“Maybe there’s a God above, but all I’ve ever learned from love was how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya. It’s not a cry you can hear at night, it’s not somebody who has seen the light, it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah!” Leonard Cohen bemoaned the bitterness of love. Or at least…
Walls and Bridges, Part II
The wall debate is a perfect illustration of different rhetorical patterns between ideological viewpoints. Wall supporters are now comparing ALL walls in order to connect the logic of good walls to a Mexican wall : “Heaven has a wall,” “People in gated communities have a wall,” “Parking garages have walls!,” “Obama has a wall!” (he…
Walls and Bridges; a disclaimer regarding immigration
There are certain issues for which I cannot be silent. Civil and human rights are such issues. When people of any group, any nation, any persuasion, are marginalized in any way, I am called to emotional arms and I will be vocal. As a businessman I am more cautious today, politically speaking, than, perhaps, I…
A Fair Bargain
There are two things I hear consistently from people who oppose social spending: “It’s MY money,” and, “I don’t want my hard earned money being spent on people who want to live off handouts!” Their assumption often seems to be that the poor are that way because they haven’t been chastised enough to stop being…
The War Between The States (of mind)
When Bill Clinton was being excoriated by the right for weak morals, the term “Family Values” was coined. It may have been around already, but that is when Republicans took it to the People’s Bank. The internet existed, but social media was still in its infancy and the brushfire of negativity was experienced through traditional…
I Once Smoked Pot…
This exchange sums up the Kavanaugh argument for me. I was stopped and was asked: “How come Obama gets a pass for smoking pot in college and Kavanaugh is made out to be so bad for doing things that we all might have done?” Me: “What we all might have done? I never got pass-out…
To Beer Or Not To Beer
This article from The Atlantic should be read by everyone: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/10/conservative-women-kavanaugh-ford/572023/ It doesn’t draw a conclusion, but it brings to light a very real conundrum regarding methods and goals and the partisan divides. The word “hypocritical” is being used by both sides in the Kavanaugh debate. Calling this “extreme partisan politics” has traction on both…
No Country For Old Liberals!
Ok. Let’s rid the country of liberals. I read a conservative post that said that “liberalism is a disease.” Others chimed in and made it clear that liberals are “destroying America,” that they are “stupid” and “don’t live in reality.” So. Let’s deport them. That seems like an up and running directive these days for…
Time to hit the books!
Here’s how it went down: When extramarital rumors became investigations of Bill Clinton the right wing dug in and coined themselves as the “Party of Family Values” with no tolerance for a president who betrayed those values. It became clear that Clinton was denying the truth and that many of the accusations were, indeed, true. …
Progressive American Gothic
“Progress is impossible without change. And those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw The other day I was asked a question by a conservative friend with whom I often have dialogues. “Gary, what does it mean to be a progressive?” That appears as a simple question, but I knew…