Where Goeth the Party?

In 1964 I was in a small Bible Belt Town in Texas.  I was 17, far to young to know much about politics.  The establishment was Democrat so I was Republican.  I was a rebel then and still am.

In 1966 my Dad died and I was in shock.  I realized then for the first time, I was going to be on my own soon.  I looked around at our world and looming over the horizon was the Draft - Free Trip to Asia.  I was never a good student.  I was coming to a dividing point in my Faith.  I had to make a choice my life and I discovered that I was a Liberal.

Still am a Liberal.  Still a Rebel, so when Ronald Reagan made the "L" word a dirty word, I still brandished it .  I do not know what a Progressive is.  Liberal has a long term definition which is, "more free."  The right wing hates nothing more than the people being "More Free".

I can not say what others might do, but for me and I hope the American People, Life without Liberty is not life worth living.

Early Christmas at the Intersection of the US and Russia.

Looks like Trump is giving Putin his Christmas wish list early.  What is that?  A Defenseless Europe as the US removes its military.

The Living Constitution, the Founders Intent

Original Intent.  The bugaboo of the Ultra Right Wing.  The Heritage Society and the like.  These people think that the Constitution is a Bible and the Bill of Rights is the Ten Commandments.  The believe that the Founders intended this to be carved into stone and is unchangeable.

This set of ideas are absurd and fly the face of the records kept at the time on the discussions between the group of men that compiled the Document.   In fact, before the Constitution was adopted a set of 10 amendments were approved to be attached to the Constitution, as amendments, when it was ratified.

What rational thinker would look at a document that contains the ability to amend and even rewrite in convention and say that the writers of that document intended to keep this document in tact as written. Absurd.

Then there is the fact, get that FACT, that there were issues that the members of the Convention where the Constitution was written could not come to a clear agreement on, and left in the Constitution temporary "Fixes" and then kicked the Constitution down the road for future generations to resolve.

Of Course the Constitution is and was intended to be a "Living Document" so those who lived under its Structures and laws could make the document relevant to those who are living contemporarily  rather than those long dead.

New Blood for Democrats

Sorry, Biden does not need to be our 2020 Candidate.  Biden should put together a committee to find qualified Candidates for National Offices (He already has Beto) and get behind them.  We need leadership from the people in their 40's and 50's that are not tainted with the recrafting of the Democratic Party that made it weak and beholding to the 10%.

That is it.  Democrats, get out and do it.

Revolutions are not Cautious

One must be very cautious when revolting.  History, that long ignored record of our past, tells us if we listen, that change, revolution comes with an uncertain past and future.  That famous admonition that those who do not know their past are doomed to repeat it, is balance by the bleak reality that even when we know our past, there is no guarantee that we are less doomed.

So House Candidates are running away from Pelosi as Speaker is the Democrats take the House.  I think that is a good sign, but there is a greater need to make sure we have somewhere to run rather than just away.

Ever since the National Democratic Convention in Chicago, in the year 1968, 40 years ago, the Democratic Party has drifted in  uncertainty about what they really stand for. The answer seems to be continually a money center Corporate Party. We already have one of those. We do not really need another.  I keep hearing that Democrats are Progressive, but I do not know what that means.  It sounds a lot like a Party that does not have the courage to take a stand, and be assertive in our goals and decisions.

Change takes time and we must understand that, but determination of direction has to be certain before one heads in to the future or one finds them self lost and confused about where they want to go. When I went back to regular duty at Darnell Army Hospital I was in Medical Holding.  I had a Wall above the head of my bed and I posted things there that were questionable because there was a picture of Eldridge Cleaver with it.

If I am going to be smeared by being derisively called "LIBERAL", then I might as well be myself and a Long Term Liberal.  Maybe even a Socialist.  The direction we are going now - toward fascism - certainly is not the way we need to go. There is not a whiff of difference between the two parties in actuality, and that does need to change.

We need to find and support people who walk the walk and talk the talk to lead us.  I am from Texas and that is a statement politically of reality not pride.  Our Politicians are a joke.  For 100 years our state was nominally Democrat and was so because Lincoln was a Republican.  Reagan made it safe to be a Republican again and the entire south suddenly were Republicans again. Great way to develop political plans and programs.

Right now I have found two maybe three candidates that I can with clear conscious support with my time and money.  One local (State) office seeker, and one national (Senate) office seeker.  The one seeking a seat in Congress would be some one that might have the courage, platform, and exposure to change the direction of the Democratic Party.

I will not support any one who I do not think can and wants to move the Party a bit further toward the left.  We need to have candidates that step in the path that Thomas Jefferson followed when writing the Declaration of Independence.  What a radical Document.  We need to again fix our radicalism in the founders actions of making a new Creature called a Democracy. A Government of the people and for the people, not the money changers.

The Way Things Are: Socialism - US Civics 101

Euphemizing a term is rather like euthanizing small animals.  We do it all the time whether by using a word improperly or joining terms to mean something different than either separate term on its own.  And then there is the twist - the flipping of the word that begins the combination to mean some thing different.  Like Social Democrat  and Democratic Socialist.

So the body politic of the US is FINALLY getting around to the notion that the US, in its inception, is a Socialist Economy.  Socialism is an economic System where the means of Production is owned by the Government.

The first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution are "We The People".  We the people are the power behind the Government that we created. As the Constitution is a Living Document that  the Creators made amendable. The People alive can change and make the Governance of the Government serve the people living today rather than over 200 years ago.

So when we talk about our Government we should combine the additional words, "as Amended", to it. This is part of what makes our form of Government so great - when we use it properly - and strong.

Getting back to the Socialist part of the Constitution, the "We The People" announcement means that all the citizens are the owners of everything within the borders of the US.  We collectively own all the Land and Wealth of the United States.  By the Constitution, "We" are responsible for Electing Members of the Governance, Creating a Judicial System, and Electing an Executive to direct the Governance, all who serve at the people's "Pleasure".  We broke away from a King and have no need for a new one.

The above mentioned Governance is the temporary group of people that serve the people by keeping the Governance running and informing the People when there are needs to keep the Governance operating.

Governance also means that Individual Citizens do not out right own any wealth in the United States.  The Governance is tasked with maintain an orderly system where qualifying citizens can take responsibility for acting as a sole care taker of temporary owner of land and other wealth and the returns it makes. We can treat this property and wealth as owners but are aware that with use of the land and wealth we must support the Governance and pay rents.

I could go on, but I think the fundamentals of the idea that the US is a Socialist System regardless of the order of words as one describes it.  Bottom Line is that the US is a Democratic Republic with a Socialist Economy that is run by capital principles making it a Capitalist Socialist Economy.  If the Founders had common usage of the word Socialism in the 1700's we might very well be using that term today.

Summer of 1968: Martin

On April 1, 1968, I was wounded in Vietnam by Friendly Fire.  What that means I was injured by ordinance from US forces.  It is not unusual, and is part of the "Fog" of war.  This resulted in wounds all along the left side of my body and my return stateside.

After being wounded, I was treated at the Aid Station that I worked at when I was not a patient.  I was sent to a Mobile Hospital for any surgical stabilization, and on to the Philippines.   I was there on April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Other than the fact that I was troubled and sad by this event, nothing else was unusual, except one of the patients there expressed that he glad that that "Communist" was dead.  The US Military was desegregated since Truman, but there were still racists in the Army.

During TET the Army open a "Graves Registration" unit right next to our Aid Station so they could make use of our Helicopter landing zone.  The result was that when wounded patients were brought in out of the field, dead soldiers were also flown in to us.  At this time I was basically a litter bearer so it was my job to take the deceased soldiers to the Graves Registration Tent.

One time the person I was taking to Graves Registration was a Black Soldier.  The other litter bearer said, "that's another good Ni**er".  I was stunned that even while we were in the heat of battle that racism toward a fellow soldier was still so strong.  It has always haunted me.  We in the USA like to think that Racism is a thing of the past, but I have known all along that ugly racism is alive and well.

One thing the Current Administration  has made clear is that racism is alive and well.  It was in 1968 in the Streets of the United States, and in some of the soldiers in Vietnam and it is now.

Summer 1968

I see that there is some interest the Year 1968 this summer.  I have written about this before, and often.  1968 was a Watershed Year for the United States. Some of what I write here may be redundant, but it bears repeating because the events of that year have loomed over largely in shaping how the future of the US played out.

Of course, I think that my view of these events are correct, but everyone who was alive and aware of the Events of that year have a view.  I am not really a writer.  I often write like I think and talk - all over the place.  I will however try to discipline my self to stay on topic.

I was in Vietnam on New Years Day of 1968.  I arrived in Vietnam at the beginning of December, and was assigned to the 15th Medical Battalion attached to The First Air Cavalry.  I was assigned to Landing Zone (LZ) Uplift just north of the Bong Song area where there was a lot of Fighting.  I was not aware of this fighting and LZ Uplift was quiet.  Very soon we moved up close to the DMZ.  I can look up these dates, but for now time is not significant.  We were awakened in the middle of the night and told to pack up everything and flew into Da Nang Air Base and began convoyed to a cleared out piece of land that only had a Medical Pod on it.  We waited there until day light.  Some of our people stayed with the Pod and this became LZ Jane.  We then proceeded through Hue, the old provincial Capital of Vietnam, and on to LZ Sharon outside Quang Tri.

LZ Sharon was where I was for the rest of my stay in Vietnam.  It was also a Camp for Marines.  The Marines had some real good food.  Being in a Medical Battalion with Doctors, we had pretty good food, but the Marines had us beat and we were ahead of our supply chain, so we got to eat with the Marines.

On January 30, 1968, the North Vietnamese Launched the "Tet" offensive, the largest Offensive of the US - Vietnam War.    It was odd timing because the First Air Cavalry had moved up to the North of South Vietnam, for the specific goal of assisting the Marines at Khe Sanh which was a air base in a valley between two mountain ridges.  The North Vietnamese had pinned the Marines down by keeping them from being able to fly in and out of Khe Sanh so they were stranded.  

Technically, the Tet Offensive was militarily a failure for Vietnam, but for the US it exposed that the US was no closer to a Victory than they were before.  This changed the politics of Vietnam and gave strength to the growing anti war movement. The first tremors of this disruptive year had begun.

References and other sources:

I am a Movie fanatic.  In my life time there have been many movies that are the equivalent of a Book of History or Sociology.  There are several Vietnam Movies that I can recommend that can give you a feel of what the War was like.  And then there is a book that accompanied a special on PBS that has the best history of the US Vietnam Conflict.

Movies:

Full Metal Jacket, Director - Stanley Kubrick

Apocalypse Now, Director - Francis Ford Coppola

Platoon, Director - Oliver Stone


Book

Vietnam: A History, Stanley Karnow

TV Documentary 

Vietnam: A Television History , PBS and Stanley Karnow

  

Note:  When the AP calls Beto O'Rourke a Former Punk Rocker, let us remember that we were all something in our youth that a Media that fears Trump can use to dismiss us as a new actor in our politics.  AP needs to know that we the people are keeping track of who stands with the people and who stands with people who fear Trump.

The Media Historically has been strong against people who seek to silence them.  AP needs to find that spirit in their souls again.

Me I do not care what Beto was, I care who he is today.  He speaks the same political language I do and that is all I care about.  When he sees injustice, he says so.   Where was Cruz at the border.  He was making a silly publicity grab with Jimmy Kimmel two days before, while Beto was on his way to see the situation on the border first hand.  For me, a on site man with a plan is the kind if person I want as Senator, not a "me too" candidate.

Fall of the American Empire

On Monday June 18, 2018, Paul Krugman wrote an Editorial in the New York Times, that indicated that Trump is the bringing about the Fall of the American Empire.  Mr. Krugman is a bit behind the times.  The beginning of the Fall of the American Empire began our myopic vision and entry into Vietnam and with the Creation of the OPEC and their use of oil to blackmail the US into terrible Policy positions. 

The Economic Failure of US Economists to understand what was really going on in the economy and the folly of Vietnam by the time Reagan rolled around with his "Revolution" the US was already in decline and had to be propped up by massive debt.

The Supply-siders, Those that thought if you borrowed money and pumped it into the economy (Supply) that the engines of the Economy would power up and  just merrily roll along as if the debt was not there.  That was the 70's and early 80's.  During the Clinton and the Obama second term the deficit was brought down but then time ran out and the Republican Warriors gained office and ran the Debt right back up. 

Trump is trying to be Reagan but does not have the staff that Reagan or the lack of a huge Debt to deal with at the beginning of his Term.  Trumps knows about as much about the economy as the average Citizen of the US does, which is not much

So here we are when there is not much hope of getting an intelligent Administration put together, stuck with a President that is as Krugman described, "trashing the things that made us great, turning us into just another bully — one whose bullying will be far less effective than he imagines."

But what are we to do about Trump, or for that matter the destructive ignorance of the People of the US about Economics. 

Posted on originally by me on the David Parkman Show Web site comments.

There is a reality that the National Democratic Party died in the streets of Chicago in 1968 - that watershed year.  Despite three wins in the Presidential Races, two were of Deep Southern Governors and one was Barack Obama one of the most gifted politician in our History.  While there were these 3 wins, all of them were outsiders to the Party Organization.  After the Convention and subsequent loss there was a period of trying to "fix" the party from the abuses of kingpins like Daiey in Chicago but in fact fixed nothing and the party stumbled from McGovern, Carter, Mondale, and Dukakis.  Then Clinton won in1992.  By the time Clinton left office the Party had become a Corporate Party and had no ties what so ever to the Party of Roosevelt.  The Party remains a corporate party and even though Obama did get some liberal legislation passed the Party, as indicated by the nomination of Hillary for President was firmly in the hands of the Corporate powers in the Party.  The excuse for this travesty was that the party needed win with no care for how Hillary would Govern. 

So now we have Trump.  Trump is a ball of clay in his right wing operatives hands, and the support of Putin and nominally China.  The US is most strongly tied to our former "enemies"  and alienated from our former allies.  This is a win win for Putin who needs to start getting aid from the US Treasury.   The Alarms should have started going off when North Korea became our buddy and Canada became our enemy.  According to Trump the Press and Canada are our greatest enemies.

So what does the Democratic Party do?  Nothing.  I personally have found here in Texas several Liberal Candidates to support.  I think that Beto O'Rourke is one of our best hopes on the national level.  He reminds me of a young Robert Kennedy with out being a Kennedy.  He is Liberal, (I am sorry I do not know what a "Progressive" is except a reaction to the demonization of the word Liberal by Reagan.  Democrats need to develop a backbone) and has no problem showing it.  This week end he was on the Border here in Texas spotlight the insanity that Trump is perpetuating. 

Meanwhile his opponent for Senator, Ted Cruz was having some play off with Jimmy Kimmel. Great visual playing elite games on TV rather than giving support to the immigrant children who have been taken from their parents.  Laura Bush spoke out against the separation of Parents and Children at the Border.  Where is the Democratic Party leadership.  This is the reason Democrats need to worry this year, lack of any kind of effective leadership. 

I do not know if Beto has a Written Platform, but I sure do know he lives his Liberal beliefs as evidenced by his actions.  Beto is a leader, not a follower, and I am beginning to see an emergence of Women here in Texas that are activists for Democratic ideals.  There is hope for the Party it is just not fully surfaced yet. 

The Texas Democratic Party is still in shock from falling from the majority Party here to the Minority Party.  Every 4 years I hear that the Party is going to turn Texas Blue and of course every year they do not.  The only Blue they have is in the Black and Blue bruises they get from their defeat.  I have a glimmer of hope, even though it will be difficult, that one or two or my candidates I have chosen to support will win and they can start the long road back to belonging to a Relevant Party.

I am Proud to support Beto O'Rourke in his March and Demonstration for the Children of our neighbors to the South that come to the US to escape the ravages of neglect from their Authoritarian Leaders who were placed there by the US.

One might ask why are these people coming here.  The 1920's Bank Robber John Dillinger was asked why he robbed banks, and his answer was simple.  He said that was where the money was.  

That is why the people of Central America come here.  The US has spent a lot of time stealing their wealth by placing Dictators that were told by the US Corporations what to do.  There is a book, one of many, about this called "Bitter Fruit" that tells the story of how United Fruit used those dictators to force the people of those countries to grow produce for sale to the US so we in the US could have cheap produce.  The people could not grow food for themselves on their own property with out being called Communists and being arrested or shot.

What the US, under Trump, is doing now is an abuse of Power and can Explain the Closeness of Trump to China and Russia where this is regular and acceptable behavior.

Beto is running for Senator from Texas as a Democrat.  Democrats are not the ones causing this.  Trump is and the Republican Party are too afraid to oppose the Pirates who commandeered their Party.