How did I get myself into writing this column?

Note: This essay is my first column in the Red Oak Express. My column will appear bi-weekly beginning Nov.22.

I freely admit to being a political junkie. But I didn’t set out to write any columns. So how did I get myself into this?

I grew up with a quiet father, a farmer, who observed the world closely. He didn’t say a lot, but he didn’t miss much. And he read constantly. I spent evenings in his lap as he pored through the Des Moines Register and a stack of magazines. He built shelves for his growing library of history and biography books. He watched public TV. He asked lots of questions. He listened, and as a shy man, he spoke only when he felt called to speak. Usually, his comments delivered a whole new perspective to the discussion. I can also remember Dad writing letters to our representatives in Congress and serving on local boards. Mom did, too, and politics was always a lively topic of discussion at supper. (Mom was a Republican; Dad was a Democrat.)

That’s how I was raised. And like my father, I read – a lot because I learned from Dad it mattered. The political decisions we make – not individually but as a society – set our course. So if we choose poorly, we all pay. That is the tyranny of the majority. That’s democracy.

So for 30 years I’ve been tracking our political record. I’ve paid more in student loan interest, earned less and am now watching my kids (and yours too) struggle even harder than I did because my generation and succeeding ones have made poor choices based on misinformation we’ve been fed by corporate interests and media.

How do I know this? I’m part of the system.

I was trained as an artist to create illusion, and I work in business communication and public relations. I know how word choice affects perception, and I know how color, perspective and design play on emotions. So I can spot the spin, frame or sales pitch – whatever you want to call it.

Additionally, I care about the people I live with. I’ve spent 30 years watching family, friends and neighbors get hoodwinked by politicians bought and paid for by corporate interests. Election after election I watch them vote based on party, “likeability” and emotional reactions to ads and mangled rhetoric, rather than facts. Then they wonder what happened when their interests are ignored.
Consequently, I get a little frustrated when people assume I’ve just “drunk the Kool-Aid.” As I did with the still life in drawing class, I try to walk around situations and see them from as many sides as possible. I came very late to choosing a political party, and I’m not terribly comfortable there yet.

So I search for facts and policy solutions. I ask questions and look beyond the morning radio broadcast and the evening TV news for information. I delete chain e-mails. I check sources and track who’s paying for them. In conversation, I may ask uncomfortable questions and want to know your sources. And when I absolutely feel called to provide an alternative viewpoint, I write letters to the editor . . .

I guess that one came back to bite me.

I’d rather be wrong

Thirty years ago, I watched helplessly as friends and neighbors fell for the amiable Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan, and his back-to-the-good-old-days message. I was five-months too young to vote. And I knew I would pay an economic price based on his policy proposals. That price? Two percentage points more on my student loans, disqualification for Pell grants, and lower starting wages when I entered the workforce. And I’m still paying as this country labors to shake off the myths of Reaganomics.

I saw it all coming again in 2000 when George W. Bush campaigned for office. It didn’t help that I had 20 more years of experience as a political observer, not to mention experience crafting messages and developing images as a communication and PR practitioner.

Again just as I predicted, W bankrupted our country as he had almost every business he’d run. He had a record, but the press reported on personality instead.

So as we approach the 2012 election, I’m going to make another prediction. With the Republican field currently in disarray, their fundraising numbers abysmal, and a total lack of accomplishment upon which to run, Jeb Bush will swoop in late to save the Republican Party.

Too soon for another Bush you say? Perhaps, but with our current economic crisis and voters’ tendency to blame the incumbent, the Bushes will see an opening. And their old money and corporate ties will line up behind their man. Traditional Conservatives to Tea Partiers will converge to support Jeb in a desperate bid to regain the White House. Like Republicans always do, they will fall in line and award him the nomination.

And Jeb Bush has a real record to run on. He is the one hope for the Republican Party and a real threat to President Obama’s incumbency. But if he wins, average Americans will be left in the cold again. His allegiance will be to the wealth he comes from and to the corporate moguls who fund his campaign.

Why I’m “obsessed” with politics

If you’re on my Facebook Friends list, you know I’m a serious political junkie. And even if you’re not, you probably know it’s a vice I admit to freely. But you may not understand why.

I grew up with a quiet father who observed the world closely. He didn’t say a lot, but he didn’t miss much. And he read constantly. I spent evenings in his lap as he read the paper and a host of magazines. He read a variety of sources, and he never took any of them as the gospel truth. He asked a lot of questions, and he never assumed he had all the answers. But he worked diligently to inform himself. I’d venture he was one of the best read men in the neighborhood.

That’s how I was raised. And like my father, I read – a lot. Why?

I learned from my father that it mattered. The political decisions we make – not individually but as a society – set our course. So if we choose poorly, we all pay. That is the tyranny of the majority. That’s our democracy.

So for 30 years I’ve been tracking our political record, and it sucks. I’ve paid more in student loan interest, earned less and am now watching my kids (and yours too) struggle even harder than I did because my generation and succeeding ones have made poor choices based on misinformation we’ve been fed by corporate media.

How do I know this? I’m part of the system.

I was trained as an artist to create illusion, and I work in business communication and public relations. I know how word choice affects perception, and I know how color, perspective and design play on emotions. I can spot the frame almost before the words are out.

Additionally, I care about the people I live with. I’ve spent 30 years watching family, friends and neighbors get hoodwinked by politicians bought and paid for by corporate interests. Election after election I watch them vote based on emotional reactions to ads and mangled rhetoric, rather than facts, then wonder what happened when they get screwed later.

Consequently, I get a little frustrated when people assume I’ve just “drunk the Kool-Aid.” As I did in drawing class, I try to walk around situations and see them from as many sides as possible. I came very late to choosing a political party, and I’m not terribly comfortable there yet.

So instead of assuming I’m an ideologue, maybe you need to join me in the search for real information and solutions. Maybe you need to start asking questions and looking beyond the morning radio broadcast and the evening TV news for information. (And trash the e-mails – please!) Maybe we need to talk.

Because democracy begins with dialogue; tell that to your congress people as they play chicken with the debt ceiling.

Happy Independence Day.

It’s not the deficit, it’s the defunding

Note: The following is my latest letter to the editor of the Red Oak Express. It's a response to an opinion column in which he proposed lowering the debt ceiling.

If you want to crash our economy, refuse to raise the debt ceiling. The deficit’s a red herring; government budget is not like your household budget. Do you control interest rates and print money?

Without tax revenues, government can’t operate. America’s problem is an eroding tax system, cowardly politicians and an apathetic citizenry.

For 40 years, conservative and corporate interests have worked to poke holes in our tax code. Loopholes allow them to pay less and less, while lower and middle class citizens take up the slack. Income tax rates are lower than ever, especially for the top income earners. Did you know the income tax rate for the top bracket was 91% under Eisenhower? Corporations have poked so many holes in the tax code, some pay no taxes even while their tax rate appears prohibitive.

You want a military, schools, emergency services, Medicare, Social Security, good roads, clean water, safe food and other things? You have to pay for it with taxes. And then you have to hold elected representatives accountable by voting, monitoring them and advocating for these things. What’s your record on that?

But first you have to inform yourself beyond what you hear on radio, TV or e-mail. ‘Cause this stuff isn’t simple, and it isn’t like your household budget. Again, see: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=692 from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities for some history of taxes and deficits.

Thoughts on the “War on Christmas/Christianity”

As a Christian living in America, I was surprised recently to hear someone express their distress about the assault on our faith, and I was struck by the very different perspective I have.

Having been raised within and choosing to stay as a United Methodist, I have never felt discriminated against or persecuted because of my faith. I have noticed some changes, such as public schools’ more careful adherence to the separation of church and state. As a country growing ever more diverse and having family of another faith myself, I accepted these changes as proof of our country’s guarantee that all beliefs will be respected in our civic institutions. I took that guarantee as a protection, rather than an assault. When and if I become a minority, I would welcome those protections, wouldn’t you?

And regarding Christmas, how can we complain? Isn’t Christmas the only religious holiday in our country that is written into the federal holiday calendar? Frankly the only war on Christmas I see is the way American business has used it to sell, sell, sell. It is no longer about a celebration of Christ’s birth, but a marketing bonanza. How much junk can we buy and wrap!

Where do these feelings of persecution come from? Whom do they benefit? Because from my perspective, there is no war on Christianity. Instead I feel that others are using the Christian label to separate me from my Jewish, agnostic, Islamic, etc., friends. In fact, I do not label myself.

I have always done this. I think of myself as a person. So in those times in which I have experienced sexism, it has come as a shock. Being evaluated based on someone else’s view of the label “woman” rather than on my skills and abilities as a person limits and demeans me.

This happens every time we attach a label to something – be it to ourselves or others. So I even avoid the term Christian. I think of myself of a “person of faith.” To me, that means I have a working relationship with God. And it allows me to respect other persons of faith, regardless of their chosen beliefs.

And frankly, I fear the label Christian because our history, like all human history, has been a story of abject failures and atrocities as well as triumphs – the Crusades, the Inquisition, our treatment of Native Americans, to just scratch the surface.

Our faith is the story of human struggle. Jesus calls us to love God and one another, and we fail at that every day. Yet it is our sacred responsibility. To be judged by that standard is enormous, and frankly, I fear it. So Christian is not a label I wear easily. Instead, to quote an old hymn, I hope people will “know we are Christians by our love.”

Is the GOP – just a one-trick pony?

I am so sick of Republicans whining about the deficit and obstructing legislation designed to help their constituents.

"The only thing Republicans have opposed in this debate are job-killing taxes and adding to the national debt," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in an Associated Press story June 25. "What we're not willing to do is use worthwhile programs as an excuse to burden our children and our grandchildren with an even bigger national debt than we've already got."

No, they’d rather burden our children and grandchildren with the debt from two unnecessary wars and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

They continue to deny our own history – when President Franklin Roosevelt responded to a similar economic crisis with government spending to provide benefits to the poor and employment to the jobless. It’s called the New Deal, and it worked.

Go look at the record of tax cuts and economic growth at the Center On Budget and Policy Priorities at: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=692. The Republicans are full of baloney. Economics is complicated, and a simple proposal like “cutting taxes and spending” is a sound bite. But apparently it’s all the GOP has.

I’m ready for them to get out of the way and let the rest of us try something new to grow our economy. All they’re proposing is more of the same. This is simply political obstruction over governing; politics over people.

Tent of Heaven

Needlework, 2010, 8" X 7 1/2"


Inspired by Psalm 19.