about identity

One of the fascinating college professors I had told us that in medieval times if one ask a stranger in Europe, "Who are you?" they would be likely to answer, "I am a Christian,  I am from (name of city or village), I am (name) the son of ___,." Since medieval times Europeans and Americans, I think, have passed through a sea change in identity. Now we would tend to first say our names and we would not likely mention our religion ... that is most of us. At least until some topic comes up such as politics. Politically, we have regressed back to identity, at least among Republicans. "I am a Christian, I am a Republican, I hate abortion and the doctors who perform them ..."
Salman Rushdie is quoted in Salon (link here) as saying we more and more identify ourselves by what we hate or oppose. I think the Christian Right in America and the other fundamentalist groups worldwide - jihadists, Hindu nationalists, etc.) are hurtful.
The absolutist Christian Right, having aligned itself with the Republican Party, gives a patina of righteousness to all things right wing, and consequently paints all things not right wing as satanic. It is just one of the factors killing American politics. And it is as phony as an alcoholic tent revivalist.
Just to take one issue - children. The Christian Right focuses on one thing - abortion. I don't need to tell you about the death threats, the harrassing ... But after a child is born the Republican Christian Right is perfectly willing to leave that child's health and safety to fate. They don't want that child to get free health care, enough good food, a safe home or any other factor that is important to life. So the Christian Right does not believe in the sanctity of life. Now when the child reaches the "age of accountability" the Christians feel obligated to make sure they have heard the gospel. Then, if the child rejects Christianity they can just go to hell -  and in the meantime they will be happy to make life a living hell on earth. And Christians are just so happy about prison rape.
Christians aren't. Not the ones we hear yelling on the news. George Carlin had it in a nutshell - "If you are pre-born you are precious. If you are pre-school, you're fucked."
Let's work at taking the Christian patina away from these hate-filled people. Let's get religion AND the corporations out of our politics. Then we might be mature enough to have a useful discussion about a culture of life.

Democrats let Republicans have the Supreme Court

Part 3
This is the third blog in a row in which I think of political events that somehow I managed to figure out, but Democrats apparently did not. No, they did, but they didn't have the will to fight.
I hardly have the energy to go on and on about the Supreme Court, a national disgrace that carries more weight than Constitution itself. The decision Bush v. Gore alone disqualifies those justices as political hacks. And Citizen's United? Money is speech? Corporations are people? The recent ruling that WE the People don't have "standing" to challenge the pervasive unwarranted use of spying techniques? Any common sense reading of the Constitution would convince an intelligent fifth grader otherwise. Is the Supreme Court dumber than a fifth grader? No, it is simply a giant turned evil.
I remember hearing decades ago that Republicans intended to put the Supreme Court into their back pocket, and now they have. Why didn't Democrats move aggressively to prevent this? Why did I see it coming, but they apparently did not? Does it matter that one could say, I've seen it coming ever since FDR? No, what matters is doing something about it and the Democrats failed.
Robert Bork was voted down because he had written and spoken so much that he had a track record easy for even a Democrat to oppose, so the game plan now for all Supreme Court nominees is to refuse to comment on anything. But, the Republicans know what they are getting, except for that one Obamacare surprise from Roberts! (gives one hope)
I could not believe my eyes and ears as I watched the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. I could not believe that such words were being broadcast into my home where I had young children to raise. And when Anita Hill was savaged in the name of getting Thomas's sure right-wing vote for a lifetime, I thought our nation had lost all justification for ongoing moral influence in the world - but that's a long list, eh Patrice Lumumba?
I'm saving the discussion of judicial review for another time. I'm talking about the Republican techniques used in building a Supreme Court which could, with a straight face, proclaim that in the 21st century PRE-9/11 world, the United States of America could not dare the luxury of counting votes or running a new, clean election.
Anyone still reading this post probably doesn't need me to go on about the appointments of the current Supreme Court, but I'd like to make sure to remind you that the Republicans have ALSO been refusing to approve lower court seats if a Democrat proposed the position. That the Bush administration purged many honest lawyers from the Justice Department for no good reason and replaced them with ill-educated hacks. The Republican Party has sucessfully stocked the legal system pool with party hacks who will become the only "logical" choices for future Supreme Court justices and Federal presecutors.
The Republicans stop at nothing to achieve their ends and the Democrats stop at the mere threat of a filibuster. Democrats pursue things one at a time. Republicans work all aspects of the system so they direct the course of debate even when they lose elections.
Democrats are linear. Republicans are global.