What Manner of Insanity?

I find myself more than discouraged these days--I am actually sickened by the sight of small minds and petty unkindness trying to force itself upon humanity. I am left to wonder what manner of insanity has fallen on this country that urges people to force their will on others in the name of pesonal and repressive theocracies which all too often take the form of repression against women.

Why women? In many societites women are property. They are hidden under veils to prevent men other than their husbands coveting them, mutilated so they are not tempted to enjoy sex, stoned to death when they violate any male-created taboos, uneducated so they are not tempted into independence, and made to understand that their only value is in producing children. If men could have their own children, women would probably be killed at birth. 

Let anyone believe I am talking only about the Middle East, which is only the most obvious example of this, we need only to take a look at our own southern and midwestern states, the bastion of political repression and the glorious old Righty values thrust at us by the moral arbiters of "American Values."

Yes, the Righties want a balanced budget--how moral. Yet they plan to have this budget balance by cutting programs for the poor, most of which serve women--those rogues who have been abandoned by their husbands (must have been for cause) and those whom they want to believe are in the country illegally (they  creep across the border, dodging the cacti, just so they can go to US emergency rooms to have anchor babies and rack up our national debt.) 

 Now--I don't mind paying my 18% even if it does go to these "undesirables" but I resent like hell watching super-rich Richties calling for a balanced budget where they are not even on the seesaw. That makes their idea of a balanced budget something theoretical, something to be done by others while they defend paying not a cent and claiming that they "deserve" their money. When they divorce, their settlements run in the millions. When the poor divorce, the women head down into poverty.

Wanting to cut the programs that serve the poor and women shows the real motivation of the Right. They just don't like the poor and they positively froth over women who produce children in poverty, all the while wanting to deny them abortions even in the case of rape. They do this without even trying to recognize that not every woman served by the programs they want to cut is minority, trying to play the system, or popping out welfare babies (remember Reagan?). A whole lot of these women have been abandoned and not by other women. Yet, the Righties want to cut the education that might make these women independent and they want to deny them information about reproduction that might limit unwanted pregnancies.

Anyone? Does this make sense?

Unfortunately, the rhetoric of the Right is nothing new. Every society has beaten up on its women. So why am I so discouraged by something that predicatably recurs? I have to say it's political and it has to do with the matter of will. Right now I have no trust in our political leadership to do the right thing.

Governing a nation as diverse as this one requires leadership to do what is right, not what is ideologically pure. We aren't on the frontier any more. The values that allowed people to fight off bears is not what's needed in an overpopulated world.  I want a president who takes a stand. I want to see leadership into the 21 Century not into the 19th.

We have a problem with illegal immigration. Instead of building walls that keep no one out, drop the judgmental nonsense and fix the problem once and for all. If it means issuing work visas, be pragmatic and do it. Quit the self-righteous pontificating. So a lot of people don't like abortion--they also don't like supporting unwanted children. Get over it. No one is forcing anyone to have one and the decision to have one is tragic--leave the woman alone. So people don't like gay marriage. We no longer live in a society that encourages people to have 15 children to populate the country. We don't need more families. The gays are doing us a favor. When they want families, they adopt the neediest children among. Let them have whatever they need to raise these children and if it's marriage to protect their families, so be it.

I want a president who understands the world has changed and doesn't try to conciliate these idiots who still want to live back in the 1800s.  President Obama: please stop trying to be a community organizer. These people are too dangerous to deal with. Please start looking at what this country needs to be a civilized nation in the 21st Century. And please stop pandering to the worst among us.