It's been awhile since I posted a political rant on the BLOG. Blame this one on my friend Katie. She sent me a Rolling Stone article about the same time last week that a Washington Post writer said Democrats need a Tea Party of their own. My journal writing today is a take on that proposition. No matter how hard I try, I can't make a connection between the photographs today and the writing... I tried saying something about naked truth and the pictures of the Naked Coral Tree, but it didn't work. You have to be careful with the word naked... It's easy to be misleading with that word. There are also some more photos of the Naked Coral Tree... Yep! That's it's name. This one stands brazenly in front of the Fashion Valley Mall just down the hill from where I live.

Can Liberals Start Their Own Tea Party?

A Washington Post headline last week posed the question and supplied an answer offered by environmental activist Van Jones. Jones was not suggesting that “Tea Party” be part of the name for a liberal movement to rival the powerful new conservative wing of the Republican Party. His emphasis was on the liberal side’s need for new infusions of political and financial power.

Since the formation of the Tea Party, the intractable Gridlock in Washington and in state capitals has become even more rigidly fixed. What we do not need at this time is another wing of the Democratic Party toward which elected members must genuflect. We might try placing emphasis on common sense and direct attention to verifiable laws of natural, political, and economic science. But, of course, the success of a common sense approach to solving problems depends on elected officials and other citizens who are well-informed and wise. Americans are notoriously ill-informed and foolish when it comes to history, science, and finance. In debate Celebrity is at least as persuasive for many Americans as plain facts. A dazzling set of perfectly aligned teeth flashed at the right moment along with, of course, clear statements of allegiance to God and the flag and denunciation of gay marriage and abortion are enough to get the votes of many fundamentalist Christians. Documented facts based on legitimate research by environmental scientists aren’t enough to dissuade some folks from insisting that global warming and climate change are myths designed to undermine belief in the power of God. When Michelle Bachmann raises her arm and lifts her eyes toward the sky and says that God in Heaven called her to undertake a political career to set America right, millions of people actually believe her. Liberal thinkers relying on common sense in this political climate should suppress the impulse to laugh at her. Laughing at her when she confuses Concord, New Hampshire, and Concord, Massachusetts, in a political stump speech only strengthens her hand. You mustn’t laugh at God’s anointed candidate. With one hand on the Bible and the other saluting the flag, she can say almost anything she wants to say; and many people out there will be convinced that God is rewriting the past and the planning the future just for her. If, by God, she says she will create jobs when she is President of the United States; then, by God, we’d better believe she will do it. If she says the country can pay for everything that God wants to do with America without putting any financial burden on millionaires and billionaires, then, by God, it will happen the way God wants it to happen. You have Michelle Bachmann’s word on that.

What was that old Chinese curse about living in interesting times. These are definitely interesting times... for China and The United States and indeed for the whole world. There is no denying that the world is smack in the middle of economic, ecological, and social crises. Politicians with narrow parochial views of the world can only make these crises worse. A few of the American politicians who want to be president of the country lack a world view. We need politicians with an appreciation and respect for the interconnectedness of all people and all other things of the earth. The world needs citizens who support environmental and social justice movements for all people. We must face up to the realities of negative environmental and social consequences of industrial economic development, even when it means that by giving up some of our wasteful ways of living we may become temporarily uncomfortable.

I am not reassured by Michelle Bachmann’s insistence that God will show her the way to make things right, even when she holds up her diploma and insists that her fundamentalist zeal is backed up by a law degree. Indeed she was a member of the first class in 1979 of O.W. Coburn School of Law founded as part of Oral Roberts University, a law school that proclaimed from the start that it was dedicated to the teaching of “the law from a biblical worldview.” The law school has gone through at least three name changes and affiliations. After it was O.W. Coburn School of Law it became the Christian Broadcasting network School of Law (televangelist Pat Robertson's baby), then it became the Regent University School of Law (Now in Virginia Beach... extended from the university founded by Pat Robertson. It should be no surprise that a course on constitutional law focuses primarily on sin. It's also no surprise that the school's WEB site reassures prospective students that they can do their course work online or on campus. You may remember that under the Regent name it came to the attention of the world when the George W. Bush administration produced an unusual flood of entrants into the Bush Justice Department. Regent was clear in it’s intention to have its graduates enter government and become “change agents” who would bring the law more in line with “eternal principles of justice,” i.e., biblical morality.

Don’t get me wrong. Principles of justice are important. It’s just that Michelle Bachmann’s declared determination to make gay marriage, abortion for any reason, and restrictive protection of the environment illegal in the United States speaks more of injustice and inequality than of justice and equality. It’s no laughing matter.