Edwcraig
Edwcraig's JournalOnly Obama can fill the leadership void.
I hate to say this. I feel for Obama having to do this. But only Obama can go on national TV and ask for calm and channel the outrage to voting for change in November.
Insights into "Christian" Evangelicals
Video by Frank Schaeffer son on "Christian" con artists.
https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16/videos/1008589732828336/
We Are All Racists
http://democraticprinciples.blogspot.com/2012/04/we-are-all-racists.htmlPrimal man was neither the fastest, nor the strongest and not even the smartest hunter. What mankind did have, to enable it to survive, was the ability to communicate. Man had speech and with an abundant vocabulary. This enabled mankind to be able to survive by forming groups to hunt in units. Man could use the power of numbers against even the most powerful of foes including other animals, nature, the environment and yes even other groups of men. This trait was not for social reasons. It was the one and only thing that enabled primal man to survive.
In fact our primal nature is to form a tribe if we do not have one. We must. We know our very existence requires it. What our primal fathers learned is the tighter the tribe (thinking, acting, and dressing alike) the more the tribe can act quickly as one. And in the primal world, there were two kinds of humans - the quick and the dead. The more obedient we are to the rules of the tribe, the better the chances that the tribe would survive. We fear not conforming to our tribe.
I am a big University of South Carolina fan. There is nothing more exhilarating to me than standing among 80,000 of my football tribe of fellow Gamecocks as the band marches and the speakers blare the strands of “2001”. The team thunders on the field responding to the almost mad adulation of the packed throng. It is breath taking. My heart races. I scream and clap. I cannot wait for the sport combat to begin. I applaud as my tribe attacks the enemy tribe; and even more, as one 19 year old brutally hits another 19 year old of the enemy tribe. I am not myself. I am in rapture - the rapture of millions of years of primal conditioning. Millions of years where defeat meant pain, hunger and death and victory meant food, water, shelter and life. I cannot help myself.
According to Biologist E. O. Watson, “Experiments conducted over many years by social psychologists have revealed how swiftly and decisively people divide into groups and then discriminate in favor of the one to which they belong. Even when the experimenters created the groups arbitrarily, prejudice quickly established itself. Whether groups played for pennies or were divided by their preference for some abstract painter over another, the participants always ranked the out-group below the in-group. They judged their “opponents” to be less likable, less fair, less trustworthy, less competent. The prejudices asserted themselves even when the subjects were told the in-groups and out-groups had been chosen arbitrarily.
When in experiments black and white Americans were flashed pictures of the other race, their amygdalas, the brain’s center of fear and anger, were activated so quickly and subtly that the centers of the brain were unaware of the response. The subject, in effect, could not help himself. When, on the other hand, appropriate contexts were added—say, the approaching African-American was a doctor and the white his patient—two other sites of the brain integrated with the higher learning centers, the cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral preferential cortex, lit up, silencing input through the amygdala. Thus different parts of the brain have evolved by group selection to create groupishness, as well as to mediate this hardwired propensity.
When the amygdala rules the action, however, there is little or no guilt in the pleasure experienced from watching violent sporting events and war films in which the story unwinds to a satisfying destruction of the enemy. The horrors make the fascination. War is the strong life; it is life in extremis.”
Biologist E.O. Wilson on Why Humans, Like Ants, Need a Tribe. https://www.newsweek.com/biologist-eo-wilson-why-humans-ants-need-tribe-64005
It is primal and biological. We all have the “ists”. We are jingoists -biased against, those to the west, east, north, south, across the ocean, river or mountain, sexists - biased against the opposite, racists - biased against non-conforming skin tones and mannerism. And yes we are all "ists" - against what is not our tribe. As a white - racist against blacks, as a black - racist against whites, as brown - racist against yellow, as yellow – racist against white etc. None of us are able to help ourselves. We are primally conditioned.
The first step in the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Step Program is.
“1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.”
Without the admission by an alcoholic that he or she is an alcoholic, defeating alcoholism is impossible.
I submit that unless we admit that we are powerless over racism, we cannot take the steps to overcome our racist and all other "ists" predilections. By understanding my condition, and the cause of my condition, I am socially able to deal with my condition. I have to recognize that, by nature, my amygdala is going to fire and I have to wait and let my cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral preferential cortex, light up to manage my acceptance of a non-tribal member. It is not easy. We are all afflicted.
Democrats who claim that the Democratic Party is not racist are wrong. But Democrats, by the very nature of the party, reach out to a multitude of tribes. It is unique in its approach and contrary to the exclusive nature of Republicans. The democratic philosophy, fostered by the Democratic Party, is in fact recognition of the “ists” state of the human race. The Party rules and culture are to recognize that the very differences we have, are in fact the strength of our Party and nation. What is not understood by the more primal members of the electorate is that the political philosophy of democracy is a philosophy contrary to the primal tribalism of our human nature. The beliefs of the Democratic Party is to embrace our differences. It is the biological equivalent of the firing of the cingulate and dorsolateral cortexes. It is a good thing.
Recognizing the human condition of racism and bringing together all the tribes to share in the political process and the power is a Democratic Principles.
Joe's Grand Old Party
[link:http://democraticprinciples.blogspot.com/2019/08/joes-grand-old-party.html|
Joe’s Grand Old Party
Joe Scarborough Tweeted on 08/25/2019.
“We are at an acute hinge point in history. The days are grave. The need for serious, focused, wise, creative conservative leadership is something close to an emergency. And who, in this time of peril, is the champion of the Right? A clown. What a waste.”
My wife and I watch Morning Joe every morning. Joe and I have a lot in common. I am older, but we are both from the South. White. Grew up middle class and now are privileged. We are products of public education, went to college. And have been politically active. Parents were Southern Republicans. Here we differ. Joe made a decision as a young man to become a Republican. I made the decision to become a Democrat.
When we were both young. We knew the difference between being a Republican and a Democrat. Joe and the Republican Party will tell you it is about being conservative or not. But we all knew. We all knew that it was not. We all knew, and we all know today, that the word conservative was then and is now a mask for the true philosophy.
What is this conservative thing anyway? It sounds warm and righteous. Bush W. even added “compassionate” to the name conservative. It is like you cannot make a mistake if you do nothing. So that is being conservative. Right? And smaller is better. Right? It is always good for government to spend less. Right? Fiscally responsible. Right?
Well Joe you know since your hero Ronald Reagan became President, there has not been any fiscal conservative anything going on. Reduce taxes for the rich and cut spending for the poor and needy. Bust the budget. Increase the deficit. Destroy the economy with the Reagan and Bush W. recessions and still claim that you are fiscally conservative. So, you know it has nothing to do with being fiscally or in any other way conservative. What is it then? Well Joe you know what it is.
Even today, go to the WikiPedia link for the South Carolina Republican Party as they proudly recall the history the modern South Carolina (and all other Republican Parties in the South). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina_Republican_Party
“ On September 16, 1964, Senator Strom Thurmond announced to a statewide television audience that he had switched parties from the Democrats to the Republicans, saying the Democratic "party of our fathers is dead."[7] He said it had "forsaken the people to become the party of minority groups, power-hungry union leaders, political bosses, and businessmen looking for government contracts and favors".[8] The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed the following year, restoring the ability of minorities to vote through federal oversight of registration and electoral processes. Most African Americans affiliated with the national Democratic Party, which had supported their struggle. While __________________________ South Carolina and other southern states gradually shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party.”
Notice I left words blank. Based on the proud pronouncement of this group of citizens who were in opposition to, of all things, the Voting Rights Act, and who became the modern day SC Republican Party - what could those words be? Is it, good people of? loving citizens of? constitutionalists of? Liberals in? state’s rights advocates of? No. You guessed it. “conservatives in.” Of course, the words should have been “racists in”. But they could not use those words. You know, cannot tell the truth here. So, use the word that has before, was then and is today the mask word for RACISTS. CONSERVATIVES.
I am from South Carolina, was a teenager in the 60’s. Witnessed the vial hatred of white southerners to the Civil Rights movement and Dr. King, and how the racist Wallace Democratic Presidential campaign fought for the soul of the Democratic Party. How the leaders of the Democratic Party in South Carolina had to choose. How the racists lead by Thurmond, Albert Watson, Harry Dent and others left the Democratic Party, and how the good South Carolina white Democratic leaders such as Robert McNair, Olin Johnson, Bryan Dorn and John West stood up for decency and the values of America. How they defeated Wallace in 1964, vanquished evil racists from the South Carolina Democratic Party and embraced, to their political peril, South Carolina minorities, led by I. DeQuincey Newman, C,J Whitaker, and Modjeska Simpkins.
There was no ambiguity about what the Republican Party and Democratic Party stood for in the South when one chose which Party to join. Even the Grand Old Party of Everett Dirksen, John D. Rockefeller, Barry Goldwater and Dwight Eisenhower, knew who these evil people were. In 1964, during the national Republican Party platform debates, efforts by these neo-Republican racists to amend the Civil Rights section of the Republican Party, were rebuked.
But Nixon. Nixon knew he could win in 1968, using these new Republicans. His “Southern Strategy” was a deal with the devil. He could use them, and he thought they could be controlled. And so, did Ronald Reagan, who added white evangelical Southern “Christians” to the fold. No Republican President since Nixon would win the White House without the support of white, southern, racists Republicans.
Joe Scarborough and others would like to make you think that there was this great conservative movement in the South. That he was innocent in joining a political Party that embraced conservative truth, justice and the American way. He acts surprised to learn, only now, that it was all about racism. But he knew, I knew, everyone in the South, when making a political decision about which Party to join, which philosophy of government to embrace in the South, knew. It was then, and is now, a decision to support Republican racism or not.
Ask Joe, how many times, when hearing the racial jokes, criticisms of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Acts, food stamp programs and other welfare programs, did he stand up and say no. Your opposition my fellow Republican’s is just racism. Did he protest against, what I as a Southern heard, then and hear today? No. He knew he could not get elected unless he went along.
I (and yes there are Southern white men who today stand up and do) protest racism in the South. And by not standing up, Joe Scarborough and others permitted the evil cancer or racism, spawned by the Republican racists of the South, to capture the soul of the Grand Old Party.
By 2016, “conservative” Republicans, recharged by the election of a black man as President, vanquished the moderates in the Grand Old Party. The cancer had spread from white racists in the South, to white racists throughout the country. A Republican parade had formed, marching to the beat of the white racists. It was looking for a leader. It did not matter if that leader shot someone on 5th Avenue. They wanted a leader that would vanquish minorities. They were in ecstatic when he jumped in front of their parade and proclaimed.
“When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.”
They were sold.
It was a Republican parade of racists. Racists and those who do not believe in government, because government since LBJ, helped minorities and those that need help. If you listen to Joe, you would think the conservative Grand Ole Party was hijacked by Donald Trump. The beautiful pristine, virtuous and “conservative” Republican Party was duped by a monster. Here is the thing. Donald Trump is a Republican. Over 85% of Republican’s today APPROVE of the job he is doing. Sorry Joe. Trump is a Republican. The Republicans are Trump. And there never was a “conservative” Republican Party.
And do you really think we would have not had the tax cut for the rich, Charlottesville, El Paso, destruction of the EPA and the Affordable Care Act, the future ban on abortions if Cruz was elected President?
So, let’s be frank. the problem here is not Trump. It is the Republican Party. The only way to make America - America again is to vanquish Joe’s Grand Ole Party from power at every level of government.
And Joe, the Democratic Party welcomes you and others who believe in good government. And bring your conservative ideas. The Democratic Party is the party of all ideas. Get in there. Your conservative ideas will be challenged but the give and take on ideas is . . . . . a Democratic Principle.
Anti American Trump Brown Shirts Outside Kentucky Governor's Mansion
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/25/us/kentucky-governor-andy-beshear-effigy/index.htmlUnderstand his kids were home.
Zeig Heile
What church did Trump attend this morning?
Defend constitution against all enemies
Heard a Fascist Republican Trump supporter say he had sworn an oath when he joined the military to "Defend the constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic." and he would not accept a Trump defeat. And he would take action. I wondered what he meant by defending the constitution and if he was offended as I am on the attacks on the principles of our Constitution by Trump Republicans in
Eliminating the free press
Merging religion and government
Suppressing free speech
Violating the emoluments clause
Failing to promote the general welfare
Destroying the constitutional principles of checks and balances
Not obeying the rule of law
Denying equal protection under the law
Preventing Americans from voting
And . . .
If he is not offended and does not feel compelled to take any action to defend the Constitution because of this, what is he offended by that would cause him to feel that he would defend the Constitution by overthrowing the Constitutional government of the United States of America?
Twice as many deaths in 4 months than all the traffic deaths last year. Maybe we should...
Start removing stops signs in addition to eliminating social distancing.
Now if we can just get him to drink bleach.
Red Alert. Losing California and Wisconsin by these margins should be viewed as alarming
Interested in the analysis of exit polls and turn out numbers. What was the dynamic of mail in voting. What was the extent of voter turn out. What were the impacts of the economy vs public safety messaging on both sides. What was Trump's approval rating in these districts as compared to the approval of the governor. ........... We ignore this at our peril.
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHometown: Columbia, SC
Home country: United States
Current location: Louisville KY
Member since: Sat May 2, 2020, 04:33 PM
Number of posts: 290
