Category: Politics

Posted in Non-fiction, Politics

Judging and Society

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

#keepitalive

How often in your life have you judged someone, perhaps not even realizing what you were doing? I think we all may be guilty of judging others without full information or even the right to do so. Judging is only part of what is tearing our country apart in the U.S. There are many other factors but judging our friends and neighbors for their political and personal beliefs ranks right up there at the top.

In the last eight years, U.S. society has become more polarized than at any time since the civil war from a political perspective. It’s very much an atmosphere of us versus them. During this time, many of us have lost friends and even family because one or the other of us were judged harshly for their political beliefs. The political beliefs that each side holds couldn’t be more different. One side wants to maintain the progress of the U.S. and try to improve it. The other side wants to take us back to the past and even worse, establish a fascist regime. We all have friends on both sides of this argument.

What do you do if you are on one side and a friend is on the other? Do you judge that friend for their political beliefs and in the process, you realize you may lose that friend? The number of people in the U.S. over the past eight years that have lost friends and family because of our political divisions has become innumerable.

What is the solution? Can you maintain a friendship with someone on the other side of an issue or many issues? Can you just not bring that into your conversations? Can you refrain from judging your friend even though you don’t agree with them? Believe me, it’s difficult since almost all the conversation currently is about the politics of the U.S.

I don’t have a solution, but what works for me is just talking to my friends as always but avoid the politics discussion if possible. I realize that will never solve anything, but I’m starting to wonder if judging people based on their political beliefs is becoming entrenched in our culture. There may be no turning back.

Thanks to Sue W and Gerry C for hosting the #Keepitalive Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge Judge!

Posted in Politics

Does Capitalism Need Democracy?

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning, but cold, in northeast Kentucky. If you just look out the window, it looks like June. If you walk out the door, it’s January. At least it is a sunny winter day!

I heard a news clip first thing this morning – a debate about democracy and the state of our democracy in the U.S. Since my field is finance (though my interests range far and wide), the news clip made me ponder our form of government, which is democracy, and think about it in relation to our economic system, which is capitalism. Since many or most Americans believe firmly in an economic system of capitalism, how can we also believe in a dictatorship where businesses are owned by the government and workers are only paid a wage? I see a contradiction there.

Some fear that the U.S. is moving toward the theocracy form of government where the laws of the state are based on the laws of whatever the dominant religion is in the country and the leader is seen as some sort of religious deity. Although there may be less room for corruption in a theocracy since governmental activities are confined to a few, most theocracies are unstable. Although there are theocracies that have a fairly successful capitalistic economic system, Israel being an example, there is not as much economic growth or personal freedom as in a democracy. Again, I see a contradiction.

Then, we have the monarchy form of government, but I’m not even going there today!

Americans, or most Americans, believe in a capitalist form of economic system. They denounce socialism since they don’t want the government to own the means of production or the companies that drive economic growth, development and stability.

We have a lot to think about and consider in this most important election year of 2024. We have two candidates running for the highest office in the land with very different perspectives. What are your thoughts? Comments?

@rosemarycarlson

Posted in Flash Fiction, Politics

The Golden Idol

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

“And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence.”

From the Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel

Watch the January 6 hearings on most U.S. TV Channels. More hearings during June 2022:

Posted in Politics

Not Your Father’s Republican Party anymore

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 Presidential election, Democrats are celebrating and Republicans are denying and crying. The current President is pursuing his legal remedies and screaming, “fraud,” but without any evidence. Democrats are blinded by the light of the Biden/Harris ticket. But, there are issues that the U.S., not just each individual political party, has to solve before we can really move forward.

There is the issue of civility. There is a bigger issue of right-wing extremism. The current discourse between members of the two political parties is rancorous and hateful. Democrats resent the Party of Trump and the changes that have happened in his name over the last four years. Republicans seem to want a continuation of those policies, though most except his most enthusiastic cheerleaders (Lindsey Graham, anyone?) remain silent. Waiting to see what happens. It’s this writer’s opinion that the Republican Party, which I now think of as the Party of Trump, may have the more realistic view of the situation in the U.S. There are groups of right-wing extremists that are not going to go away just because Donald Trump does. Trump was a figurehead of extremism. Where there is one, there will be another.

Not only will there be another strongman, Trump is not going anywhere. Oh, he will leave the White House, but he will start his own media company and continue to disseminate right wing propaganda and fake news. The 70 million people who voted for him will swallow it all, hook, line, and sinker. There will be more conspiracy theories, started by the strongman himself, Trump. Of course, all the people who voted for Trump will believe every word even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

The Democrats have always been optimistic and hopeful. They don’t seem to see that just because Trump is gone, it does not mean Trumpism is gone. Forty-five percent of the country voted for Trump. True that it is a minority, but a large minority. Trump and his minions brought the lack of civility to the U.S. Also, Trump brought the image of a strongman into the American conversation for the first time. Joe Biden, good man that he is, is probably not going to be able to wipe that image from our consciousness nor from the Republicans‘ hopes for the future. For some reason, the GOP has made a hard right turn and has embraced the strongman image without realizing the problems that it brings along with it. Such as the demise of our democracy.

Democracy does not flourish under authoritarianism. I’m reasonably sure that the Republicans in Congress realize this and that they have made the choice to follow the Pied Piper, or the strongman in charge, anyway. Is it because they are closet racists? Surely not all of them are. But even though Donald Trump will fade into the background of national politics soon enough, another strongman will emerge. It is as inevitable as the grass growing. Once there is a perceived opening in the consciousness of a group of citizens that allows authoritarianism in, it is not easily pushed aside. There are already probable 2024 candidates waiting in the wings.

Senator Tom Cotton is one who will probably run as a populist isolationist. Senator Josh Hawley seems to be the upcoming darling of the Republican Party and has made statements exhibiting his strongman tendencies. Whether either is the personality type that can pull it off is a question yet to be answered. Don’t forget that we’ve had one reality show President. Another non-politician could certainly be waiting in the wings ready to take conservatism as far right as it is possible for it to go.

Democrats need to be prepared for this. We can’t let our party swing too far to the left since that is a recipe for the alienation of a portion of the party. Regardless of what rhetoric Republicans want to spew, Joe Biden is a centrist, which is a good thing given the current political climate. There are a number of possible Democratic Presidential candidates for 2024 waiting in the wings and many of them do not occupy a centrist position in the party but rather a progressive position. That sets us up for a 2024 election between far right and a far left candidates.

Even though the Democratic Party should give a voice to the progressives, it would be a mistake to fully embrace progressivism at this point in our political history. Such a sea change takes decades to make itself comfortable in the consciousness of people. The Republicans have been moving toward ultra-conservatism for awhile. It started decades ago with Rush Limbaugh’s TV and radio show, continued with the Tea Party, and came to fruition with the election of Trump. The Democrats don’t need to give an opening to another possibly charismatic political figure on the right who can blindside us like Trump did. The way forward is a centrist strategy to appeal to most of the people most of the time.

Posted in Flash Fiction, Non-fiction, Politics

Trump and Voter Suppression

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

american flags and pins on white background
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

After reading a number of news sources, I’m left wondering what the current President of the United States has to do to get thrown out of office. He is trying to shut down one of America’s great institutions – the United State Postal Service. Can you imagine? When he first started talking about it, an optimistic person might have thought that his concern over mail-in voting was an opinion he formed legitimately. After you hear Trump talk about the Post Office and mail-in voting, many of us realize that his concern is not legitimate at all. A number of states have had mail-in voting for years, The incidence of fraud is less than one-half of a percent. What’s more, he’s allowing one state, Florida, his state of residence, to have mail-in voting. This is fair?

It is apparent that Trump is trying to suppress the vote. He knows that many people will not go to a polling place to vote for President in November 2020 due to fears over the pandemic. A pandemic that his administration failed to even try to control until it was too late. Instead, he tried to say that the COVID19 virus would magically disappear and offer solutions which were medically unsubstantiated. Even dangerous. Trump thinks that if he gets rid of the Post Office and any chance of mail-in voting, he will have a better chance of beating Joe Biden in the race for the Presidency.

The unbelievable thing is that Trump is not even trying to hide that he is engaging in voter suppression. He admits it. He is actively trying to cause people not to have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote and he is breaking laws regarding election tampering in the process. What does this man have to do to get thrown out of office? Kill someone?

The latest news is that Trump is having the mail sorting machines removed from post offices around the U.S. Leaving postal workers without any way to sort the mail is such terrible thing that it almost defies believability. Of course, mailed in ballots will swamp the post office and without any way to sort the mail, it will take months to receive and count the ballots.

Trump installed one of his political campaign donors as Postmaster General. He is, of course, complicit in this effort at voter suppression. The Republican Senators that sit by and allow him to do these things are complicit. They are just as responsible as he is. Trump and his Republican cronies in the Senate should all be voted out of office in November and the Postmaster General should be removed as soon as possible.

Any voter that puts their stamp of approval on what Donald J. Trump is doing, from actively breaking the law to morally bankrupting our government deserves what they get if he is elected. The rest of us need to vote, regardless of where or how we have to do it. If we don’t vote him out of office, the future of our country is, indeed, at risk.

Posted in Non-fiction, Politics

Protect Your Voting Rights!

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

american flags and pins on white background

Americans today have an issue with maintaining their right to have free and fair elections. There are issues about voter suppression; specifically, the defunding of the postal service and voting by mail. There is also evidence that Russia is, once again, trying to manipulate our 2020 Presidential election.

In the 2016 Presidential elections, it is known that Vladimir Putin of Russia and his intelligence agency tried to manipulate the election and succeeded, at least to some extent. The Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Marco Rubio (R-FL), knows that Putin is trying to do it again in the 2020 Presidential election. Putin is, and always has been, in favor of bringing down American democracy.

Russian interference is affecting your voting rights.

Several states have had 100% voting by mail for a number of years. Those states are Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. There has been less than 1/2% fraud. Despite that, Trump is against the vote by mail option, even though many people prefer to vote by mail this year due to the spread of COVID19. In the face of the facts that there has been virtually no fraud in the elections of those five states, he insists there is fraud. Then recently, he allowed the state of Florida to vote by mail. But no other state! Why, if he believes, fraud is likely? Trump is trying to suppress the vote because he knows that fewer voters are always better for Republican’s running for office than more voters.

Voter suppression through the vote by mail option is affecting your voting rights.

The U.S. Postal Service has been operating on a shoestring. Trump is trying to defund the postal service by installing one of his cronies as Postmaster General. The new Postmaster General fired the top personnel and any overtime work has stopped. Postal workers have been encouraged to leave mail undelivered and work shorter hours. Trump’s goal is to make sure that the Postal Service can’t handle the load of mail-in ballots which is another voter suppression tactic.

Voter suppression by defunding the United States Postal Service is affecting your voting rights.

Trump does nothing to stop Putin’s antics regarding our votes. He is actively trying to suppress our votes by defunding the Postal Service and trying to stop vote by mail.

Is this a man who should be President of the United States? Americans need to take back their right to vote.

Posted in nonfiction, Politics

Trump Cancels Social Security and Medicare Tax

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

On Saturday, August 8, the Democrats and Republicans in Congress could not come to an agreement on what kind of stimulus package to provide to the American people in the wake of COVID19. Due to their wavering, Trump stepped in, as always, seeing an opportunity to, once again, try to buy votes from the American people. He issued four executive orders, which are not yet law although he tries to tell us that they are. I want to focus on one of the four executive orders that should be important to all of us.

Trump cancelled the payroll tax until the end of the year. Supposedly, that is to help working people by giving them a bit more take-home pay. My question to my readers is this. Does this really help you? Particularly in the long-run when you retire? The answer to that, in my opinion, is a resounding no.

You see, the payroll tax is a shortcut way of saying “what you pay in for your share of Social Security and Medicare.” If the payroll tax is cancelled, no one is paying into the Social Security Trust Fund. They are not paying into Medicare. If working people are not paying in, the Trust Fund is not growing, waiting for you when you retire. This is Trump’s first shot at getting rid of Social Security and Medicare, which he and his Republican buddies have always wanted to do. A sneaky way to do it, isn’t it? Especially since the average person may not know what the term “payroll tax” really stands for.

You may say, “Oh, but Social Security will not be there for us when we retire anyway.” Do you know that for certain? No, you don’t. Do you want your parents and grandparents to lose what may be their only, or one of their only, sources of income when they retire or if they are already retired?

Medicare will pay 80% of your medical expenses at retirement. Your grandparents or parents may be on Medicare now if they are over 65 years of age. A program that pays 80% of medical expenses is a valuable program for you in the future and for them now. Trump is threatening the security of what could be the only health insurance you might have and that’s Medicare.

Here’s the kicker. Trump says that, if he is re-elected, he is going to cancel the payroll tax permanently. That will definitely mean the end of Social Security and Medicare. Think about that when you cast your vote in the November Presidential election.

Different (or the same) opinions welcome!

Posted in Non-fiction, Politics, Uncategorized

Brett Kavanaugh: Men – It’s Not About You

Posted on by

Judge Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as the newest Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States this weekend. After Dr. Christine Ford’s testimony and Judge Kavanaugh’s follow-up testimony, I’m disgusted for many reasons. One of the reasons is that men seem to be making this issue all about them. It’s not. It’s about the victimization of women since the beginning of time.

Don’t you think we know that there are good men in the world? In fact, most men are good men. Someone, however, is attacking one out of every three women, aren’t they? But that is not the issue and if you think it is, you don’t understand the problem at all. First, the issue is that the justices on the High Court should have spotless reputations. We already had Clarence Thomas on the court who was accused of being a sexual predator by Anita Hill during his confirmation. We don’t know if he is/was or not. Now we have Brett Kavanaugh and regardless of what you may say, there is no way, now, that we will ever know if he is a sexual predator. Allow me to explain.

The explanation involves the second issue. A woman simply would not put herself through what Dr. Ford went through if there was not something to her story. She did not tell her story at 15 years of age because she was frightened. Frightened of her parents, her school, her attacker, and so many more things. She tried to put it behind her and move on. She couldn’t and went into therapy. Then, Kavanaugh was nominated for a position on the Supreme Court.

An investigation ensued or so President Trump told us. Trump not only did a disservice to Dr. Ford. He also did a disservice to Justice Kavanaugh because now, because of a sham of an investigation, we will never know if Kavanaugh is guilty or innocent or if Ford was telling the truth. This wasn’t a trial so the rules of innocent until proven guilty do not apply. A large percentage of the population will always wonder about Kavanaugh just like we wonder about Clarence Thomas. Trump could have allowed the FBI to either clear Kavanaugh’s reputation or prove that Ford was correct.

Don’t we have to wonder why he didn’t?

Posted in Politics

Donald Trump, Immigration: Next?

Posted on by

4A7D7A51-7E94-4B2C-9DD4-516A37BE79FE

By now, we all know about the issues with Trump’s immigration policy at our southern border such as family separation, detaining children in camps, and, in general, causing an uproar across America. Right on the heels of that fiasco, we learn that Trump is asking the U.S. Army to release any soldier who is serving in the Army with the promise of citizenship at the end of his or her service. This has released some excellent soldiers from our Army who will now be deported.

One has to ask, “What’s next?” or maybe “Who’s next?”

Has Donald Trump forgotten, or did he ever know, that the United States of America is a nation of immigrants? I am only third generation in America. Trump, himself, is only second generation. I had to wonder exactly what Trump is trying to accomplish after I heard him ask, “Why can’t we get more immigrants from Norway?” I suppose he meant as opposed to south of our southern border. That statement reeked of racism and bigotry. Clearly, he meant more white immigrants instead of brown immigrants.

We should (and so should Trump) remember the lessons of history. Hitler was striving for his Aryan race. A race of what he called white, superior beings. His brand of politics was called Fascism. As Trump wishes for more white immigrants and fewer immigrants from countries south of the border and from Muslim countries, all who have browner skin, I wonder what he’s trying to achieve. It can’t be that he wants to conserve resources or he would not be wishing for any immigrants at all. Could he be trying to “whiten up” America?

What should we expect next? Should we expect that all people with brown skin might have their citizenship revoked and be sent back to the countries of their ancestors? Or that all African-Americans or Asian-Americans might suffer the same fate? Perhaps he’ll just take a short-cut, and since our Congress is no longer serving as a system of checks and balances and because he is going to pack the Supreme Court to his liking, he’ll just build gas chambers as Hitler did.

I know you think I’m exaggerating. I would imagine the German people didn’t expect millions of Jews to be killed either. At least, not at first.

Maybe Trump will decide that no one is worthy of living in America but his “base.” At least that’s what I hear from some members of his base. Some of them say there will be a revolution and, for example, there will be no Democrats left. I wonder where they got that from? Trump takes the Democratic Party’s name in vain, and badly, at every Trump rally. No wonder he has riled up “his people” into thinking such a thing. Now his “base” wonders why the Democrats are filled with hatred and fear. Talk to some of the members of his base or go to a Trump rally and you will figure out why.

It could be that Trump will decide no one should live in America but “true Americans.” Of course, he thinks that is his base or he tries to make us think those are his thoughts. If he goes that far, the jokes on him. America is a nation of immigrants. The only “true Americans” have red skin. The Native Americans. #NotMyPresident

 

Recommended Reading: “Fascism: A Warning” by Madeleine Albright

Posted in Creative Nonfiction Essays, Politics

Relief: The Politics in the U.S.

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

img_0418

Today, Elizabeth’s Creativity Challenge asks the question, among others, about what would cause relief for the current distress in our fellow citizens given the current situation in the world. To provide my take on that question, I’m going to narrow the question to the United States.

The American Psychological Association actually coined a term for the stress many of us felt during and after the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election — election stress disorder. The APA cited people who were terribly distressed after each debate and then more than distressed after the election and who are having trouble recovering from that. First, a disclaimer. I personally believe we have reason to be distressed. But, we can’t have an entire country walking around unable to function for however long Donald Trump is in office. We have to be productive for ourselves and our country. That said, here is the APA’s prescription for at least some relief.

None of us in the U.S. have ever witnessed anything like the Republican primary debates nor the debates between President-elect Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. My highest stress moment (and there were a lot of them) was watching Trump stalk around on the stage (Debate 2) right behind Clinton but in view of the camera looking very predatory. Perhaps it didn’t affect men as much as women. It affected me a lot. I knew then that he should not be President. There were various high stress moments for all of us who were not Trump supporters.

What do we do for election stress disorder relief? First, the APA asks us to consider what actually happens in our brains to cause such stress. The primitive parts of our brain are associated with safety, security, and other factors cave men and women had to worry about. Those are the parts of the brain that came to life when I saw Trump stalking Clinton on stage, obviously to intimidate her. Other things might have caused  your primitives to spring into action.

Other parts of the brain react with empathy, compassion, and more adult emotions than the primitive emotions. Some of us have been able to access these emotions regarding the political situation in the U.S., some haven’t. The APA found that a full 52% of the U.S. population is suffering from election stress disorder, including both men and women.

What do we do to find some relief? The same things we do to find relief for anything that stresses us. Turn off cable news! Now! You can’t do anything at all about what’s happening. Practice relaxation techniques. Meditation, yoga, for example. Get some exercise. Aerobics helps me more than anything because it burns off that stress. Go about your work and your life. Read. Preferably fiction. Something that will take your mind to another place and time. See your friends and don’t let politics get in your way. Who cares if they are Trump supporters? They are still your friends. Don’t talk politics with them.

These things are all we can do in the short run. There is one more thing. Run for political office. There aren’t enough young politicians out there and I’ve noticed a real scarcity of young politicians, particularly Democrats. If you don’t run, you can’t make a difference. If we saw young, dedicated politicians ready to run for office, it would be a relief for all of us. #amblogging #amwriting #writing #creativitychallenge #politics

 

*American Psychological Association, Psychology Today, Election Stress Disorder

Post in response to Creativity Challenge #38