Adolph Reed, Jr. on Salon and in Harper's are must reads.

I got a jolt from reading an interview with Adolph Reed, Jr. on Salon. Here's the link to Thomas Frank's interview. Mr. Reed has an article in the current Harper's magazine. I think both the article and the interview are must-reads for me. I'm sure I'll have to read each twice. It's deep stuff.
I argue a lot in this space that the Democratic Party has compromised itself to the point of being useless as a counterweight to the Republican remaking of America. Mr. Reed has a grasp on this you simply must read.
I won't reiterate the arguments here, but here is one quote from Reed contained in the Salon interview: "Here’s a factoid: a Roper poll a month before the 1944 presidential election found that 68 percent of respondents said that they would not favor a political and economic system no matter what it was called that didn’t pivot off of a fundamental right to a job, that didn’t rest on the fundamental premise that everyone in a society who is willing and able to work should have a right to a job." Look how opinion has been shifted by shady pols and corporate media!
When discussing the old folks of the Tea Party movement Mr. Reed responds to Thomas Frank saying that much of the accusations about President Obama being a Socialist or a Communist are just racist code words:
Reed: "I'll tell you, it's that Birchite (John Birch Society) psychosis. This is the social base of fascism, really, is what they are."
Frank: "They don't have street gangs."
Reed: "No, thank God. Not yet anyway. And I guess that's partly because a lot of them are pensioners."
Frank: "They'll get you with their golf carts."
I can't help but think where "they" are going to get us is with their gun laws. As states add open carry of guns to stand-your-ground-laws to militias and neighborhood patrols by creeps how will we avoid the chill upon political discussion and demonstrations? How long will it take for the shooters to stand their ground in a heated debate or street protests? Do you think juries in those states will convict the shooters? I think that juries often rule against their own convictions when confronted with the hard fact of laws. If it's legal to stand your ground when threatened, if it's legal to pack heat, if a crowd of protesters illegally break out of their "free speech zone" ...  Can the armed street gangs be far behind?

Southern Baptist Law, Sharia Law, it's 1937 - Let's Party!

I was in Amarillo, Texas in 1979 during the Conservative Resurgence - when the Southern Baptist Convention began its shakedown - insisting that every word in the Bible was inerrant and literal truth, purging professors from its seminaries who would not follow Baptist Law, etc. My parents had literally raised my sister and I with the help of Trinity Baptist Church. I was surprised to hear her say that Pastor Winfred Moore of Amarillo's First Baptist Church disagreed with many things happening with the Southern Baptist Convention. I was surprised and heartened that he would disagree with the Convention! Long story short -  for those of you who did not grow up going to a conservative church, those of you who think the secular nature of our culture would not allow Theocracy to occur - you are not in touch with the true nature of this country. The people who keep shouting about Sharia law as a threat to the U.S. - those are the people who would gladly lock you up when Southern Baptist Law completes its takeover. 

There is an intriguing except from a new novel called Christian Nation: a Novel by Frederic C. Rich here on Salon.