Posts Tagged ‘liberal opinion’

Robert Reich: The GOP Ticket in 2012: Romney-Rubio

Jan 4th, 12 / 1 Comment

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January 4, 2011

 

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Robert Reich: The GOP Ticket
in 2012: Romney-Rubio

The GOP Ticket in 2012: Romney-Rubio, RobertReich.org, January 2, 2012, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

Since my New Year’s prediction that Obama would select Hillary Clinton for his running mate in 2012 (and Joe Biden would become Secretary of State), I’ve been swamped by requests for my GOP prediction. Here goes.

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You can forget the caucuses and early primaries. Mitt Romney will be the nominee. Republicans may be stupid but the GOP isn’t about to commit suicide. The other candidates are all weighed down by enough baggage to keep a 747 on the tarmac indefinitely.

For his running mate, Romney will choose Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida. Why do I say this?

First, Romney will need a right-winger to calm and woo the Republican right. Tea Partiers are attracted to Rubio – an evangelical Christian committed to reducing taxes and shrinking government. Rubio’s meteoric rise in the Florida House before coming to Congress was based on a string of conservative stances on state issues.

Rubio is also a proven campaigner, handily winning four Florida House elections starting in 2002, and then beating popular incumbent Republican governor Charlie Crist in 2010 — with the help of Tea Partiers.

Moreover, he’s only 40, thereby giving the GOP ticket some youthful vigor.

And he’s Hispanic – a Cuban-American – at a time when the GOP needs to court the Hispanic vote.

Rubio’s only baggage is the “son of exiles” controversy – his suggestion that his parents were refugees forced out of Cuba by Castro when in fact they moved to the United States before the Cuban revolution.

But this isn’t the sort of slip that would keep him off the ticket. In fact, Romney has defended Rubio, saying “I think the world of Marco Rubio, support him entirely and think that the effort to try to smear him was unfortunate and bogus.”

Finally, and most critically, Florida is a crucial swing state. Rubio would help deliver it.

So it will be Obama-Clinton versus Romney-Rubio.

And what’s my prediction for Election Day? Obama-Clinton hands down.

I warn you, though. Political predictions, economic forecasts, and astrology differ in only one respect. Astrology has a fairly good record of being correct.

Robert Reich was the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the Ten Most Successful Cabinet Members of the century. He has written eleven books, including “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages. His recent book is “Supercapitalism.” For Professor Reich’s book page for Supercaptialism at Amazon, go here. Reich’s newest book, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future has been released September 21, and is available for ordering at this link (Amazon.com). The above article is from Reich’s new blog, and can be viewed here.

Robert Reich’s commentaries are available for listening to at Publicradio.com. Watch the video Aftershock: The next economy and America’s future (about his new book). Thanks to Professor Reich for permission to publish his articles on an ongoing basis.

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Why People Stay On Welfare or Disability: My Story of Disillusionment

Dec 16th, 11 / 3 Comments

Evans Community of Caring
December 16, 2011

 

Why People Stay on Welfare or Disability:
My Story of Disillusionment

Evans Liberal Politics, December 16, 2011, origninally publbished on June 13, 2011, by Paul Evans:

I don’t really know how to introduce this true story of mine. I have real difficulty accepting it, or believing that the Federal and State of Ohio governments are this incredibly stupid — or evil. Frankly, my conclusion is that this is the way the deck is stacked for people like me. Once you are down on disability, and reach some age in the 50-year-old range, you simply are not supposed to recover from that. The financial rules and regulations which Social Security and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services are supposed to enforce, do not allow anybody like me to make a comeback and lead a normal life.

photo of Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans from June, 2011

I have been on full disability since 1987, for mental illness. In the last year that was paying me $307 in SSI and $387 in (earned) SSA from Social Security, for a total of $694 a month. Everything was OK for many years because I lived with my nuclear family and we were all doing O.K. Then my sister, who as a veterinarian was making good money, passed away unexpectedly, and soon after, my mother died. I had cared for Mom and Dad for two years before Mom passed on, and then cared for Dad for 3 years, until the beginning of 2010. Then, at the very end of 2009, with me having a short spell in a mental hospital, there was no one to care for Dad. The first call I made from the hospital was to the local Hospice, begging them to please look after Dad, but they did not, and Dad soon ended up in the emergency room, for eight days, and almost died there.

Since then Dad has lived in a local nursing home. As a mental patient, and I might add as one who has never been arrested and one who very strongly loves his Dad, at this point someone in power decided I was not fit to look after Dad, whose senile dementia was growing worse. So they appointed a guardian for dad, I might add, a guardian who has never helped me with one cent of the bills he promised to pay for me at a meeting in May, 2010 (but not in writing, alas).

And here’s a warning for all those whose parents are getting older: Medicare will pay for only two months of physical therapy. But all the health insurance contracts providing nursing home insurance are rigged. After two months, when the physical therapy stops, there is a clause in all the health insurance contracts that physical therapy stopping means that the health insurance provider stops paying for the nursing home stay. In our case, Dad had nursing home insurance for one full year, but they stopped paying when the physical therapy stopped, two months into his stay at the nursing home.

Insofar as I can tell, this sort of clause is in all the health insurance policies that I am aware of. So beware!

So anyway, at that point we eventually get Medicaid to pay for Dad to stay in the nursing home, but at least in Ohio, when Medicaid is used to pay for an elderly person’s nursing home stay, this cuts off all access to the patient’s funds, even by his or her family. In other words, Dad has three small retirements coming in, but as soon as Dad went on Medicaid, I could not hope to have the use of any of Dad’s money at all. Using Medicaid to pay for a nursing home stay, in the state of Ohio at least, cuts off all access to the patients’ funds for all family members.

I badly needed these funds to take care of Dad’s home, where I live. A water heater and a cold water well tank had to be replaced. A couple of electrical outlets blew up. I could not use Dad’s money to pay for needed repairs to his own house. I have not been able to pay these bills and some repair people have already sued me. Some states (14 so far) now allow for jail for failure to pay your debts.

By this time, I had taken in two people who needed help, from a homeless shelter in Akron, but we were flat broke most of the time, and the three of us were living just on my disability checks. These two new people who were living with me had past records which made it especially hard for them to find jobs.

Then, about five months ago, my old car died and we were stranded except for the kind decency of a few friends who gave us rides. We are still looking for a car as charity as of the publication date of this article. We live six miles out in the country. We cannot even afford to heat the whole house. A few rooms are warmed with electric heaters, although of course that makes the electric bill something we often cannot afford to pay.

So, getting back to my attempts to get off disability, I thought, perhaps and hopefully the time had come that I would be able to hold down a job myself. I worked six to seven weeks about 20 hours a week at my new job of website design and telemarketing to get website design customers, for a good man who took a chance and hired me, despite my lack of much of an employment history.

Then came the bad news. Despite the fact that I had worked through the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, Social Security did NOT give me any time to get back on my feet before they informed me that each month, after $65 dollars free and clear, they were deducting HALF of what I made from my SSI check. Then the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services kicked in. Those kind folks reduced my food stamps benefit from $480 a month to $277 a month. They also initiated a monthly medical spenddown, starting at $36 a month, before I would receive my Medicare or Medicaid benefits at all.

The long and the short of it is that I found myself making about the SAME in wages and benefits while working about 20 hours a week than I was if I just sat there and stayed on full disability, doing nothing.

Absolutely incredible, crazy and stupid as hell, I know, but that is the truth.

To complete the picture, making no more money than I did while I was disabled, I could not at that point pay my phone and internet bill. I needed this very much for my job, not to mention for Evans Liberal Politics.

Ah, but there is still more. At the beginning of October, which is about three months after I had to quit my job, Social Security informed me that they had made an overpayment to me, so that for October, November and December of this year, my SSI payment would not be the usual $307 but only $239 a month. I thought that was a nice touch, don’t you?

So there you have it. I have apologized profusely to my boss, Tom, who is a wonderful Christian gentleman and understood completely. But without phone and internet, I could not do my job, and so I told Tom that I would be unable to work for him.

I just find it so incredible that this is the way the government encourages people to get off of disability/welfare, taking so much away in reduced benefits that the disabled person is actually making less than if he/she simply stayed on welfare. This is no rant, I simply wanted to get the truth of my own situation out there. I don’t expect that any change or help will come to me by writing this post, but I very much DO want all the “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” and “take personal responsibiilty” people out there to realize: our own government is making it impossible for disabled people to get back to work. I want to work, I am well enough to work, but there is NO PROGRAM for a disabled person to gradually get back on their feet.

Guess I’m headed back to the welfare dime. Seems like that’s where the government wants me. I really have no choice in the matter. No one will hire me for a good paying, full time job, and if they did, I would lose my Medicare and Medicaid benefits for good. Do you think some prospective employer is going to replace THAT??? Do you really think that at age 54, having been on disability since 1987, I am going to take a chance like that (assuming I could get hired at a good paying job)??

No, like the song says, “when you’re down, that’s where you’ll stay”. That seems to be the way the government wants it.

How about you, my readers? Have any of you experienced similar horror stories in trying to get off of the welfare dime and getting back to work? If so, please feel encouraged to leave a comment below. ~ Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans

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Should the Left & All Americans Trust Barack Obama?

Nov 27th, 11 / 3 Comments

Evans Caring Community
November 27, 2011

 

Should the Left & All Americans
Trust Barack Obama?

© 2009 Evans Caring Community, edit and rewrite of November 27, 2011, also published February 1, 2011, and May 8, 2009, by Dr. Jack E. Evans and Paul Evans. Originally published with the title “Why the Left and All Americans Should Trust Barack Obama” — please notice the new title. Photo of Dr. Jack E. Evans is from 1977 and is hereby placed into the public domain:

This article was originally published on May 8, 2009 on Evans Liberal Politics and has been rewritten and updated. I am introducing here my father, Dr. Jack E. Evans, who is a retired 86 year old professor of Russian language and literature with a doctorate from Yale University, and an old New Deal Democrat. A year after this article was first published, at the beginning of 2010, Dad had to go and live at a local nursing home, where he struggles with senile dementia. I have lived with Jack all of my life, almost. My father tried so very hard to impart to me the strongest of spiritual and mental gifts with which he tried to help me overcome my mental illness, and to try to develop my ability to think logically, and as an editor. I could not possibly show him enough gratefulness, and I know that he has been a far better father than I could possibly deserve.

In mid-2009, Dr. Evans felt that this topic was important enough that he wished to contribute to a discussion of it when it was originally published. I truly and strongly hope that I am successful in conveying his feelings about the current political situation. Dr. Evans was a marine officer in the Pacific in World War II. Later, he spent 13 years in charge of and as chief editor for translating sections for ASA, NSA and CIA, before getting his doctorate from Yale and teaching at several colleges. He also has a masters degree in Russian history from Georgetown. I (Paul Evans) mentioned above that I lived and interacted with Dr. Evans almost my whole life; We worked on the translation of 11 books together. Later, I was his caregiver before he had to go to live in a Wooster nursing home, where I visit him almost every day.

photo from 1977 of Yale Professor of Russian language and literature Dr. Jack E. Evans

We both wanted to simply say that, while as progressive Democrats we are sometimes critical of the actions of the (late) Democratic (now Republican) Congress and even the actions of President Obama, we trust Barack Obama’s heart and mind and remain committed to his Presidency and his success. However, our views are not some sort of blind loyalty either to President Obama or to the Democratic Party, but arise mainly through an understanding of the difficulties Obama has in this economy and with the current composition of Congress as well as the general political direction, or “mood” if you will, which our country has taken. Even so, that does NOT mean that we are at all content with the leadership that President Obama has shown in taking the country in a progressive direction.

Both Dr. Evans and I have been upset at the appointment to high office in the Obama administration of economic advisers with corrupt histories and very strong ties to Wall Street. Even the mainstream media has discussed what we feel to be unnecessary pain, hardship and suffering for ordinary Americans, brought on by what seems sometimes to be a corrupt American system of government.

Nonetheless, we remember well Barack Obama’s roots as a community organizer in South Chicago, and we do not feel he has changed much in his heart from who he was in those simpler days. We think he may well remain about as progressive in his personal identity as ever, but is compelled by a pragmatic outlook to follow “the art of the possible.” At least, we hope so.

We also feel that President Obama wants to represent all Americans, and not just those who feel they are progressive or liberal in their outlook. We think and pray that Obama is still a progressive in his heart and mind and still trying to move the nation in that direction. But nonetheless, we are both proud of Barack Obama specifically FOR trying to represent all Americans, and not just liberals and progressives. Really, that was a lot to attempt. Lately, however, we both have been wondering about that. One real disappointment for us is that Obama has had a Presidency so intertwined with corporate America, which was evident from the start when he chose as his economic advisers Summers, Geithner, Bernanke and crew. Now he is moving even more in this conservative direction with the emphasis on American competitiveness and the whole movement towards an austerity budget. (Did you know that the new budget contains a 12 percent increase for the Pentagon?)

Important liberal and progressive economists, such as Paul Krugman, Robert Reich and Daily Kos’s Bob Swern have exhorted the President about a growing crisis in the resources and job situation for our workers, yet Obama seems determined to capitulate to the Republican House without even attempting to defend the working class. At the same time he is all too willing to give rich Americans tax breaks and even seems willing to consider major cuts to entitlements. Dr Evans and I want to exhort the President to remain strong in the understanding that America’s business engine is built on the labor of the average American worker and their ability to make purchases, and it is primarily their welfare he needs to look out for, not that of Wall Street.

Thinking about the upcoming election of 2012, Obama needs to consider how disillusioned his supporters from 2008 are because of Obama’s apparent economic and fiscal conservatism that has only grown stronger with time. There comes a point when Obama may realize that his base is so disillusioned and heartsick about the “change we can believe in” having morphed into support for the rich and the status quo in general, that we may be unwilling to work very hard to reelect the President. I know I myself worked pretty hard in 2008, yet am weighing my options about 2012. Many progressives who I have talked to have confided to me that it is only upon considering the likely Republican nominees that they would even consider working for Obama at this point.

But it’s not just liberals who are upset and struggling over how much to support the President. Many independents and just ordinary Americans I have spoken with are VERY dissatisfied. Some people who have been ruined in their financial status say that the whole situation may even turn violent if the oppression of the American worker by the rich continues much further. I do not know, but I ask myself: why are ordinary Americans talking this way, and why would they unless something pretty profound is wrong with the way America is these days.

Informed progressives feel that America is in danger of becoming a two class oligarchy, and that it is up to all of us to stop this trend. To work to make America financially sound again, the vast majority of the American middle class and American workers must again be brought into a condition of prosperity. This is our main concern going forward, as it is that of some of our featured economics writers here such as Paul Krugman, Robert Reich and Bob Swern.

The nation has fully embraced the full-bore pro-Capitalist spirit. This is all very well, but ordinary Americans are increasingly suffering. So long as that reality is true, the nation will never regain its full elan and vigor and move forward to meet the challenges of the 21st century as it should.

Still, overall, while our own expression is sometimes adamantly progressive in terms of what has been published on Evans Liberal Politics, we want to be sure to say that “we support you, President Obama, and we are still trying to trust you too.” We just wish you would be a lot more concerned with the economic pain of ordinary Americans and a little less preoccupied with the people who bankroll your campaigns and Congress. Ordinary Americans swept you into office and without us, you will not again be successful in 2012.

We do however understand the political reality you labor under, President Obama, and also that you are really trying to move the nation beyond hyperpartisanship and into a more caring and decent relation between those of differing views. While I do in fact feel that this is one of the President’s main goals, we have to ask ourselves: just who made the President bring Bush’s “wrecking crew” into his administration as it’s principal economic advisers at it’s start? Why would a truly liberal or progressive President bring in those people?

I used to be really skeptical of the effort to bring about bipartisanship, President Obama. Then I had a period in which I tried to be accepting of bipartisanship, believing that the President had the interests of all Americans in his heart — not just liberals and progressives.

A lot of people on the left have come to the conclusion that you have “sold out.” Dr. Evans and I still hope and pray for you, President Obama, and yet, all the legislation coming out of Washington is pretty darned Republican in what it appears to be, at least to the left. At what point do you stop working for bipartisanship when the other side refuses to compromise at all?

So, overall, there is a disconnect between what President Obama promised us during the campaign of 2008, and what has happened since then. Perhaps this all is not Barack Obama’s fault, but is more a product of our nation’s and Congress’ economic corruption. One wonders just how much better it would be if Republicans in Congress actually considered working with the President and Democrats in a bipartisan way. Could we not as a nation unify behind this man Barack Obama, who has shown himself to be a true patriot and true American citizen for all of us? My father and I truly hope that we will. Dr. Evans and I believe that true bipartisanship would solve a lot of problems in this country. And it is so sad to see the ideals of 2008 bow down before political reality.

That being said, Barack Obama used to be fully a “man of the people.” Now he has a lot of informed people questioning that. President Obama, you need to show the nation you still care about the average citizen more than Wall Street and big business. Carry the nation forward with that in mind, and we will all support you like we did in 2008. We trust that you are still our Barack Obama, and we implore you to stand up for ordinary Americans.

This article was originally published on Daily Kos. I can think of no better summary and end for it than to quote a commenter on the article there: “It’s not a question of a lack of trust, it’s about each of us playing our role. I do trust Obama, which is why I’m willing to follow the path he set us on. But that path includes applying pressure for what I know is right.” ~ Jack and Paul Evans

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US Fed Reserve Audit Reveals 16 TRILLION in Secret 0% Interest Bailouts

Nov 11th, 11 / 1 Comment

Evans Liberal Christian Politics
November 11, 2011


Why Is the Mainstream Media Ignoring This???
Our Featured Article

Wake Up World: US Fed Reserve
Audit Reveals 16 TRILLION
in Secret 0% Interest Bailouts

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"What was revealed in the audit was startling: $16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world’s banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious — the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs.

"To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is “only” $14.5 trillion. The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is “only” $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world."

Note by Evans Liberal Christian Politics owner Paul Evans: What could this huge monetary transfer also be about, besides bailing out banks and corporations? What must be in the mind of conspiracy theorists, is certain to be something very sinister. However, what this also may be about is preparation for times ahead (on the time scale of decades), which may very well make this last "Great Recession" look almost like a walk in the park.

The stronger democracies in western Europe and of course the U.S. may very well need this kind of money as the world’s economies teeter and labor under huge burdens. There are simply too few resources and too many people clamoring after them. This sort of monetary transfer may make some effective response by the strong western Nations possible, in the event of a crisis. The implementation is something along the lines of the New World Order which George H.W. Bush first brought up as a real necessity, and if that is true, what we are seeing here is that Order coming to pass into reality.

We have stated here on this website before that, while this New World Order has the potential for some very substantial misuse and abuse, it may be very necessary to keep the world from still worse economic pain.

This is my own view, and I am not stupid so I do realize that there is already abuse of the kind of cash and power that these sorts of funds represent. I am simply trying to look under the hood of a world financial movement which may have something at least a little more hopeful to it than what it seems like at face value. Let us hope and also pray. The next 50 years or more, say the scientists and even the CIA, are going to be rough.

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Washington Post – Eugene Robinson: Don’t Make the Economy Worse

Jun 29th, 11 / 1 Comment

Evans Liberal Politics
June 29, 2011

 

Washington Post – Eugene Robinson:
Don’t Make the Economy Worse

Don’t Make the Economy Worse, The Washington Post, June 27, 2011, by Eugene Robinson, excerpt quoted verbatim:

There is no good reason for negotiations on the budget and the debt ceiling to be deadlocked, because the solution is obvious: First, do no harm.

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The Hippocratic injunction should be something befuddled economists and warring politicians can agree on. With the nation struggling to recover from a devastating recession, unemployment stuck at crisis levels, financial markets spooked by the possibility of European defaults and consumers disinclined to consume, it makes no earthly sense to suck money out of the economy.

Democrats are right that this is a terrible moment for spending cuts. Republicans are right that this is an awful moment for tax increases. The only reasonable thing to do is kick the can down the road — but in a purposeful, intelligent way.

As a practical matter, this means Republicans must swallow an increase in the debt ceiling, and Democrats must accept painful spending curbs that kick in when the economy is off its sickbed. It means conservatives have to be patient in bringing expenditures down and progressives have to be patient in returning tax rates — even for the wealthy — to what many of us consider appropriate levels. ….

Read the full article here.

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NY Times Editorial: A.E.P. Protests Too Much

Jun 20th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
June 20, 2011

 

NY Times Editorial:
A.E.P. Protests Too Much

A.E.P. Protests Too Much, NY Times, Editorial, June 19, 2011

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American Electric Power, one of the nation’s largest utilities, warned last week that new air quality rules could force it to “prematurely” shut down about two dozen big coal-fired units and fire hundreds of workers. This is a deceptive and particularly cynical claim. The utility is making a business decision that has little to do with the rules.

Here is what A.E.P. is not saying: These units are, on average, 55 years old. Some are running at only 5 percent of capacity. Many had long been slated for retirement, in part to comply with a 2007 settlement with the George W. Bush administration in which the company agreed to settle violations of the Clean Air Act by spending $4.7 billion to retire or retrofit aging units.

Blaming the rules is a transparent scare tactic designed to weaken the administration’s resolve while playing to industry supporters on Capitol Hill. Fortunately, Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, which proposed the rules, refuses to be bullied.

Ms. Jackson called the A.E.P. charges “misleading at best” and made clear she would not retreat from her statutory duty to protect public health. She said she would stick to her timetable and make the rules final this year. We hope that the White House is equally determined. ….

Read the full story, here.

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What I Have to Say to God in Heaven, Whether It Matters or Not

Jun 3rd, 11 / 3 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
June 3, 2011

 

What I Have to Say to God in Heaven
Whether It Matters or Not

A Christian Response to Poverty, Injustice and Suffering
And A Challenge for Each of You

Evans Liberal Politics, completely revised June 3, 2011 and May 23, 2011, originally published May 21, 2011, by Paul Evans:

I don’t give a damn. I don’t give a damn about any of this, about anything You put me through — whether God or Satan or the evil, sick society we live in. You made Socrates drink hemlock, and you killed Jesus. Gandhi, JFK, MLK, RFK — all martyred. I guess that is a complaint to God. If I so chose to, I could make almost an indictment or accusation. Free will, of course, yet ALL of those wonderful people gone. All of them and more like them. If you are omnipotent, how could you "let" that happen?


I wonder at the suffering in life — suffering I see each day on the news, suffering I see among people, and my own – and I do not understand why it must be. And yet, I am not starving, and I have a roof over my head. This morning driving into town I saw a tall black man walking towards town with a bag in hand. I damn well should have picked him up. And there are supposed to be ONE BILLION people in the world without access to clean drinking water. Why do you allow this, God?

I am powerless. Everyone on God’s green earth is absolutely powerless. All I can do… All we can do — logically — is to suffer our fates, live truly caring lives as we are able to, beyond all reasonableness, and try to hope. In other words, fight. Fight not simply for ourselves, but for each other. That is what we should all do, in whatever way we understand life. It is the proper logical response to life. To the near-meaninglessness that God Himself, for some reason inexplicable to me, enforces upon us. Perhaps — in fact I am saying, pretty definitely — it is not so much enforced on us as it is the result of our collective and individual failures to lead logical and caring lives.

A Word About Logic and Caring: The better you get with logic and the more caring of a life you try to live, you will see that it is impossible to be fully logical without living a fully caring life to the extent of sacrifice. Those people who claim, al la Ayn Rand and others, that selfishness is logical, have not thought out the matter fully, nor actually tried to live caring lives. And isn’t it amazing how all these Ayn Rand followers are these real big Christians, or say they are?

Leading a truly caring life is actually all we can do to make a logical response to the world in which we find ourselves. LOGOS, the logical order of the universe considered philosophically, has only one value, and that value is caring. (Or so thought the ancient, pre-Socratic Greeks and later the early Christian church, which remade Logos into a philosophical representation of the second person of the Holy Trinity, or Jesus.) You cannot be very logical and not be very caring.

These Republicans — and most all of my liberal friends too — talk about personal responsibility in life. That’s Bullsh*t. They’ve never been down and don’t know what they’re talking about. Like the song says, “when you’re down that’s where you’ll stay.” Oh, I know, you read the success stories, and the press and TV play them up, but that’s NOT real life for almost all of the poor and downtrodden.

What I would like to see, personally, is a lot of the money that now goes into prisons and law enforcement instead go into drug treatment facilities, and adult education. Did you know that fully 27 percent of African Americans have been in jail at least once for marijuana crimes (whatever a marijuana crime is…). If one switched from punishment to treatment as our priority, there would be plenty of money here to give those who need it a subsidized job. That would be the caring way to proceed. Many criminals see no way out for their lives and families, and so they revert back to criminal acts. Treating them, educating them and providing subsidized jobs with a living wage is the best alternative to prison, so far as I can see. It is certainly the caring, Godly way to help them and thus help society.

I was speaking above of “real life” for the poor and how few who have not been here can truly understand how degrading it is. Real life is wondering if you can get someone to give you some money for gas to go into town to the charity organization so you can get food to eat. And of course, you do realize that begging is illegal, right? Yes, the police have made me aware of this three or four times in the last year, while I was trying to get a little gas money at the gas station, through begging it off of people. Yes, many people will rat you out and turn you in to the police if you are resorting to this. Real life is hoping and praying that your car holds together for a few more thousand miles. Real life is helping your housemates with gas to drive 40 miles and back, so the woman can visit her children, even though helping her that way means that there will be zero money left for the rest of the month. O.K., here’s some real life that no one without an addiction can understand: real life is picking up a nice, juicy cigarette butt off of the sidewalk, because that is just how addicted to them you are and you have no money to buy any kind of smokes. Degrading, isn’t it? Real life is also begging for help from your friends until both the help and the friendships stop. If only ALL your friends would help, it would not be a hardship for any of them, would it? And yet — I know from firsthand experience — you really are going to lose all your friends if you keep asking for help. And real life is trying to keep the lights on and heating just a few rooms in your home by means of electric heaters through the winter so that your water pipes don’t freeze up and burst… and then trying to pay the huge electric bill.

At first your friends help, but it is not too long before there are “reasons” why not. They talk about things like that “personal responsibility” and “sustainability” and not being my bank. Yet so many of them, before they dropped me as their friends, were and are people of means, to whom $10 or so every second or third day means very little. Or at least they are a lot better off than I am. Yes, caring has these limits, you see — except for one person: Jesus, and I follow Him. Now, in my experience, almost all of these “Christians” who go to church each Sunday have shown themselves to be hypocrites. I believe there was a strong metaphor in an explanation Jesus gave… Something about a camel and the eye of a needle, am I right?

But of course many understand — and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that I understand, at all. In many ways, for the common man, life sucks. And the only reason that this “got out there,” that I was allowed to think this through and to rewrite it and put this out on the internet for you is that — I think — despite the rambling, somewhat incoherent rant that this constitutes, God just wanted you people to "think about it" and realize about the way each of us is called to not judge each other and to lead a fully caring life. I do know this: personally, you can’t be at peace otherwise.

Oh, and the title of this article? It does matter…. but perhaps not in the long run, or in terms of us changing anything, or in terms of God allowing or causing the world to somehow be different than it is. Yet in our own lives, in terms of the peace we need in our own hearts, and for our friends and families and loved ones — and for the stranger we meet alongside the road — of course leading a caring life is what we are called upon by all the is decent and good in our hearts and in the world to do. For me, and for some small number of people in the world, to live in any other way is unthinkable. I challenge each of you to think logically about what is right and decent and “what Jesus wants” when confronted with poverty, suffering and injustice, and then to make changes in your life.

I have suffered a lot in my life, especially lately, what with mental illness, poverty, and various thus-far rather mild diseases, seeing all my loved ones die off and losing my friends because I stood up for what I believed the correct and Christian thing to do is (in terms of refusing to stop opening my home to sheltering two homeless people). They are homeless no more – now this is their home too. I do not have gas to drive into town, and am out of food. I beg from my friends, and have lost almost all of them as friends because of all of this. At this point, I now refuse to struggle any longer at all in terms of my own spiritual gifts and what that itself means I must go through. At this point, like the Tom Petty song below, “you can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.” All I can do is live my life in terms of what seems just and right to me. I am powerless and it is in God’s hands, and I cannot do other than I am now. God’s response is up to Him.

That is about all I have to say in words, not that it really matters, but here is a musical response to the experience of life that my viewers may appreciate, I hope:

What the response of Jesus might be. (For Anita)

My own response to mankind’s fate and the difficulties we all have in our lives is, in part.

Please join me in a short prayer for our President, Barack Obama: God, actively help and guide this man who shapes so much of our destiny. Spare him and grant him wisdom and health to work for all the people. Amen.

InformIT (Pearson Education)

The Black Crowes
She Talks to Angels

Third Day
King of Glory

Collective Soul
Heavy

Tom Petty
I Won’t Back Down

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The Cost of Politics in Our Lives: Politics as Sewage & the Sublime

May 13th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
May 13, 2011

 

The Cost of Politics in Our Lives:
Politics as Sewage & the Sublime

Evans Liberal Politics, May 13th, 2011, Commentary by Paul Evans, with excerpts from Addiction and Politics (Updated 2X), Evans Liberal Politics, March 31, 2011, by Paul Evans:

I have been strongly actively involved in political activism and political writing and blogging since 2005. I know that’s not very long, compared to a lot of people who might be considered more expert at this than I am. But I have learned a lot, and over the years, I have found the world of politics to be depressing and disappointing.

Actually, what really got me going in the area of activism, in the summer of 2005, was the music of U2, most particularly the song “Pride in the Name of Love,” which makes a comparison between the love and sacrifice of Jesus and that of Martin Luther King, Jr. Really, from the point where I started doing Evans Liberal Politics, the day after election day, 2008, that song was a major influence and motivation for me. I cried the first several times I heard it.

U2 Pride in the Name of Love

Now I have fewer hopes of truly living a life like that or making any kind of real influence in the world. Nonetheless, with an honestly humble attitude, I try to bring my readers as much of what is important and true about the world of news and politics as I have time for each day. I have no kind of idea that I might do more than help a few or several people on the road of life, yet this is enough for me.

The high point, of course, was the election of 2008 and the campaigning I did before this. Yet later, I became badly disappointed by Barack Obama, finding him to be essentially just another Democratic Politician, and not the agent for hope and change that I had so fervently hoped and worked for. Later, I realized that, at the national level, in the United States today, no man can be other than a political animal with a conventionally political mindset and hope to have any real success. This was very disillusioning for me, and for a short time turned me towards more radical, leftist positions.

Still, I have to ask, is it so radical and leftist for me to want America to take care of its people, for the individual and corporate tax structure to be truly progressive, for health care to be universal, and, for example, for crack mothers and crack babies to have a roof over their head and enough to eat, outside of a homeless shelter and an adoption agency? No, to me, those sorts of goals are the mainstream of my thought, as I know they are for many progressive activists.

I believe that many of us thought we had found the agent that would bring us “to the promised land” of Dr. Martin Luther King in Barack Obama, and that, by now, most of us have been pretty badly disappointed. Others, I realize, who supported the President in 2008, are not as fully progressive as I am and have not found Obama’s actions disappointing, at least not disappointing as to their truly progressive direction, or the lack thereof. On the other hand, can the man be entirely blamed or even much blamed when Congress exists as currently constituted? Yet it was all very disappointing and disillusioning….

Let me give you an excerpt from my March 31st article on addiction and politics which may offer some words of comfort here, or at least make the whole situation more livable, perhaps, for the progressive activist:

"Politics is depressing. In that regard, my old friend Betsy sent me a wonderful article which I need to share with you, called ‘Across the Universe: The Power of Disillusionment and the Politics of Despair,’ OpEdNews, March 15, 2011, by Chris Floyd. A young man is disillusioned, somewhat depressed, and even contemplating drinking or suicide because his Mom’s hero Barack Obama is complicit in so much that is wrong. Instead of simply making a comment of some encouragement, Chris Floyd makes this commentary in its own article, of which I wish to quote part:"

You have to remember that politics is a toxin. It will make you sick, taint your mind, poison your soul, blight your life if you let it. One has to deal with politics as a form of waste management, just as you need to have some kind of sewage system in your home or community to prevent disease.

Politics — the machinations of the stunted, damaged souls and third-rate minds who hanker for power — is just a small part of life. It entirely lacks the tragic element; nothing tragic or depthful about politics and power, it’s just brute force, greed, ignorance and spite. So there is no deep meaning to be found in it. No tragedy; no real joy either. Even the greatest moments, the epiphanies — and they do happen in politics on rare occasions, one must admit — will lead very quickly back into the sewage. And that’s OK, that’s the way it is; sewage, waste management — it’s part of life. But it’s not where meaning, joy, tragedy, the salt and savor of existence can be found. So why let the evil done by third-rate goobers drive you to despair of life itself? By hook, crook, lies and murder they’ve already amassed all kinds of power; why give them power over your very soul?

Sigh…. I believe I am gonna have more social interest articles on Evans Liberal Politics and concentrate a little less on the political angles. Probably will get me more viewers, and at least entertain, if not aid in some way, more people anyway.

May God grant you the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Still, no matter what, “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have: three meals a day for their bodies, – education and culture for their minds – and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — And that’s why I am a liberal. And that’s why I will still work for progressive activism. ~ (From my page of Liberal Speeches & Quotes). ~ Paul Evans

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