These loud, bigoted extremists are NOT the voices of Faith!

No!

Not true!

These loud, bigoted extremists are NOT the voices of Faith. They aren’t serving the Christian Faith – or any Faith – they are serving a theocratic corporate political agenda. And, they’ll pervert any decent and/or uplifting and uniting ideologies to destroy hope in their power grab.

Real Christ-centered Christians aren’t out there preaching that divisive message of hate and supremacy. Christ-centered Christians are quietly living the example rather than loud, empty proselytizing. Such ChristianISH extremists are no more Christian than ISIS is Muslim. These ChristianISH extremist “patriots” are about as unAmerican as I can imagine anyone being – everything

they do is a betrayal of our constitutional democratic republic; they want to impose their vision of a theocratic corporate feudal state upon us all. They are, in every way, the antithesis of our American Ideal and voted for Trump in direct opposition to every single word Christ ever spoke. These people are not speaking for Christians or democracy. They speak for the gospel of mammon. These people are extremists.

You say that first infographic, above, is saying the same thing? Okay. I accept your perspective, if that’s how you tell yourself it reads.

However: The infographic called into question my entire Faith and directly said “True Christianity is a lost religion.” And, it referenced all of “Today’s Christians…” The people they are identifying are not Christ-anything. I do not recognize the belief system to which they adhere. No church I’ve been a member of my entire adult life teaches their belief system as anything but the antithesis of Christ’s message. I will no more identify them as “Christian” than I will call ISIS “Muslim” because both demonstrate the same extremist falsity. They are bullying us with a hate-fueled lie that corrupts the message of love, compassion, forgiveness, and hope for all humanity through our Faith.

Every true Christian, living out a Christ-centered Faith – myself included – must feel deeply distressed to have our entire Faith identified with these FALSE PROPHETS! The hate and bigotry, fear and intolerance of their message is in opposition of Christ’s every word. We must not sit quietly by while these hate-mongers steal our Faith’s message of God’s Grace and compassion for all humanity. We must not let these proselytizing hypocrites speak their lies as truth and demonize everyone deemed “other.” We must take back the conversation about our own Christian Faith and real Christ-centered values.

We cannot let their lie be painted as our truth.

It’s extraordinarily simple to know “True Christianity” – Scripture tells us clearly how we will recognize it, from Christ’s own words. It is an immutable litmus test:

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

And, fellow Christians, let us pray for unity and for those who think they serve our Lord with messages of hate and fear and exclusion. Let us pray and hope our omnipotent God of Grace and Solace will lead them back the Truth and back to a right relationship with Him seeking unity with all our fellow humanity, back to a community of Faith.

Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

You didn’t vote to teach the DNC a lesson?

I read a conversation on Facebook between numerous people about why they didn’t vote: They all crowed and shared humor over how they’d shown the DNC it couldn’t take their votes for granted. This is my response:

You didn’t vote? You deny your portion of culpability for this outcome, and tell yourself, “What difference does it make?” You didn’t vote to show the DNC they couldn’t take your vote for granted? This wasn’t some existential exercise in democracy. This was protecting this nation and the entire free world from a fascist despot. Yeah, you showed the DNC.

You didn’t vote?  Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST African Americans who’ll now have to live with stop-and-frisk profiling. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST Muslim Americans who will now be on a database. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST immigrants. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST the environment, against children like those of Flint Michigan. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST women and girls who’s futures are now in the hands of a self-proclaimed sexual predator. Yep, you showed the DNC. 

You didn’t vote? Well, then, with your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my keeping my cancer doctors and my heart doctors. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my brilliant, funny, Christian son with a heart for charitable activism – who also happens to be Iranian-American because he’s the son of an Iranian-American who was himself a political refugee thirty years ago. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my brilliant son’s future – he’s entering DukeTIP this year, but that won’t matter because the DOE is on the chopping block and college will be priced so far out of his reach that it’s become a fantasy. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST every single person in this country at risk from a Trump presidency. With your non-vote, you voted FOR Trump. Sure, that showed the DNC.

Do you have children? Or want children? Your non-vote just voted AGAINST their future. You sit comfortably wreathed in your self-entitled apathy and convince yourself your angry complaisance is justified. You choose to acquiesce to all the Hate that Trump promises. Oh yeah… you showed the DNC!

YOU have driven a nail in my coffin. YOU have left my twelve year old son to watch his mother die. YOU have left my twelve year old son – already being called ISIS and terrorist, and threatened that Trump will send him to the gas chambers – to live in fear. YOU have left my twelve year old son to fear for his father every time he walks out the door. YOU have left my twelve year old son to fear the America he was born into. You really showed the DNC.

“What difference does it make?” Well, from a dead woman walking, it’s the difference between life and death. 

Yeah. You showed us all. 

Third Party Candidates: Political Ephemera

Stop blaming Hillary for not winning the Electoral College. Stop blaming the democrats or the republicans. Your delusions have been shattered and your vanity choices exposed for the uncompromising errors of which we kept warning you. Third party candidates were only ever vanity candidates with no legitimate chance to win – they could ONLY bleed the vote from the two major parties. 

What if there had been no third party candidates? Those republicans who voted for Johnson, would probably have voted for Hillary without Johnson’s vanity candidacy. Most of his libertarian base would likely have voted democrat too because they were virulently anti-Trump. Stein’s base certainly would have voted democrat because they are virulently anti-GOP as well as anti-Trump. 

The undeniable facts are: 

• There was NEVER a viable third-party candidate; 

• Mainstream old-school democrats were NEVER going to vote for the socialist – that boogey word is just too ingrained; 

• Right leaning independents were NEVER going to vote for the socialist; 

• Middle-of-the-road independents were NEVER going to vote for the socialist – again, people have been programmed to fear that word for too long; 

• NO REPUBLICAN would ever have crossed the isle to vote for the socialist; 

• Probably two thirds of Americans are still convinced that socialism is communism, and communism still scares the crap out of large swaths of voters over 40 (ask your dad and grandad) – ICYMI, that’s the majority of registered voters who actually get out and vote.

• BERNIE COULD NOT HAVE WON because too much of the registered voting electorate are still indoctrinated to fear the socialist.

All those things were true from day one of Bernie’s candidacy. All those things were true from day one of the the third party candidacies. Bernie achieved so much that just went POOF on November 8th. Bernie made democrats and progressives stop being offended or embarrassed for being called “liberals.” Bernie made the left stand up and own the progressive liberal agenda. It was all within our grasp. Hillary and Bernie were always within 3% agreement on everything – they voted the same in the Senate 97% of the time.

Third party candidates were and are ONLY political ephemera; they’re just background static drowning out the realities of our election system. The delusion of political ephemera left us with this bleak reality of our dystopian, Trumpian future. Third party voters, BernieOrBust folks, all the people carping on the emails as if those were worse than the racist, self-proclaimed sexual predator’s own evil words that we ALL heard on repeat… All those Americans who bought the anti-Hillary witch-hunts handed this country over to Trump. 

Your Hate wasn’t even really about Hillary. Many of you, if you were able to be deeply honest with yourselves, would have to admit that your full-throated hatred for Hillary was really just a convenient target for all your bigotries. Hating Hillary was the new “Nixon Southern Strategy.” Yes, the media helped. Yes, James Comey and the FBI helped. Yes, the Russians helped. Yes, Assange helped. But YOU – you, the voters, lapped it up… you didn’t care about the truth… you wanted the lies… you craved the innuendo… YOU fed your Hate… you coddled it… you stroked it… you turned against Bernie over it… YOU laid waste to Bernie’s legacy and to our American Ideal for your Hate. 

You blinded yourselves with the smoke of that political ephemera. You subsumed yourselves into the beast of Hate, became it’s beating heart. As the song says, “[You stabbed] it with [your] steely knives but [you] just can’t kill the beast.” You made yourselves the beating heart of the Hate… and now, we are all fodder for it’s appetites.

You deluded yourselves with political ephemera. You had to have all-or-nothing… Well, how does NOTHING feel now?

What I feel is beyond hurt. I’m probably a dead woman walking and my twelve year old son knows that. Because some BernieBros “feelings” were hurt when they couldn’t have their all-or-nothing, scorched earth agenda. What I feel isn’t just hurt. What I and everyone at risk from a Trump presidency feel is true, world-shattering loss.

The mostly white BernieBros – who will never be empathetic enough nor self-aware enough feel guilty for their part in this travesty – aren’t feeling afraid. They’re feelings are hurt because they didn’t win. I get that. But, in retaliation, they struck a killing blow to me and mine. It’s that simple.

from Democratic Underground

It Is NOT Okay To Sit Out The Election

I’ve seen commentary and even articles and blogs now telling people it’s okay NOT to vote. In case you missed it, the people who want you NOT to vote are the people with whom you disagree. These are the same people who are always telling us not to discuss politics or social issues or religion or really anything in life that matters. Why do they tell us not to discuss those things? Why do they tell us to just laugh it off and get on with life when we are at risk over those issues? Why do they want us to be silent? These are the people who tell us it’s just the way life is. We’re supposed to just laugh it off… carry on… let it go… deal with it. But, we’re not supposed to actually CHALLENGE it. Think about that: Precisely who is served by our just accepting the way things are? 

IT IS NOT OKAY TO SIT OUT THE ELECTION. 

Your vote is your voice. Anyone who tells you it is okay NOT to vote is telling you to sit down and shut up. They are trying to silence your voice. The apathetic or complaisant voter sitting out elections is how the extremists on both sides have been able to cripple our government. The extreme partisanship of our current government is directly the fault of those voters who choose NOT to vote.

Look, that’s been me on midterm elections for all my voting life. That’s been me for all those local elections and referendums. That’s been me for a couple of the POTUS elections. I’ve been a middle-of-the-road independent voter for decades – I was always one of those moderates we keep hearing about. When I’ve voted, I’ve voted for a combination of Democrat and Republican candidates. Yes, I’ve been apathetic about elections, just like you. 

I was wrong. 

Voters like me and you and every other moderate should have been the voices of reason and compromise. We sat back and let the extremes from both sides push their uncompromising agendas with a go-for-broke, all-or-nothing fervor that resulted in all out obstruction for no other reason except partisan obstruction, government shutdowns, and ultimately, TRUMP. 

You were wrong.

Yes… Trump is my fault. Trump is your fault. Every apathetic voter in America is more at fault for the rise of Trump than the GOP, the Alt-Right, or the media. We sat back and let our America become a place that gave rise to Trump. 

We were wrong.

VOTE. 

It is our citizen duty to vote. Democracy is ours to preserve – or to let slip away. 

Research the candidates and make an informed choice. Vote every single time there’s an election. Don’t be told who to vote – LEARN for yourself who to vote for. Vote for the candidates whose actual documented record meets with your approval. Don’t let rhetoric form your choice or make you think your vote doesn’t count. VOTE as if the future depends on it. But, remember, you’re not really voting for yourself – you are voting for your children… for women and girls… for minorities… for veterans… for the disabled… for the working poor… for the middle class… for all the average workaday Americans. Or, you vote against them by not voting because you allow the extreme right and the extreme left to silence YOU. Vote because your vote is your voice – don’t let anyone silence you. 

VOTE.

VOTE like your child’s life depends upon it – BECAUSE IT DOES!

“Apathy is acquiescence is compliance is approval.” ~MomzillaNC

“Hands and hearts and minds and voices committed to working for tolerance, peace and social justice everywhere, always.” ~MomzillaNC