Latinos

A Revolutionary Idea: Two Democratic Women That Could Lead To Massive Democratic Victory In 2016 And Beyond!

Ronald 2 Comments

The assumption is that Hillary Clinton has the great advantage for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2016, but there is great concern that she could have opposition on the Left of her party, and needs shoring up of the base on issues such as Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts represents—attack on Wall Street greed, and advocacy of relief of student loan interest rates, the minimum wage battle, unemployment compensation extension, and other populist issues.

Warren has shown strength in campaigning in “Red” states such as Kentucky and West Virginia, as she supported Alison Lundergan Grimes and Natalie Tennant in their Senate bids.

Warren is a lightning rod who inspires people in states where the masses of the population have suffered under uncaring Republican Governors, Senators and House members, and many people have gravitated to her when they hear her message of speaking for the average American of all backgrounds, somewhat reminiscent of Robert F. Kennedy nearly 40 years ago!

The question is whether Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren could co-exist and work as a team for a national campaign and in an administration after victory.

The question is why not, and while their ages in 2016, 69 for Hillary and 67 for Elizabeth are not the best scenario, it could open up the possibility of one term each for both women in the White House, OR two terms for Hillary with Elizabeth a willing participant in the Vice Presidency.

The two would be a dynamic team, and would inspire women, working class whites, African Americans, Latinos, labor, and progressives, liberals, moderates, and independents in such a manner as to turn “Red’ states “Blue”, leading to a massive victory nationwide and a long term Democratic dominance!

Why cannot America accept two women as their leaders? It is about time to do just that, and it would motivate and inspire the largest voter turnout in American history!

One could project that the so called “swing” states of Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida would all be ‘Blue”, but so, likely, would be Georgia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, and some possibility in Texas and Arizona, as well!

That would leave only the Great Plains states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma); the Southern states of South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi; the Mountain States of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah; and Alaska as remaining “Red” states.

It is time to consider the revolutionary change of two women leading our government, two talented women of great competence and brilliance—Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren!

Fear, Racism, Hatred Toward Latinos And Muslims: New Generation Of What Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Jews, Catholics Faced In Earlier Generations!

Ronald 8 Comments

The fear, racism, and hatred now being exhibited toward Latinos and Muslims in America is part of the same right wing nativist mentality so much a part of American history!

In the past, it was Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Jews, and Catholics who suffered from such despicable mistreatment! Sadly, much of that same mistreatment often exists for members of these groups.

There seems to be something in the American psyche that we need to place our fears, racism, and hatred on one different group after another, and often it is people of earlier groups who have been discriminated against, who end up mouthing and mimicking much of the same behavior, sort of like the psychological trick known as “transference”.

This author has heard people who have voiced disgraceful statements and prejudice toward people of Spanish ancestry, and of the Muslim faith, stereotyping whole groups of people, rather than making judgments based on behavior of individuals!

Only education and good parental upbringing can overcome this promotion of fear, racism, hatred, and stereotyping, but unfortunately, there is so much work that needs to be done in this regard!

Voter “Fraud”, Voter Suppression, Civil Rights, And The 26th Amendment!

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We hear Republicans claim “voter fraud”, which is a total fraud in itself, as the amount of voter fraud has been shown to be something like one billion of one percent!

There is no voter fraud to speak of, and if we are going to talk about voter fraud, what about the fraud in the vote count in Florida in the Presidential Election of 2000, which benefited George W. Bush over Al Gore; and the reported voter fraud in Ohio in the Presidential Election Of 2004, which again benefited George W. Bush, this time over John Kerry?

It is a fact that only in states that are seen as in danger of turning “blue”, do we see accusations of voter fraud, to insure that a “red” state will stay “red”! So we have seen the Southern states and some Midwestern states, which have passed voter suppression laws, affecting African Americans, Latinos, poor people, the elderly, and now, even the young.

So the classic case, but not the only one, is North Carolina, which now had cut down the number of voting days before Election Day; has stopped same day registration; has decided that early voting on the Sunday before the election shall be ended (what often is the method for black churchgoers to make voting a group event); has required a state ID to vote, something many poor people cannot afford, and often have trouble getting to proper locations if they wish to buy it in person (a requirement); and now is preventing 16 and 17 year old high school students from preregistration; and not allowing college students from other states to use their college address so that they can vote in the state elections of the college or university they are attending and residing in for four or more years!

So we have a law suit against North Carolina, asserting that they are discouraging college and young voters from registering and voting, therefore trying to fix the elections, true voter fraud! And the constitutional case is the 26th Amendment of 1971, which allows 18-21 years old citizens to vote!

This is the new attempt at what used to be called “Jim Crow” laws, and the Republican Party is fully backing such denials in multiple states, right after the Supreme Court, wrongfully, weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, forgetting the struggles, bloodshed, and deaths suffered in the battle for voting rights. The ultimate civil right is voting rights!

What is clear is that when the states lose these battles, particularly regarding the 26th Amendment, they are guaranteeing the loss of the young vote for generations, as any intelligent young person voting for the party which worked to suppress its voting rights is as likely as “Hell Freezing Over!”

Barack Obama Totally Correct: GOP Will NEVER Win Presidency Again Unless They Return To Political Center!

Ronald 2 Comments

President Barack Obama has made a statement that cannot be contradicted!

IF the Republican Party moves away, at some point, from the extremist right wing of the Tea Party Movement, and the influence of the old Southern Democratic racists turned Republicans because of the Civil Rights Act of fifty years ago, then they have the opportunity, and even likelihood, of eventually regaining the White House!

But if they insist on alienating women, African Americans, Latino and Asian American citizens and immigrants, labor, gays and lesbians, environmentalists, those who believe in science over religion, poor people, the middle class, educated people, and those who believe government is good rather than evil, then they will, Obama says, NEVER win the Presidency again.

The nation is turning “Blue” over time in Texas, Georgia, Arizona, and North Carolina, and already much of the Midwest has become more definitely “Blue”, as well as Florida and Virginia.

So, as Obama states, it is all up to the Republican Party! Moderate your right wing extremism, or your party is in the dustbin of history, as America is not a mean spirited, racist, nativist nation, just many of those who choose to call themselves Republicans.

Eric Cantor Defeat Most Stunning In Decades!

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An earthquake occurred yesterday in the rural Seventh Congressional District of Virginia, the home of Richmond Congressman Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader.

Every poll predicted an easy victory for Cantor against a more right wing opponent, Randolph Macon College Professor of Economics, David Brat, who was unknown, and only spent one dollar for every 25 spent by Cantor, and had a staff of two people,instead of the 23 that Cantor had in his Congressional offices in Washington, DC.

But Brat solidly defeated Cantor by 56-44 percent, by over 7,000 votes in the GOP primary, and it has totally shook up the Republican Party and the House of Representatives and its leadership.

It is not as if Eric Cantor was a “liberal”, but rather that he worked “tooth and nail” against Barack Obama for the last five and a half years, and helped to encourage the Tea Party Movement in the House of Representatives, often creating headaches for Speaker of the House John Boehner, comparatively more moderate in his conservatism than Eric Cantor.

But Cantor was not right wing enough, as he was moving toward support of some sort of immigration reform, and David Brat, a believer in Ayn Rand and her libertarianism, and with much of his graduate education being based on a divinity degree, decided to challenge Cantor, in an effort to make the Republicans more right wing than they have ever been as a party.

This man, David Brat, is far from a typical professor, and his candidacy makes him a star to the right wing talk show hosts on radio, and Tea Party groups, but he comes with an agenda that endangers the future of the GOP!

Cantor got what he deserved, as he was a mean spirited, narrow minded, bigoted leader of his party, unwilling to do any bargaining with Barack Obama, relishing in his plan to replace Boehner as Speaker.

Cantor repudiated the tradition of his Jewish faith, to do nothing to harm those less fortunate,and to be an advocate of social justice, and he is someone we can say with clarity–GOOD RIDDANCE! The problem is, however, that Brat represents a viewpoint even more objectionable than Cantor, and an extremist right wing Christian theology, that is very worrisome!

And Brat’s victory means the GOP is moving more than ever toward being more white, more male, more conservatives, more Southern, older, and more exclusively Christian, as Cantor was the only Republican of Jewish heritage on Capitol Hill!

The Republican Party, as stated many times before, is becoming more eccentric, more extremist, more radicalized, and more isolated from reality of what the future America is to be like–the growing role of African Americans, Latinos, women, gays and lesbians, the millennial generation, less religious, and desirous of government that promotes social justice, rather than ignorance, prejudice, racism, discrimination, misogyny, and narrow mindedness!

The Twelve Most Right Wing Extremist States In 2014

Ronald 3 Comments

It is scary to observe just how far Right Wing Extremist some of the 50 states have gone. Following is a list of the twelve most right wing extremist states in 2014. There is no special order of these states.

Texas
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Alabama
Mississippi
Louisiana
Kansas
Oklahoma
Idaho
Utah
Wyoming

All of these states are governed by right wing Republican, Tea Party supported Governors and legislatures.

Seven of them are Southern States of the Old Confederacy.

Nine of them, including Kansas and Oklahoma, had legal segregation until outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Idaho, Utah and Wyoming are heavily influenced by the right wing extremism of the Mormon Church.

Only Texas and North Carolina are heavily populated states, and the only ones that are becoming more significant, due to the reality that both are bound to be “Blue” in the coming years.

Other than Texas, North Carolina, and to some extent, South Carolina, the other nine states are having no major impact on the future evolution of the nation!

The education level in all twelve states is among the lowest in the nation, and poverty is high, and not just among African Americans and Hispanics-Latinos, but also among poor whites.

These states, if they continue their right wing tilt, are doomed to remain the “backwaters” of America long term!

Texas Republicans Go Far Right Tea Party Extreme! But Wendy Davis And Castro Brothers Make For Democratic Future!

Ronald 4 Comments

Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick are the most right wing candidates in the country in many respects, as the GOP nominees for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the Lone Star State, Texas! They make outgoing Governor Rick Perry and Senator John Cornyn look moderate, which they, most certainly, are NOT! Abbott and Patrick are more in the tradition of Senator Ted Cruz, and with many loony Tea Party type Congressmen in Texas, it bodes ill for the future of Latinos, African Americans, women, labor, and environmentalists in the state of Texas!

Denial of health care to millions, and promotion of creationism and denial of global warming, and shaping their own distorted view of American history is also part of the cancer of the right wing tilt going on in Texas in the Republican Party!

But the Democrats are not giving up on the possibility of their Gubernatorial nominee, Wendy Davis, being triumphant this fall, and already, there is discussion of Congressman Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, challenging Senator Ted Cruz for his Senate seat in 2018.

At the same time, a campaign for his identical twin brother, outgoing San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, newly selected to be Housing and Urban Development Secretary for President Obama, to be a possible Vice Presidential running mate in the 2016 Presidential election is being seriously discussed.

It could be that the Castro twins could be the redemption of a state rapidly moving toward a likely “Blue” or Democratic status by 2020, with the chance it could happen with a possible Wendy Davis victory in 2014, followed by Julian Castro being on the team of any Democratic Presidential nominee, not just Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, in 2016!

The Republican Party 2014–Anti Immigrant, Anti Women, Anti Gay, Anti Labor, Anti Science

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party of 2014 has put itself into a box it cannot get out of, and it is doomed to lose the nation short term and long term, as a result!

Yes, the Republicans can win gerrymandered Congressional districts in the “hinterland” of the nation, but they cannot win the African American vote, the Hispanic-Latino vote, the women’s vote, the gay and lesbian vote, the labor vote, or the science and environmental vote!

Without those, they cannot EVER become a serious threat to the Democrats for the White House or the US Senate long term, even if somehow they are able to gain six Senate seats and the majority in the Midterm Elections of 2014!

In 2016, with two thirds of the Senate seats being Republican seats, and with Tea Party activists leaving behind a record of total rejection of government, and total lack of concern for their fellow citizens, the Senate will have a major Democratic majority, and the House has a good chance of being take back by the Democrats!

And with the states of Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina turning “Purple” toward “Blue”, with growing numbers of Hispanics and Latinos, and also the growing Asian vote there and elsewhere; and with Florida and Virginia also more “Blue” than ever in Presidential races, the Republican Party will be “toast” as a serious political opposition!

There would have to be a major realignment of the GOP for this pessimistic assessment of its future to change, but the spokesmen for the party, and the candidates jockeying for position for 2016, shows otherwise.

The Republican Party is deaf, dumb, and blind at their own self destruction, and their reward will be total repudiation by all but the ignorant and biased of the “hinterland”, who want an America which is no longer there, the America of the 1950s, when we favored the traditional immigrant groups from Northern and Western Europe; when women “knew their place” as housewives and mothers, and not workers and educated; when those who were gay or lesbian “stayed in the closet”: when the labor movement offered tons of blue collar jobs that no longer exist, due to the greed and selfishness of American corporations looking for “cheap” labor overseas; and when we abused the environment, and yet woke up to the importance of science after the Soviet orbiting of the first space satellite, Sputnik I!

Those days are gone forever, but the GOP is like an ostrich with its “head in the sand”, denying reality, and for that, they are, and will be, punished and repudiated!

The Political Ticket For President With Julian Castro As Vice Presidential Running Mate In 2016!

Ronald 1 Comment

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, in his third term as Mayor of the seventh largest city, made quite an impression at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, when he gave a speech that reminded many of Barack Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

An attractive, charismatic politician of Mexican American heritage, with his identical twin Joaquin Castro a member of the House of Representatives, the San Antonio Mayor gained an image as someone to watch, and he will be only 42 in 2016.

With the Hispanic-Latino population and vote multiplying, and with Texas seen as a battleground in the future, and even possibly in 2016, Julian Castro is the ideal Vice Presidential running mate, whether for Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Martin O’Malley, Elizabeth Warren, Mark Warner, or really ANY other Democratic Presidential nominee!

Castro has run the seventh largest city with distinction, and now is being nominated to be Barack Obama’s Housing and Urban Development Secretary, moving him to Washington and the center of national politics.

Castro is articulate, knowledgeable, and puts Texas and Georgia and North Carolina into play for 2016, along with improving the odds of Virginia and Florida remaining Democratic.

His youth (42) at the time of the election is an excellent balance for Hillary (69) or Joe (74), as it offers the experience and seasoning of either Hillary or Joe, while adding the largest Southern state to the game of Democratic party advancement. His urban experiences also are a major plus.

Castro’s only negatives are his last name, which Republicans will probably utilize to leave the impression that he is related to Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro. Also, the anti immigrant policy of right wingers will use the fact that Castro is Mexican American as a racist attack on all Hispanics and Latinos, which will be to their detriment, as immigration will become an issue that will harm the Republican Party, as rightfully it should!

Overall, a great move to have Castro head the HUD Department and be available as the BEST running mate for Vice President for ANY Democratic Presidential nominee, insuring a massive win for the Democrats for the White House in 2016!

The “Rising American Electorate”: The Bright Future For The Democratic Party!

Ronald 5 Comments

The “Rising American Electorate”, the battleground groups for the future of American politics, insure a bright future for the Democratic Party, especially due to the Republican Party’s refusal to come to grips with these significant groups, who are being ignored, mistreated, insulted, and vilified by suicidal Republicans of the far Right!

Unmarried women, people of color, and young voters are clearly moving toward the Democratic Party, as the party to protect civil rights, to protect a woman’s right to choose on her reproductive life, and dealing with the reality of high economic stress among the young, and the need to create jobs, build infrastructure, and promote education, as the way to create a bright American future for the younger generation of the future.

There are more than ten million unmarried women; 6.5 million African Americans; 3.8 million Latinos; and 10 million young voters, and they all made a difference in the victory of Barack Obama in 2012. As long as a substantial number of these groups turn out in the midterm elections, the danger to the Democrats on a potential loss of the Senate can be averted.

Barack Obama is making his pitch to these groups, and they need to see that a Republican takeover of the Senate would undermine their futures. The “pocketbook” futures of these groups demand that they not be allowed to overlook the importance of voting in the midterm elections. If they do, they are only hurting themselves, as well as the party that is standing up for them.