Some Stuff

• Those who have read this blog from the beginning (not many, I know!) may recall that it started partly as a watchdog of the increased politicization of my former church body--The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). The drift toward political activism started with the Affordable Care Act (they were against it), then on to gay marriage (against), gay wedding cakes (against), and the right to disobey any law they felt like (for). But the icing on the cake is that they are now firmly in the camp of the right-wing Religious Right Evangelical Movement (for) and Donald Trump (for). I am glad I am not there anymore. I only say this because, although WELS was always theologically conservative, they took great pains to (usually) keep a solid line between theology and politics. Now they are in the full-monty Fox News, alt-right cult.
• The afore-mentioned Religious Right is not a Christian organization. (1) It is a big business, from which lots of people make lots of money. (2) Its business is hate. (3) Business is very good.
• This whole "leftists-are-dividing-the-party" thing is really pissing me off. It's not very historical either. The first election I was able to vote in was the 1972 Nixon/McGovern race. Who abandoned the party that year? It wasn't the left wing of the party who voted for the war monger and criminal Richard Nixon. It was the centrists who abandoned the party. (The country would have been much better off with a President McGovern.) It's not the leftists in Maryland who seem to be supporting the Republican governor instead of their own Democratic nominee, Ben Jealous. It's the centrists and right-leaning labor unions. I have been voting for the establishment candidates my whole adult life. It's time for the Third-Way types to suck it up and support (enthusiastically) those candidates who happen to be to the left of them.