The "Very Least He Could Do" Award

It was with some bemusement that I heard that Trump was planning to come to South Carolina to receive an award.  I expected I would hear a lot about backlash and protests.  Then I heard someone saying that even though they don't support Trump, he was glad Trump was getting the award for signing into law the First Step Act.

This whole thing seems to have started with Jared Kushner, who for some reason (maybe having a dad doing time) was focussed on prison reform.  Then came Kim Kardashian, and a bunch of tweets about a 63-year-old doing time since 1996 for a first drug offense.  This was not about someone caught carrying some dope.  This was about cocaine distribution and money laundering, which would go a ways to explain why President Obama did not choose to pardon her during his presidency, although he pardoned 212 and commuted the sentences of 1,715 prisoners.  But Donald Trump knows a media opportunity when he sees one.

The chance to one-up Obama along with the how it looked to be the one setting free a little old lady was irresistible.  And it worked.

So, I imagine when Jared suggested following it up with prison reform, he jumped at the chance.  The result was decidedly a union of strange bedfellows.

We can be glad for this badly needed and long overdue reform.  One that would not have been possible with the obstructionist and racist Congress that Barack Obama was stuck with.

But we don't need to shower praise on a man who has done more damage to minorities during his years on earth, and especially since becoming president, than nearly any other American.  We should not give him the good press that was, to be honest, his goal.

Donald Trump is a stupid man.  But he is fine-tuned to how to divide people.  And that is what his visit to South Carolina was intended to do.  And he was enabled by the Bipartisan Justice Center and Benedict College.

Donald Trump at Benedict College getting an award for the First Step Act happened because Joe Biden continues to be the first choice of many African Americans in South Carolina.  If Trump can sway a handful of voters, that would for him be worth the effort, because Trump lives in a world of spite and revenge.  But his advisors know that the PR he got was invaluable.  Who could accuse him of being racist after not just signing this reform bill, but for getting an award for it?

For those of us in the cheap seats, this was an award ceremony.  But the Trump campaign was in high gear making sure this event was entirely orchestrated to maximize gain and to make absolutely sure there was no fly in the ointment.  Behind the scenes, the White House was in total control.  Of the over 2,100 attendees, ONLY TEN  were students invited from Benedict College, with only seven attending.  All the remaining attendees were brought in from elsewhere.  The White House refused Benedict College's president's request that more Benedict College be allowed to attend, "insisting that the White House maintain control of organizing the event."

In fact, students were told to stay in their dorm rooms during the event.

STUDENTS WERE TOLD TO STAY IN THEIR DORM ROOMS DURING TRUMP'S TIME ON CAMPUS.

This lockdown occurred on a college campus in South Carolina in 2019.  And it occurred while taxpayers funded what was a campaign rally, including attacks on President Obama and Democrats, and the usual brags and lies.

If we allow Donald Trump to control the story, the media, the audience, we are creating the same damn environment that soured voters on Hillary Clinton in 2016.  It is good that the First Step Act was passed, and that Trump signed it into law.  But we know him.  We know he did not do it out of a sense of justice, or compassion for those wrongfully imprisoned.  We need now, more than ever, to keep our eyes on the motivation behind everything he does.

Donald Trump doesn't just want to win in 2020.  He needs to win in 2020.  Because if he loses, what waits for him is a plethora of criminal charges, and if the justice system still works by the time he is gone, very likely a prison sentence.  And if the justice system still works, the First Step Act won't save him. 

Thanks, Obama

The Ironic Cherry reads...

Thanks, Obama:

My Hopey, Changey

White House Years

by David Litt

(A SPEECHWRITER'S MEMOIR)

This is a hopey, changey kind of book.  It comes out just when we need the smiles, the chuckles, and yes, the hope.

David Litt began campaigning for Barack Obama in 2008.  From there he moved on to speechwriting for the President.  He began at the bottom, and takes us along on his wild, bumpy, sometimes scary, sometimes hilarious ride.  It is partly about his growing up, partly about the maturing of Obama's presidency, and partly about the transformation of America.

The personal anecdotes are hysterically funny; he is brutally honest about the workings of the West Wing and also about himself.  He doesn't let himself get too carried away with his own importance, but he doesn't mind telling us when he feels damn good about his accomplishments.  His periodic meetings with President Obama are priceless, and tell us as much about the President as about Litt.

It turns out that it is a wonderful review of Obama's eight years, just as we are sometimes feeling as if they didn't actually happen.  He takes us from the campaigns to the fights over Obamacare and the budget.  We witness presidential approval ratings sink as he struggles to first work with and then hold back a Congress determined to do damage to his promises to the American people, and then we watch them skyrocket when, in 2015, he decides it is time to do his work with or without Congress.

We also get behind the scenes of the amazing Correspondents' Dinner speeches, and the moods of the writers and the President as they are developed, including the critical edit the day before the Bin Laden raid.  And the "bucket" list.  And of course, the development of the skit with "Luther, Obama's Anger Translator."

And then there was that week in June of 2015, with two great Supreme Court victories and the horrific shooting at the Mother Emanuel Church here in Charleston.  And Barack Obama gave a moving and eloquent speech, ending with him singing Amazing Grace.

Litt says, "In less than two days, Barack Obama had secured his place in history....  I now lived in a country where health care was a right and not a privilege; where you could marry who you loved; where a black president could go to the heart of the old Confederacy and take all of us, every color and creed, to church."

And around about that time in Litt's book, he brought me back around from despair to hope.  Because, as we saw in last week's election, when women, African Americans, Hispanics, Muslim and transgender Americans ran for office against hate and bigotry and won, Obama's legacy can't be erased.  The American people have come together to prove that we stand for liberty and justice.  We will continue to fight for the gun legislation that Obama was unable to see in his terms in office, and for the women and minorities that are being victimized by the current administration.

Or, as POTUS says, "We haven't won every battle.  We've still got a lot more work to do.  But when the cynics told us we couldn't change our country for the better, they were wrong."

Thanks, David Litt, for reminding us of that.

The Orange-Haired Dog CAN Learn New Tricks

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's newest campaign manager, is indeed the woman behind the man.  She is shrewd.  She tells him what he needs to do in that soothing manner that women have when attempting to tame their abusive, raging partner.  You know, the manner that makes the beast want to change and feel flattered for his cleverness at the same time.

She does it well.  Listen to his recent speeches.  He is not only reading well-written speeches off the teleprompter, he is reading them flawlessly, more so than W. did in his day.  His message is no longer about rage, it is about what he can do for the American people.  You know, those folks who have been mistreated by Obama for eight years.

The Trump method of projecting his hate (back in the day, we used to say he's so good at projection you could run a film through him) seems to be working.  If Hillary calls him a bigot, he calls her a bigot.  I know, it seems simplistic, and it is, but for those who have been fed small doses of anti-Clinton rhetoric for decades, this is just what they are primed to hear.  The first few times I heard it, it made my head spin; now it is just more noise.  And that is what gives it power.

And here is something that I realized just today, an hour before I heard that the gap between Trump and Clinton continues to narrow.  It is the thing we have been missing, as Conway trains Trump to appeal to the more rational of his supporters.

I was scheduling my next appointment at my rheumatologist's office.  I don't even know the nice woman's name, but as she scheduled my appointment, we were commiserating about getting on Medicare, and the expense of the drug benefit plan.  She said to me, well, we may not have to worry about it depending on who gets into office in the next couple of months.

It took me aback, and not just because we have never had a political conversation of any sort.  The best I could respond was that it wasn't likely that Congress would want to spend any money to make drugs more affordable for us.  But with that small exchange, a light went on.

I have not been listening to the new Donald Trump, really.  And neither has the media.  But those long-time republicans out there have been listening carefully.  In the beginning it was the absurd message that getting rid of Mexicans would get us all better jobs.  But it has lately become a list of all the things Donald Trump will give us if we elect him (his newest theft from the Democrats is the line that he will even help those of us who don't vote for him).

The new Donald Trump isn't claiming he will make us millionaires like him.  But he is promising that he will give us good-paying jobs and take care of us in retirement.  He is going to protect the cops and the rest of us from criminals.  And he will make sure we all have good health care.

It doesn't matter a whit that he is not offering any kind of plan, financial or otherwise, as to how he is going to do that.  People are hearing what they want to hear.

So maybe Trump isn't going to build a wall or get rid of Muslims (nudge-nudge, wink-wink, the "deplorables" know he can't say it now, but he'll do it once he gets elected).  Maybe he is just going to be a reincarnation of Bernie Sanders, making sure we all have all kinds of security.

And TODAY Trump lays out his plan to give us all affordable childcare!  No matter that republicans have fought any kind of assistance for childcare whenever a Democrat has brought it up.  No matter that he has no idea how he will fund it.

No matter.  All those middle class republicans who have been feeling dealt a bad hand are hearing that help is on the way.  And Donald Trump is a businessman, and a millionaire, so he will know how to get it done.

This is what the Democrats need to tune in to, quickly.  When he is attacked by Hillary for his gang of deplorables, Kellyanne and her crew will twist it around quite satisfactorily so that it sounds like Hillary is the meanie.  And sure enough, Trump's speechwriter will have his candidate stand up to defend all those good Trump supporters.

Trump, the man of the people.  He thinks he is, and now he is convincing America.

I imagine that Hitler's speeches had that same ring of, "I will take care of you all."  And if you believe strongly enough, you can almost miss the sound of the jackboots.  

The Ironic Cherry Reads...

...The Invisible Bridge 

"If the people believe there's an imaginary river out there, you don't tell them there's no river out there.  You build an imaginary bridge over the imaginary river."

This is the quote that prefaces the book "The Invisible Bridge" by Rick Perlstein.  It is attributed as "Advice to Richard Nixon from Nikita Khrushchev."

The book is a doorstop, some 800+ pages.  If you have time to read only one book, this is the one you should read.  As the subtitle says, it chronicles the time -- bridges the time -- of "the fall of Nixon and the rise of Reagan."

If you have been sitting here in 2015 scratching your head and wondering how we got here from the amazing sixties, this is the book that will clear it up for you.  Yes, we had Roe v. Wade, and civil rights legislation, ended the war in Vietnam and began to end pollution and save the planet.  We had desegregation, a war on poverty and more kids went on to college than ever before.

But we liberals never saw the backlash coming.

The abortion wars began as soon as they ended, fires fueled by rage at the Supreme Court justices that made a woman's right to abortion the law of the land.

It was in the 70's that the textbook wars began, with a mild mannered Christian woman named Alice Moore speaking up at a Texas school board meeting, and refusing to back down until school boards in Texas and across the country removed books that offended with their words of sex and science, integration and art.  Evolution was banned from textbooks and classrooms, as well as "The Grapes of Wrath."

Lest we yanks feel smug, it was in Boston where fierce rioting went on over school busing.  "Two groups of people who are poor and doomed and who have been thrown in the ring with each other," was how columnist Jimmy Breslin described the battles between whites and blacks.

And in today's headlines we have a dozen odd republican candidates for president keeping those same wounds open.  They may be using Mexicans instead of African Americans, but their followers I assure you see them as pretty much the same problem.  You can't publicly pledge to send blacks back where they came from these days, but ending Obamacare and the Voting Rights Act is nearly as satisfying.

While Hillary is wasting her time apologizing for emails, we must know that this has nothing to do with what is going on with the upcoming election.

Remember that big brouhaha over Obama's 2008 comments on guns and religion?  We need to go back and listen to those comments again:

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. 

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Yes, they continue to cling to their guns and religion, and they are fueled by opportunistic politicians.  And what we see is craziness and rage.  We see nobodies like Kim Davis regaled as a hero for refusing to obey the law and used by fools like Mike Huckabee to promote his own small-minded religious agenda.  And those people who live in their own ignorance and isolation thrive on the narrative that the freedom of others to live differently will deny them their religious freedom.

And there you have that invisible bridge.  There won't be better jobs and the kids will either bail out or follow in the footsteps of fear and denial.  And the politicians will continue to pretend that they care about "religious freedom" while they deregulate and cut taxes for the rich.  And they will cut services to those same isolated small towns, health care and education, roads and schools, police and firefighters, blaming the government.  These pols have created and perpetuated this vicious cycle, wherein ignorance leads being frightened and vulnerable to lies and manipulation, which leads to more isolation and ignorance.

What is different now than it was in the 70's is that we have a Supreme Court that has been molded by the right-wing to reflect that bizarre religious paranoia.  Since Reagan the Supremes have formalized the union between corporate power and religion.  Small businesses haven't noticed that they have not been included in all the freedom of speech that is being bought, and politicians are giving them nothing but lip service.  But the pols have taken up the fight for the religious fanatics.  Because while they are wasting time and dollars with votes and court battles to end Obamacare, voting rights and Planned Parenthood, they are seeming to serve those small town old-timey values while their real constituents, the billionaire capitalists, are allowed to continue to freely run the country.

The Time for Racism Is Nearly Over, Now Get Ready for Misogyny

You know it's hard to make my head spin these days.  But that it did when I heard that Wayne LaPierre, hypocrite and warmonger extraordinaire, said the following at the NRA's national convention:

"Eight years of one demographically symbolic president is enough."

Since the quote made it internationally, it appeared I wasn't the only one who noted that Mr. LaPierre had outdone himself in the categories of ignorance and gall.  The demographically symbolic head of the NRA -- old, white male -- must have chosen his words carefully, so that most of those hearing the speech would cheer at the attack on both current and potentially future presidents without really understanding just how over-the-top it was.  That's our Wayne, too smart for the common folk.

But those who really heard the words, and thanks to New York Times reporter Nick Corasaniti who tweeted them, are no doubt still considering their significance.

As we talk about racism and continue to politely ignore misogyny, it is just astounding that LaPierre would be so blatant.  Not too many steps removed, in fact, from using the words "nigger" and "bitch."  Which I imagine he feels free to use in a smaller room.

Is this election season going to be one where overt hatred of women is going to be allowed and accepted the way the not-too-veiled birth certificate "controversy" was part of the anti-Obama rhetoric?  While reporters are chasing Hillary around and debating the correctness of her lunch choice, will anyone address the sexism that is already flying?  Will we allow through our silence jackasses like Wayne LaPierre to disqualify Clinton by virtue of her sex?  Will we be silent when ugly comments and photos circulate social media?  Or will we start shouting in outrage?

Because with LaPierre's crack, we should already be shouting.  It's not going to get any better.  Hillary can handle it; she's been proving that for decades.  But we as a country cannot.

Just as Silly

I'm having flashbacks to the Republican loss in 2012.  Remember when, immediately after the election, they were all talking about what they'd done wrong, that they must not have been reaching the American people, and then they came out the other end with the idea that it must be that they had to change, not the message, but the way they sold that message.  Say what???

So let's move forward to 2014.  Here are the Democrats, all demoralized, wondering what they did wrong.  All talking to each other having meetings and forming committees, trying to figure out why people didn't come out to vote for them.  It seemed like they almost nearly just about had it figured out.  Maybe it was because they hadn't represented the issues that Democrats were supposed to stand up for.  Maybe they were trying too hard to soften the message, to distance themselves from the President.  Maybe they had failed to talk to the voters about all the successes the Democrats had, in spite of Republican obstruction.

In fact, I'm hearing one Republican strategist say he can't understand why the Dems ran away from their successes, were afraid to talk about all the people that were now insured, the low unemployment rate, the declining deficit.  And Rachel Maddow is pointing out how the Dems that won in this really bad year were the ones that actually ran on Obamacare, the environment, saving Social Security, you know, Democratic issues.

So here we are a week and a couple days later, and I hear that Mary Landrieu who is in a runoff race for her Senate seat, is trying to push her opponent's bill to approve the XL pipeline before the end of the session.  Huh???

And here's a Harry Reid story:  apparently he is reluctant to get all those Obama judicial appointments -- and that all-important attorney general appointment -- through the Senate while the Democrats still hold the majority.

So what have we really learned from this year's midterm disaster?  Well, President Obama has figured out that if he plans on enacting all those things he promised in his two election campaigns, he's going to have to do it without the help of his party.  And the Republicans have learned to keep doing what they are doing, because it really scares the Dems and keeps their base happy.  The Democrats who didn't get it to begin with seem to have learned nothing.

With people voting to approve gun control measures, and legal marijuana, and gay marriage, the only big success stories from the candidates were those who ran a campaign on solidly progressive issues, like Al Franken.  Even the two guys who were beaten in an NRA-sponsored recall election in 2013  in Colorado for their gun control legislation had their day.  The voters re-elected them to the seats they had lost such a short time ago.  And Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper who promoted that gun control legislation has also won his re-election.  And my goodness, in the Arizona town where the school board voted to remove pages from an honors level science textbook that discussed abortion, the electorate sent those recently elected idiots back to their caves and elected candidates who actually approved of educating students.

Maybe voters aren't really paying attention to what the candidates stand for.  So when the candidates are afraid to be outspoken and challenge their opponents, all we have to go on is the rumor, scandalous headlines and idiotic ads.  No wonder then that voters are often able to vote smart on issues, but just pull that big "R" when it comes to candidates.

I just don't think that Wendy Davis or Alison Lundergan Grimes understand that where they fell short was where they backed off from being a Democrat.  And it seems that Mary Landrieu will learn too late that pushing the pipeline isn't what will make people head to the polls to support her in the runoff.

Silly times, tragic consequences.  

When All Else Fails

The morning after the election, the first person I saw to speak to was my orthopedist's assistant.  As she set up the paraphernalia for the shots I was getting to renew my knees for awhile, I asked her if she had voted Tuesday.

She looked abashed, apologized and said, no, she hadn't.  She was busy, she worked all day....  "If you had voted, would you have voted Democrat or Republican?"  She hedged, saying she really didn't know who was running.  This was probably true, but given my Hillary tote-bag, my guess is she was trying to avoid telling me she would have voted Republican, because that's the way her family has always voted.  Just guessing.

Alexandra Pelosi is a documentary film maker.  She interviews people in malls and parking lots, asking them what they know and what they think about what is going on in politics.  What she does is brilliant in its simplicity.  In September, on Real Time with Bill Maher, she talked about what people didn't know about the upcoming election.  People did not know who their congressman was or who was running in various races.  What they did know was that if they voted they were going to vote "R."  Please go to the above link and watch (around minute 2'30") the interviews.  It is far more informative than anything our Democratic leaders have come up with to explain why they lost last week.

Since November 4th, we have had panels and meetings, interviews and discussions of all sorts, with different kinds of experts trying to explain why the Democrats lost.  What has been missing  -- WHAT HAS BEEN MISSING -- is asking the voters.  I don't think knocking on doors before the election does much to raise the chances of a person voting for a candidate; it seems that they usually agreeably promise to get out and vote for whoever is asking.  But now that the election is over, wouldn't it be a good time to knock on doors, stop people at the mall, have conversations at local meetings?  And this time, wouldn't it be a good idea, instead of telling people why they should vote for a Democrat, maybe it would be a good idea to not just ask them whether they voted and who they voted for, but to ask them what is important to them.

One of the things the Republicans are really good at, is pretending they are your friend.  If you didn't know better, they would really seem to be listening.  I can't get Jim Clyburn or Vincent Sheheen to answer an email, or even snail mail, but Nikki Haley not only signs her letters (typed on very nice stationery) but adds a little personal "Thanks for writing!"  We laugh at Haley and commiserate with state employees forced to answer the phone by telling the caller that "It's a great day in South Carolina!" but isn't it shrewd to even force her employees to present her personal happy face to anyone who calls.  She may not have given a hoot what a visitor had to say, but most of us know that she opened her door and met with anyone who wanted to speak with her (maybe she doesn't any more, but she sure got a lot of publicity when she did).

Our Democratic Party invites us to send money, and occasionally come to meetings and fundraisers, but send an email and ask them to give you a call.  If the Democratic Party doesn't have anybody there that wants to know what I think (and I am very free with my opinion), what about all those Democrats that don't get out to the polls because they just don't think anybody cares?

We Democrats know what is best for you, the voter, and it really pisses us off that you don't think it's as important as we think it is.  Maybe that's what we are doing wrong.  Maybe we need to spend some time, before the next election cycle, asking and listening.  And resisting the temptation to jump in and lecture and explain.

Here's one last thought.  Most of us are tired.  We work hard, we pay our bills, we do our best to be there for our families, and then we try to enjoy some of our free time.  Why would we take time to plow through all the politics -- and politics can be boring, meaningless, or just mean -- when we could be doing something that feels good?  When Barack Obama ran in 2008, he gave us something different, something special.  He really did give us hope and the promise of change.  He reached people that we are no longer reaching.  Our candidates seem to be scrabbling to promise high school graduates technical jobs rather than the opportunity to reach for the moon.  Our opponents are the ones promising the tech jobs.  Maybe we should be working harder to promise the moon.

Blue Dogs Going Down

I was surprised to hear that Alison Lundergan Grimes has fallen behind that idiot Mitch McConnell in the polls.  How is that possible?  McConnell has done more to disrupt the workings of government for the people of his state than just about anyone except Tim Scott in the Senate.  Maybe it's because she begins a new ad with, "I'm not Barack Obama," and then says that she disagrees with him on "guns, coal and the EPA."

Well, I'm here to say that she may have just gotten a whole lot of supporters to decide to stay home on election day.  There appear to be in Kentucky actual liberals who don't equate gun control with tyranny but with increased safety and a reduction in crime.  They may also think that coal should not be their children's future; they just may want their kids to grow up without the threat of cancer and climate disasters; they might want to see renewable energy be the source of jobs in Kentucky.  And as for getting rid of the EPA, well, we've heard that old song a lot, but we didn't think we'd hear it from a fellow Democrat.

We don't need another blue dog Democrat undermining the progress the current president has worked so hard (against the tide of Congressional ignorance) to promote.  And I don't think the voters in Kentucky are going to get quite as excited about someone who promises to be McConnell-lite.

Hearing Grimes promise not to be like Barack Obama raises some other questions.  For example, while she supports equal pay for women and help for victims of abuse, she fails to mention whether she supports a woman's right to reproductive freedom and privacy.  I shudder to imagine her failing to support access to birth control and abortions, but can you really trust someone who opposes environmental regulation?

Just as here in South Carolina, we have had to make some tough choices, and Grimes is a sight better than McConnell, but it is disturbing to see members of our own party attempting to curry the favor of those who oppose Democratic principles.  And I have to think that I am not alone in my disappointment.  Those of us who understand the consequences of not voting will grit our teeth and pull that lever for the Democratic candidate.  But sadly, a lot of those who are less informed will go with what they know rather than someone who is trying to sound like them.  And way too many others of us will just stay home.

A Little Perspective on an Ivy League Education

No, this isn't an excuse to brag on my son getting his bachelor's degree (Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude) in physics from Harvard last week.  But I was the first to get a bachelor's degree from my immediate family, just barely scraping by at the University of Rhode Island, which is a good school.  But it's not Harvard.  So I said it.

Last week was an awful lot of pomp and hot air.  I was taken in till my sister and her husband arrived, and that was good for bringing me back down to reality and having a few good laughs at all the putting on of airs, hot or otherwise.

A lot of that hot air involved telling the almost-grads that they are now about to become members of an exclusive and important club.  All said with a great deal of noblesse oblige.

Doors would indeed be open to them because of their "H-brand."  And it would be up to them to use that power to do good -- to be leaders, and to make the world a better place.

Hmmph.

It wasn't till I got home, in fact, days after I got home, that I wondered at just how many students in that audience were vowing that they would indeed take it upon themselves to use their power for good rather than evil, as opposed to checking their iPhones.

After all, Harvard graduated Barack Obama, but also Mitt Romney.  I can assure you that both believe that they are doing good and we all know which one really is.  

Then there are those who are world leaders, and done much good along the way, who decided Harvard just wasn't doing it for them, people like Bill Gates.  Of course, there is debate about how he accumulated the resources to do good with his Foundation, but still....

It is more likely that many of those who are on that august roster who have made the greatest contribution to our country and the world are not known by us.  There appears to be a tendency for those notables who use their Harvard credential -- or any noted credential -- to affect change to take care of Number One first -- and best.  And whether that grad has come from wealth or poverty, most are willing to forget, if indeed they were ever aware of, those who are being left behind.

Compare the scientist who searches for a cure who is funded by government grants to the scientist who works for the pharmaceutical company who has vowed not to share progress rather than risk cutting into potential profits.

Then there is the army of Harvard MBA's -- bless their cold and shiny hearts.  I was pleased when a joke was made by one student speaker about another -- a notable business school speaker -- destroying the world.  Could it be that the students have clearer vision at the point of departure than those faculty that send them off?

Maybe Commencement Week at Harvard isn't the place to be unabashedly honest about the likely futures of many of the grads.  And, to be fair, cheating scandal and student tragedy was brought up alongside the acclaim of the four years.

But parents, time to wipe away the tears of pride.  Harvard, by virtue of that prestigious "H", has given your graduates  the power, and given many the confidence, and offered them all an ethical education with a moral message.  But whether or not they heard that message will remain to be seen.

Not Just About the President

You might think, by watching the "news" that the only important election coming up is that of Obama v. Romney.  And I have to admit, our President could be doing a better job reminding us why those Senate and House races are so important.  Like whenever he is accused of not having done enough in the past four years.

This election season, puppeteers like Karl Rove and the Kochs are busy funneling money into races to defeat those Democrats that have stood the strongest for our democratic values.

But why not?  It's been working for years.

In 2004, Senator Tom Daschle, who was accused by Dick Cheney of being the "chief obstructionist" of the Bush agenda, was up in the polls by 5-7%.  It was reported to be the most expensive Senate race in 2004, and we watched in shock as he was defeated.

This year, Rove's piggybank, Crossroads GPS, has targeted critically important people like Elizabeth Warren, who if elected would surely effect positive change in our financial lives.  Rove, who has gotten away with so many criminal acts, like his part in outing CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame, does not even pretend to fund only "issues ads", which is a requirement of anonymously funded superpacs.

Outspoken and ethical Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio has been targeted by right wing groups which have spent over 17 million to be rid of him.  The radical and powerful Club for Growth is at the top of opponent Josh Mandel's contributors' list, with Senate Conservatives Fund right behind.

We should be hearing more about these Senate races, because they are so important.  Same is true of the House.

Because when it comes down to why the Obama agenda has struggled to succeed, we only need look to Congress.  The Mitch McConnells and John Boehners have twisted and perverted the function of this institution, not just since Obama came to the White House, but since the Democrats won control in 2006.

The proof is in Mitch McConnell's proud goal in the Senate:

where filibusters made it necessary to have 60 votes rather than a mere majority for any bill that reflected the Democratic agenda.

And let's not forget the oft-teary-eyed John Boehner, and his shout-out over the voices of the Democrats in the House over  Obama's health care bill:

Yes, I'm talking about the "jobs, jobs, jobs" John Boehner who began introducing anti-abortion bills to the House on his first day, and only stops to play a few rounds of golf with his moneyed constituents.

If we don't change the composition in our Congress this year, a re-elected Obama will face another four years of frustrated goals.  On the other hand, Romney is getting his rubber stamp warmed up just in case he wins, because, per the king of the tax cut and the Republican Party Grover Norquist, all they will need come November is a president that will sign any bill a Republican Congress will send.

Cut taxes for the rich and cut social services and safety nets for the rest of us.  Gut Medicare, ban birth control, increase spending on defense, and watch the debt rise like we haven't seen since the days of "W".  And send in the Scalia clone to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, because what that Republican Congress wants, is what Romney will give us.

So let's not forget how important all those other people that are running for office on November 6 really are.  Because this is what it really comes down to: