t you ever get so tired

of all the bullshit in the air

Politicians always wired

pretending that they care

Don’t you long to get inspired

get this train back on the track

Aren’t you sick of being mired

in never forward always back

We’re in need of revolution

a youth-led promise towards a day

when our leaders represent us

without their interests in the way

Aren’t you tired of being berated

your world twisting on a string

all the truths interrogated

while the lies go on to sing

Band together to form your power

march into the voting booth

Turn the day into your hour

cut down the lies and raise the truth

What Shining City?

When did it become Ok

In America

for snickering governors

to play politics

with the lives of tired

and desperate human beings?

When did the light

from that shining city

on the hill

become a trick candle?

When did America

erect its Darwinian dome

of indifference towards

the tired and the suffering?

When did we drift from the

Give me your tired and poor

to a cold and callous

Let me show you the door?

When did we

start to fear and hate

the huddled masses

detesting them

while casting a cold

and stony shoulder?

When the humane

treatment of others

takes a backseat to

cheap political stunts

it’s time to look at

the soul of our nation

Supremely Out of Touch

Many people are angry today because a constitutional right that’s been in place for more than 50 years and widely supported by the vast majority of Americans was overturned by five conservative justices, three of which were appointed by the most corrupt president in U.S history.

The court’s decision does not align with what most Americans believe and want regarding bodily autonomy and healthcare for women. 

So, what to do? 

Well, for the 2022 midterms, we need to become single-issue voters and do whatever we can to get like-minded individuals to become single-issue voters, and then VOTE!

Vote against any candidate who supports the Supreme court’s decision to do away with a woman’s right to choose. 

It’s important to remember the court’s decision does not make abortion illegal. Instead, the decision says the constitution no longer protects a woman’s right to an abortion. It’s now up to individual states to decide whether abortion is legal or illegal. A woman raped in Missouri might be criminally liable if she tries to terminate her pregnancy in that state. But if that same woman crosses the border into Illinois, her right to terminate her pregnancy is fully protected and legal.

The ruling to overturn Roe will disproportionally affect poor women. Keep your eyes peeled for organizations that will connect women who live in states where abortion is illegal to services in states where abortion is legal — and then support these organizations by donating money and volunteering. Help these organizations provide transportation and a safe place to stay for those who don’t have the means to secure resources on their own.