a # of thoughts

Here are some views that I have been feeling lately":

1. I still like the political climate that is going on in the US. I don't agree with other liberals that the Republicans are weak and that their power is merely regional. For every action there is a reaction (Obama's bold moves during a recession provoke outrage by the rich and uncaring), and if there is no economic recovery by next year, the Republican party will be stronger than it is now. Even at the present, the Republican voices seem to be the loudest and most annoying. Thankfully, they are NOT the most influential.
   
2. I am struck at some of the ridiculous positions that Republicans are taking. Now they are trashing the Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sotomeyer. She is making history as the first Hispanic to be nominated to the Supreme Court; she has a very good reputation and any missteps on her part are not that disturbing. Before she was even nominated, the Republicans made it abundantly clear that the most noxious members in Congress from their party had no intention of giving Obama's nominee a fair chance at being nominated. They threatened fillibuster. They said that they disagreed with Obama's idea that a judge should have "empathy". Yeah, right, a judge nominated by Obama should be as uncaring and oblivious to the poor and struggling middle class as they are!!!! & to hear them describing Judge Sotomeyer, you would think that she was some pot-smoking, flag burning Communist. Will they ever learn that their shrill demagogery doesn't always work? It didn't work during the exhilirating election of 2008, and it won't work to derail Sotomeyer's confirmation process!
   
3. I don't think that the loudest-mouthed Republicans like Bill O'Reily or Rush Limbaugh are so much conservative or even reactionary as they are nihilists. Nihilism is the belief that social organization (like government) is so bad that destruction is desirable. That's why we hear Rush Limbaugh repeatedly and stridently saying he "wants Obama to FAIL". A notion that even an egoist like Newt Gingrich thinks is nonsense. Reagan, and others tried to convince us that government is the problem. That poor should be treated like the rich when in fact that's ridiculous when poor don't have the resources (especially educationwise) that the rich have. This view that if hard times befall you that "you are on your own, and if you suffer, tough shit" is a view that was discredited back in the 1930s during the Great Depression. History, of course, has never been the Republicans strong suit b/c they are constantly trying to rewrite it & distort what actually happened.
4. I find it encouraging that places where you don't see pictures of the president or displays of patriotism are now doing this. Here's an example. Every now and then I will take my father-in-law to dialysis. This clinic has a mix of nationalities that work there and you see pictures of the president where before January of this year or even November of last year, you would not have seen them. The thing that's encouraging is that some of these people have changed their thinking. It's not that President Obama is the president; he's considered by these people as our president. Let's hope the trend continues!