Outrage Is Easy.....

....It’s What Got Us into this Mess in the First Place.

You May Be Too Young to Remember, but when the anti-Conformist message of the Beatniks became the anti-War, anti-Establishment, free-love revolution of the 1960s, mainstream America freaked out.

Then, When Lyndon Johnson’s Efforts both to sustain the Vietnam War and to rid America of racism and poverty proved to be too much, the result was social mayhem coupled with economic mess. Johnson’s overreaching ambitions led to Richard Nixon’s cynicism, which led to oil shortages and inflation during the Jimmy Carter years.

The Result Was Outrage, festered by Nixon’s creation of a “Silent Majority” and the fear that the nation had gone off-track. The apex came when Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, aiding the election of the next American president.

America Was Outraged—by the Hippies, by the Commies, by drug use and the sexual revolution, by OPEC and the hostage crisis in Iran. By the apparent failure of the Federal government to take constructive action on any one of these fronts.

In Stepped Ronald Reagan, famously putting forward a silly, defeatist assertion:

“Government Is Not the Solution to Our Problem; Government Is the Problem,” said President Ronald Reagan on the event of his first inauguration. And America believed it. We were outraged by the idea that government might possibly solve anything, beyond the necessities of defending our national borders.

And So Began America’s Twenty-Eight-Year Descent into the folly of deregulation. The result of which we see today.

The “Folly” Fulfilled in the American Taxpayer, unemployed and homeless. Woefully broke, his retirement savings decimated. Providing billions of non-existent dollars to A.I.G. for bankruptcy-inducing bonuses.

What Does America Say Now? That “government is not the solution to the problem”? Or that government just isn’t acting fast-enough to reverse the dismantling trend of almost three entire decades?

Or Merely That We Americans Are....

....Outraged?

If “Government Is not the Solution,” then what will get us out of this mess?

The Failure of American Government over twenty-eight years of the “Conservative Era” was not because government cannot work. It happened because we Americans believed the Conservative foolishness. We elected people who denied the possibilities of government. We permitted our elected officials not even to try. We elected to government, people who bragged —that they don't know how government works!

We Believed the Conservative Ideology—that shipping jobs overseas to Third World countries somehow would not lower our standard of living to that of India, China, and Taiwan. That a nation dependent on foreign oil would not also become dependent on foreign manufacturing and outsourced customer service.

We Believed the Conservative Ideology—that deregulating the greed of Wall Street banks, insurance companies, and investment houses would somehow put money into our pockets. Not just into the million-dollar salaries of CEOs, and the million-dollar bonuses of upper-level management.

We Believed the Conservative Ideology—that deregulating utilities and insurance companies, while putting constraints on the rights of Americans to sue negligent businesses or to declare bankruptcy when necessary, would somehow enhance “individual responsibility” and reduce the “moral hazard” that entitles everyday Americans to the kinds of benefits enjoyed at the top of America’s deregulated economy.

We Believed That If We Just Got Government Out of the Way, private industry would restore America to its former greatness.

Now, What Remains Is Outrage, and the Relentless Heckling of the Right—such as that of Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and talk-show host Rush Limbaugh of Excellence In Broadcasting, and Chairman Michael Steele of the Republican National Committee—voicing their messages of outrage, ever-hopeful that Americans may join in their outrage. And that the anti-ideological principles of sound government will fail.

Against the Fervent American Ideal of Progress, “Hope” and “Change,” we have the Republican determination for a return to the foolish ideological polices of the past twenty-eight years.

What We Have Is the Loud, Republican Remnants of an ideology too-stupid to believe.

And the Practiced Outrage of the American People, tired of being deceived.

TERRORISM NOW AND THEN

What Can We Learn from “Former Domestic Terrorist” Bill Ayers?

[WARNING: If you are one of those “We don’t talk about terrorists” kind of people, please leave the room. This piece will not interest you in the least. It will only make you angrier. Go on back to the Reactionary Lounge. This room is the Room for Change.]


American Anti-War Sympathy for Bill Ayers and the Weathermen, back in the 1960s, tells us something we need to know for defeating Islamist terrorism today.

Back in That Vietnam-War Era, Countless Americans Opposed the War, but couldn’t do much about it. We marched, we protested, and the war continued.

The Weathermen Did It Differently. They used bombs to disrupt draft boards and the Pentagon.

This “Domestic Terrorism” Was Unsuccessful. But it was their most-powerful weapon against our immensely powerful government.

Many Against the War Did Not Condemn the Weathermen at the Time. Back then, we sympathized with their politics, even when we opposed their methods.

Right Now, Islamist Terrorists Survive Only Because Their Citizens share a view about the West. If we can change the way that terrorist-sympathizers see the United States, we will be more than halfway toward winning the so-called "War on Terror."


Channeling Barack Obama™ Opposes Islamist Terrorism. And we do not endorse “domestic terrorism,” past or present.

But It Always Helps to Understand Your Enemy. And the sympathizers who hide him....

As Long as Terrorists Have Civilian Sympathy, the terrorists will be able to hide. This is what makes these wars the hardest to win. Whether in Vietnam or in Iraq and Afghanistan, or even here at home.

If We Don't Care What the Rest of the World Thinks of Us (as the Bush administration insists), we will continue making enemies around the world. And those enemies will find sympathy among their people.

Only by Considering the Opinions of Others—and then deciding what we can change and what we cannot—only then can we win over the hearts and minds of those who might otherwise oppose us.

And That Is the Best Lesson We Can Learn from the example of the Weatherman, and former-terrorist and current Chicago educator, William Ayers.


NOTE: To Read What Bill Ayers Has to Say About His Role in the Recent Presidential Election, go here:

“What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: Looking Back on a Surreal Campaign Season”

Does John McCain Still Want to Be President?

In John McCain’s History, we see a war hero who has devoted his career to serving the American people in the United States Congress. His efforts at following conscience over the dictates of political convenience have been respected in both political parties.

The Three Cornerstones of Senator McCain's Politics have been reform and deregulation and war.

As Regards Reform, he sponsored 2002’s McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act. He speaks firmly now in favor of regulating the greed that has taken the American economy to the brink of disaster. Senator McCain’s commitment to reform in Congress is clear.

But Has It Made Any Difference?

As Regards War, Senator McCain believes strongly in the conduct of the War in Iraq. He has supported the current president unwaveringly, saying that he would rather lose the presidency in order to win a war, than win the presidency and lose the war. Some people believe that the senator's commitment to the War in Iraq reflects a desire to re-fight the Vietnam War—and win this time. No more "domino effect," leading the Communist Chinese and Vietnamese hordes to make beach-landing attacks on our Pacific shores.

Not Like Last Time...

But on the Deregulation Front, it is the Republican Party’s relentless pursuit of deregulations that has led us to the current financial crisis.

The Result of Deregulation Is the Current Economic Fiasco. 1999’s Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, which removed the Depression-era safeguards of 1933’s Glass-Steagall Act, was the precipitate cause of what we face today. (This act was sponsored by the same Phil Gramm who until recently was the senior economic advisor of the McCain campaign.)

More-Recently, the Demise of the Entire Republican Economic Premise was acknowledged by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. "Shocked disbelief" is how Mr. Greenspan put it, admitting that the underlying basis of Republican economic theory is as bankrupt as the nation on which the theory has been tested.

If John McCain’s Primary Focus as a Senator has been to move toward deregulation—as he has reiterated countless times during the lengthy presidential campaign—and it is the abject failure of such deregulations that has caused the current financial meltdown, what is left for John McCain to do?

Net Result: No Effective Reform, No Win in Iraq, an Economy in Crisis.

So What Would John McCain Do if he were elected as President? What more would he deregulate? What new wars would he choose to fight?

Does John McCain Really Still Want to Be President?

If So, Why?