Our Nation's Greatness?

From Mike Huckabee's Facebook page this afternoon:

"Today is Mike’s birthday and he is donating his age, 57, in dollars, to Huck PAC’s Conservative Senate Majority Fund. If you can afford to match him, I hope you will consider doing so by going to Huck PAC’s website using the link below. If you can’t donate $57 but can make a donation for a smaller amount, I hope you will. 

Mike is fully focused on electing a conservative Senate Majority to work with our next President, Mitt Romney. We both believe the last 6 years of Democrat control in the Senate, especially the last four with President Obama in the White House, have resulted in the systematic dismantling of our nation’s greatness. The America our children and grandchildren live in will be dramatically different than the one we grew up in, if we do not stop President Obama and the Senate Democrats now. 
So please join Mike and me in donating today to Huck PAC’s Conservative Senate Majority Fund. 

Thank you for your long-standing support of Mike, Huck PAC and the America we both hold dear 

-Janet Huckabee"

First, let me say, I think it's incredibly generous of Reverend Huckabee to dig so deeply in support of the Political Action Committee that carries his name.  It's that type of selfless leadership and self sacrifice this country truly needs in such uncertain times.  It's so refreshing to see an influential, well-to-do, man of God donate to his own political interests over truly decent things like feeding the hungry or healing the sick.

I don't fully mean to castigate Mike Huckabee on his birthday.  He earned his money, and he can do whatever he chooses to do with it.  However, for a Southern Baptist minister, with his own syndicated radio show and weekly Fox News television show to only be politically active is just a little off-putting.  He was the main voice behind the whole "Chik-fil-a Appreciation Day" earlier this month, of which he was very proud of the turn out "in support of Free Speech."  Imagine, though, if he were able to use his lofty status as a public figure to mobilize his audience to actually do something good for the community rather than eating a chicken sandwich as some distorted form of protest.  To think, I actually one time respected him and his views as a man of faith in an increasingly corrupt and disgusting political landscape.  I don't dislike the guy, personally, I just feel he has been seduced by the power his celebrity affords, and, like so many other decent human beings, has become a one-trick political being.

Pointing this out, though, is like saying it's cold on the dark side of the moon.  Huck's pulling a "full McCain" isn't a new development.  What perked up my antenna was the phrase:

 "last 6 years of Democrat control in the Senate, especially the last four with President Obama in the White House, have resulted in the systematic dismantling of our nation’s greatness. "

This phrase is so fraught with idiocy that I would honestly feel bad for what I'm to do to id, if I actually believed they were the words and thoughts of Mike Huckabee's wife, Janet.  I don't buy it for a second that she actually typed this status, because this idea that somehow America has lost her "Greatness" permeates to the very bedrock of the GOP rhetoric in this election cycle.  There are multiple fallacies in this rhetoric, but that's really nothing new when it comes to rhetoric.

In order for an entity's "greatness" to be "systematically dismantled," it had to have been great when the change identified as the culprit (The Democrats taking a majority of the Senate) took place.  To assume that, is to completely ignore the circumstances surrounding the 2006 Congressional Elections.  In 2006 the Democrats made huge gains in both houses of Congress because the voters had "had enough" of the GOP (this should sound familiar, because you heard similar rhetoric on Obama's platform for "Change" in 2008, and again on the GOPs platform in 2010.  Everything old is still old, but the put a fresh coat of paint and new fake outrage on it, making it seem "new.")

In 2006 there was no "Greatness" for the Democrats to dismantle, it was the same order of Turd McNuggets we face 6 years later.  If things were better in 2006, they could only have been marginally better, since the American public chose to elect Democrat majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in 12 years.  In the past 6 years, there hasn't been a sea change in policy initiatives, either.  There has been minimal policy change combined with minimal economic growth.

Maybe I'm alone in not wanting to recapture the "greatness" of 6, 12, 24 or 30 years ago.  This sort of campaign is the same sort of "recapture your youth that you can't remember" bullshit thinking that originally gave us hair dye, girdles, Hair Club for Men, and Viagra.  It's an attempt to idealize the 80's under Reagan the way Reagan idealized the 50's under Ike.  You can't recapture the past in the present, yet they manage to hoodwink people into believing that voting for their phony over the other phony will somehow give you back that '74 Camaro, full head of hair, dick that could get hard on it's own, and hot, young women wanting to see your hard dick and sit on it.  Those days seem awesome in retrospect because you were more awesome back then.  Now, you're a broken down, angry, old fuck who wishes he wasn't so broken down, angry, and could still fuck.

Politicians aren't magicians, and this crop we have in 2012 are bare even homo sapiens.  The one portion of the dream of America's past greatness I would happily buy from those by gone eras, would be the leadership.  I'd even take Joe McCarthy and Dick Nixon if it meant I'd get true leaders like Ike, JFK, Barry Goldwater, Reagan, and Tip O'Neill.  These guys never agreed, and in some cases, literally hated each other's guts, but they weren't self absorbed and stupid enough to think it was about them.  They were Americans first, and they had a job to do.

Alas, those guys are as long dead as their convictions about a great America for today and for tomorrow.  America was great, once, but it wasn't six years ago.  The dismantling started when WWII heroes like Ike and JFK and Bob Dole started dying and began being replaced by younger, and more spoiled men and women.  It started when the spoiled rotten children of heroes started trying to grow up, while still thinking they knew more than their parents.  They took pride in ending a war they refused to fight, acid and rock turned into cocaine and disco, followed almost immediately by deadly sexually transmitted diseases.  Rather than reinventing the machine the used to rage against, they just repainted it and slapped a peace symbol on it, replaced wit with condescension, cooperation with blame, and a dogged work ethic with smug entitlement.

I also see Romney's camp referring to his campaign as "America's Comeback Team."  This is another slogan or moniker that was obviously dreamed up by someone trying to appeal to 7-year-olds.  Did America suffer a concussion?  A pulled hammy?  What exactly is America "coming back" from?  It sure as hell ain't vacation.  Treating politics like sports ignores the simple premise that these assholes clearly aren't the best minds and leaders this country has to offer.  The best minds are on Wall Street inventing new ways to fuck us out of our money.  The best leaders?  They are an endangered species because we stopped teaching our children that with great talent and potential comes a great responsibility.  Civic duty and civil service used to be ingrained in the consciousness of this nation.  It wasn't an obligation or punishment.  At one point in our history, Americans actually got off on helping each other.

If they're going to insist on treating this like sports, and we're all on the same team, then we need to clean house when this season's over.  I don't mean just firing the coach and his staff, either.  The General Manager, and all the executives need to be sent packing, too.  We should also demand an ownership change, since our current ownership seems only committed to turning a profit on giving us an inferior product on the field.  Let's find an owner committed to WINNING.  In fact, how about we change things up and issue stock in our franchise, to return her to the people she to whom she really belongs, the fans.  If the fans actually own the team, they will hold the ownership accountable for the team's performance, and maybe pay better attention to the manner in which their franchise is run.

I know, I know, I hate to give an entire season away, but the losses we take here, will begin to pay off once we upgrade our talent through the draft.  It's a long season, and you can't win 'em all, no matter how hard you try.  This year's team sucks, anyway.

Let's talk about RAPE, baby...

The last time anyone associated with Missouri got this much press for talking out his ass, it was this...

I was initially going to post George Carlin's classic bit on rape, but I thought better of it.  I did however find some footage of a legitimate rape where there was no chance of pregnancy...

Alright, enough bullshit.  I actually spent some time writing this.  While it may come as a shock, I'm not really all that critical of Todd Akin.

To refresh your memory, in case you have somehow forgotten:

I bring up Todd Akin’s controversial statement, but I don’t do so to pile on regarding remarks that even Mitt Romney has labeled as “indefensible.”  There are, however some simple facts that lead to this statement being made.  Statements like this become prevalent when a person’s stance on a moral issue is determined by faith rather than fact.  To hear that the son of a minister, with his own Masters of Divinity degree from the Covenant Theological Seminary opposes abortion, even in the case of rape or incest isn’t shocking, and it’s also not a position he is somehow forbidden to hold on this issue.  Defending that position as a matter of policy or future policy is where things get tricky, which calls into question Akin’s ability to effectively represent his constituents in Congress, as he has for nearly twelve years, and it certainly should call into question his candidacy for the United States Senate.

This isn’t the first time Akin and “rape” have been linked publicly, either.  In the early months of this Congress, he was one of 216 Republicans to capitalize on the momentum created by the 2010 midterm elections, where the economy and the deficit were the prime issues, and go after abortion.  He was co-sponsor of H.R. 3 The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.  They were nice enough to put an exception for the case of “forcible rape” which they later had to remove to secure the votes needed to pass the resolution.  It has yet to reach the floor of the Senate for vote, and a second term for Obama almost assuredly guarantees a veto, should the law pass both houses.  I’m sure the debates on the floor of the House regarding this provision had to have been the most atrocious since the 3/5 Compromise was reached during the Constitutional Convention in 1787.  The fact that 216 Republicans and 10 Democrats believed this legislation would be viewed as a priority by their constituents saddens me.

For the record, I am Pro-Choice, though I have no idea how gut wrenching that choice would be.  I have never been an advocate of dictating moral decisions to others within my community whose moral convictions likely differ from mine.  I don’t pretend to have any answers to moral dilemmas that would be suitable for others to follow, and I view those people who are convinced of their moral superiority with both wonder and skepticism.  I don’t begrudge them their faith or belief system, but I neither trust their certainty in areas of right and wrong nor do I respect their condemnation of those who see things differently.

Faith can be a powerful force in our society, depending upon the nature of that faith.  When faith in one’s abilities is combined with understanding of one’s limitations and knowledge in a specific area of study or expertise, you have a very competent and confident human being.  My upbringing, and especially my parents taught me to have an firm faith in my abilities that some would say borders on arrogance.  Knowledge came easier to me than many of my peers, and my ability to apply new skills rapidly has been a talent I have continually exploited both in my personal and professional life.  Where I have continually struggled is identifying and understanding my limitations which shouldn’t be all that surprising, given my almost unshakable belief in my abilities.  Confronting these limitations and my own mortality will continue to define my growth as a person and my maturation as a son, husband, and father.

The more interesting aspect of faith is how it completely defies logic or reason, and faith becomes dangerous when it replaces logic and reason.  This is where having elected representation like Todd Akin becomes troubling.  His views and his faith are not the problem, entirely.  They represent a symptom of a larger issue within our society.  This issue, or more accurately, this collection of issues could be the beginning of the end of this country.

I want to be very clear that I don’t hate religion, and I certainly don’t hate the messages Jesus Christ set forth in his parables and acts that have been chronicled in the New Testament.  He gives us all a great set of directions on how to be better people, both internally and externally.  To quote Pedro Cerrano in the movie Major League, “I like him very much, but he no help with curveball.”

Where I continue to draw the line with what passes for religious institutions in this country, is how actively political they have become, and further how partisan their politics tend to be.  I have no problem with guys like Akin or Mike Huckabee going to seminary for post-graduate studies.  They are, no doubt, entitled to choose their educational path, however I don’t see the logical progression from religious studies to pursuing legislative or executive office within their state and Federal Government.  It used to be people went to Seminary to become ministers, now I guess it’s a spring board to Congressman and Governor.

I’m not saying either man isn’t intelligent, but there are some fundamental issues between being a devout Christian and the pragmatism needed to effectively govern.  The level of certainty in the Bible one must have to pursue degrees from Seminary seems to fly directly in the face of potential challenges to the Word they hold so dear as they attempt to govern an electorate that put them in office, while still respecting the individual liberties of those that didn’t vote for them

Through no fault of his own, Charles Darwin, and his theory presented in the Origin of Species is viewed as an outright attack on the divinity from which Genesis tells us we’re descended.  In spite of the evidence supporting Darwin’s theory, numerous politicians dismiss it as “just a theory.”  An example: 

“The theory of evolution is a theory, and essentially the theory of evolution is not science — Darwin made it up.  My objection is they should ensure whatever scientific material is being put forth as a standard should at least stand up to scientific method. Under the most rudimentary, basic scientific examination, the theory of evolution has never stood up to scientific scrutiny.”

-Kentucky State Representative Ben Waide (R)

Accepting Darwin’s theory doesn’t completely invalidate the Creation stories from Genesis, but it is a much less flattering idea than having been created in the divine image of God.  It also deprives us the implied dominion on this planet we receive as being the only life form capable of talking to our God.  The idea that our species has evolved from species deemed inferior in our minds is a tough pill to swallow, when the Biblical view or our origins is much more flattering.  A growing number of Americans are dismissing Darwin’s theory with every passing year, to the point that a clear majority of Republicans questioned in a recent Gallup Poll completely dismiss the theory altogether.

There are societal impacts of completely dismissing one of the most widely accepted scientific theories in history, and what is essentially the bedrock theory behind most modern life sciences, though.  Once you move past Darwin, it becomes increasingly easy to dismiss other scientific theories such as Global Warming or Climate Change or whatever they’re calling it these days, and, at that point, you’re just getting warmed up.

History is next, and the United States of America becomes a Christian Nation founded on Christian principles.  Religious separatists such as the Puritans (Pilgrims) become heroes of religious freedom, even though they seemed to lack tolerance for anyone who saw things even slightly differently than they did.  Colonies that predate Plymouth like Jamestown in Virginia are glossed over, because those colonists weren’t here for religious freedom, they were here speculating on agricultural ventures, specifically, tobacco.  That doesn’t sound as good, so we either minimize.  Then there’s that whole issue of slavery, the systematic destruction and relocation of the native residents of this land, and a bloody Civil War, and that was just the first century.  For some reason, that just doesn’t scream divine inspiration.  Yet we still seem to struggle with concepts like the Separation of Church and State.  I get it, Madison did not specifically write those words into the either the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.  He also didn’t specifically enumerate the concept of Judicial Review or that our legal and civil courts would respect common law or legal precedents in their decisions and processes.  Yet we see those concepts in action repeatedly.

Selectively recognizing accepted explanations to complex questions creates a standard of selectively recognizing commonly accepted standards of civility, behavior, communication, and achievement.  Hey, our elected leaders do it, why can’t we?  Turn on your TV, folks, at some point you’re going to see the glorification of complete stupidity and/or self absorption.  From the extremely buff, tan, and stupid crew on Jersey Shore, to the poor little rich girl Kardashians, to the crazy Cajuns on Swamp People, to even the increasingly shrill pundits on the primetime News Channels, our entertainment packages boorish, loud, drunk, ignorant, and self centered people as “normal.” 

Even revolutionary artistic mediums such as hip hop have been reduced to three minute advertisements for Jordans, Bentley, Jewelry, California Weed, and big booty bitches.  Socially relevant hip hop like what Chuck D, KRS-One, 2Pac, and Ice Cube made has been replaced in the national consciousness, with very few exceptions in the mainstream. 

Having grown up in a rural environment, in small-town Kansas, but having moved onto to my current suburban existence, I have mixed feelings about Country music, or anything related to being “country.”  I know real cowboys and real farmers who wear their wide brimmed cowboy hats to keep the sun off their neck, and drive a lifted four wheel drive because they have to drive it off-road to tend to their ranch or farm.  I also know wannabe cowboys who live in the suburbs, and drive their lifted four wheel drives only on pavement to their jobs as software engineers, all while bitching about gas prices.  The wannabes will shout me down and try to fight me over a simple disagreement at the bar, while the real cowboys aren’t at the bar because they just worked 13 hours, and have to get up at dawn the following morning. 

I’m proud of my roots in rural Kansas, but I’m equally as proud of my accomplishments after leaving, there too.  Small towns are double edged swords at times.  On one hand, they’re close knit and comfortable because you know everyone, on the other comfort breeds complacency and you stop questioning what you’re told, which means you stop growing intellectually.  It doesn’t happen to everyone in a small town, and some people would never trade their small town life for anything.  To others that small town amputates your dreams, and plugs in repetition as the prosthesis.  Either through resentment or apathy, you begin to revel in your lack of refinement and education, viewing well spoken and educated people with distrust or outright contempt.

As a child, growing up in this country, I was constantly reminded that in areas of mathematics and sciences, U.S. children were falling behind children from multiple nations around the globe.  In the nearly 20 years since I graduated from my public High School, that gap has not closed, and has in fact widened.  Rather than focusing on providing the best possible educational opportunities for our children, parents and law makers haggle over the curriculum, so as not to offend someone’s religious background.  Rather than making a career in education desirable and monetarily rewarding, state governments attempt to neuter their ability to collectively bargain.  Then, to take the situation from silly to “dumbest thing ever” territory, we remove any remnants of competition from our classrooms and playgrounds.  Kids can’t play tag because of the stigma attached to being “it?”  Everyone gets a trophy just for showing up?  Is it any wonder we had the Occupy movement, which basically boiled down to spoiled, self entitled children who went to college and earned a degree in an unmarketable skill, or a skill that required additional post graduate studies bitching that they couldn’t find a job, and blaming Wall Street and the upper 1%.  While I have myriad issues with Investment Banks and the deregulation of the financial markets, I can’t fully blame them for the unemployment issues in this country.  These kids should be pissed off, but their anger should be directed at their college counselors for telling them that a Bachelor’s of Political Science or Art History would improve their job prospects and their parents for spoiling them by trying to shield them from failure and consequences.

When you couple glorified ignorance with the sense of entitlement that has trickled down from the Baby Boomers, through Generations X and Y, on to the Millenials, you get a lot of foolish pride.  The Americans that came before us had a pronounced history of questioning the conventional wisdom of the day and innovating products and processes.  When Henry Ford wanted to increase production of his automobiles, he didn’t stick with the conventional manufacturing processes of the day, he created a new one that is still largely used in auto manufacturing to this day.

Our country, through its arts, technology, scientific inquisitiveness, and spirit of individual opportunity, has enjoyed an economic and cultural expansion worthy of praise and study.  As time has passed, previous Americans righted most of their systemic and historic social wrongs.  From ending slavery to guaranteeing equal protection under the law to every gender, race, creed, and religion (and we’re making progress on sexual preference, too.)  We have consistently looked backwards only to see what we need to correct, made the needed corrections and moved forward.  Now, it seems, we’re looking backwards, glossing over the mistakes of the past, and trying to return to a time that was either 30 or 60 years ago, as if the 1950’s or 1980’s were somehow idealistic and without flaw.  We’re debating the same basic issue in statehouses and publicly that Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debated in 1925.  We’re also publicly discussing voter discrimination related to race more vehemently than at any time since Mississippi was burning.  We’re still discussing a Supreme Court case decided nearly 40 years ago. 

There is palpable irony in our current political climate, as well.  Having the majority of citizens in a country that has evolved through time from a collection of oppressed colonies who were in turn oppressing everyone but white, landowning men into a global Super Power that provides equal protection under the law and equal opportunity at success to ALL people reject the notion that through time and environmental stimuli, species of plants and animals evolve and adapt to their surrounds would be hysterical were it not so sad.  A nation comprised almost entirely of the offspring of immigrants fearing the impact that future immigration may have on its culture is another sad reality.  The country of invention, from the cotton gin, to the steam engine, to the automobile, to the personal computer and the internet choosing to stand pat or return to an over glorified past rather than fix what’s broken regardless of profit and create a better tomorrow for our children.  This was not the vision for this country my Grandparents had, nor is it the vision I have for my Grandchildren.

When you couple our collective foolish pride with two leviathan Political Parties set up like the corporations that fund them, complete with marketing, advertising, and acquisitions arms, you get our current situation.  A happily ignorant, self absorbed, self entitled, and selfish populace choosing between two candidates propped by and packaged by political strategists employing combat techniques against each other.  It’s reached a point that both parties view each other as the enemy, rather than fellow citizens with philosophical differences.  Then you add in the short attention span media coverage, which is always looking for the “gotcha” sound bite to fuel their barely concealed agenda behind one of the two parties, and you get polarizing candidates at the national level like Todd Akin or Nancy Pelosi.  Being moderate or compromising is a sign of weakness to the voters that view their political affiliation like they view their favorite sports team.  We no longer want common sense policies that provide the best answer for the common good, we want to demonize then dominate the opposition party.  We want to replace a civil political dialogue with a shouted monologue, but, most of all we want to return to our country’s glory years rather than work to create our own.

The remedies to these serious societal ills are only clearly defined in their difficulty.  Much like how an addict or alcoholic has to hit bottom before being receptive to therapy, I believe we will, collectively, have to wake up in drowning in our own piss and vomit before we’re truly prepared to start rebuilding what it took us such a short time to destroy.  Even then, we will probably back slide a few times and wake up next to that nasty whore from last call.

Pride and ignorance should never be virtues worthy of celebration or pursuit.  Instead of foaming at the mouth over condemning or defending an ill-informed opinion spoken by a man from whom such an opinion shouldn’t be a surprise, why don’t we analyze the circumstances and our culpability in those circumstances that have allowed this man to, not only serve for over a decade in the House of Representatives and become a ranking member of that legislative body, but be a few short months from possibly being voted into the senior house of our Legislature for six years?