Trump’s Bandwagon Hits the Road

We humans love being agreeable. It is so much easier than constantly finding ourselves in arguments and having to defend our positions. It also beats having small groups of people turn sidelong glances your direction as if caught talking about you and your “different” way of viewing the world.

That’s why people love bandwagons. If you see one leaving the station, hop on for the ride. You will be in the company of pleasant people who ask nothing from you except your soul. That’s right. Just go with the crowd, be a good snake oil consumer, buy into self-serving political programs and don’t bother the driver with questions about where we are going. There’s a party going on in the back of the bus.

American politics thrives on bandwagons. All politics thrives on bandwagons. One could argue that any political system, over time, will come to reflect the social consensus in which it operates. And while we can bring illustrations from history that would seem to prove the point we must recognize that consensus, itself, is manipulable. Astute politicians have learned how to use the bandwagon effect to manipulate a society’s consensus and, hence, a political system’s drift, direction and policy output.

I am like any other consumer of media, I suppose, with my own bandwagon of reporters and friends in what conservative commentators like to call the left wing media.Yes, the New York Times, the Washington Post, MS-NBC, NPR and The Guardian are sources I trust much more than the White House and its Fox News friends. My choice of media reflects my view that truth is an essential component in our politics.. Truth is a value of the left and seemingly of little concern to the political right. They have learned to play the realpolitik of the classic dictatorships where truth is an ethical drag on the business of achieving and holding power. Continue reading “Trump’s Bandwagon Hits the Road”

I Meet Our New Justice . . . He Likes Beer

I had no plans for watching the Kavanaugh hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I had heard about all I needed to know about the president’t nominee for the Supreme Court. And somehow I knew I was going to feel a little dirtier if I spent a day watching the U.S. Senate at work.

But I turned it on early, just after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford had been sworn in. Her testimony was riveting as the Republican majority sat off to the side and had a local government sex crimes prosecutor ask all the questions. They apparently didn’t want to risk seeing themselves later in their electoral opponents’ campaign commercials questioning Dr. Ford. They didn’t want to make it too easy for to show them as what they are: white male Republicans with no aptitude for empathy.

I decided to continue watching after lunch and saw our future justice performing most un-judicially for the next three hours. He was angry. He was aggressive. He was rude. He interrupted U.S. Senators. He cried. He told touching stories about his family. He blamed everyone else and took no responsibility for anything. He congratulated himself at every opportunity on how great he is. He had finally mastered the skills of a reality television star. He conducted himself a lot like his new role model, Donald J. Trump.

So much for judicial temperament.

Good luck, America.

American Government 101 (Trump Version)

nyti.ms/2Dqn1JF

Timelines don’t usually make for very interesting reading. This one from this morning’s New York Times is riveting, however. You may not be able to put it down.

Methodists: Could We Just Get on with the Great Commission?

The United Methodist Church I attend has joined the discussion of the issue that the denomination has battled over since 1972 when the General Conference of the church decided that homosexuality was “incompatible with Christian teaching.” You know, like war and torture. Almost fifty years later we are still engaged in the battle.

As I listened to the discussion at Chapelwood last Sunday I couldn’t help but think of the deal with the devil our Founders made in drafting the United States Constitution: accepting slavery as the price of unification. Unification was ultimately achieved with terrible loss of life. And we have yet to achieve full freedom and participation for the descendants of the people who were brought here and who worked against their will for the enrichment of the European immigrants. Continue reading “Methodists: Could We Just Get on with the Great Commission?”

Center Stages Opens “Deathtrap”

30668270528_4e0936666a_z
Craig Fritz, Devon J. Smith and Roxanne Strobel talk about the young playwright’s (Smith’s) first try at a murder mystery script on the set courtesy of Keith Plowman.

The Brazosport Center Stages production of Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap” opened Friday night in the Dow Arena Theater.  Director Susan Moss and her company and crew played all the plot twists with skill and plenty of dry humor for an appreciative opening night crowd. The veteran cast of Craig Fritz, Roxanne Strobel, Devon Smith, Becky Gore LaRoche, and Phil Partridge communicated an intricate plot and a word heavy script with clarity and even physical dexterity when it was called for. And that was often.

No snoring at this play, gentlemen. You will be wide awake waiting to see who dies next and to see if they stay dead. Is that a plot spoiler? I don’t think so. But maybe it’s a clue that this one is not to be taken too seriously. Just enjoy the fine acting of some community theater pros who just keep on doing it for free. And what a gift it is.

You will also see a beautifully designed and executed set (thank you, Keith Plowman, for the design), period perfect costumes by Tina Gray, and combat (!) scenes choreographed by Wes Copeland. And the light! Near perfection by Lisa Chapa. Give her a budget and a few new instruments and it would be perfect. And there were also lots of eerie sound courtesy of Barry Dunn. And the script calls for props galore, always a challenge for a small community theater. And resourceful Callie Ayers is always up to the job.

This is theater for fun. Come out and enjoy a brutally funny murder mystery tonight. It runs through next weekend, Sept. 16. Tickets and reservations are available at The Center ticketing web site.

Big Elections November 6. Are You Registered to Vote?

Check to see if you are registered properly at the Texas Secretary of State web site.

If you are not registered, you can register here.

If you think you are a Republican, vote Democratic. It’s the only way you are going to take back the Republican Party.