Dear Kenny,

"The Age of Rage". That was the title of an article on Politico today. I do think it is true. You should read it. Once again, it is an opinion that helps define the problem and leaves us hanging to what the solutions may be. Essentially, it says :

"Here’s the optimistic case: The embarrassment of the Shirley Sherrod story — with its toxic convergence of partisan combat and media recklessness — will be a tipping point. It will remind journalists and politicians alike that personal reputations and professional credibility are at stake, and a bit more restraint and responsibility are in order.

Here’s the realistic case: Get ready for more of the same.

Every president since the first George Bush has delivered an inaugural address including as a main theme an appeal for more civility and less cynical conflict. Barack Obama is the fourth in a row to be thwarted in this mission — frustrated by forces that have grown far stronger over the past two decades and aren’t abating any time soon."

What are we going to do?

Your lost brother

Dear Kenny,

Just imagine. You have worked hard, giving your best to get ahead. The company you are working for doesn't make the sharpest decisions to prepare for this recession and has asked you to leave. Your position is cut. You go home, take what little severance they give you and start looking for work. It's not easy.

Your wife doesn't quite get it. You have never been in this position before. So she continues to spend like you still had a job, ignoring the problem.

You decide too late, after the severance is gone, that you need to file for unemployment. You were sure you were going to have a job by now but you don't and the money has run out. Your first shock is the waiting period. You didn't know about that. So you have a couple of weeks 'til money comes in. Got to use the credit cards for a loan. Your second shock is the amount. No where near what you used to make. She's still not getting it. Credit card use is higher than unemployment benefits. The arguments begin. Tension is high and the kids are walking around on eggshells.

Then the unemployment benefits run out. No job. Credit cards are full. Bill collectors calling. And you don't know where your family's next meal is coming from.

You turn on your TV and you find out that every Republican and that bastard Nelson in Nebraska believe that if they extend your benefits you are going to enjoy this good life and not go out and find a job. You are going to become part of the national problem.

Finally, the Democrats break the Senate's minority filibuster and you could be on your way to finding food for your family. But no! Filibuster rules provide that the Senate can take no action until 30 hours after cloture. Of course that is not commonly adhered to anymore, but in this case, the Republicans want their 30 hours. Why? Because they can. You can't get more mean spirited than that.

Ya gotta love you conservatives!

Your sad brother

Dear Kenny,

I'm loving this. Y'gotta read Politico's article today on the Tea Party. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. You guys (Yeah, you included. I know you would have joined like your brother.) You guys are against your government, against the two party system, against any institution that reflects our culture and government structure. That includes Palin's "lamestreet media," Glen Beck's secret society that is supposedly pulling the strings, and of course against every elected official, appointed official or anyone in a place of power. Tea Party members are against everything.

The problem is: to affect change, they have to organize. To organize they have to have leaders. Leaders have power. Uh oh! We gotta be against them. It's our nature.

I'm loving it. The Teabaggers say they are a decentralized movement. There are no national leaders or national organization. Unfortunately, those that would benefit with a national movement like Dick Armey or the profiteers who formed the first convention, know the movement needs leadership to continue the movement. Joe Six Pack is doing everything he can to thwart it. going to be interesting to see how it turns out.

Let's watch and see how this turns out.

As ever, your brother

Dear Kenny,

Not going to write much today. I just found a blogger that says it so much better than I do. I wanted you to read some of it and ponder. Afterall, I am the Thoughtwhisperer.

His name is Bill Pendergast. He has a blog about "Michelle Bachmann Updates." You can go to his column and read more, but this is one thing he said that rings home to me:

Bachmann is a symptom of what has become a chronic political cancer in the US: the marriage of American conservatism to sectarian religious belief guided by a national conservative evangelical political hierarchy...conflating the idea of "true Christianity" with a conservative agenda. And I believe (this summer) that they have a better than fifty-fifty chance of dominating the government and making fundamental changes to the way Americans think about government and democracy.

All that stuff: "Judaeo-Christian religious authority as the real and ultimate premise of American government and legitimate authority." "A predominant worldview that demonizes other opinions as anti-American." "Beliefs about the supernatural as the final test for what constitutes facts and knowledge." "A new American political and social hierarchy with a "top" including people who dominate on the basis of their status as the representatives of the supernatural." I believe that that has a good chance of becoming a reality in my lifetime.

I don't believe that if that does happen, it's going to happen all at once. I've observed that the people that I'm referring to are what another diarist tonight called "incrementalists." They can wait; they have been waiting for decades. Right now they're waiting for Dem fails at the polls this fall; if that happens to a significant degree you and I will see "that nut" Bachmann as ideological leader in a newly constituted US Congress.

Its good to know that someone out there is as frightened as I am.

Your frightened brother

Dear Kenny,

Just got back from vacation. Visited your lovely wife in Huntington, WV. People around there are angry. Saw some billboards. Mostly religious based but very anti Obama.

Went to Nashua, NH to pick up the granddaughter. Stopped overnight in the Poconos. They were mad there too. Nashua the same.

Of course "you know who" wanted to stop in Plymouth, MA to tell the granddaughters about their privileged beginnings. Could have bought a few neat anti Obama t-shirts there.

Then we went to our brother's house in Vineland, NJ. What a teabagger. You would have loved him. He's even beginning to look like you. You can't believe how much existential bullsh!t I had to listen to. He wants me to read Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Jesus! Do I want to put myself through that? It amazes me that he not only is proud of his organizing the Tea Party in Vineland, but that he has become a libertarian. He lectured me all night on the merits of Rand's morality of self interest.

I finally drove down to what was eating on him. He is going to lose everything because he didn't pay his property taxes and he didn't pay income tax on his overseas work. Hell, I would be mad at the government if they were going to take everything away from me. But I guess if I believed in Ayn Rand's crap, I would think I was getting what I earned.

Next stop on the trip: Cape May. Saw your daughter. Pretty as ever. Conservative as hell, as you well know. No peace for me there. But I did stay at our other niece's. That was a reprieve for me. But she is only liberal because her mother told her to be. No real commitment.

It occurred to me driving through the northeast that the Obama election stirred a level of racism this country does not want to wake up. Yankees are proud of the South's enslavement of Africans and not being a part of it. It's sort of like "How can you be that racist?" But Northerners never wanted blacks in their homes, have them get paid more than them, or be their bosses. Now one is running the country. It was really an ugly drive through the Northeast.

On to Atlanta. Stayed with friends. They were gentle with me. They softly queried what I thought of the recovery, the health care bill. They have bought the conservative rhetoric. "We've been screwed."

Having traveled four thousand miles I guess I only reinforced my depressive state. Our populace is standing up for patriotism for all the wrong reasons. They are standing up because they see others standing up. They are following blindly. Today's fashion is that the government is too big, spending too much and out of control. To be a patriot you have to stand up and be opposed to the government and in support of your soldiers. If you are a patriot you oppose your government! God, is nobody thinking?

You know I see no end to this that will be good for our country. I like this Neall Gabler comment from the Boston Globe:

SEVENTY YEARS ago, Americans found themselves in the depths of despair. The economy had crashed, unemployment was at 25 percent, people lined up at bread lines and soup kitchens, and nearly everyone was reeling in anxiety at what the future held for them. But as dire as things were, few Americans expected an immediate remedy. What they expected was some sort of action. Franklin Roosevelt first boosted morale by promising to tackle the problem and then set about on a long course to do just that — a course that wouldn’t conclusively end until World War II. Through it all, the country by and large demonstrated extraordinary maturity and patience. It persevered.

In our current economic travails, the public attitude is strikingly different. Americans want the economic disaster to be over now, and we are angry that it isn’t. We don’t have time for financial reforms or pump-priming or a long-term transformation to a green economy. We expect a magic wand. And who can blame us? Unlike our forebears, we live in a society in which nearly everything happens instantly. Impatience is the new American way.

Our way out of this is going to be ugly fascism. First they will make the brown skinned people the target to bind us together in patriotism. When they become strong they will include the black people as targets.

Ugly, ugly, ugly. I know you. I know what you wanted for this country. I never agreed with your conservative ways, but I know you had an ideal country in mind, like the one you grew up in. Like the one you served all those years in the Navy. But this is not the answer. Grabbing our country for the benefit of only some, while leaving others to suffer, is not right.

For those of you that see no harm in making brown skinned people carry proof of citizenship on their person at all times or those of you that think people should not be allowed to wear burkkas while you celebrate St. Patrick's Day, you are wrong and you are missing the whole point of our democracy. You are inconsistent. You want government to stop interfering with your life and start interfering in others'.

I'll stop for now. I am starting to ramble. I'll write again soon brother.

Love, the adopted one