November 14

Slip, slipping Away
I was born on August 14, 1945 – VJ Day. What a great time to begin life!

As American GIs flooded home from war a grateful government lavished social and economic benefits upon them and their families. The GI Bill sent millions of kids through college and occupational training. And generous government-backed, low –interest home loans turned millions of working class Americans into homeowners, something once reserved only for a the rich.

My father had served in the Navy during the war. His parents were Sicilian immigrants. His father a hardworking stonemason. Before the war my father had worked for a house painting company. After the war he studied for and got a California contractor’s license. He got a low interest business loan, formed his own construction company. America was suddenly filled with hope and possibilities. He built his first spec home on a small lot in the vast, yet to be developed, southern suburbs of San Francisco.

All the pieces were in place for the historic economic growth that would follow. Thanks to generous CalVet and federal veteran home loan programs that house sold quickly, as did many other over the next 25 years. These new ranch style homes sold for around $32,500 and working class families snapped them up as fast as they could be built. The easy loans were only one reason for this. The men in these families returned to jobs that paid well.

During the 1950s, 1960’s into the 1970s life was about as good as it got for working Americans. Gone was the pre-war image of blue-collar workers as Ralph Kramden characters, barely getting by, forced by circumstances to live desperate lives in a cold-water flats. That was all gone, replaced by sleek new homes with neatly mowed green lawns in front, a patio in the back and at least one new car in the garage.

Back then the economy was as close to an economic perpetual motion machine as it gets. Workers suddenly had jobs that paid them more money than they needed to just get by. And, suddenly they had access to easy, affordable credit. They borrowed, spent, earned, invested, earned, spent, earned, and spent. Spending soared for durable goods, autos, furniture, boats, campers, and vacations. That demand in turn created more good-paying working class jobs -- which in turn created more consumers, which in turn… etc.

As social/economic conditions go, they don’t get any better. It was proof of what can happen when the economy gives everyone a fair piece of the action.

That period personified what became to be assumed was the default “American way of life,” – an American birthright for anyone willing to work for it. But, alas, it was not destined to last. I am not going to try to pinpoint just when we began going backwards. I’ll leave that to future economic historians. And, there are still a lot of Americans enjoying the residuals from those good days. They will surely wonder what the hell I’m talking about. And, there are those, who while struggling, still believe that, if they work hard and play by the rules, that 1960s American lifestyle is surely just around the next corner. You will find them largely in the “red states.”

But most of them, their children and grandchildren, are passengers on a slow freight back to times when workers must tread water furiously just to keep their heads above a rising tide of obligations and personal debt.

Yes, I know that home sales and home ownership remain are at record highs, thanks to record low interest rates. But, even here, the strains on average American pocketbooks are showing. Foreclosures are also at record highs. The American Dream did not appear overnight, and it will not disappear overnight. But, look at the numbers and you seen it, bit-by-bit, slipping away.

• Nearly 10 million Americans are now unemployed.
• Wages have eroded: In 1973, private-sector workers in the United States were paid on average $9.08 an hour. Today, in real wages, they are paid $8.33 per hour.
• 11 million Americans are trying to make ends meet on the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.
• Working harder and longer for less: The average American last year worked 1,978 hours, up from 1,942 hours in 1990 -- an increase of almost a week of work. American workers are now putting more hours into our work than at any time since the 1920s -- 40 percent of Americans now work more than 50 hours a week.
• 33 million Americans are now counted as living at the poverty level.
• 45 million lack any form of health insurance.
• 4 million Americans will experience homelessness sometime during the coming year, 1.3 million of them children.
• Since March 2001 we have lost over 3 million jobs in the private sector to outsourcing.
• Forrester Research predicts that at least 3.3 million white-collar, information technology jobs will be lost to low-wage countries by 2015.

Low-paying, low-skilled, non-union Wal*Mart jobs are rapidly replacing the old unionized manufacturing jobs that for three decades fueled America’s robust post-war economy. And with those jobs went the benefits that workers once took for granted, health insurance and secure retirement benefits. Adding insult to injury, companies are now flooding courts to sue – yes SUE --- their retired workers. The goal – to take away the very retirement benefits agreed to in labor contracts signed years ago. And, guess what, the companies are winning those suits. By freeing themselves of such obligations companies can immediately report higher earnings to shareholders without selling or producing a single product. All that money that would have provided secure retirements to millions of former loyal workers rattles right down to the bottom line. Bonuses all around for senior management too. Nice.

As I said above, I can’t tell you exactly when we began this slide back to Ralph Kramden’s America, though my instinct tells me it began with the advent of “Trickle Down economics,” – the idea that, if we let the already rich get even richer some of those excess funds will overflow their bank accounts and shower down on the rest of us.

Nice theory, except it doesn’t work. As it turns out the rich use some of that extra money to build huge dams that capture whatever flows in their direction, If any does trickle down it’s only if one of their dams springs a leak.

What we learned during those prosperous post-war was that Trickle-Up economics is what really works. Putting money in the hands of hard-working, hard-spending Americans is how to supercharge an economy. Under Trickle-Up economics the money corporations pay workers to produce goods and services trickles back up to them as those same workers spend it on products and services. Duh!

So far the erosion I speak of has been somewhat obscured as American consumers continued to consume, even as their real income has shrunk. They have fueled their consumption by either sapping equity from their homes, by running up record credit card debt – or both. Of course, there are natural limits to those sources -- limits that are already stretched beyond sustainability. Personal bankruptcies – an early indicator or trouble -- are at record highs.

So, what happens when workers can no longer afford the wide-screen TVs and all the other doodads now being furiously produced offshore by cheap labor? What then?

Let me end with an aside to all those God-fearing, hard working voters in the red states who marched to the polls Nov. 2, American flags pinned to their lapels, to cast their vote for four more years of George W. Bush: S u c k e r s.

November 11, 2004

The “F” Word

This election has cost me some old friends. One in particular was a veteran GOP staffer on the Hill. Our friendship survived the Bush I and Clinton presidencies and limped through the first Bush II term. But he was shocked to find me in mood to shrug off this election. When I told him this was different, he could not understand. “I was raised to believe that when you lose you shake hands and move on,” he wrote me.

I said no, no, not this time. This is a horse of an entirely different color. I told him that what happened on November 2, 2004 had not happened in American since the dawning days of the Civil War. We are once again two nations.. divided. Divided in ways so deep and fundamental that it is nothing less than a bloodless civil war.

He was flabbergasted. “Pizzo, you need to get another job,” he wrote. “You have gone over the edge.”

Maybe. But, I explained, that this election left me no choice because the Bush regime was taking America straight down the road to…. Whoa…..STOP …. I almost said it.

You see we have not been able to have this discussion yet because there are certain words history has rendered virtually useless, some for good reason. Kike, Nigger, Wetback, etc are examples of words best left in the trash heap of human history.

But there are other words that, while politically and culturally loaded, must never become taboo. Because, we must either be able to discuss them or be destined to rediscover over and over the reasons they make us so uncomfortable in the first place.

The “F” Word

Fascism is such a word. To call someone a fascist today is tantamount to calling them a Nazi. That’s unfortunate because it tends to ends any opportunity for a rational discussion. The accused almost always storms off offended and the accuser is usually branded a nut that has “gone over the edge.”

Well, I may be a nut. The last person to find out such things usually are the nuts themselves. So, I will leave it to others to decide. (If you do decide I am a nut I only ask you let me be a Walnut. I love those damn things.) But, let’s have this discussion and, after finishing if the boot fits…

Yes, the Nazis were fascists, but all fascists were not Nazis. And, fascism did not die with the Third Reich. Fascism, while it may not be so identified by its proponents, even in their own minds, is alive and well. In fact, fascism is one of only a handful of default conditions of governance once a society industrializes. It’s not a good thing, but it’s and silence and denial will not stop it or make it go away.

This is what I was trying to tell my GOP friend about why this election was different, and why I could not just shake and move on. America took a hard turn to the right on Nov. 2. How hard? How far right? Far enough to call it “fascist?” We need to have that discussion. So, let’s begin by describing the beast so you know it if you see it. Because, if fascism really is taking root here I am sure even my GOP friend would agree that that would matter -- a lot.

Know it When You See It

Dr. Lawrence Britt has studied the history of fascist regimes from Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) as well as several more recent Latin American regimes. Out his studies Dr. Britt identified several common defining characteristics that define fascist governments:

Exaggerated Patriotism/ Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Compromised Mass Media
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common.

Obsession with National Security

Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often instrumental in putting government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly ridiculed and attacked.

Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism.

Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

We may not like them or their policies but the Bushites are not Nazis. That’s not the question. The question is, are they fascists? That’s the question.

Was November 2, 2004 just another election? Or, has something evil this way come?

November 10, 2004

What kind of Democrats do we want in Congress for the next four years? This is a make or break question. What I am hearing out of leading Dems so far is not encouraging. Some have been phoning their parents to ask what religion they were born into so they can show up at the right church next Sunday. Others can’t tear their eyes away from the pool of blood on the carpet in front of Tom Daschle’s desk. And Amazon.com boxes containing copies of “The Bible for Dummies,” have flooded the Democratic Party mailroom.

Just how does this defeated party plan to handle the now dominant Republicans? Well, they say nodding in unison, “we sure don’t want to be obstructionists,” as 200 nervous eyes try not to look at Daschel’s empty chair. Beyond that they have little to say.

The Dems are suffering a bad case of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. They look and sound like combat battalion back from a battle in which a third of their members were killed and another third wounded. They are a mess and not looking for another fight anytime soon.

This is not the loyal opposition the nation needs at this critical moment in our history. I want a party itching for a fight. I want representatives with cojones… huge cojones.. cojones so big they have to be wheeled in on a cart. Cojones with “Go ahead, make my day,” tattooed across them in blazing colors.

At this writing it does not look like we are going to get anything like that out of the surviving Dems.

What we have on our hands is this: Republicans are from Mars and Dems are from Venus. Dems feel the pain, the GOP inflicts it. If politics were a game of Roshambo the GOP always comes up scissors and the Dems always choose paper – recycled of course.

It’s easy to criticize, so enough of that. What should the Dems do? First learn. Learn that the “can’t we all just get along” style doesn’t work when the people on the other side believe “getting along” means “get along little doggies” as they herd them wholesale towards the nearest exit.

Republicans play “in your face” politics. “You may not agree with me,” Bush said during the campaign, “but you know where I stand.” In your face.

So, how about beginning the next Congressional term with some “in your face” moves from the Dems?

• - Don’t just tell, show. Those voters who fell for the GOP’s phony values spiel have not thought these issue through to their logical (where the rubber hits the road) conclusions. What’s so wrong with putting the Ten Commandments in a government building, they ask. What’s wrong with allowing a prayer before classes in public schools? It all seems so innocent, so proper. Why do liberals keep opposing them? What could go wrong? Okay, show them. Introduce bills that would allow any recognized religion to demand that they be represented when such craven image displays of faith are allowed by law. And, when prayer is allowed in pubic schools make sure they understand that means that Muslim students will have to be allowed to pray and bow towards Mecca several times during classes each day and that maybe even have their own opening day prayers that their sons and daughters will have to participate in. Put it.. in their faces.
  

• - Meanwhile, outside Congress progressive activists around the country should start showing up at local courthouses with large statues of Buddha, and some of the more exotic Hindu gods and try to put them in the lobby. I want to hear those who support such displays when they are Christian explain why these are just plain wrong. Such guerilla political efforts will make the evening news.. I guarantee it.. and what great opportunity to show those so-called Values Voters that freedom of religion means freedom for all religions – not just theirs. Pass a law that affects one religion and it affects all religions – unless of course they want to start favoring one over others. If so, then would be the time for them to admit that. Force the admission.. by getting right up in their face with it.
  

• - Abortion has been the GOP’s most effective wedge issue. So, what’s say we take it away from them once and for all. We do that by introducing legislation that would ban all abortions. This would flush out the hypocrites on the right who use this issue to get votes from the right while having no intention of ever delivering for them. It would also force a public discussion on just how we would go about enforcing such a ban. Arrest doctors? Arrest young girls and women? Arrest them all? Imagine those perp walks on the evening news every night. It will never happen because they know it would spell the end for the Right. If we finally call their bluff on abortion, exposing them for what they are, they will think twice before they drag that issue out in public again. They use it against us now only because they know the Dems don’t have the cojones to call their bluff… so call it. Right smack dab in their faces.

So Dems, whatsya gonna do? You gonna stand and fight or are you going to surrender and become Vichy Democrats?

Fifty million Americans await your decision.

(Add your two-cents HERE)

Quote of the Day

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

November 9, 2004

As A Godfather Dies

The death of a Godfather is a Family crisis. The scene is almost always the same. By his bed the Boss’ wife maintains a possessive deathwatch as a stubborn life struggles for one last hold on the physical world. Downstairs the Family’s veteran lieutenants and soldiers gather to discuss life after the boss. Who will step into his shoes? Who gets control of which rackets? How do they split up the booty from decades of thievery and corruption?

And what about the Boss’ wife and kids? What does she know? Can she hurt us? Should she be kept on the payroll, cut loose or – just to be safe – taken for a ride?

That’s exactly the drama playing out at a Paris hospital right now. Suha Arafat, the wife of the PLO’s long-serving chairman and Yassar’s former top lieutenants are treating the world to precisely such a macabre Kabuki dance of co-conspirators.

The stakes are high. Some estimates put Arafat’s cache of booty at near a billion dollars. Suha, who did not even bother to visit her husband for the past two years, has been living in luxury in a Paris penthouse. She had one child by Yassar – a daughter, now 9 years old. This was pre-Viagra and apparently Yassar’s last shot at producing a male heir. Having failed in that mission Suha was relegated to a simple line item in the Palestinian Authority’s budget -- a tidy $150,000 a month -- nearly $2 million a year.

But with Yassar about to take a long overdue dirt nap, the fight over his power and money is in full swing. Watching the drama play out at the Paris hospital is like viewing a foreign language episode of "Growing Up Gotti" with the gutsy Suha hitting the mattresses. She holed up in her dying husband’s hospital room making hysterical phone calls back to the old neighborhood, claiming disloyal gang members were trying to bury the Boss alive and take over the Family.

While it’s great to know the world will soon be free of this human tumor, those vying to succeed him are only a marginal improvement. Some Middle East analysts are hopeful that his passing will finally break the deadlock with Israel. Mabye. But I doubt it. That conflict is a cash cow for the PLO. Why would they want to end it?

Instead I see something familiar happening. I used to write about American mobsters, not the Al Capone variety, but the smart mobsters who abandoned the streets in favor of executive suites. They discovered violence was bad for their business rackets. So, they went “legit,” at least on paper and morphed into some white-collar criminals.

And it is that process that is about to repeat itself in Palestine. Pick any one of the men likely to replace Arafat and you find someone who has been enjoying a tidy income off Arafat’s aggressive PLA embezzlement operations. After one of them wins power he will buy the loyalty of the others, just as Arafat had bought his. After that we wil hear less colorful saber-rattling from the new PLO, as it appears to go “legit” so as to attract more international funds for the PLA. The U.N. and Europeans are perennial suckers for pitches to help poor Palestinians, so they will gladly cough up hundreds of millions of dollars more.

And at the new PLO, the good life will roll on.

Those will be the winners. The losers, as always, will be the Palestinian people who are not unlike snookered fundamentalist Christian voters in America. Their leadership keeps promising them things they have no power or intention of providing. Their leaders never come through, but the hopeful/foolish always take the bait. It reminds me of Charlie Brown always falling for Lucy’s pledge that this time she won't pull the football away before he kicks it. She always did and he always believed she wouldn’t. It’s a flat learning curve.

In the case of the Palestinians their corrupt leaders keep them compliant by leading them to believe they can force unrealistic concessions from Israel. That keeps them on the hook. Meanwhile the PLA continues as little more than a Hollywood prop of a government. Look behind the facade and there's nothing there. Stealing is a whole lot easier than governing, and more lucrative too.

So, once Arafat is really dead, expect only a shuffling of the deck at the PLO. The fat hog will be gone and the lean-hogs-in-waiting will step up for their turn at the trough.

And what of our little Palestinian princess Suha? I would suggest that, since she is clearly in possession of embezzled international funds, French authorities slap the cuffs on her the next time she leaves the Boss’ bedside to go to the ladies room.

And please, take away her pre-paid calling card while you’re at it.


Knuckle-dragger Watch
Wisconsin School Approves Teaching Creationism
Georgia School Board Puts Warning Stickers on Evolution

Quote of the Day

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.... If the game runs sometimes against us, at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

--Thomas Jefferson, 1798, after the passage of the Sedition Act

November 8, 2004

The I.Q. Gap

We have all heard quite enough handwringing about how the Democrats failed to connect with the so-called “values voters” in Middle America. At least, I’ve heard enough. Let me say something and say it as clearly as I can:

I don’t want the nation to be run by the values voters in Middle America, because I don’t believe most of them are capable of running anything more complicated than a country grange or a church raffle.

OK, that’s a gross generalization and I acknowledge it. But, like all generalizations, there's truth there too. The only question is how much. You decide.

I am reminded of a cartoon depicting a couple attending a teacher/parent conference. The teacher said, “Johnny continues to do very poorly. There are two possible reasons for that. He may not study hard enough, or he’s just dumb.” Of course you will never hear those words out of a teacher’s mouth. (But oh, if you could just read their thoughts!) Sadly, it is often the right answer nonetheless.

But protecting a parent’s feelings is one thing. Turning an entire nation over to dumb and dumber without saying something, is quite another. Taken as a demographic these people are not terribly smart, not well-educated, not well-traveled, not well-read, not deep thinkers. And certainly not qualified to set the course for the most powerful nation on a very complicated Earth.

Look, I know I am taking a mean-ass swipe here at a huge chunk of Americans. But it’s not gratuitous. I would not even go there if it were not for the fact that these “values” folks are poised to impose their will on the other half of us. I know it’s politically incorrect, and maybe even cruel, but someone has to say it.

Who’s Your Creator?
Try this on for size. A recent poll showed that 40% of Americans believe the Genesis fable is literally the way the universe was created by a supreme being. To believe that, these people have to either be ignorant of, or reject everything science has learned over the last hundred years: that the universe is nearly 14 billion years old and that the Earth went through many pre-human epochs before mankind’s ancestors even showed up. They have to reject physical proofs, such as carbon-dating and the entire evolutionary record assembled so far.

It’s one thing for a Christian or Jew to believe that Genesis is a religious fable, and quite another to honestly and openly believe the universe was created in 6 days. Let me remind you that 40% of Americans polled said they believe just that. And they are the people who put George Bush over the top last Tuesday.

Does that bother you? It sure as hell bothers me. How can I feel OK about turning control of the nation’s future over to people who, when asked to choose between science and mythology, proudly chose mythology.

And a lot more than domestic policy is at stake. Here’s an example of values-driven foreign policy:

On the floor of the U.S. Senate, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., laid out his Christian fundamentalist view of Middle East policy:

"The Bible says that Abram [Abraham] removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar before the Lord. Hebron is in the West Bank. It is at this place where God appeared to Abram [wrong again] and said, 'I am giving you this land.' … This is not a political battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the word of God is true."

Out in the hinterland it gets worse where foreign policy and Biblical revelation meet:

"I believe that Jesus can only return when all of the Jews have returned to their land," writes Norbert Lieth, author of 18 Christian books, in the evangelical magazine Midnight Call. Television preachers like Jack Van Impe and John Hagee tell their viewers nightly that the struggle over Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank are prophesy-made-manifest. Stoking those fires and making sure they mature into a major war is key to their belief in the second coming.

Bush is himself one of these people. In 2000 G.W. Bush said that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools since:

"I believe God did create the world. And I think we're finding out more and more and more as to how it actually happened … religion has been around a lot longer than Darwinism.”


Yes, religion has been around longer than Darwinism. But then repression and slavery have been around a lot longer than freedom and democracy, too, the latter being the result of liberalism and enlightenment. Was Bush suggesting that all things new are subordinate to the old and established?

In all fairness, that is not what he meant, not because he thought it out, but because his thinking simply stopped right there. The statement was an example of the kind of shallow and simplistic reasoning common among this much-ballyhooed values-based constituency. Had he offered that reasoning to a freshman logic class, he would have been laughed out of the room. (To which Bush and his followers would surely retort, “See, there go those over-educated liberal elites again, making fun of our values.”)

My purpose here is not to denigrate religious conservatives. They have every right in the world to believe whatever they want, no matter how nonsensical it might be to the rest of us. What they do not have the right to do, though, is impose their values and beliefs on those of us who do not share them.

You Damn Liberal Hypocrite!
At this point I can hear fundamentalists complain:

“You hypocrite. You secular liberals have been imposing your Godless beliefs on us for decades -- like abortion, and not letting our kids pray in school. Now the shoe is on the other foot and you guys are complaining.”

That is the view of most evangelical value voters -- that the pendulum had swung too far to the left and they are simply returning it to the center. I wish that were so. The center is where it was until Ronald Reagan discovered he could goose votes out of Christian fundamentalists by convincing them that they were not only being ignored but also persecuted. (Could the lions be far behind? Or are they now wolves?)

Then came fundamentalist politicians led by Pat Buchanan to define fundamentalist discontent as nothing less than war, a “culture war.” In reality it was a religious values war, and a damn effective one at that. Progressive forces were put on the defensive and have been fighting a largely rear-guard battle ever since.

After two decades of values warfare, the fundamentalists have finally won. And now they want out of the backseat and into the driver's seat.

Before that happens the nation deserves an open, no-holds-barred conversation about this. We know what a nation gets when the not-so-bright-but-terribly-holy gain control of a nation. It’s called Iran. Afghanistan was another disastrous experiment in enforced values. And, the Christian West also has a history of such movements. Just look under “I” in the index and brush up on the values-based Inquisition.

I am not suggesting that anything as extreme is on tap for the U.S. I am also not suggesting it could not happen here. It could. But my goal today is to simply break the ice and get people comfortable talking about what we might call the "IQ Gap," and how we should feel about letting the traditional-values bunch at the controls of the most powerful nation on Earth.

Do we really (and I mean REALLY) want people calling the shots who -- as a demographic -- limit their reading; who view secular news, science, and institutions as suspect, at best; and who use ancient religious texts as their primary decision-making tool?

As I said earlier, the folks who populate Middle America are fine, decent, hardworking, and patriotic Americans. I wish them well. Much of what America became is due to their hard work and dedication to country, community, and family.

But I stop there. I would not let a pipe-fitter run a nuclear power plant. I would not let a bus driver fly passengers on a 747. Why then should I feel OK about letting values voters run America? They are not qualified. They are too -- at least for that job -- too dumb.

There, I said it. So, shoot me for being a liberal snob.

But then think about it, damn it. And, if you have the nerve, talk about it.

JUST IN: Wiscoinsin School Approves Teaching Creationism

Should Dems Become Value Whores?

By Stephen Pizzo

I was listening to Mike Barnacle this morning ranting on MSNBC about how the Dems need to get with this whole "values" thing or they will be a minority party forever. He said that Dems have to stop making fun "of people who say they dunked their heads in a river and discovered Jesus," and who want to defend traditional concepts like marriage. Otherwise, Barnacle said, the Dems will continue losing to the party that recognizes and honors those beliefs.

America is divided, not just on the war and economic policy, but also on this whole "values" business. Barnacle may be right - from a tactical standpoint. Certainly that's how the Republicans play the issue. Do you believe for a second that Karl Rove would want to spend a weekend locked up alone with the typical evangelical Christian couple? Maybe, but only if the couple were the last two swing voters in a tight race. Otherwise the prospect of two days of scintillating faith-based conversation with those two would appeal to Rove about as much as Novocaine-free root canal.



The GOP's relationship with the religious right is a rock hard practical/tactical alliance that in reality has little to do with sharing common values. (Pro-family? Pro-marriage? Would anyone like to do a study on how many GOP politicians are divorced or have gotten caught cheating on their spouse? I will bet the difference between the Values Party and the Dems would be indistinguishable.)

Besides the dishonesty beneath the values business there are very real reasons to worry about this clearly successful tactic. When a nation's leaders pander to fundamentalists they eventually must either deliver on their demagoguery or face their wrath. Politicians who may have thought they rode an elephant to power quickly discover they are really on the back of a hungry tiger - a tiger they must now either have to feed or be eaten.

So, they parcel out morsels to keep their pet in line. Civil liberties are usually the first to go followed closely by science. Control of the judiciary then becomes a necessary as people go to court to regain their civil liberties and scientists fight for their right to continue shedding light further down mankind's evolutionary path.

We don't need to imagine fictional outcomes. History is filled with real ones. Galileo just wanted people to know that they had the solar system all wrong. The earth revolved around the sun, not vice versa. Of course he was entirely correct and Church-captive authorities suspected so. Nevertheless, he found himself in deep doo-doo. Here it begins with things like stem cell research, but will certainly not stop there.

Women are common targets of politicians seeking to appease their values constituents. Look to the Islamic world for contemporary examples. Here in the West values-based policies materialize in less visually jarring forms. It begins with women losing control over their own reproductive systems and proceeds from there to policies that restate a woman's key role in society as that of mother hen. Jobs, professional careers and other un-hen-like pursuits, may be allowed, but only after she has completed raising her brood. Laws requiring equal pay are cast in the values political dialog as incitement for young women to shirk home and hearth for the decidedly un-hen-like world of men.

Yesterday more than half of American voters voted for the Values Party. Those who make their livings analyzing why people vote the way the do say the GOP's emphasis on values like gay marriage, abortion, prayer in schools and the sort, gave them the electoral edge over secular Democrats.

So, I agree and disagree with Mike Barnacle. Yes, the Values Party won because they pandered to America's fundamentalists. But I disagree that Democrats need to jump aboard the values express. He is right that none of us (myself included) should gratuitously make fun of born agains and their kind. But, having said that, please notice that it is they of late who are currently ridiculing and making fun of "Godless" secularists.

But Democrats should not become value-whores like the GOP. That would only accelerate the Talibanizaton of America. At least one party needs to continue to fight for free speech, free thought, enlightened education, science and - most of all - the one thing that makes all that possible - a free, open and progressive secular democracy.

Who will carry that banner for us now? Not the current crop of traditional machine Democrat hacks, that's for sure. (Bye, bye Daschle ... and good riddance.)

If ever there was moment justifying a wholesale purge of the Democratic Party leadership, it's this morning. Start with that little scumbag Terry McAuliffe, but don't stop there. Get rid of Bob Schrum once and for all. Carville, Bagala - shut up. Just shut up. You have nothing useful to offer to the discussion after this. And don't give me that crap about me organizing a "circular firing squad," either. You guys are so yesterday.

We either need a reformed Democratic Party or a moderate third party made up of refugees sick and tired of the mediocrity and mendacity of the other two parties. (Calm down Ralph, I'm not referring to you. For you I prescribe a long vacation - a road trip in a vintage Ford Pinto.)

November 5, 2004

A Crazy Idea?
By Stephen Pizzo
www.newsforreal.com

About 58 million Americans voted for George W. Bush. The other 56 million voted against George W. Bush.

From his first term we already know that Bush and the fundamentalists around him have no intention of representing -- or even respecting -- the interests or beliefs of the 46% of Americans who oppose their rightwing, (some would say neo-fascist,) policies. On the contrary, he made it clear yesterday that he intends to do just the opposite.

“I earned political capital during the election,” Bush told reporters yesterday, “And now I am going to spend it.”

Since the election my email box has become a virtual psychiatrist’s couch as readers fret and wonder what the hell they are supposed to do for the next four years. When they turn to the Democrats for reassurance they are confronted by a pack of trembling little weasels whose only concern right now is trying to figure out how the Republicans won so they can ape their strategies.

We saw a good example of that last night as Rep. Harold Ford, Democrat of Tennessee, held forth on TV about how his party needs to get with this whole “values” trend. He proceeded by trotting out his personal church-goin’, bible thumpin’, praising the lord, credentials.

So, the “me-too” Dems are going to busy themselves between now and the 2006 mid-term elections learning bible verses they can quote on the stump, searching MapQuest to remind them how get to church on Sundays and brushing up on the latest evangelical “thinking” on social issues.

It won’t work. Not for them, and certainly not for the rest of us.

Okay, so then, how about a third party?

A competitive and electable third party would be a welcome addition to the dysfunctional two-party situation we are stuck with now. The trouble with third parties is they tend to be magnates for nuts; Larouche, Nader, Perot, Ventura. No sooner does a third party begin to get traction than the nuts start rolling. Once that process begins and the disaffected (but sane) voters desert and the nascent party dies in its crib.

I have no idea how you solve that problem and still keep a new party open and democratic.

So, back to my original query – where do we 46% of Americans go, and what do we do for the next four years? I have an idea. I admit it is not a fully formed idea, but maybe you can help me flesh it out.

Form a U.S. Government -- in exile.

Wait! Where are you going? Hang in a minute. If when done you conclude I have become one of the very nuts I just got down dissing, then fine. But let’s play with this idea for a second and see where it goes.

Imagine a virtual U.S. Government that exists only online. Representatives from all 50 states, chosen by the people of those states. A virtual House and Senate. A virtual Supreme Court made up of real judges/attorneys that argues and rules on actual cases before the Court. And, of course, a virtual Executive Branch and Cabinet.

Both traditional parties can and should participate. After all, there are plenty of completely sane Republicans who (rightly) feel that fundamentalist Bushites hijacked their party the same way the Taliban hijacked Islam.

The virtual U.S. Government in exile would operate in parallel with the real government in D.C. It would debate and vote on the same bills introduced in D.C. Two purposes would be served by this; first to show how a government that is not bought and paid for votes when their only interest is the national interest. Second to give a voice to the rest of us – the losers out here – a way to show what kind of policies and government we could have had.

Imagine, every morning being able to log onto your government in exile web site and communicate directly with the office holders, read their positions on the issues and compare their actions to those of the folks we are actually paying in D.C.

We have the technology. We have the know-how. We have 55 million Americans who are now effectively disenfranchised -- citizens without a government they understand or even trust. All while the Democrats, the party that is supposed to represent them as a loyal opposition, are instead studying Karl Rove’s playbook.

So, Mr. Soros, MoveOn… what do you say? We have 55 million voters in exile – America’s first Diaspora. Why not give them a voice? Who knows, a successfully executed virtual government in exile might provide a seedbed for a new generation of candidates -- from both parties -- or it might even itself mature into an electable third party.

Call me crazy. But only if you have a better idea.