Another Take on Ossoff/Handal

I do agree that Jon Ossoff was a poor candidate for the GA-6 race. He did not have any real vision for his Congressional race and did not offer any bold, progressive vision for Georgia.

Despite being a weak candidate, there was another major factor why he lost and it is has nothing to do with him. Hillary Clinton could have won the electoral vote despite also being a weak candidate as well. It is voter suppression tactics and it is dirty secret of the 2016 general election and this primary race.

From [Greg Palast’s Blog}(http://www.gregpalast.com/democracy-now-reporter-assaulted-exposing-jim-crow-tactics-ossoff-handel-race/)

“I was in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District to investigate strange doings in the race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel (who received an endorsement—and kiss on the lips—from President Trump).

Handel was happy as a Smurf doll when I asked her if the Democrats were stealing the election. (“They’re pulling out all the stops!!”)

But when I asked about Republican Jim Crow tactics I’d uncovered, it got real ugly. First, a deep-fry-bloated goon jumped between me and the candidate then pushed me backwards. A second grabbed my arm while a third started muscling me around.”

I heard this guy on the Thom Hartmann several weeks before the actual election happened and he warned about this happening. If Palast theory is correction and I know this guy has a spot-on record, Ossoff actually won these seat if the GOP played by the rules. But they did not and he lost.

The reality is that the Dems needs to factor that specific percentage of votes are going to be thrown out because of voter suppression tactics in their election planning strategies. There is no way around this until the day that the federal government declares this stuff as a felony and you start to see GOP Secretary of States starting head off the penitentiary for civil right violations. For me, this type of voter suppression is essentially engaging in voter fraud and therefore, is considered to be felonious activity.

Ossoff is not a desirable candidate but he should have won if the rules were done correctly. But they are not and therefore, you need to run a candidate that actually appeals to the white middle-class voters that is a real Democrat and not somebody who be called a moderate Republican in another generation. You have to win this election on class issues and not race, religion, or identity politics. Sorry, talking about class issues that broadly affect all races and not giving into the temptation of race, religion, gun, or identity politics is the only way to win.

Scalise and Resentment

So today, I get a bunch of newsflashes on my phone as I take the Metrolink train up to LA. It states that some guy shot a Congressman named Steve Scalise. For a moment, I though this person had a personal connection to the Congressman and that this was some kind of mass shooting similar to many, many shootings that occur in this country every day.

Only later in the day, did my Facebook feed appear with a status update from a friend that stated that she turned off her Facebook feed and decide go hiking in the woods. In her posting, she discussed that the person was a Bernie Sanders supporter. The moment that when that happened, something went off.

I went back into the office after reading that posting while I was sitting on the john. I looked my coworker and gave her a frown. Instantly, my mood change from happiness to sadness. Sadness because the endless virtol that fills our airwaves today finally claimed a victim.

I could just see this guy spending hours and hours on the internet sitting and obessing about Trump. How he was personally angry by what was Trump was doing to the country and how the country was going downhill. Constant anger and resentment was building in this guy’s mind to the point where he needed to engage in an armed criminal action against a sitting member of Congress.

Steve Scalise was a typical right-wing Congressman who had a extremely flawed ideology and voting record but none of his action merited a man driving to Illinois to shoot him down. Steve Scalise by all accounts was just a typical person from Louisana who held a very conservative view of the world just like many white people from that part of the country. However, he is a person just like my old track coach, my old youth pastor, a very attractive woman in one of my NA meetings, or one of my friends in AA. They are people just like you and me, but they have flaws. In this guy’s case, he just a very flawed ideology and he held a position of significant political power.

When you get consumed by resentment and anger, you let your emotions get the best out of your. Your anger and resentment turns into dangerous emotions that will destroy relationships and friendships. I have seen people hold resentment for years and years to never let go and lose friendships over personal conflict. The program of recovery of NA and AA makes consistent references in the recovery literature to let go of anger and resentment because they are toxic to the recovering addict. Learning to let go and understand your powerlessness to control situtations leads to better control of resentment. Learning to forgive and understand that somebody whose political ideology who does not agree with yours has the right to be your friend is okay. Learning that you cannot control the individuals actions and that somehow your anger is going to make the situation better is not going to help.

In this guy’s case, he forgot the concept of powerlessness and control. In this guy case, he failed to understand that he cannot magically control Steve Scalise’s action by his furious wrath against the GOP and that Mr. Scalise and the GOP are going to bend to his personal will by shooting him. He was trying to play the role of God/fate by shooting this guy. In reality, the only real way to get results was to learn patience and wait the 2018 midterms for the GOP majority to blown out in a wave election by Justice Democrats. The GOP has their view set in stone based on years and years of a toxic mix of Christian dominionism, racial superiority sown by generations and generations, and unquestioning blind faith in free markets. It would take something akin to a national truth and reconciliation commission where the Southern whites would perform a collective moral inventory of resentment, character flaws, and fears that would led to mutual understanding that their thinking is stinking thinking. However, until that time comes, we cannot control those people as progressives. We have to learn that these people have deep flaws but they are one of us. They are Americans just like all of us. They have lots of strengths that make this country great except for really bad political views. And a lot of ways liberals are no better.

This guy wanted to play God and he finally got shot for trying play God. His anger was spilt on people that he could not control and only those people can change if they want to. He should kept on going with political activism by trying to get people elected that would blow these people in future midterms and ultimately get enough dems in the statehouse to ensure that Democrats gerrymand the districts in 2020 in order to make the GOP into minority party for good.

We do not this anger and vitrol. It is perfectly okay to think that the other side political thinking is grossly flawed, but it is not okay to make them objects of hate and make them subhuman.

I know my grammar is not perfect but I felt like that I just had to drop a rant and write from the heart instead of writing well-written blog. A moment like this requires writing from the heart instead of trying to write a scripted piece. Peace out

Our political vitrol has stripped away the humanity of people that we disagreed.