The Next Generation, and the Next
Everyone has something to contribute and everyone contributes more than their share. So many people talked about stepping outside their comfort zone, going one step further, trying something for the first time – and feeling exhilarated by it.
“We have met the enemy and he is us.”
A favorite quotation from American founding documents is this partial quote: “We, the people.” Taken from the Preamble (and thus the first words) of the U.S. Constitution, “We, the people” is meant to illustrate the primacy of the people of the United States over other powers, especially the powers of the government formed by that same Constitution.
But this reading misses the mark. I take those opening words to reflect that the people and the government are one and the same.
This seems like an important point in the discussion of 2nd Amendment rights. It is also an important point in many other aspects of how the people and the government relate to one another. And understanding that point drives many of the policies we operate under, and advocate for or against, today.
If we hold that “the government” is some entity that exists outside of, separate from, and in enmity against, the people, then many of the policies of the Republican party follow quite naturally.
Lady Liberty
A wall is a nightmare. A wall is the opposite of what America offers the world. A wall says:
America is Closed
America must never be closed.
Candidates: How Do You Decide?
We elect people to do one thing only – to make decisions.
But we never ask them the fundamental question: ”How do you make a decision?”
Guilty … but what’s the verdict?
A Matter of Fact On the fact question, there are three elements to the question of responsibility and one to the question of exculpation. These four elements, as questions, are: (1) did it happen? (2) did he cause it to happen? (3) did he intend to cause it to happen? (4) did he (try to)…
Es gilt viele Mauern abzubauen
Were they walling people in? Or out? Both, it seems. As much as they tried to keep people in, they also tried very hard to keep western influences out. Jeans, rock’n’roll, Coca-cola, all the symbols of decadence that Americans thrust at them. The Berlin Wall sent a message. Like a giant billboard, it shouted out to us. We heard fear. We heard weakness.
TWOFER: Tax and Health Care Cuts
Trump has two top legislative priorities: “Tax Reform” and “Repeal the ACA”. Today, they intersected: his “Tax Reform” plan cuts exactly one tax from the ACA – the 3.8% Medicare tax on Net Investment Income for high-income taxpayers. It has long been a badly-kept secret that the driving force behind “repeal the ACA” has been…
THEIR own self-interest? Or ours?
I think people always operate in their own self-interest. Always.
And I think we rarely know what someone else sees as their own self-interest. Instead, we impose on them what we believe they should be interested in.
Pass D.C. Statehood
Republicans will openly, unashamedly say that 712,000 D.C. residents can’t have representation in Congress because it would endanger their power. That’s it. Nothing else to say.