Over The Cliff

It should come as no surprise to anyone to hear that the latest barely legal, totally unethical con-job from the Republican Party happened on Monday, during the Presidential inauguration festivities in Washington, DC. That the traitorous actions didn't happen at the Federal level also should be no surprise, as we warned you at the beginning of this year, that much of the swindling and chicanery of the modern GOP would happen at the state level this year.

What may surprise some people is that the extremists in the Republican Party are driving the rest of the party off a political cliff - and the rest of the non-nuts in the GOP don't want to go on these political suicide missions.

In case you missed it, the Virginia state Senate, a body divided evenly between Democratic and Republican lawmakers, had one member missing on Monday, state Senator Henry Marsh. Sen. Marsh, a longtime civil rights activist had gone to see the inauguration in Washington, DC in possibly one of his last opportunities to ever do so.

While he was out, the Republicans in the Virginia state Senate rammed through a plan to redistrict the entire commonwealth of Virginia. Their gerrymandered map would effectively make it impossible for Democrats to ever gain control of the state Senate again.

While the far-right Republicans were busy raping the spirit of democracy in the Virginia Senate, they also put forward a plan to permanently change how presidential electoral votes would also be allocated in Virginia. Just like their state redistricting hoax, this second GOP proposed bill would effectively render the voices of the overwhelming number of Virginia voters - who live in the urban and suburban areas of Virginia's cities - permanently silent. Sadly, this is a trick the GOP is trying all over the nation.

There's a phrase for these kinds of actions. It's called cheating, and in politics, it's the last tool of both gutless cowards and shortsighted fools - especially in Virginia.

In Virginia, 2013 is an election year, for both the Virginia House and Governorship. The GOP's leading candidate for this fall happens to be their controversial Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a man well-known for problematic comments and ideas, including Virginia's invasive and unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound bill. Further complicating political matters, Virginia Republicans currently hold 67 House seats, and they'll need every bit of legitimate political muscle not to lose significant numbers of those seats this fall.

Extreme actions like this are also likely to sink any serious efforts by the current term-limited governor, Republican Bob McDonnell, to get any serious legislation passed this year - a fact McDonnell seemed painfully aware of last week, and a fact that he desperately wants to go away now.

Even with this year's elections hanging precariously in the balance, the far-right nuts in the Virginia state Republican Party quite obviously couldn't care less about trust, ethics, or good governance, as evidenced by their reckless and selfish actions.

If you think this kind of nutbaggery is limited to Virginia, think again. Virginia is just one example of this kind of insanity - and only sane Republicans can stop their extremist members from driving the rest of the party right off the political cliff.

Setting A New Course

While many of our media colleagues are groggy this morning, heads still abuzz with the drinks and festivities of Monday's inaugural events, we write today's commentary with clear eyes and hearts, knowing that we have seen the end of one era in American politics, and the beginning of another.

If you missed it Monday, you should watch the second inaugural address of President Obama before reading the rest of today's commentary. If you pay attention to the words of the President, you will see very clearly a change in the way progress will now be addressed in America.

For most of the last twenty years, our nation has been at war - not just in the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan or with al-Qaeda, but ideologically, with one another, in ways our nation hasn't faced since the Civil War. On issues ranging from climate change and immigration, to LGBT equality and economic inequality, there have been two competing sets of ideas, fought under the dominant ideological labels from the last century, liberal and conservative.

The so-called conservative ideas have increasingly been wielded by media and political bullies over the last twenty years. Their bullying has become a form of political terrorism against anyone who disagrees with their ideology that has involved everything from holding our nation's full faith and credit hostage, to monopolistic media practices, to cheating our electoral system through severe gerrymandering.

During that same twenty year span where conservatives have become abusive jerks, those people who have supported liberal and progressive ideas have often been expected to be gentle, easygoing, and conflict averse, trying to win in more intellectual and indirect ways so as not to have to fight more direct battles.

As President Obama's unapologetic address reminded us on Monday, "We [Americans] have always understood that when times change, so must we." Times have indeed changed, and the days of soft progressivism are over.

In a speech that was more progressive than any he's ever made in his current role, President Obama drew from the founding documents of our nation to call for immediate action on climate change, to insist on investing in our nation collectively through government, and to attack our own severe economic inequalities.

The President also made it clear that our commitment to programs like Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security will not waver. Further, he also clearly stated the fact that equality for ALL Americans - men and women, gay and straight, Americans of all ethnic backgrounds - does not make us weaker, but actually has strengthened our nation.

His language directly reflected the kind of strong, centrist, sensible progressivism we have advocated here for years - the kind of real world proven certainty that terrifies bullies.

It's no surprise, then, that the NRA - a textbook example of the kind of bully politics of the right for the last twenty years - has been effectively emasculated by President Obama over the last month. This is evidenced by states around the country following the President's lead in quickly enacting sound gun safety laws. As surely as if a whip-smart woman defanged a misogynistic man with the kind of one-liner a bully doesn't recover from, the 2012 elections showed the NRA to be the nearly impotent lobbying force their lack of electoral wins showed them to be.

In short, America's course has changed from what it's been the last twenty years. Monday, that change was made clear to the world.

Our Next Four Years

While the pomp and circumstance of the 57th inauguration of a U.S. President will surround President Obama and his family in Washington, DC today, the President officially took the oath of office yesterday, on January 20th, as prescribed in the Constitution.

Today is also officially Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

When the great civil rights leader gave his most famous address fifty years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, few if any could have imagined that fifty years later, America would be celebrating the overwhelmingly re-election of it's first multi-racial president.

President Obama's first term has been anything but dull, and his second appears headed for even more incredible hurdles. Still, his first term has seen a huge number of promises kept and successes achieved, including the end to the Iraq War, and the beginning of the end of the Afghanistan Conflict. President Obama put the brakes on the Great Recession, and has begun to grow our economy again, and shrink our unemployment problem, while actually reducing our nation's debt. All this and he pushed through a long-overdue overhaul of the health insurance system - and all of it while dealing with an extremist Republican opposition, who put their own political dogma ahead of the best interests of themselves and their constituents.

So what might the next four years look like?

To start with, President Obama has already begun the push for smarter, more effective gun safety laws. With a weekend that included "National Gun Appreciation Day" where five people were accidentally shot at gun shows in North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, and an Albuquerque shooting where a teenager killed five people, including three kids, we'd say President Obama is already starting in the right place.

This President also has the goal of reversing our nation's horrible trend of severe economic inequality over the last thirty years as one of his major second term goals. He's also publicly noted the issues of immigration reform, and climate change as key second term goals. None of these will be easy, especially with an opposition Republican Party that's been heavily burned by its extremist tea party wing. Even after major defeats in the 2012 election, the GOP still can't quite let go of their extremists at either the national or state levels - and their conservative strategists have become desperate for any kind of win.

In fact, as we noted earlier this year, the action at the state level will be fierce this year, with Governors like Nebraska's Dave Heineman trying to peddle his idea of eliminating state income tax. That plan, at first glance, seems to relieve Nebraskans of paying income tax up front, even while it robs Nebraska businesses and individuals of millions of dollars in sales tax breaks.

With incredibly difficult challenges from local, state, and national politicans in both parties, let alone leaders from other nations, most other men and women might look at President Obama's to-do list for the next four years and think, "I'm glad I'm not responsible for all that mess."

We have news for you, if that's your thought.

You ARE responsible for all that mess, even if history won't put your name next to the successes or failures of the next four years. We all are. If President Obama and America succeed, we will all succeed, whether you voted for him or not. If he fails, you fail too.

So we suggest you all pull your big boy and big girl britches up, work together to solve our problems, and stuff your attitude problems where the sun doesn't shine.

It's not just President Obama's next term that begins today.
Our next four years begin today for all of us.
Let's make 'em great.