The Heart of the Republican Party

I am a political moderate. I see myself as conservative on things such as family values yet liberal on foreign relations issues and things like health care and social security. As an educated man, I know the importance of balance and reason. Often times no one side is totally right on a particular issue. The best solutions are usually some sort of compromise.

Politics is all about selling an image. Politicians are well aware of this fact. That is why all of their double speak and long rhetorical answers that dont really give up any useful information are such a part of the profession. Politicians know, especially in the age of mass media and the internet, that one slip of the tongue can cost them their entire career. Some people like Bill Clinton are lucky enough to recover and continue to prosper. Other's like Howard Dean in the 2004 Democratic primaries didnt even have to SAY anything to crush their hopes at elected office. His strange and inexplicable shrill yell during a campaign rally convinced the general public that he was a little loose in the head and not fit to run for president.

I would like to think that America is capable of electing smart people to public office. Serving the public, when done right, is one of the most fulfilling and important careers that a person can have. So why do supposed smart people do and say stupid things? And I'm not talking about off the cuff remarks that are maybe questionable. Forget all the name calling and political spins and hearsay, when a politician says something so outrageous and so blatantly offensive as to call into question their ability to effectively perform their job, then they should be held responsible.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, a Republican from Kansas, was talking at a forum in her home state when she made the comment that Republicans were looking for a "great white hope" as an answer to Obama's popularity and his policy proposals. Really? Why can't the Republican answer be Bobby Jindal, the popular and well spoken minority governor of Louisianna? Or how about Michael Steele, the new chairman of the Republican national party? Or maybe Michelle Malkin, a right wing leaning blogger and author whose column is one of the most widely read blogs in the country, (and is also very attractive I might add). But no, according to this bigot of a representative from Kansas, the Republican party must continue its long history of nominating old white protestant males for the highest office in the land.

There are two things that make this whole situation so revolting. The first is that she is certainly not the only one in the Republican party who thinks along racial lines. The whole ruckus over Sotomayor and the wise latina crap was unbelievable. If you didn't hear about all that then see my other posts. No one in the Republican party is thinking about using minorities as anything more than a sideshow, clowns who can keep the public's attention long enough for them to find their next White boy golden child who will save America for the real Americans, white people. Now I just said previously that I believe in moderation and that mudslinging and name calling are really not productive ways to help our country to grow and become better. But her comment can only be seen as racist. It is a comment that someone who has a superior social position thanks to the color of their skin would say because the status quo is being challenged. Yes America has a black president and its about time too!

More importantly, this comment will only further divide this country. Right now with all of the ruckus over healthcare reform and two ongoing wars the last thing our country needs is to be distracted by this crap. The best part is that Obama doesn't act like a he is "the Black president" Sure he plays basketball on the weekends and has a beautiful and intelligent Black wife that he goes on dates with, but its not like he is in the hood taking complaints from everyday folk and then going back to Washington to fight for the rights of minorities while forsaking all his other constituents. Obama is everyone's president. He was elected with the help of white voters in this country! Is everyone who opposes Obama racist? Absolutely not. Is every Republican a white supremacist? Nope. But when you have a party with people like Glenn Beck who make a completely unfounded an equally stupid claim that Obama has a deep seated hatred for white people or people that bring loaded assault rifles to rallys where the president is speaking or congressmen that throw away all decorum an common sense and insist on parading out yet another ancient white guy to run this country, it starts to make me wonder about the future of the Republican party.
They say that by 2040 this country will be predominately people of color and that whites will be the official minority. Maybe then the Republican party will support government initiatives like social security and a public option for healthcare reform. As long as the new minority benefits!

All of the political science literature that I have read to date has suggested that America's two party system will never change thanks to the political structure of the nation and other factors. I love watching the cable news networks like MSNBC and Fox News because all of the hosts make wild predicitons and crazy claims about their opponents in an attempt to drive up ratings. I do not subscribe to propaganda or sensationalist journalism. However here is my own crazy claim that common sense and the facts actually support. If the Republican party continues to pursue divisive racial politics in an era when the rest of the country is trying to move on then of of two things will happen. Either the smart Republicans will distance themselves from the looney ones and we will have a three party system with a major political realignment, or the Republican party will cease to exist alltogether as an effective political force. Fortunately in America the people with common sense outnumber idiots like Glenn Beck and Representative Jenkins. Our democaracy will flourish, unlike the careers of the foolish.

Civil Rights in Iraq

Everyone hopefully agrees that any kind of genocide or ethnic cleansing of social undesirables is completely unacceptable. Yet while Americans fight in our own country over proposition 8 and gay marriage and what rights gay couples should have, Gay Iraquis are involved in a struggle for the most basic human right, the right to life.

The media will censor what no one wants to talk about. Those almighty keepers of the pen, the watchdogs of the world are afraid to talk about this. Why? Because for some reason no one wants to own up to what is happening. This is headline news, worthy of coverage on all the networks and local newschannels, front page material for the New York Times and Washington Post. So why is it not there? Why did I have to find it in as a secluded back linked story on Yahoo's news page, buried under tons of other stories that are not nearly as impactful? Even worse, I follow events like this and this is the first time I have ever heard about it, EVER. But apparently his secret war on gays has been going on in Iraq for years. Don't believe me, read for yourself,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090817/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_gay_killings

Seventy years after World War 2 and the defeat of the Nazis, the world still hasnt learned that genocide is wrong. Whats worse is that seventy years later, America is still making excuses for why we can't intervene, citing this as an internal matter for the Iraquis to handle. If we keep allowing the authorities to handle things in this manner then maybe Perez Hilton will finally have something else to talk about other then red carpet fashion. There are no long winded discourses or discussions or debates to have about this. The Human Rights Watch has found irrefutable evidence that Gays in Iraq are being targeted for torture and murder by their fellow citizens. The current American backed regime is not doing nearly enough to stop this. As the article said, these murders are seldom if ever found responsible for their crimes. These so called honor killings are the same excuse that men use to kill their wives who have alleged affairs or who dare to speak out against the status quo. This harsh and extreme form of Islamic rule of law is exactly what we were fighting to overthrow, yet in reality it hasn't gone anywhere. What message does it send to the world when we lecture Russia and China and Israel about Human rights while we order our troops out of Iraqi population centers while a quiet social genocide is taking place?

I've said it many times before that America is often a great nation in terms of ideals but not necessarily of practice. We spew all this rhetoric about how we stand for justice and equality and democracy and yet we stand by and let evil like this happen. The line we didn't know cant be used anymore. Human Rights Watch has exposed this conspiracy for what it really is. Besides we tried that lame excuse with the Holocaust, claiming we didnt know what was going on then too. We used that line up until 1944 even though everyone knew about Mein Kampf and intelligence reports from inside occupied Europe from as early as 1939. Barack Obama can and should lose all crediblity if he doesnt see this through to a positive conclusion for all of the Iraqi people. Politically it would be a huge mistake to order US troops back into Iraqi cities as it would upset Iraqi law makers and would brake the withdrawal time table we fought so hard to have implemented. Obama would surely lose votes at home and support abroad with such a policy decision. But doing the right thing is seldom the most expedient or easy choice. If we don't act now while these killings are being done with American forces still in the country, what will happen to these people when our military leaves? America can not claim a moral mandate to uphold justice and then not act on it when the time is right.

A Nation of Forgiveness?

America prides itself for being a place of redemption. Everyone deserves a second chance, at least as long as you are not a pro football star by the name of Michael Vick.

I love how America works. We allow the media and special interest groups to determine what issues are salient in are everyday lives. We allow other people to decide what is acceptable and what is immoral and then follow blindly without question or complaint. Allow me to explain what I mean.

Let me begin by saying that what Michael Vick did to those poor dogs was wrong and inexcusable. There is no way around that fact. However he has paid his debt to society, spent the time in jail, over a year and half in fact. He has lost almost 130 Million dollars and had to file for bankruptcy, not to mention the damage done to his career and reputation by all of the negative publicity. Michael Vick has indeed suffered for his crimes.

Now Michael has a chance at redemption. His friend and fellow NFL quarterback Donovan Mcnabb became an advocate on his behalf and got Vick a two year deal with the Eagles. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has partially reinstated Vick into the league, allowing him to begin to peice his life back together.

In a moving interview with 60 Minutes, Vick described his remorse over the whole ordeal. He talked about the hurt and pain from his bad decisions and the realization that his actions had consequences that were very serious. Vick said during the interview that he cried many nights in jail and was very sorry for all the crimes he had committed. He has since partnered with the humane society and has gone on several speaking tours to talk to young kids about the evils of animal cruelty and dog fighting.

Unfortunately this is not enough for some people. There was a woman on Larry King Live last night who would not stop talking about the fact that Vick had committed a horrible crime. As a PETA representative, I understand where she was coming from but her attitude and mindset towards the matter were simply appalling. Everyone else on the show kept asking her whether Vick deserved forgiveness and a second chance. Everyone agreed that what he did was horrible but most thought that the deal with the Eagles was a positive situation. However the Peta rep dodged all questions about the need for a second chance and simply repeated over and over that "the dogs he killed didn't get a second chance".

She is not alone in this opinion. Several Eagles fans have threatened to boycott games because the franchise signed this pariah onto their team. Everyone is focused on the Vick drama and no one is worried about the real problem with the NFL and with the American legal framework and with society in general which is unfair penalties for disparate crimes. No one is talking about the fact that another NFL star, Donte Stallworth, who killed a person and not animals, not only will spend less time in jail than Michael Vick, but is having less negative coverage in the media. This makes no sense, How can one spend more time in jail for killing dogs than for killing a human being?

Its time to stop treating Michael Vick like the dogs that he fought and killed. The parallels are striking. Michael Vick trained these dogs to fight and to entertain and make a profit. But as soon as they were no longer useful they were terminated and cast out, undesirables that no one wanted to deal with anymore. Michael Vick plays football games in an arena that involves grown men fighting to control a pig skin crafted into the shape of the ball. Every Sunday stadiums fill to watch this game, millions of dollars are made and people are entertained by the likes of Vick. But as soon as he becomes undesirable or unable to perform he is thrown to the wolves. Some say that this is just business practices at work and to some extent I agree. After all no franchise wants to keep a player that will bring down their team either performance-wise or in the eyes of the fans. But it wasnt just the Falcons that wrote Vick off. It was a large portion of Americans who decided that this entertainer wasn't worth rehabilitation or a second chance.

What's funny is that all of these football fans who are crying about Philadelphia signing Vick will forget all about when Sportscenter shows Mcnabb throwing Vick a touchdown pass out of the new wildcat formation. After Vick has proved that he is still an incredible athlete capable of making big plays and drawing large crowds despite being out of comission for two years, all will be forgiven. That is wonderful for Vick, but what does this say about American society? Michael Vick deserves a second chance, not because of his incredible talent, but because everyone makes mistakes and everyone deserves a second chance. The guy that Donte Stallworth killed while driving under the influence didn't get a second chance. If Stallworth is getting a second chance, then Vick definitely deserves one, everyone needs to lighten up and stop going on these pointless witch hunts. The man said he was sorry, lets save our righteous anger for something a little more important than this.