DragonFlight

Back in June of 2008 I wrote a blog entitled, “Surround Barack Obama With Protective Energy.” Most of the over 2000 readers “got” the point, the need to protect by any means a man who, by his very nature, would incite many against him. After all, he was half Black, and his liberal-leaning ideas would most assuredly seem threatening to many within the economic “Establishment” and, by definition, the right wing. Little did I know at the time just how important the need for protection might become.

I didn’t realize the extent of the forces that would align against him no matter what he said or actually did. I didn’t know the Republican Party would so viciously and systematically go after Obama simply because he won the election. I didn’t as yet understand how pathologically desperate the right wing is to be “right,” nor did I know how firmly and totally they embrace the ideology that there are only two kinds of people in the world, those with them and those against them, basically those who are them, and those who are not!

Fortunately, as a result of just how well the Republicans did govern for the past eight years, and after two disastrous (for them) Congressional elections and the recent Presidential election, the Republican Party has been relegated to the sidelines to fight among themselves and everyone else. They love to talk about how they hate government (the bigger the badder), and they never miss an opportunity to demonstrate this point of view when they actually find themselves in charge.

Just what are these rascally Republicans up to now that the American voters have finally responded negatively to this party’s natural inclination to govern badly? Are they helping the new Administration to clean up the mess they passed on to it? Are they ashamed to leave the nation and so many Americans in such dire straits? Are they showing any signs of contrition, shame, or humility as they unite around the new government in an attempt to help set right the wrongs they perpetrated on a nation, and the world?

Unfortunately, these are not things the Republican Party is doing after losing the last election. Instead, their motto subtly morphed from “we put country before party,” to “what stinkin’ country?” So what do Republicans do when not in charge?

For eight long years I’ve argued with many diehard Republicans about the wisdom of voting for George W Bush, not just once, but twice. I ended up being called a Bush hater and even worse, a “liberal,” and basically dismissed for my efforts. Actually a lot of people warned that the policies of George Bush would lead to serious problems for our nation, and guess what? They have! Besides all the families catastrophically effected by the war in Iraq, there are now millions facing the loss of jobs, their homes, and more recently the loss of their pensions, retirement benefits, and ultimately Social Security and Medicare benefits if another Republican Administration gets in office.

Now on the eve of the 2008 presidential election many of the same people, plus many renowned conservative Republicans are strongly warning against voting for John McCain, essentially for the same reasons – basically he offers more of the same, and the nation cannot afford it! Colin Powell and Christopher Buckley, son of the late conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr., just to name a couple, have actually endorsed Barack Obama because the alternative would be so bad for America.

September 16, 2008: “Why do Republicans embrace lies? The McCain/Palin False-Talk Express lies, lies, lies! Palin did NOT say “thanks, but no thanks” to Congress, and asked for and received huge earmarks for Alaska! She’s NOT a fiscal reformer! While mayor of Wasilla, seven times smaller than Paradise, she created a $20 million-plus deficit, building a $13 million sport’s arena! Doh! Wall Street is in danger (as is your retirement), the dollar is dropping. We DO need REAL change! At least give the other party a “chance,” before we lose it all!”

September 2, 2008: “Apparently Maria Schulte, you don't know the difference between caring for women and using them. Sarah Palin is a very transparent attempt to pander for female and social conservative votes. When the Democrats didn’t nominate a woman, the GOP backroom boys obviously drooled over each other to nominate just ANY woman so as to appear “progressive.” Shameless pandering is clearly McCain’s strongest political trait! You trust him to be president? Which promises to which group will he honor?”

August 31, 2008: ‘”As you sow so shall you reap.” -- Sound familiar? Recently a James Dobson minion and employee of “Focus on the Family,” Stuart Shepard, asked politically conservative Christians to pray for rain at Invesco Park in time for Barack Obama’s DNC acceptance speech, calling it “boyish humor.” Apparently God didn’t appreciate the humor, as hurricane Gustav approaches Louisiana in time to threaten or alter the Republican National Convention. Prayer isn’t meant for selfish purposes, or as a political weapon!’

A few facts:

The nation is in deep financial trouble, and lost in the quagmire of two seemingly endless wars. Who has been in power for the past eight years? Who has run the government of the United States? The Republicans.

The Congress has the lowest approval ratings in its history. Who is responsible? Though the Democrats have technically “controlled” Congress for less than two years, the Republicans have obstructed their almost every move.

Barack Obama, contrary to the constant lie disseminated by those same Republicans, is NOT going to raise your taxes. Who will see an increase in taxes? Those earning in excess of $250,000 per year -- that is one quarter of a million dollars annually.

Let’s correct some major misconceptions that are being held by all too many McCain/Palin/Republican supporters, and whoever else. At this time of crisis in American history, the American people need facts, NOT party talking points!

The slogans and focal point of the 2008 election in both campaigns will revolve around the “need for change” in one way or another. Why? The nation desperately and surely needs change, and quickly! From what exactly? The same thing the Republican Party is desperately running away from -- the 800-pound gorilla sitting in the room, namely, the ghost of the last eight years of Republican dominated government that hangs around its collective neck like an albatross.

There is presently a very obvious and blatant disconnect in the Republican Party between actions and message. They are admittedly (according to Fox “News”) and desperately doing whatever possible to disassociate themselves from that same government, represented primarily by George Bush and Dick Cheney. Paradoxically, and at the same time, they are all the while clinging to the idea that the Republican Party, and John McCain specifically, are the entities that can and will institute the change everyone is clamoring for.

You have to raise an eyebrow when the GOP continually claims they don’t put party before country. That aptly describes what they have been doing for the last two decades, and most especially during the failed presidency of George Bush. As a matter of fact that is exactly why the Bush Presidency has failed. Time and time again the Republican led Congress between 2000 and 2006 supported one failed or corrupt policy of George Bush after another. And when the Democrats took over a majority in Congress in 2006 they discovered that majority was not large enough, especially in the Senate, where time and time again the Democrats could not get the sixty votes required to override all of the Bush vetoes, even as Republicans pretty much lined up in lock step to resist almost everything the Democrats tried to do in order to beat the Democrats, not serve the nation.

The one thing the Democrats could have done, should have done, and didn’t, was to start impeachment proceedings against George Bush. The laundry list of crimes and misdemeanors perpetrated by Bush and Cheney make the actual impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton pale by comparison. I blame Nancy Pelosi, and some obvious hanky panky (whatever it was) behind closed doors for this. The idea that this would have distracted Congress is specious, and as far as angering the Republicans, so what!?!

When I first heard that both Bush and Cheney were going to address the Republican National Convention I was taken by surprise. I couldn’t help thinking, “why would John McCain, desperate to deny he represents a Bush third term, want this pair speaking at the RNC to remind everyone of just how really close they are on policy, or to even remind everyone they are all in the same party?”

It was despicable enough that a James Dobson minion and employee of “Focus on the Family,” Stuart Shepard, requested that politically conservative Christians join him in praying for rain at Invesco Park in Denver, Colorado in time to mar Barack Obama’s DNC acceptance speech, but the irony of that request was yet to play out and aid the Republicans in a totally different way in their crusade to turn religion into a political weapon, instead of a spiritual acknowledgment of God.