Obamamania: Licking the streets he walkED on

The Chicago Tribune made it easier for Obama supporters and crazies to walk the same streets and eat at the same restaurants The One has graced with an interactive map.

God Bless America: "Country First" vs. "God First"

Kathleen Parker.  Does the name ring a bell?  She was one of those conservative writers that the party "faithful" deemed a traitor for criticizing the Palin pick.  

In a Wednesday column for the WaPo, "Giving Up on God," Parker urges the GOP to let go ofthe strong, Christian base.  Well golly, says I, that sounds like blasphemy.  She should be ejected from the Republican community.  But Parker's evocation reiterates Christopher Buckley's solemn conviction after "resigning" from The National Review about the GOP: "I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me." 

Here are some of the LOL-funny and highlights of her column: 

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh. 

So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners. 

But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs.

Suffice it to say, the Republican Party is largely comprised of white, married Christians. Anyone watching the two conventions last summer can't have missed the stark differences: One party was brimming with energy, youth and diversity; the other felt like an annual Depends sales meeting.

With the exception of Miss Alaska, of course. 

The young will get older, of course. Most eventually will marry, and some will become their parents. But nonwhites won't get whiter. And the nonreligious won't get religion through external conversion. It doesn't work that way. 

Echoing what many analysts have been calling for, the GOP needs to broaden it's appeal. Diversifying is just plain, sound business practice.  Conservatism, as it is today, needs to take a few steps back.  Republicans need to redefine their basic tenets.  Like I wrote in an earlier blog post, although the Republican party espouses small-government, what they do today completely contradicts that.  

They want a 'small government' that doesn't take money from their paychecks--money which is used to build essential infrastructure like roads, freeways, hospitals, fire stations, public restrooms, water fountains, etc.--but they also want the same government to put restrictions on your social/private life, like who you can marry, praying at school, keeping a baby, etc.   

I wholeheartedly agree with Parker: the GOP needs to let go of The Base.  It was a not-so-good turn in the history of conservatism and the Republican Party.  

As a country that was founded upon tolerance, sectarian government, and freedom, religion should remain a private matter.  The GOP needs to decide whether or not they want to put country first or God first.  Is a God-fearing, real Amerrican, anti-Amerrrican if they put God first?  Or is a real Amerrrrican blasphemous if they put country first and God second? Yannowhaddimean???

Obamamania: Tacky Memorabilia

I'm all for capitalizing on hip trends, but this latest one needs to stop: Obama plates. It's not just tacky, it's creepy. This is just another indication that capitalism transcends the Democratic-Republican divide. Obama's celebrity and international popularity equals money-money-money. But I'm 100% sure that those "commemorative quarter" companies had stockpiles of Obama and McCain quarters ready to be shipped on November 5th.

They just give me the heebie-jeebies. I think its because the coin and plate things are cheesey and are always associated with crazy, old, and maniacal collectors. Obama furnished a cool, Coltrane-listening, young, and hip image. The 'Obama Commemorative Plate' simply contradicts that.

This is how I felt at work today...

Song of the morning

Although it's Wednesday morning, "Sunday Morning" is still a good song to wake up to at the office.