Doug's Views

December 26, 2016April 18, 2020

Viral Rant Highlights The Need To Speak Up When Confronted With Racism

Screencap from racist rant video

Millions have seen the viral video of a white woman’s racist rant toward two Latina women at a Kentucky store. During the whole video, I didn’t once hear or see anyone in the crowd telling the woman to stop her rant. It actually bothered me just as much as the actual racism because when we let the racism happen without interfering then we seem to be enabling the racism and inviting more of it in the future.

I won’t post the video but you can go to the NBC News website for their story and they include a segment of the video.

November 22, 2016April 18, 2020

Why Do Progressives Make Life So Hard?

The 2016 Presidential election is in the books and we will be getting a President progressives didn’t want, who will be working with a Congress controlled by people who don’t support progressive issues. For some reason the progressive groups I follow seem to have a new energy and a surge of donations to ‘fight the power’. I can’t help myself but wonder where was this energy before election day? Why do progressives seem to take the hard road? Do we like being a victim when we don’t need to be?

Life was looking up for progressives. Our issues were being addressed. We had the start of real health insurance reform, same-sex marriage was finally legalized, there was movement toward addressing climate change, church and state issues were going our way. We were on the cusp of electing the first woman president who likely would be friendly to our issues and continue the progress made under President Obama.

November 9, 2016April 18, 2020

Taking A Time-Out On Politics

I fully expected Hillary Clinton to eek out a slim victory in the election and I would spend this time talking about reforming the system so we can expect better candidates in the future. Donald Trump blew that out of the water by winning in an upset. I’ve decided to continue to call for reform but this will be my last political blog post for awhile. I need a break.

I plan to stick with church and state issues for now but I won’t be posting about anything concerning national politics after today. My head hurts.

October 26, 2016April 18, 2020

5 Reasons Most Conservatives Are Terrible At Politics

This election is unlike ones I’ve experienced in my lifetime and some pundits claim it is the most off-the-wall campaign they’ve seen. All I know is that each election helps show how terrible conservatives are at politics.

I have a conservative friend who I’ve known since High School. He is a smart guy and successful in his area of employment but he’s terrible at politics. Like most conservatives he hates Hillary Clinton with a passion and like most conservatives he repeats every bad argument he’s read or heard to confirm his hate.

October 22, 2016April 18, 2020

Ignorance Will Kill Democracy

Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter

Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter pointed out the problem with civic ignorance and the rise of someone like Donald Trump who claims he alone can fix what’s wrong in the country. Souter mentioned this issue in 2012.

Civic ignorance is a public not knowing how government works. This happens by public schools cutting civics classes and others not being interested in politics.