Enough

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

Abraham Lincoln - The Gettysburg Address

The civil war this time is being fought on the political front. It has already gone on for eight years. And it is once again over the rights of black citizens. A whole group, the GOP, do not believe a black man has the right to be president. And step by step politicians have handicapped the country so nothing has gotten, or can ever, get done again for the good of the people.

Because the politicians involved do not care about the good of the people. They care only about continuing to hold office so they can get supported by lobbyists. Oh, some may care about turning our country into a theocracy.  And a few more want to legislate women back to the days of caves and slavery. The ideal of Hobby Lobby.

BUT nobody cares about the people of this country. No, it is not a democracy any more. I have doubts it ever was. It is now clearly a corporacy. All for the good of the corporations and 1% of the "citizens united" who have moved all their corporations to tax shelters in foreign countries.

I find myself on the eve of this latest election wondering how this country would have looked if we had lost the Civil war. Or if upon winning we had refused to let the south (home of the Tea Party GOP) re-entry into our fragile federation.

I, like so many of my friends, find myself wondering what would it be like if we broke the US (too big to fail?) into five smaller countries. And we all kept our resources and water and politics to ourselves.

Yes, I will vote Tuesday. But, I do not believe in this country any more. I think we are losing this test and this nation will not long endure unless we hold a constitutional convention and change all that is horridly wrong.

One citizen and one vote no longer counts for anything in this country.

Entrenchment

Note: This blog is about political issues I really care about. It was actually my first blog. I began Creative Journey for business and Sidetracked Charley for lighter approaches to subjects which can be as sensitive as those covered here. This blog is no holds barred.

The GOP's war on women is totally unacceptable. More moderate leaders of the Grand Old Party will tell you the attacks on women's rights to control their own bodies is the political agenda of just a small segment of the Republicans. Blame it on the Tea Party. But in truth the Tea Party is just the front dogs of the attack. The old "Run it up the flag pole and see who salutes" approach. It is a tried and true strategy. Nixon used Agnew for the same thing.

The truth is all the talking heads, be they the "leaders" or the 40 Tea Party members of congress, are just puppets of the real leaders of the Republicans: The fundamentalist religious right and their agenda to turn the United States into a Christian theocracy. This goes against the very core of the foundation of our government - Separation of church and state.

And this campaign is not new. It first appeared in the 1950's when Under God was added to the pledge of allegiance and to our money. (I frankly find that latter significant as money is their god.) Barry Goldwater left the Republican party in the late 1960's because he said allowing the Religious Right a chair at the table was the biggest mistake the leaders of the GOP would ever make. But the Religious Right and its Moral Majority founded in 1979 ruled the roost in the 1980's. It was dissolved in the end days of that decade only because it was no longer needed. They were the Republican Party. Make no mistake, the Republicans are a religion.

It it was religion that brought you the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witchcraft Trials and the Klu Klux Klan and the blowing up of churches in the south if they were black churches. And religion, in the mask of the Republican Party, has brought you our current do nothing for this country Congress.

The Democrat's biggest mistake, and this is huge, is thinking there can be a dialog and negotiation to move the country forward. The only forward the GOP will agree to is their agenda: The United States of America One Nation Under their Christian God.

And that means no rights for women. Maybe even a resurgence of public burning of witches in town squares. Goldwater was right about the unholy marriage of Republicans and the Religious Right. Jefferson and the founding fathers were right to demand the separation of church and state as a key aspect of the Constitution of the United States. We are no longer the country of 1776. We fought then against taxation without representation. Given that the GOP supports no taxes for the rich 1% (which they belong to) can you honestly say you have been represented in the leavening of taxes you currently pay?

Time to say not one more step down this path we have been lead on by the Fundamentalist Religious Right. They are not moral and they are not majority.