WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE:

The 2016 electorate

• Who are these people? Where did they come from? Did they go to the same American churches and schools as I did? Did they truly listen to the sermons on Christian charity or the read the Talmud’s mandate to do good works? Did they study American history and world history in high school or college? They are the sons and daughters of immigrants who despise and ridicule any other new immigrants to this country. (The only non-immigrants are the people demonstrating in the Dakotas.) They rail against government control and creeping socialism but come from families that were literally rescued from starvation by the big federal social programs initiated by FDR and LBJ in the 20^th century. They warn against “government welfare” but readily accept their Social Security check each month and are not hesitant to flash their Medicare cards at the Doctor’s office.
• Who are these people? Some live in middle class homes just like I do, eat at the same restaurants and root for the same sports teams as I do. Yet they support political lightweights and worse yet narcissistic demagogues like Donald Trump who preach America first and do everything they can to sabotage any attempts to protect our American environment. At the same that their self righteous calls for “family values’ leaves their lips, they are filing for divorce at a rate greater than any other nation in the world and their children are turning to drugs at alarming rates.
• Who are these people? Many work hard all of their life in blue collar jobs and often subsist on the margins of poverty. They are like my father and uncles who paid too much for their health care and got themselves into debt to send their children to college. Yet, they continuously vote against their own interests. They stand by quietly in denial while their political heroes decimate their unions and systematically lower taxes for the rich from a 90% rate in 1954 to a 33 % rate. They are so easily seduced by the so called American promise of prosperity, while their odds of ever becoming rich are about the same odds as hitting the lottery.
• Who are these people? Not all the Trump supporters are the poor working class Americans who have lost their jobs in manufacturing because of technology and a global economy.  The average salary of Trump supporters is 70K a year.  Some proudly belong to the business class but they are engaged in what Dorothy Thompson once called “doubling”. Thompson used the term to describe the Nazi concentration camp officers, who join with neighbors and their children in singing Christmas carols at night and go on to gas Jews during the day. Each day these business professionals leave their suburban homes or urban co-ops in the morning for work, kiss their wife and children and wave “hello” to their neighbors. They are respected and gracious members of their community who will readily help a neighbor in distress. Then they go to business where an entirely antithetical set of values prevail. They cheat their partners, they steal sub-legally, they gamble with other people’s money and they accept unconditional bonuses from their buddies. Then they go home and dress up for church. And at election time they idolize a business tycoon who has hustled his wares for decades and now pretends to be an American patriot
• Who are these people? In this troubled economy, they have jobs, homes, medical insurance and children in college. Yet, they refuse to pay even a small increase in taxes in their state and towns to provide for those who have lost their jobs or work for a minimum wage that keeps them in the poverty class. They compromise their own local educational systems by failing to support a budget that will prevent the hiring or cause the firing of good teachers. By doing this they foolishly lower their own real estate values by living in a state or town that has a poor reputation for its schools. They replay the classic Shakespearean tragedy over and over. They cause their own downfall.
• Who are these people? They come from ethnic groups that in earlier generations were vilified as Greaseballs, Micks and Huns. Some even come from a race that was almost wiped out during World War II in Germany just for being who they are. Yet they resent and despise the African American man in the White House and carry around graphic posters with lipstick smeared photos of him painted as Lucifer or Hitler. They listen to demagogues on the radio who call him “uppity” and politicians who euphemistically call him “arrogant”. They enthusiastically support a candidate who falsely claims that this President was born in a country in Africa.= and not in the US.
• Who are these people? They call themselves Christians and carry their bibles proudly to church where they join with others to hear “the word of God”. I guess they never turned to the many, many different times and different ways Jesus preached that we are our brother’s keepers. They skim past the account of where he got so angry that he physically chased the money changers out of the temple. And how about “render unto Caesar,etc” which set the foundation for the separation of Church and State. And how about the beatitudes---“Blessed are the merciful etc” How about those beatitudes. And BTW, where are their ministers, priests and rabbis who don’t have the courage to confront their own congregations about social justice.
• Who really are these people who can sit by silently while thousands of children in their own affluent country die from semi-starvation or inadequate healthcare? What do they do with their conscience when they see photos of children in Appalachia, Chicago or Native American Reservations living in dire poverty? How can they justify fighting against any kind expanded healthcare program when they see those long lines of their fellow citizens waiting in the bitter cold outside of those free health clinics?
• While we are on the Bible: “He who is without sin, cast the first stone” Who the hell am I to lecture on this and go on like one of those street corner preachers. Who am I? I’m flawed and selfish and self absorbed like everyone else. I’m certainly not in the mold of St. Francis of Assisi who took the clothes off his back to give to the poor. I didn’t rush off to Haiti to work with the earthquake victims. I don’t give to charities nor go to church nearly enough. I drive over elevated highways that cover the cardboard box quarters of the homeless. Like everyone else, I am often in denial about my own part in all of this neediness and poverty. But I realize this one thing ----when I do look at them or think of them, I realize “There for the Grace of God go I”---and the ones I love.
  
  JVP

NO KUMBAYA FOR ME: IT'S PERSONAL

NO KUMBAYA FOR ME: IT'S PERSONAL

"Peace in our Times". Most people don't know that the actual phrase was "Peace FOR our times" It was uttered joyfully and boastfully by Nevelle Chamberlain after his meeting with Adolf Hitler , a meeting in which he acceded to Hitler's demands regarding Czechoslovakia to prevent a world war. What we do know  of course, is that the duplicitous Hitler would soon break that pact and  and march into Poland and other countries in his quest for world domination. The lesson: Hitler was a viper. You don't compromise with vipers.

Now I don't think that President-elect Donald Trump is a "Hitler" nor do I believe that the American people are particularly prone to collaborate with the Nazi programs the way that almost the whole of the German people did in Pre-War Germany. But Donald Trump's rise to power by appealing to the worst instincts and fears of some 50 million voters is truly a potent threat to our democracy and to me personally.

The title of this post reads rather bluntly "It's personal". There are several reasons for this. My wife and sons are Jewish. My closest friends and colleagues over the years are African-American, Puerto-Rican, Indian and Arab. Even my little chihuahua, Lulu, is Mexican although I doubt that she crossed the border illegally alone. I worked with  and advocated for students with disabilities for almost two decades at City University and shuddered when he mocked that reporter in front of thousands of people and millions of TV fans. I spent many an hours indulging in "locker room" talk as a young man but never heard the kind of gross remarks made by the "President Elect" about his use of power to maul innocent women. I have nieces and cousins who I cherish and who would meet Sir Donald's criteria for "assaultable" women. These may be 'small things" (as one Trump supporter called them) to put aside so we can have a strong assertive decision maker who will set the course of this country straight and "drain the swamp".

My point is we can't let this slide until the next election. Obama's " don't boo vote" doesn't work in this country. Our only option is to obstruct this team of vipers at every corner and in any way but violence. Demonstrations, petitions, legal action will not be enough and may lead to violent confrontations. There are too many guns floating around this country on both sides of the street. I am of the opinion that the most effective way to fight them is to attack their pocket books with selective economic boycotts of their business ventures and institutions. We are in the majority (She did win the popular vote you know.). I don't pretend to know anything about community organizing and effective boycotting but it seems to me that if all of the many, many single issue progressive groups coalesce, we can pull this off with the help of social media.

So I will cope with my angst by participating in these boycotts and donating what I can to groups like Planned Parenthood, Moveon, Black Lives Matter, the Green Party etc. It may be a "small thing " but it will make me feel better.  No "peace for our time"  or "agree to disagree" in this political climate. No Kumbaya.

On Facebook, last week, I took the “bishop’s side” on the Obama health care mandate regarding information on contraception. Let me begin at the outset by stating that I am pro-choice and an ardent Obama supporter. The problem with this particular issue for me is that I am also adamant about the “separation of church and state” principle that our country has adhered to since its inception. Since the Bush II era, I have been obsessed with the fear that this tea sipping evangelical movement wants to undermine our secular mandate and overturn many of our decades old - hard fought freedoms like voting rights, freedom to choose, the social safety nets and even labor rights. I continually insist to some of my old friends that “this is NOT a Christian nation” and was never intended to be.

What is even more contra-indicative is that although I was raised a Catholic, I have left the Church community because of differences over dogma, sexual hypocrisy and most of all centralized power. Although I have strong feelings for the Church of my memories, I refuse to be a “Cafeteria” Catholic, who insists on membership in a community that doesn’t share the same beliefs-----those beliefs that I now think are narrow minded and anachronistic. BUT, I am a libertarian only in the sense that I believe that because God gave us free will we must be truly given the freedom to believe anything we wish, no matter how bizarre, criminal or ridiculous. The corollary to this, of course is, that we must do no harm with our public words and actions. To me, there is nothing wrong with having prejudiced beliefs, it is our discriminatory behavior that needs government regulation.

Now to this issue at hand. Although there are many inconsistencies in how the Catholic hierarchy actually manages their health care institutions, they have a right to practice what they preach without government intervention , as long as they neither ask for or accept any government funding. And I just heard a Cardinal on a morning TV show assure the public that they do not take a penny even though their services reach out all religions and races.

Oh! Of course I wish these same Bishops would react as vehemently to the attempts by the Republican party to unravel many parts of the social safety net (such as it is)that we have constituted in the past half century to help the poor and disabled in this country. These are not political issues---these are moral issues----- just as the theme issue of this essay is a moral issue for Catholic believers. Get up to that same pulpit, you used to rally Catholics, to resist this mandate and speak out against the excessive greed ( a sin in any church), the Social Darwinism, the Ayn Rand libertarianism and the outright racism and sexism of these so called conservative zealots. To advocate for oligarchs and corporate raiders who would accumulate riches at the expense of the poor and the disabled is a moral offense (i.e. a sin) in Christian theology. If anyone doesn’t believe that, they might actually read what Jesus taught in the New Testament. To use their own theological argument---i.e. the Seamless Garment----they cannot be pro life and sit by and watch people being cheated, ignored and abandoned like the Samaritan in the ditch.

It seems to me that the Obama administration , for its part, are making the same mistake with this issue that they did at the beginning of their tenure in 2009—i.e. timing and priorities. It was certainly laudable that they tried to repair the healthcare system in 2009 when they had all of that power in Congress BUT the better political strategy would have been to focus on improving the economy first. That mistake cost them the disastrous 2010 election, which empowered the political vipers to veto anything that Obama planned to improve life for all citizens of this country. This issue is on a smaller scale but must as important as the health care bill. Why in the Dickens would they bring this up now? ---just when we seemed to have turned the election tide with good employment numbers . We could have fixed this after the 2012 election----- N'est-ce pas?

THE MEN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”

Those lines were uttered by a frustrated Frank Morgan, as Toto pulled back the curtain revealing him frantically pulling the levers to control the booming hologram of the powerful Wizard. The Professor turned out to be a kindly old hustler who helped Dorothy return home to Kansas. But the men behind the curtain in this nation are not nearly that benign. They have many names: the power brokers; the men behind the throne; the fat cats; the robber barons; the prime movers; the owners(George Carlin); the top 1%; oligarchs. But who are they? Name names.

They are not the ultra conservative politicians in state and federal houses around the country. Nor are they the radical right radio and TV talk hosts. These demagogues are not the puppeteers but merely the puppets that are on strings that cause them to prance around the stage in a public display of feigned patriotism and fiscal integrity. We need to know who the puppeteers are ; what they do and where they live. We have a few names but only a very few. The Koch brothers down West Texas , that wonderful state that we stole from Mexico. These sinister siblings come from a powerful old Dutch family who own the second-largest privately held company by revenue in the United States. Charles was ranked 24th on Forbes World's Billionaires list of 2011 with an estimated net worth of $22 billion. We also know much about craggy old Rupert Murdoch who controls the right wing media in both England and the United States. In recent days, they are beginning to pull the curtain away from him gradually to unravel the sketchy behavior of some of his minions. He just had too much public exposure.

In an excellent article by Aerik Vondenburg in the consortium news entitled The Robber Barons Are Back, the author traces the history of an emerging Facism in American history from Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama. His own words say it more eloquently than I can:

Since the Gilded Age of the 19th century, the wealthy financiers and "robber baron" industrialists have been effectively purchasing power – and creating further revenue for themselves – by directing money into the coffers of business friendly politicians, who in turn vote for lower taxes, special exemptions, tax loopholes, deregulation, etc.

But ,as I wrote in a previous post, “Who are these people”. It shouldn’t be too difficult to identify what their names are and what interests they represent. Harold Ickes, FDR’s brilliant Secretary of the Interior, initiated a campaign to go after the “superrich sixty families” whom he identified as the prime power brokers of the era. Isolating only the richest in 21^st Century society as the targets of our scorn would be a mistake. Billionaires like George Soros and Warren Buffett publicly admit that they would have no problem paying higher taxes to support the government. I doubt very much whether Mark Zuckerberg complains that he has to give out too great a percentage of his resources to support the government

We need to know the identity of those families on the Koch Brothers’ Christmas list. You know the ones who tie their sailboats together for the Fourth of July to watch the fireworks off of Shelter Island. Publish their pictures in Newsweek or Time. Tell us where they live so that we can demonstrate in front of their property Identify the industries they represent so we can boycott their products or services. Let us know who regularly wires those funds into Grover Norquist’s accounts in the Cayman’s or Switzerland.

Toto, do your job

“Tell Michael it Was Only Business”

Those were Salvatore Tessio’s words to Tom Hagen, just before he was taken away to be killed for betraying Michael Corleone in the classic film, Godfather I. In Mario Puzo’s script, he has his Mafia bosses justify their felonious behavior by claiming that they are no worse than large corporations and corrupt politicians. When Vito Corleone apologizes to his son, Michael, for getting him involved in the family business, Michael tries to ease his father’s concern by saying that they are all “pezzonovante’s anyway” In Standard Italian it is "pezzo da novanta" (ninety-calibre… a big gun). In Sicilian slang , it is not a good person.

I truly enjoyed the Godfather series because they were well made films but I never viewed those characters as romantic anti-heroes. They were larcenous cold psychopaths whose amoral behavior caused the death and suffering of many. But the business metaphor is appropriate.

One thing you have to admit about the Business Tribe in this country is that they are completely upfront about their agenda. Their one major priority above all is profit---the bottom line. They will readily admit that in any formal or informal communication with others. They are customer oriented only because they have discovered that the strategy yields economic rewards for the private owners or the stockholders of corporations. Calvin Coolidge said it clearly “The business of America is business”. The implication, accepted by many in or out the business world,is that it is truly “American” to support business and anyone who doesn’t accept this is not a true patriot.

The interesting thing about true believers in this tribe is that they separate their personal lives from their business lives. As private citizens they abhor cruelty, injustice, mercilessness and selfishness. When they return home to their family, friends and neighbors they adhere to the Golden Rule. They are like the Nazi Concentration Camp commandants who would return home from Auschwitz or Dachau and celebrate Christmas with their families and neighbors. Dorothy Thompson, the brilliant journalist, called it “doubling” in a 1930’s essay.

Do you think I am exaggerating? Well let’s look at the record. The Tobacco Companies continued to advertise and sell cigarettes even though their own research indicated that they were cancerous. The oil companies made comfortable deals with Middle Eastern Monarchs who funded the terrorists who ultimately viciously attacked our own country. They also were warned many times about the risks of deep water drilling until the gargantuan oil spill that devastated the inhabitants of the Gulf of Mexico.

The mining companies for decades have ignored safety regulations resulting the maiming and premature deaths of men who risked their lives in the bowels of the earth. The corporate environmental polluters whose carbon footprint has resulted in an unnatural climate change that threatens all of us. The weapons manufacturers hide behind the second amendment and the NRA to peddle their automatic weapons at gun shows that kill and maim law enforcement professionals, students, innocent bystanders and even politicians. And finally we have the Wall St. CEO’s whose greed and incompetence almost resulted in another Major Depression.

When you challenge them they cry “Un-American”, “Socialism” and “Communism” or like Sal Tessio, they want you to understand that it is not personal. ”It is only business” they say. I say “leave the gun; take the Cannoli”