The Mantra of the Far Right

An opponent of a proposed veterans’ services levy here in Kitsap County has been quoted as saying this:  "We do not need continued government support to do what we need to do in our lives. . . .What we need is for government to get the hell out of our way." 

            I’m getting really tired of hearing variations on the Reaganesque mantra that “government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.”  It was more rhetorical than real--just a clever sound bite--when Reagan first uttered it, and it is less than helpful today.  To be sure, we need to root out fraud, waste, and abuse at all levels of government.  But the fact remains that there are some needs that only government can meet.  There are other needs that government has a moral obligation to meet.  Given that we have relegated the burden of national defense to less than one percent of our population, the obligation is undeniable, and only government has the mechanisms to ensure a  consistent, widespread approach to meeting the need. I support the levy.   

            And as for our country at large, clever sound bites—especially the mantras of ideologues—are not the solution to our problems.  --EFP       

President Carter, President Obama, and Racism

I have never been much of a Jimmy Carter fan.  I do think he is a genuinely good man--too good, probably, to have been an effective president.  In my estimation, Carter did the nation irreparable harm in not taking decisive, forceful action in 1979 when Iranian students stormed our embassy and took the staff hostage.  I don't mean to seem callous, but more than the lives of the hostages was at stake.  Storming our embassy was an act of war and should have been dealt with accordingly.  By being wishy-washy Carter also helped provoke the right wing reaction that swept Reagan into office.  And I do part company with those who consider Reagan to have been good for the country.  

But when Carter is right he's right!  I agree that much of the animosity we've seen displayed toward Obama is racially motivated.  This is not to say that  there are no legitimate arguments to be made against Obama's health care reform proposal or his economic stimulus measure.  Nor is it to suggest that all of Obama's critics are racists.  Contrary to what Michael Savage and others are alleging, liberals are not simply playing the race card in order to stifle debate.  Rather, Carter is simply acknowledging what a lot of us have felt:  There has been an undercurrent of racism in much of the belligerence and hysteria we've seen displayed recently in town hall meetings and other venues.

It is plainly evident that Obama's most rabid critics will not accept Obama as our rightful president.  Openly, they charge that the election was rigged and/or Obama is ineligible by birth. But what really bothers them is Obama's race.

The whole scene reminds me of the intransigent racism endemic to the working class of my youth.  Apparently, it will take more than a single generation to achieve a color-blind, post-racial society.

Stay tuned:  In the next day or two, I intend to share the story of what happened in the spring of 1959 when the first black family tried to move in to my neighborhood.
--EFP

Guns and Butter Revisited

I've been thinking of late about a parallel between President Johnson and President Obama.  I've come to understand that LBJ was a decent man who sincerely wanted his legacy to be a "kinder, gentler America"--a "Great Society."  But he inherited a war he couldn't win, and his political opponents were quick to put him between a rock and a hard place.  If he pulled out of Vietnam, given the Cold-War tenor of the times, he would have been labeled "soft on Communism."  Hence, he tried to wage the war in cold blood.  He dared not try to mobilize or otherwise greatly inconvenience the country.  As the old saying goes, he tried to have guns and butter.  And the more LBJ escalated, the more the left turned against him.  I fear that Obama will find himself between his own rock and hard place.  If he pulls out of Afghanistan, the right will denounce him for failing to keep America safe.  And the more he escalates, the more he will lose the support of the left.  Let's hope that Obama doesn't allow himself to become obsessed with winning an unwinnable war, thereby frittering away his opportunies to do some lasting good for the country.  --EFP