The only source of Republican or conservative power in the time since Nixon and the southern strategy has been to use religion and the trinity of bugaboos, namely, homophobia, abortion, and racism. Sophistry became an art form.
Church attendance and monetary support waned since the 60’s. Birth control that worked became reality. It was embraced. The actual ability to do real family planning while actually enjoying sex without the fear of pregnancy was celebrated. Legal, safe abortion became available, especially to the poor. Then the realization that being homosexual was part of the spectrum of being human.
The conservatives fought back with wars on crime; poor people, especially of color. The Federalists were dominated by conservative Catholics. Evangelicals countered with the moral majority. John Roberts became the wrench of the movement, first in getting the SC to elect GWB president. Sophistry reached new heights with “compassionate conservatism”. Citizens United allowed the unholy to join. Gutting of the voting rights act followed, leading one to wonder if John Roberts ever went to confession.
A real non-political SC would have called Mitch McConnell and said he had to allow Obama’s nomination for the SC hearings and a vote. A real non-political SC would have said the truth about the current forms of gerrymandering. They might as well come to court in pointed hats and white sheets. Sophistry.
Now we have disgraced former general Flynn babbling nonsense. Rising insurrectionist Hawley saying the government’s purpose is to do Christ’s work. And all pledge fealty to the orange king. For now.
Bill, I think the main source of the extreme right-wing and the Republican Party is tribalism. It is the socio-political tribalism spread through social media and Fox, which may be overpowering Democracy. Combating tribalism doesn't rest simply with better messaging by the Democratic Party, while necessary, we need to find the roads to reality and reaching the tribes.
I prefer to call it "white supremacy." "Tribalism" sounds so antiseptic and distant, and besides, there's nothing inherently wrong with tribes: humans banding together to survive when individuals and even small groups don't have much of a chance. The extreme right and the GOP have banded together to perpetuate white supremacy in the U.S. Whether they are or aren't a tribe isn't all that important. (NB: At this point I'm not clear on what the NON-extreme right comprises, or even if such a thing exists.)
Many of us, including Jews, know that 'tribalism' is not 'antiseptic' as it can be anti what is chosen to be so. More about this subject, Susanna, often and soon.
Maybe if we substitute tribalism with nationalism we can better understand the direction we are being dragged. This brand of nationalism, promoted by both church and GOP, has nothing to do with religious freedom and national pride. This is the brand of nationalism used by corrupt politicians to turn a democratically governed republic into a dictatorship or the Christian version of ISIS.
The current effort to prevent a free and fair election is part of the overall plan to end our democracy. The propaganda machine has been chugging along steadily since about 2000 CE, with Fox Entertainment and Alex Jones being joined now by several outfits with different levels of expertise in sophistry.
The main source of GOP nationalism comes from history. Every authoritarian regime begins with a non-stop propaganda machine, calling for burning books and their authors, ostracizing everything and everybody who resist them. Only religions and tyrants call for the banning and burning of books, of making outcasts of every other ethnic and/or religious group.
We have mollycoddled these people too long with softer, alternate words. Terrorism is the use of force to change political actions. Insurrection is the use of violence against the government. So, let's just call the White Nationalists, the Christian Nationalists, the GOP Nationalists what they are. Terrorists. Fascists. Anti-American. Anti-democracy. Pro_theocracy. Insurrectionists.
I'm talking about the term "tribalism." Maybe that wasn't clear? How does one combat "tribalism," as I think you were suggesting? I'd argue that something that looks a lot like tribalism -- and is sometimes even called that -- enabled plenty of immigrant groups to survive in the U.S. It's enabled many groups -- women, African Americans, gay men, lesbians, etc., etc. -- to make their voices heard when lone individuals were easily silenced. So targeting "tribalism" as a concept seems to me to be missing the point.
They are people like my friend or cousin who are completely without representation. My friend would be considered well left of center even though, for the most part, his philosophy hasn’t changed at all since the early 80’s. One thing that has changed for him is that Reagan has lost his Respect as he has seen the consequences of Reagan’s actions.
“…we need to find the roads to reality and reaching the tribes.”
Yes, Fern. I believe that too. There is also the matter of defining a tribe. I see a tribe as a group of people, families, or clans who bond together and identify themselves as members of [pick any tribal name]. Socially, they can be a positive and unifying force for people to gather and find kinship. Politically, they can be negative in dividing their tribe from the rest of a nation and pursuing only selfish goals. And if religion is tossed into the mix, there are several other separating factors. For example, if a group says, “God has chosen us above all others,” then that is bound to present disunity and potential conflict with all other people. Or if a nation makes the same declaration, then that will separate that nation from all others. Consider the words on the German soldier’s belt buckle in WWI and WWII—"Gott mit uns” (God is with us). The examples can go on and on, and they only serve to work as divisors and not unifiers.
In the end, I believe it’s big money and big power who love to keep tribes fighting amongst themselves. It keeps the little people in constant struggle to just get by, and that keeps them too busy from focusing on the powers at top. They keep races, religions, genders, et al, at each other’s throats. The wealth disparity continues to grow, and that can only bring more problems as people are forced into poverty.
So... How do we go salt that field? I have said (and y'all are probably tired of it) you cannot reason with unreasonable people. I have not said anything regarding religious nuts. They are beyond "unreasonable" and have traipsed over to "without reason".
There's no need to persuade the unpersuadable. The challenge is to persuade those who consider themselves better than the "religious nuts," the white supremacists, etc., etc., to actually pay attention to what's going on and take it seriously. Seriously enough to vote, to run for office or volunteer for/contribute to someone who is, to speak out against the intimidation going on in their communities, and so on.
Marvelous, concise synopsis! Our current situation teaches that not one of these players is a Christian or adheres to any true religion, but they all use religion as a cudgel to control their world and gain more power. Your last words are your best: "for now . . . ." Thank you, Bill.
Nancy, good comment. If they say they are true to Christianity or Judaism, they might be interested in this explanation of the third commandment. It’s a lot worse than people think.
“The Third Commandment also has not fared well in English. Lo tissa et shem Ha-Shem Eloheikha la-shay is usually translated as “You shall not take the Lord your God’s name in vain.” Many people think that this means that you have to write God as G-D, or that it is blasphemous to say words such as “goddamn.” Even if these assumptions are correct, it’s still hard to figure out what makes this offense so heinous that it’s included in the document that forbids murdering, stealing, idolatry, and adultery. However, the Hebrew, Lo tissa, literally means “You shall not carry [God’s name in vain]”; in other words, don’t use God as your justification in selfish causes. The Third Commandment is the only one concerning which God says, “for the Lord God will not forgive him who carries His name in vain” (Exodus 20:6–7). The reason now seems to be clear. When a person commits an evil act, he discredits himself. But when a religious person commits an evil act in the name of God, he or she discredits God as well. And since God relies on religious people to bring knowledge of Him into the world, He pronounces this sin unpardonable.”
“Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History” by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Jan, thanks so much for this. I would think another abomination would be to use God as a justification for advancing your own agenda, especially when that agenda would not obviously be something that God would favor. Manipulation under any circumstance is something that I find repulsive, and I know many religious people who carry the banner of religiosity in order to prove that they are morally superior to others. Those people never are what they profess to be.
Thank you and well said. I don't have the energy or the will to add more, except to say my only "attendance" at church these days is to look at it from my window and wonder how many more will die because so many of them are huddling together. I know for a fact that there are anti vaxxers in that mix. I suppose prayers went up this morning in salute of the traitorous Flynn.
'The conservatives fought back with wars on crime; poor people, especially of color.' So did Bill Clinton and other Democrats. The anti-government movement was helped by some elected Democrats and the Democratic Party kissing the bucks doled out by the lobbyists
It’s a reflection of the chaos of our time that the traitor, Flynn, is allowed any attention whatsoever for anything he says. He should be in a dark, damp dungeon filled with other rats. Something must be done about criminal President’s giving pardons to their accomplices.
I saw Heather speak at the New York Historical Society this week, and she was brilliant, funny, and a voice for hope. We must believe our democracy will succeed in order for it to continue...I agree about too much attention is given nutjob fascists like Hawley and Flynn. We must continue to speak out and pressure our representatives to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights bill.
Thank you Heather Cox Richardson and Buddy Poland for the clarity and beauty you share with us
To the poets, the caring, the undocumented and to all who are listening.
poem where no one is deported
José Olivarez
now i like to imagine la migra running
into the sock factory where my mom
& her friends worked. it was all women
who worked there. women who braided
each other’s hair during breaks.
women who wore rosaries, & never
had a hair out of place. women who were ready
for cameras or for God, who ended all their sentences
with si dios quiere. as in: the day before
the immigration raid when the rumor
of a raid was passed around like bread
& the women made plans, si dios quiere.
so when the immigration officers arrived
they found boxes of socks & all the women absent.
safe at home. those officers thought
no one was working. they were wrong.
the women would say it was god working.
& it was god, but the god
my mom taught us to fear
was vengeful. he might have wet his thumb
& wiped la migra out of this world like a smudge
on a mirror. this god was the god that woke me up
at 7am every day for school to let me know
there was food in the fridge for me & my brothers.
i never asked my mom where the food came from,
but she told me anyway: gracias a dios.
gracias a dios del chisme, who heard all la migra’s plans
& whispered them into the right ears
to keep our families safe.
About This Poem
“My parents were undocumented when they moved to the United States. I wrote this poem hoping to honor the power of the undocumented women in my family and in my community. They knew everything. I'm in awe of them.”
Gracias, José for these beautiful words sharing the depth of love and grit that make your mother and her "sisters" a heartfelt presence right here, right now. I'm grateful...
Hello, Fern. Thank you for liking my online ID which is also my website ID, gildedtwig.com. Women are the backbone of this country - documented AND undocumented. Recognition, equity, and political power are overdue.
Glad you beat it! Now spoil yourself. Eat light but well. Toast with fruit and good tea. Read, and rest. We're sending strength and good wishes Friend, get well.
I was raised Roman Catholic and attended parochial school for grades 1-8, then a private Catholic high school. In September, 1975 I drove across country (Delaware to California) to attend graduate school at UC Santa Barbara. The biggest story I heard on local radio during my drive was controversy in Utah over the governor considering naming a non-Mormon as President of the University of Utah. Somehow, I naively grew up believing that the First Amendment meant there was an ironclad wall separating Church and State. Now, 46 years later, we have national political figures openly suggesting the establishment of a state religion. What’s next — the establishment of a christian version of shariah law, followed by a state-run inquisition?
I suspect that any noise for any cause is the goal. These guys are PITAs of the highest order. They are destructive because they have no intention or ability to be constructive. That would make them adults.
I think Trumpists try to sucker liberals into responding to outrageous assertions, thereby giving them more attention than they deserve. On the other hand, I truly enjoy HCR’s lucid, enlightening essays on our national tenets and ideals.
The “clear eyed purpose” of the radical right is exactly was terrifies me. “We” (non-brainwashed individuals) still believe they will play by the rules or respect the rule of law - both of which is blatantly not happening.
Lol! ( well, I like to think I am not that distorted or pious and I was in the convent for 7 years!! But thanks to my Dem., intelligent and no nonsense parents and my 13 brothers and sisters I have somehow come out of the chute strongly liberal, not given to overly devotional expression but very grateful for the church's teaching on social justice and common good, among other things.
More than good for you, not pious in my book (usually think sanctimonious). Being poor and from a large family (8) kept my feet on the ground. Can’t compare to 13 though. Golden Rule was our guide. Teaching of the common good seems sorely lacking these days.
It has occured to me that HRC, good teacher that she is, empowers the "learners" around her. On this day she threw in a kernel and opened up the space to us.
A lot of people hide behind religion as an excuse to persecute others. If these same people truly believed in their religion's teachings, they would know they are all going to hell.
I'm glad your body knows enough to knock you out when you need it. I'm glad that Buddy takes such amazing photos and that you share them with us. I'm glad that when you take a day off, the "family room" here at LFAA continues on with our conversations, be they the late night or early morning kind.
I am a non-theist. My Dad was raised Methodist and never attended church as an adult. My Mom was raised Episcopal and as far as I know, the most religious thing that either of them did after their marriage was to have me baptized in the Episcopal church as an infant. They were moral, ethical people who did not need (and although they would love the phrase, although they never used it) an imaginary sky pilot to tell them how to behave in the world. I am sure they discussed how to bring up my sister and me, because Mom tried to find a church when I was in single digits (7? 8?). I asked her why (after a foray into a Unitarian Church) we were going to church, and while I do not recall the answer, she had written it in her diary as well. (I paraphrase here) "A asked me today 'Why are we going here? This is weird stuff.' When I told her about all the things that I hoped that a church could teach her, she said 'you and Dad do that already. These people don't know us.' Ed and I talked after the kids were in bed, and he simply said 'I guess we're doing it right. It doesn't matter much how.'"
Love that you characterize this as "the family room." We have lively, sometimes heated, discussions, but at the end of the day, know that we were heard and understood. A family indeed!
Thomas Jefferson on the separation of church and state.
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.“
“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
I took a chance and posted this Letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Baptists on Facebook. About four years ago, the University of Virginia alumni magazine did a deep dive through its review of several current books about Thomas Jefferson. It was tough to learn truths about him that I hadn’t known. And it was great to learn about it at the same time. Most of the people, the intellectuals, who were the founding members of our country’s constitution and structure were not themselves very religious beyond what was socially expected. We cannot allow any judges, courts, or government officials to use religion as a cudgel. We must adhere to this basic tenet of our founding, freedoms, and democratic republic.
Trading on his military career, Flynn is the 'tip of the spear' in explicitly pushing all things American right wing religious extremist looney in this 'most Christian of nations.' He is marching lock step with such as Tucker Carlson and CPAC in their adulation of Hungary and to a lesser degree of Poland, those most Catholic of nations where white supremacy and state religion hold sway in the populist base and the upper echelons of their increasingly authoritarian governments - and where an independent judiciary exists only as a fiction of government propaganda.
The Founders introduced God, as a character in the narrative of our national genesis, only to give blessing to their overthrow of the Divine Right of Kings and to authorize their revolutionary call for radical equality. Then they left God out our agreed legal framework and explicitly shut religion out of government - to preserve citizens from the imposition of faith based prejudices and practices, and to preserve government proceedings from the irrational habits of mind of religious belief. They gave us a Constitution not a creed.
Through the machinations of such players as Federalist Society honcho and Opus Dei acolyte Leonard Leo, our judiciary is entangled and our civil rights are being strangled in a web of right wing religious extremism. What chance have our freedom of religion and freedom from religion before the conservative majority on our most Christian of Supreme Courts?
lin, I spent the 90's in Ireland. One thing I observed was that the labels "Catholic" and "Protestant" were coopted by the politics and became largely cultural code names and short hand for discrimination. I think something similar of the term "Christianity" in our U.S. society. Our founders were Deists, perhaps "godly" men, but for purposes of the Constitution, in a mostly civil religion sense. Your point about "freedom from" and "freedom of" religion being at risk is important, I think. The Opus Dei, Federalist crew live in a pocket of extremism they have veneered with the label "Christian" but which actually has precious little to do with it. The term has been coopted and used to discriminate against others deemed unsuitable. Thank you!
Holly Near has a song "I Ain't Afraid" in which she talks about what is done in the name of "religion" and the complete misuse of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2xmbvFEaZE
I haven't thought of Holly Near in years! Guess I'll be reacquainting myself with her today.
I was molested by a deacon in our church when I was 11 years old, listened to a subcontract with the fish sign on his work truck tell another subcontractor that if he would use christian symbols in his advertising, he would get more business, and the stories go on and on - e.g. Mike Flynn
The only source of Republican or conservative power in the time since Nixon and the southern strategy has been to use religion and the trinity of bugaboos, namely, homophobia, abortion, and racism. Sophistry became an art form.
Church attendance and monetary support waned since the 60’s. Birth control that worked became reality. It was embraced. The actual ability to do real family planning while actually enjoying sex without the fear of pregnancy was celebrated. Legal, safe abortion became available, especially to the poor. Then the realization that being homosexual was part of the spectrum of being human.
The conservatives fought back with wars on crime; poor people, especially of color. The Federalists were dominated by conservative Catholics. Evangelicals countered with the moral majority. John Roberts became the wrench of the movement, first in getting the SC to elect GWB president. Sophistry reached new heights with “compassionate conservatism”. Citizens United allowed the unholy to join. Gutting of the voting rights act followed, leading one to wonder if John Roberts ever went to confession.
A real non-political SC would have called Mitch McConnell and said he had to allow Obama’s nomination for the SC hearings and a vote. A real non-political SC would have said the truth about the current forms of gerrymandering. They might as well come to court in pointed hats and white sheets. Sophistry.
Now we have disgraced former general Flynn babbling nonsense. Rising insurrectionist Hawley saying the government’s purpose is to do Christ’s work. And all pledge fealty to the orange king. For now.
We will reap what we allow to be sowed.
PS: There! I feel better
Wow you’ve coveted it all with the outrage that simmers in me daily and bafflement at those who don’t get it or ignore it
Bill, I think the main source of the extreme right-wing and the Republican Party is tribalism. It is the socio-political tribalism spread through social media and Fox, which may be overpowering Democracy. Combating tribalism doesn't rest simply with better messaging by the Democratic Party, while necessary, we need to find the roads to reality and reaching the tribes.
I prefer to call it "white supremacy." "Tribalism" sounds so antiseptic and distant, and besides, there's nothing inherently wrong with tribes: humans banding together to survive when individuals and even small groups don't have much of a chance. The extreme right and the GOP have banded together to perpetuate white supremacy in the U.S. Whether they are or aren't a tribe isn't all that important. (NB: At this point I'm not clear on what the NON-extreme right comprises, or even if such a thing exists.)
Many of us, including Jews, know that 'tribalism' is not 'antiseptic' as it can be anti what is chosen to be so. More about this subject, Susanna, often and soon.
Maybe if we substitute tribalism with nationalism we can better understand the direction we are being dragged. This brand of nationalism, promoted by both church and GOP, has nothing to do with religious freedom and national pride. This is the brand of nationalism used by corrupt politicians to turn a democratically governed republic into a dictatorship or the Christian version of ISIS.
The current effort to prevent a free and fair election is part of the overall plan to end our democracy. The propaganda machine has been chugging along steadily since about 2000 CE, with Fox Entertainment and Alex Jones being joined now by several outfits with different levels of expertise in sophistry.
The main source of GOP nationalism comes from history. Every authoritarian regime begins with a non-stop propaganda machine, calling for burning books and their authors, ostracizing everything and everybody who resist them. Only religions and tyrants call for the banning and burning of books, of making outcasts of every other ethnic and/or religious group.
We have mollycoddled these people too long with softer, alternate words. Terrorism is the use of force to change political actions. Insurrection is the use of violence against the government. So, let's just call the White Nationalists, the Christian Nationalists, the GOP Nationalists what they are. Terrorists. Fascists. Anti-American. Anti-democracy. Pro_theocracy. Insurrectionists.
I'm talking about the term "tribalism." Maybe that wasn't clear? How does one combat "tribalism," as I think you were suggesting? I'd argue that something that looks a lot like tribalism -- and is sometimes even called that -- enabled plenty of immigrant groups to survive in the U.S. It's enabled many groups -- women, African Americans, gay men, lesbians, etc., etc. -- to make their voices heard when lone individuals were easily silenced. So targeting "tribalism" as a concept seems to me to be missing the point.
Susanna, Let's continue our exchange. I am not free now, but wish us to connect in the following days. Salud!
They are people like my friend or cousin who are completely without representation. My friend would be considered well left of center even though, for the most part, his philosophy hasn’t changed at all since the early 80’s. One thing that has changed for him is that Reagan has lost his Respect as he has seen the consequences of Reagan’s actions.
“…we need to find the roads to reality and reaching the tribes.”
Yes, Fern. I believe that too. There is also the matter of defining a tribe. I see a tribe as a group of people, families, or clans who bond together and identify themselves as members of [pick any tribal name]. Socially, they can be a positive and unifying force for people to gather and find kinship. Politically, they can be negative in dividing their tribe from the rest of a nation and pursuing only selfish goals. And if religion is tossed into the mix, there are several other separating factors. For example, if a group says, “God has chosen us above all others,” then that is bound to present disunity and potential conflict with all other people. Or if a nation makes the same declaration, then that will separate that nation from all others. Consider the words on the German soldier’s belt buckle in WWI and WWII—"Gott mit uns” (God is with us). The examples can go on and on, and they only serve to work as divisors and not unifiers.
In the end, I believe it’s big money and big power who love to keep tribes fighting amongst themselves. It keeps the little people in constant struggle to just get by, and that keeps them too busy from focusing on the powers at top. They keep races, religions, genders, et al, at each other’s throats. The wealth disparity continues to grow, and that can only bring more problems as people are forced into poverty.
So... How do we go salt that field? I have said (and y'all are probably tired of it) you cannot reason with unreasonable people. I have not said anything regarding religious nuts. They are beyond "unreasonable" and have traipsed over to "without reason".
How do we deprogram members of a cult when they have taken over an entire party?
It’s a start to listen and promote the knowledge and wisdom of experts. Ruth Ben-Ghiat also. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/
Excellent article, Christy. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for reading it and replying. ❤️
They have to start losing… alot… which will be hard to do with their galvanizing of seats with gerrymandering…
That is a very good question.
There's no need to persuade the unpersuadable. The challenge is to persuade those who consider themselves better than the "religious nuts," the white supremacists, etc., etc., to actually pay attention to what's going on and take it seriously. Seriously enough to vote, to run for office or volunteer for/contribute to someone who is, to speak out against the intimidation going on in their communities, and so on.
Marvelous, concise synopsis! Our current situation teaches that not one of these players is a Christian or adheres to any true religion, but they all use religion as a cudgel to control their world and gain more power. Your last words are your best: "for now . . . ." Thank you, Bill.
Nancy, good comment. If they say they are true to Christianity or Judaism, they might be interested in this explanation of the third commandment. It’s a lot worse than people think.
“The Third Commandment also has not fared well in English. Lo tissa et shem Ha-Shem Eloheikha la-shay is usually translated as “You shall not take the Lord your God’s name in vain.” Many people think that this means that you have to write God as G-D, or that it is blasphemous to say words such as “goddamn.” Even if these assumptions are correct, it’s still hard to figure out what makes this offense so heinous that it’s included in the document that forbids murdering, stealing, idolatry, and adultery. However, the Hebrew, Lo tissa, literally means “You shall not carry [God’s name in vain]”; in other words, don’t use God as your justification in selfish causes. The Third Commandment is the only one concerning which God says, “for the Lord God will not forgive him who carries His name in vain” (Exodus 20:6–7). The reason now seems to be clear. When a person commits an evil act, he discredits himself. But when a religious person commits an evil act in the name of God, he or she discredits God as well. And since God relies on religious people to bring knowledge of Him into the world, He pronounces this sin unpardonable.”
“Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History” by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Jan, thanks so much for this. I would think another abomination would be to use God as a justification for advancing your own agenda, especially when that agenda would not obviously be something that God would favor. Manipulation under any circumstance is something that I find repulsive, and I know many religious people who carry the banner of religiosity in order to prove that they are morally superior to others. Those people never are what they profess to be.
This has been the crux of religion for millenia
"We will reap what we allow to be sowed."
Well stated. Good perspective.
Thank you and well said. I don't have the energy or the will to add more, except to say my only "attendance" at church these days is to look at it from my window and wonder how many more will die because so many of them are huddling together. I know for a fact that there are anti vaxxers in that mix. I suppose prayers went up this morning in salute of the traitorous Flynn.
'The conservatives fought back with wars on crime; poor people, especially of color.' So did Bill Clinton and other Democrats. The anti-government movement was helped by some elected Democrats and the Democratic Party kissing the bucks doled out by the lobbyists
Thank you! I feel better now that I’ve read it. May i copy this for my fb page (will not use your name unless you wish)
It’s a reflection of the chaos of our time that the traitor, Flynn, is allowed any attention whatsoever for anything he says. He should be in a dark, damp dungeon filled with other rats. Something must be done about criminal President’s giving pardons to their accomplices.
I saw Heather speak at the New York Historical Society this week, and she was brilliant, funny, and a voice for hope. We must believe our democracy will succeed in order for it to continue...I agree about too much attention is given nutjob fascists like Hawley and Flynn. We must continue to speak out and pressure our representatives to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights bill.
Lucky you. Saw she was speaking. But, too late to attend. ❤️🤍💙
That’s wonderful! Do you know if it was recorded? I’ll try to find it!
Glad you got to go!
I will search NYHS website. Since it was streamed there must be a recording somewhere. Will let you know if I find it.
I looked for it and could not find it available for the general non paying public. At least for now.
Thank you Heather Cox Richardson and Buddy Poland for the clarity and beauty you share with us
To the poets, the caring, the undocumented and to all who are listening.
poem where no one is deported
José Olivarez
now i like to imagine la migra running
into the sock factory where my mom
& her friends worked. it was all women
who worked there. women who braided
each other’s hair during breaks.
women who wore rosaries, & never
had a hair out of place. women who were ready
for cameras or for God, who ended all their sentences
with si dios quiere. as in: the day before
the immigration raid when the rumor
of a raid was passed around like bread
& the women made plans, si dios quiere.
so when the immigration officers arrived
they found boxes of socks & all the women absent.
safe at home. those officers thought
no one was working. they were wrong.
the women would say it was god working.
& it was god, but the god
my mom taught us to fear
was vengeful. he might have wet his thumb
& wiped la migra out of this world like a smudge
on a mirror. this god was the god that woke me up
at 7am every day for school to let me know
there was food in the fridge for me & my brothers.
i never asked my mom where the food came from,
but she told me anyway: gracias a dios.
gracias a dios del chisme, who heard all la migra’s plans
& whispered them into the right ears
to keep our families safe.
About This Poem
“My parents were undocumented when they moved to the United States. I wrote this poem hoping to honor the power of the undocumented women in my family and in my community. They knew everything. I'm in awe of them.”
—José Olivarez
Gracias, José for these beautiful words sharing the depth of love and grit that make your mother and her "sisters" a heartfelt presence right here, right now. I'm grateful...
Gracias por el poema ❤️🤍💙
Thank you for reading this poem, gildertwig, which honors the lives, the caring, the work and the power of undocumented women.
Hello, Fern. Thank you for liking my online ID which is also my website ID, gildedtwig.com. Women are the backbone of this country - documented AND undocumented. Recognition, equity, and political power are overdue.
Thank you for sharing this loving tribute to his caring immigrant parents.
The Book of Revelation describes a single religion scenario. It’s rather apocalyptic.
I’m slowly recovering from a delta breakthrough. Turning in early. Again.
Ni night Heather and LFAA community!
Glad you beat it! Now spoil yourself. Eat light but well. Toast with fruit and good tea. Read, and rest. We're sending strength and good wishes Friend, get well.
"Rather apocalyptic." Indeed....
Thanks Gus!
May you recover your health very soon.
Best wishes, speedy recovery fellow reader.
Rest & be good to yourself. 🌷 Sending healing thoughts.
Rest and recover. Thank you for your contributions.
Sorry you had the breakthrough. I hope your recovery continues at a faster pace.
Rest well and continue to recover.
Take good care. Hoping for a quick recovery
Glad you're on the upside! Cheers to your recovery!
Darn! Get well soon
Glad you are recovering! Sending good 🎶 vibes your way.
I was raised Roman Catholic and attended parochial school for grades 1-8, then a private Catholic high school. In September, 1975 I drove across country (Delaware to California) to attend graduate school at UC Santa Barbara. The biggest story I heard on local radio during my drive was controversy in Utah over the governor considering naming a non-Mormon as President of the University of Utah. Somehow, I naively grew up believing that the First Amendment meant there was an ironclad wall separating Church and State. Now, 46 years later, we have national political figures openly suggesting the establishment of a state religion. What’s next — the establishment of a christian version of shariah law, followed by a state-run inquisition?
Michael Flynn as an advocate for Christianity should make all but the most devoted cult nuts shutter.
Christ wept.
Been weeping for a while
😂 something about this string of thoughts is making me laugh! Thanks
sure wish I could see the humor
My scripture says "Jesus Swept".
Cleanliness is next to godliness and all that...
I suspect that any noise for any cause is the goal. These guys are PITAs of the highest order. They are destructive because they have no intention or ability to be constructive. That would make them adults.
They remind me of the magician's assistant -- they're there solely to distract us from what's really going on.
We've got to begin ignoring the Wizard of Oz's admonition to Dorothy and begin paying attention to what the man behind the curtain is doing.
Rupert needs to be ditched as unAmerican because he is; Roger Stone needs a tail, infact he has always needed a tail...
I think Trumpists try to sucker liberals into responding to outrageous assertions, thereby giving them more attention than they deserve. On the other hand, I truly enjoy HCR’s lucid, enlightening essays on our national tenets and ideals.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/trump-strategy-steve-bannon-indictment/620704/
The “clear eyed purpose” of the radical right is exactly was terrifies me. “We” (non-brainwashed individuals) still believe they will play by the rules or respect the rule of law - both of which is blatantly not happening.
I really liked this article.
Thanks for sharing it This quote popped out for me, “
most people recognize reality”
Wow!
It is so sad that so many of the Christians do not follow the teachings of Jesus, which is the foundation of Christianity.
Donald,that and paying lip service to their Voters. But then there’s the need for Donations to pay the Lawyers too. “ Stupid is as Stupid does .”
"What if religion was each other?
If our practice was our life?
If prayer was our words?
What if the temple was the earth?
If forests were our church?
If holy water--the rivers, lakes and oceans?
What if meditation was our relationships?
If the Teacher was life?
If wisdom was self-knowledge?
If love was the center of our being?"
-- Ganga White, Founder of the White Lotus Foundation
Lovely. Thank you, Richard.
That's going above my desk. Thank you.
Love this!!! Thanks
I can't wait for your assessment of and insights into that treasonist and his distorted piety.
Rowshan, me too! As a Catholic it pains me greatly that the Flynns and Bannons of the world are Catholics. "Distorted piety" is a great descriptor.
Thanks.
I have to ask, name another kind
Lol! ( well, I like to think I am not that distorted or pious and I was in the convent for 7 years!! But thanks to my Dem., intelligent and no nonsense parents and my 13 brothers and sisters I have somehow come out of the chute strongly liberal, not given to overly devotional expression but very grateful for the church's teaching on social justice and common good, among other things.
More than good for you, not pious in my book (usually think sanctimonious). Being poor and from a large family (8) kept my feet on the ground. Can’t compare to 13 though. Golden Rule was our guide. Teaching of the common good seems sorely lacking these days.
It’s fascinating how your “non letters” get so many varied and thought-provoking comments!
It has occured to me that HRC, good teacher that she is, empowers the "learners" around her. On this day she threw in a kernel and opened up the space to us.
HCR, of course. ! Thank you Richard!
Carol, it's easy to make a mistake by typing HRC, but I hope to hell you actually meant HCR! Have a great day!
Thank you, Richard...pre- coffee error!
I like your correction style-- non- alienating!
It really is.
Prof Heather;
That little weasel needs a boot in the arse. By no means is he a leader of men. His brother helped to delay help January 6th. They both need to go.
Beware of the right-wing zealots who wrap themselves in religion and ignore its teachings. They are the most dangerous.
A lot of people hide behind religion as an excuse to persecute others. If these same people truly believed in their religion's teachings, they would know they are all going to hell.
Indeed!
Absolutely!
They need to be in jail.
Thank you for sharing the beautiful photo and for taking breaks when needed, Dr. Richardson. Thank you for being with us for the long haul.🌿
I'm glad your body knows enough to knock you out when you need it. I'm glad that Buddy takes such amazing photos and that you share them with us. I'm glad that when you take a day off, the "family room" here at LFAA continues on with our conversations, be they the late night or early morning kind.
I am a non-theist. My Dad was raised Methodist and never attended church as an adult. My Mom was raised Episcopal and as far as I know, the most religious thing that either of them did after their marriage was to have me baptized in the Episcopal church as an infant. They were moral, ethical people who did not need (and although they would love the phrase, although they never used it) an imaginary sky pilot to tell them how to behave in the world. I am sure they discussed how to bring up my sister and me, because Mom tried to find a church when I was in single digits (7? 8?). I asked her why (after a foray into a Unitarian Church) we were going to church, and while I do not recall the answer, she had written it in her diary as well. (I paraphrase here) "A asked me today 'Why are we going here? This is weird stuff.' When I told her about all the things that I hoped that a church could teach her, she said 'you and Dad do that already. These people don't know us.' Ed and I talked after the kids were in bed, and he simply said 'I guess we're doing it right. It doesn't matter much how.'"
Love that you characterize this as "the family room." We have lively, sometimes heated, discussions, but at the end of the day, know that we were heard and understood. A family indeed!
Thomas Jefferson on the separation of church and state.
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.“
https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html
“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
https://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/2260
I took a chance and posted this Letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Baptists on Facebook. About four years ago, the University of Virginia alumni magazine did a deep dive through its review of several current books about Thomas Jefferson. It was tough to learn truths about him that I hadn’t known. And it was great to learn about it at the same time. Most of the people, the intellectuals, who were the founding members of our country’s constitution and structure were not themselves very religious beyond what was socially expected. We cannot allow any judges, courts, or government officials to use religion as a cudgel. We must adhere to this basic tenet of our founding, freedoms, and democratic republic.
“He has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.” perfectly states my opinion on vaccination exceptions and mandates. Thank you for this.
Trading on his military career, Flynn is the 'tip of the spear' in explicitly pushing all things American right wing religious extremist looney in this 'most Christian of nations.' He is marching lock step with such as Tucker Carlson and CPAC in their adulation of Hungary and to a lesser degree of Poland, those most Catholic of nations where white supremacy and state religion hold sway in the populist base and the upper echelons of their increasingly authoritarian governments - and where an independent judiciary exists only as a fiction of government propaganda.
The Founders introduced God, as a character in the narrative of our national genesis, only to give blessing to their overthrow of the Divine Right of Kings and to authorize their revolutionary call for radical equality. Then they left God out our agreed legal framework and explicitly shut religion out of government - to preserve citizens from the imposition of faith based prejudices and practices, and to preserve government proceedings from the irrational habits of mind of religious belief. They gave us a Constitution not a creed.
Through the machinations of such players as Federalist Society honcho and Opus Dei acolyte Leonard Leo, our judiciary is entangled and our civil rights are being strangled in a web of right wing religious extremism. What chance have our freedom of religion and freedom from religion before the conservative majority on our most Christian of Supreme Courts?
lin, I spent the 90's in Ireland. One thing I observed was that the labels "Catholic" and "Protestant" were coopted by the politics and became largely cultural code names and short hand for discrimination. I think something similar of the term "Christianity" in our U.S. society. Our founders were Deists, perhaps "godly" men, but for purposes of the Constitution, in a mostly civil religion sense. Your point about "freedom from" and "freedom of" religion being at risk is important, I think. The Opus Dei, Federalist crew live in a pocket of extremism they have veneered with the label "Christian" but which actually has precious little to do with it. The term has been coopted and used to discriminate against others deemed unsuitable. Thank you!
For me, it’s people like Flynn that use religion to further their dirty deeds, that keep me away from it
Why I ran for my life.
Holly Near has a song "I Ain't Afraid" in which she talks about what is done in the name of "religion" and the complete misuse of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2xmbvFEaZE
Holly Near - I Ain't Afraid Lyrics
Artist: Holly Near
Album: Edge
I ain't afraid of your Yahweh
I ain't afraid of your Allah
I ain't afraid of your Jesus
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God
I ain't afraid of your churches
I ain't afraid of your temples
I ain't afraid of your praying
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God
Rise up to your higher power
Free up from fear, it will devour you
Watch out for the ego of the hour
The ones who say they know it
Are the ones who will impose it on you
I ain't afraid of your Yahweh
I ain't afraid of your Allah
I ain't afraid of your Jesus
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God
I ain't afraid of your churches
I ain't afraid of your temples
I ain't afraid of your praying
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God
Rise up, and see /find/ know/ hear a higher story
Free up from the gods of war and glory
Watch out for the threats of purgatory
The spirit of the wind won’t make a killing off of sin and satan
I ain't afraid of your Bible
I ain't afraid of your Torah
I ain't afraid of your Koran
Dont let the letter of the law
Obsure the spirit of the your love--it's killing us
I ain't afraid of your Yahweh
I ain't afraid of your Allah
I ain't afraid of your Jesus
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God
I ain't afraid of your churches
I ain't afraid of your temples
I ain't afraid of your praying
I'm afraid of what you do in the name of your God
Money
Culture
Choices
I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your God
Sunday
Spirit
Teachers
I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your God
Sabbath
Borders
Dances
I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your God double
Children
Music
Stories
I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your God
Rise up to your higher power
Free up
Rise up to your higher power
Free up
Let's try to be highly evolved
I ain't afraid
I haven't thought of Holly Near in years! Guess I'll be reacquainting myself with her today.
I was molested by a deacon in our church when I was 11 years old, listened to a subcontract with the fish sign on his work truck tell another subcontractor that if he would use christian symbols in his advertising, he would get more business, and the stories go on and on - e.g. Mike Flynn
This is the third time in the past month or so Holly Near has come up in some sort of manner. I guess its time to pay attention.