March to a Different Drummer

Virginia is perennially considered a red state by TV’s talking heads and the print world’s political pundits. Virginia is considered a conservative bastion and the home of fundamentalist Christians as shown by being custodian of the two holy places of Pat Robertson’s 700 Club and the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. Last Tuesday’s primary would expect these authoritarian Virginians to march lock step to the polls and vote solidly Republican – but they didn’t. Where the voter had the option to choose a Republican or a Democratic ballot, only 34% chose a Republican ballot as opposed to 66% who chose a Democratic ballot. And in my county of Chesterfield, which has been a bastion of Republican ole boy politics up until the last board of supervisor’s election, the breakdown was 38% choosing the Republican ballot and 62% choosing the Democratic ballot. Virginians were going Democratic versus Republican – two to one! This is a seismic shift, a pole reversal, an underreported story t...

The following is a response to blogger Paul Hammond's posting on Barack Obama's position on marijuana. ----------------------------------------------------- America’s criminal justice system has over the past few decades evolved into a criminal justice industry where vested interests and corporate interests have propelled our country into the largest prison in the world, and the largest prison population in the world. And it is not just the two million who languish in cells; it is the millions more affected as families and communities are disrupted. It is not just the millions incarcerated; it is the consequences of the world’s greatest crime university that takes in young men who committed small crimes and turns out hardened criminals and recidivists. It is not just the millions who sit imprisoned, but the fact that one in three adult black men in America are felons or ex felons – deprived forever of not just their suffrage, but disadvantaged regarding housing, employment ...

I’ve wanted for some time to ponder the growing tendency of many Republicans to use the term “Democrat Party” instead of the more familiar “Democratic Party”. A tactic even our President has adopted. And the current Republican strategy to demonize the term “liberal” and equate it to limp-wristed, nebbish, effete, ex-hippies. And to further suggest that any semblance to socialism is to be equally dismissed as a slippery slope to communism. Even further, France and now all of Europe are not seen as precedents of America, but as a region of weak, withering, peoples, only existing by being propped up by our global might and reach. Somehow the oafish bullies and the BMOC types of high school become the Republicans of adult life. I suggest you pull out your Webster and refresh your understanding of the labels “liberal” and “conservative”. I’d further suggest you afford yourself of the studies that indicate how those with conservative leanings are apt to be individuals who are attracted...

Don’t get me wrong, I like Mike Huckabee. He is an eloquent and compelling speaker, he is not a part of the Belt Way establishment, and he has a great sense of self-deprecating humor. He is even a musician and I respect his discipline in losing 100 pounds. I like his intelligent initiative to dramatically overhaul out tax system to stop the disincentive to production and earnings. But as much as I like Huckabee, I would never vote for him. Or anyone who has such an unenlightened and simplistic view of this mystery known as God. No, even large numbers of theologians question the inerrancy of the Christian Bible. I believe God inspired the Bible – and I use “God” as a short cut for my sense of whatever the mystery of mysteries is. But then aren’t all great works inspired? I believe that Jesus was the Son of God. But aren’t we all the children of God? The more one has a sense of history and of the wiles of men, the more I, at least, can see through the lens of time more and more...