MAGA-LAMANIA!

The democratic club I belong to has had a voter registration booth at the local farmer's market for years. We see that as a public service and the duty of an organization committed to our democratic form of government. We do not try to hide the fact that we are partisan.  Our sign clearly states that we are a Democratic club. We also display the signs of local Democratic candidates, but, for the most part, we try to be inviting to people of all views. We also help people register regardless of their party preference - not just in compliance with the law, but also in the spirit of the law. In compliance of the law is easy, in the spirit of the law can be a challenge.

As I am sure most Californians know, the Republicans are now abusing California's recall provision by using it to unseat Governor Newsom for committing the unpardonable sin of being a legitimately elected Democratic Governor in a blue state. Last week we displayed a sign at our booth asking people to defeat the “Republican Recall!” This sign soon became a powerful magnet drawing to us a plethora of outraged Magalamaniacs who were intent on inflicting their insanity on us! I made the mistake of asking one of the Magalamaniacs why he wanted to recall the Governor.

The magalamaniac said he blamed Governor Newsom for the forest fires because Newsom did not heed President Trump's advise to clean and rake the [33 million acres] of California forest land. I almost asked him how he would like to pay the taxes needed to finance such an enormous task, but I knew he was not bright enough to grasp how expensive and time consuming that task would be. I usually avoid arguing with such dullards. I probably should have done so in this instance, but I could not resist the temptation to rub his nose in the hypocrisy by saying: “You know many of the large fires during the last ten years have been in the National Forest, and that's on Trump!”

The delusional twit responded by saying that the state was responsible for the National Forest! I was tempted to ask him if the many green trucks sporting the logo of the National Forest Service were just a figment of the imagination of we poor earthlings, but I knew it would not have any impact on him. Let's face it, there is no trebuchet of logic nor cannon of facts powerful enough to breech the vast, dense wall of willful ignorance and self deception guarding the alternate universe of the right wing. Unfortunately this dullard is not the exception; he is now the Republican norm. No election is final if the Republicans lose it, and they define liberal as being anyone with a triple digit IQ!

We [On] The People

 Everywhere you look in this country democracy is in peril. First of all, we no longer have a legitimate supreme court. What we have is Moscow Mitch's politicized abomination. And the only way you can believe that Chief Injustice Roberts is an institutionalist is if you believe that voter suppression and corporate acquisitiveness are regulative pillars rather than shameful, historical practices. Far from protecting the right to vote, Roberts and the other right wing injustices are defending voter suppression with decisions such as Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee. Those two decisions completely gutted the voting rights act of 1965, leaving the states free to suppress the vote of any race or group at will, and making Chief Injustice Roberts the Roger B. Taney of our times. Furthermore the opinion Roberts wrote in Citizens United makes it much easier for the wealthy and the corporations to secretly buy our politicians. This corporate, Jim Crow court has obviously changed “we the people” to “wee on the people! 

Okay, so our courts are now even more dangerous than useless. As Injustice Roberts said in Shelby County, it is up to congress to defend the right to vote, and to save our democracy [from the feckless, fascist fools kissing Trump's vertical smile]. It sounds reasonable, but don't hold your breath! It is great that the Democratic Party is a big tent, but moderate no longer means a liberal or conservative without a backbone. What moderate now means is a politician who represents rich corporate donors. If those moderates really represented the people of their districts instead of the big donors to their campaigns, they would support the disclosure act provisions in the For The People Act rather than opposing those provisions! I know, money is the mother's milk of politics, and all politicians want to win the next election. But there comes a time when what is right becomes more important than what is political! Our system depends on an informed electorate making wise decisions, and they cannot make informed decisions if they are being kept in the dark. Furthermore, fair elections, free of voter suppression are the heart and soul of any democracy! Democracy for the select few is not a democracy; it is an oligarchy! And if the oligarchy surrenders its power to someone like Trump, it is an autocracy!