Whose America Is It, Anyway?

We Americans need to get a grip.

Many white Americans identify with the Pilgrims, with Jamestown settlers, with our Founding Fathers.  But most white Americans are descendants of much more recent immigrants.  Most white Americans' ancestors did NOT arrive on these shores via Plymouth Rock, most white Americans’ ancestors did NOT fight in our Revolutionary War, most white Americans’ ancestors arrived here in the last 150 years.  But even these children of immigrants choose to identify with Puritans rather than later immigrants.  Many white Americans would like to ignore the black experience, even though the first generation of blacks arrived here well before their European ancestors.  Many white Americans would like to ignore the indigenous experience, even though they populated the Americas for 10,000 years before the first Europeans set foot on these shores.

Qualifications

It was back in early 2015 and early 2016 that I wrote about the responsibilities of suffrage – that voting is not just a right, it is a privilege, it must be a responsibility too, you should earn it.  You need to be literate – able to read – and politically literate too – able to pass the same Citizenship Test that an immigrant must pass to become a (voting) citizen.  I expanded on that idea by suggesting that persons who know lots and lots about our history, our laws and institutions, and our founding documents ought to have their vote count as two or three average (ignorant) American citizen’s single votes.  Honestly, do you really believe that you should have an equal say in choosing our leaders as an American History professor, or someone who knows as much as he does about our history, etc.?  Yes, I surely believe in “one person, one vote.”  But, perhaps we should give some extra credit to those who devote their lives to being exemplary American citizens.  I stand by both notions today.

Power and Hierarchy

in process...

UFO’s

This article (here is his TED talk if you prefer videos to reading) prompted me to think about UFO’s.  And it’s a small leap from thinking to writing.

I have been fascinated by the idea of superior alien intelligences since as long as I can remember, most probably for the same psychological reasons as everyone else who has ever been obsessed by them.  I recall the name of Donald Keyhoe as an author whose books I consumed; his writings go way back to 1950.

The Democratic Party

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

So, you think you know what the Democratic Party is, eh?  You are wrong, no matter what you think.  Why?  Because the idea that this phrase means just one thing is – on its face – wrong. 

There are three – at least three – Democratic Parties.  One is the party of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and – yeah – Andrew Yang.  The second is the party of Joe Biden and all those who call themselves moderate or centrist or center-left.  The third is the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR).  But let’s not forget – Trump’s favorite president, the first Democratic president – Andrew Jackson.

Campaign Finance Reform

Campaign Finance Reform is bullshit!  If you disagree, give me a few minutes.

1. Everyone (well, political junkies!) knows that incumbency is the single most important factor in determining who will win most elections.  The people prefer the devil they know to the devil they don’t.  Mostly because most people don’t spend a lot of time following political news, but at least they know the name of their incumbent.  In addition, Americans routinely trust Congress overall somewhere beneath bank robbers, while at the same time praising their own Congress person.  How can this be?  Americans are not typically rational creatures with a command of relevant facts, that’s how.

Antifa

On July 4th, at a celebration of our nation’s birthday under the shadow of Mount Rushmore, the president of the United States threatened to register Antifa as a terrorist organization.  Of course, he will do no such thing.  The first reason is that this president makes promises (“throws red meat”) to his base to get them all excited, but he rarely follows through; and they seem to have short memories.  The second reason is: Antifa is not an “organization” at all, so it can hardly be made an object of law.