Tag Archives: Politics

The Politics of Fear

A note: When Donald Trump tries to scare people by saying Hillary Clinton “will repeal the Second Amendment” he’s not only playing on people’s fears, but he’s showing his vast ignorance of the political system in general and the United States Constitution in specific. No one person, not even the President, can alter the Constitution or it’s Amendments. Any change must pass two-thirds of the House, two-thirds of the Senate, and THEN must be passed by three-fourths of the states themselves in a separate vote. In today’s political climate absolutely nothing can pass such scrutiny, let alone such a divisive issue as repealing an Amendment.

So please, don’t let Mr. Trump frighten you. He’s simply trying to scare you into voting for him based on a single issue that, quite honestly, isn’t even an issue in today’s world of deadlocked partisan politics. No matter what our next President wants to do with this issue it has to pass Congress, and no legislation aiming to limit weapons violence will get through either house.

Article V: “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.”

Controversial Opinions…

THIS IS POLITICAL. I know just a few days ago I railed against people making political posts… Now I’m doing it myself. I see the irony. But I’m going to talk anyway. Sosueme.

Some people have asked my opinion about the 35-year-war we’ve been waging in the Middle East. This is just my opinion. If you don’t care for it, please just move on…

I don’t care which one of you started it. Islam, Judaism, Christianity, you all profess peace, yet I’ve seen precious little of it from any of you. This is a religious war, not an ideological war, and that goes against everything I’ve been brought up to believe. You are all acting like children, so I see no reason not to treat you as such. Until you quit pointing fingers and acting like asses, I’m pretty much done with the whole lot of you. Each one professes peace, yet each one thumps his chest in outraged indignation and condemns the other.

You know, if I had a magic wand, I’d airlift the innocent out of the Middle East rather than airlift troops in.

  1. We can use our troops here at home. I was in the Army National Guard for close to a decade, back in the day. I’d rather see our reserves tending to their families, being active in their communities, and spending their drill weekends in a combination of training and community service than hanging around in a foreign country wondering where the next bullet is coming from…
  2. We can use the innocents from the Middle East here in the land of the free, the melting pot. Here, here’s this:

    “Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she
    With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'”

These folks, the people in the Middle East who want no conflict, these folks have skills, imaginations, arts that should be cultivated – not suppressed by war. How many advances, scientific, cultural, musical, have we lost through war? People who yearn to learn, deprived a chance. America gave my grandparents, and great-grandparents a chance to come here and grow. In the years prior to WWII my grandfather was welcomed to America, and was allowed to enlist in the military and serve his new country. Could we do that today? Are we comfortable allowing Middle-Easterners in our communities the way our forefathers welcomed Germans into theirs? Probably not, and that’s to our detriment…

If your religious beliefs made you shudder a little at the thought of welcoming Muslim refugees into America, I wonder if you shouldn’t re-examine your religion. Peace? Love? Acceptance? Sound familiar? Or should we go with “boots on the ground” again, and see our children die shooting at their children?

I choose acceptance. Peace. Rather than punish, let’s choose instead to welcome those who seek refuge.

Am I an idealist? No. I know some idiot will accept our offer of friendship with an outstretched hand containing not goodwill but hatred, and will undoubtedly wreak havoc. But that doesn’t mean we should change our beliefs… I’d rather make a mistake offering friendship than offering malice.

Elections

The Iowa Caucuses are coming up soon. I’ve still not decided who I’m going to vote for, and I’m not going to try to persuade anyone to vote for anyone specific. (Unless you’re planning on voting for G.W. Bush – then I may have to try to do some persuading, but I promise to be polite about it.) I will say that it is important to vote. Civic duty and all that. I vote in every little election that comes down the pipe. It’s kind of fun… National Public Radio has a good site that compares and contrasts the various Democratic candidates. Just click here… (NPR is just plain good. It’s public television for your ears.)