Divisions

Pretty much whenever we are not in an election year, I have said I was going to keep politics out of this blog. I would write about cultural issues but not going to go into political issues and politicians because I felt we needed to think positive for our health and good of our lives.

It didn't take long before I decided I had to have a place to rant and that became Rainy Day Things where I wrote whatever was on my mind politically and let this place stick to more pleasant topics like nature and life.

Well it's back to an election year and I am feeling like more than ever we need to care about politics and that I cannot discuss cultural issues here without them. So this is a warning to those who want the sweet side of life-- politics are going to be here with the issues and the politicians until after the election in November. I will, as I always have, put some sugar with the bitter by using recently taken photos generally of nature. And of course, there will be other things to write about sometimes. I don't live, breathe and eat politics, but I do care a lot about what's going on.

Putting politics back here is something I feel is critical because I see what is happening right now, with the divisions in our country, as impacting our daily lives, our future. What do we do about that is where we come into political solutions-- for those who don't want violent or otherwise revolutions.

In a lot of ways we have always been a divided country with historically half of us thinking one way and half the opposite. We have fought wars over it. We elect one political party and they go one way. The other heads off the other.  Some people love that back and forth as if having no firm direction is good.

Personally, I am not thrilled with either party at the moment, and some of what they do is plain nuts to me.  However one party threatens all the values I hold dear and it's not the Democrats.

I shake my head when I hear Democrats did something like want bigger big tax credits for anybody who buys a Volt (yeah I get it why but it still seems wrong to me). Equally I was not thrilled when Republicans did it for those who bought a Humvee or other gas guzzling vehicle. (interesting too how that same party would have let GM go down the tube-- so it sure wasn't about jobs they had their tax credit). Why can't these guys simply NOT have tax credits for buying any automobile?

There is a lot of concern on the right for our culture. Some of what worries them, I get. When I hear the big increase in children born outside of marriage [Statistics in Births], it's not just righties who are asking what is going on. 60+% of under 30s are having their babies while not married.

But I don't automatically think this means born from one-night stands. This seems to me as much about an increasing lack of faith in the whole system with people living together rather than marrying. Marriage is really a contract between two people and the government. When people lose faith in the system, they are probably less apt to commit not just to each other but to it.

So a lot of us are not thrilled at this situation (it's the same in England; so not Obama's fault but rather symptomatic of our times), but what is the solution from the right wing-- block access to birth control.  Say what! A person would laugh if it wasn't so pathetic. They also think (Rush Limbaugh types) that they should end food stamps and government entitlement programs. More starvation and less of this happening! Santorum would add to that by ending publicly funded education. Who cares what happens to those kids at least once they get born!


When I first read about the small town pharmacist (couple of years ago) who was refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control pills, I didn't realize this was about to be a trend-- actually the first volley in a very real culture war- and not just about trying to change minds but also to literally change laws.

How many understood that the 2010 mid-term elections were really about these cultural changes that right wingers then began to make like going after the unions which have been the engine for middle class Americans. When they go after unions, to block them from negotiating for better pay or working conditions, they are going after all middle class Americans.

There is no alternative party for people like me. It has to be the Democrats whether I like all they do or not. Listen to the right wing candidates who sound so eager to get into a war with Iran. It might come to that. I hope it won't, but if it does, I don't want it to be from leaders who are salivating over the possibilities to profit from it or from the American love of gladiators so they can get excited about someone else taking the risks they themselves don't want to take.

But what party could I support when I hear somebody joke, as a recent right wing moneybags did, about women keeping their legs together and they won't need birth control. Or when I read and see videos of what Santorum actually stands for and has said-- and he's leading the Republican pack-- even if that's only for the moment?

I thought about it with this blog whether to try and keep it a refuge. But heck there are plenty of blogs out there for that. I need to write what is on my mind and what my conscience dictates, and that means not just use 'Things' to vent those feelings. I also feel there is value in a place like this for others to comment and as a way to discuss issues and possible ideas. For awhile it seemed okay to have that in an adjunct to this one, but the problem keeps escalating to the point I think it is a cultural war and it's one I don't feel we can afford to lose.

The issue is what can we do about the nuttiness? I don't totally know but discussions in places like this seem like a good place to think about it. I will try to put up at least one blog a week that has something unpolitical for those who simply cannot stand to follow this sordid stuff.  This is no time to be silent though and frankly it's about all I have a lot of interest in writing other than my fiction.

I hope if you are someone who has decided to tune out, you will recognize what is at stake where it comes to donating, volunteering and voting. If it's okay with you what the right wants to do, then that's how it is. One side has to win. I want it to be mine and will be writing a LOT more about what I think is at stake.

I try to not get angry at things like this: [right wingers go wild against women around the country].  It's hard and worse than this is going on around the world. It's hard not to want to scream when I hear a woman like Liz Trotta trying to blame assaults on women in the military on the women themselves and those who helped women be allowed to have roles there commensurate with their abilities.

I have a granddaughter who will come of age possibly in a time where she won't know the freedoms my daughter had. That doesn't seem right and it does seem important to stand up to not let happen. I do not feel hopeless about this. I feel it's a time we have to fight for what earlier generations earned. It is our turn.

Oregon Coast February 18th--one of the ways we can be active, informed and still not go nuts!