Why Democrats Are Thankful

T-H-A-N-K-S-G-I-V-I-N-G!  Let's spell out why we Democrats have so much to be thankful for.  Let's count the blessings!

T -- THE TAX ISSUE.   Obama has maneuvered the GOP into defending lower taxes for the extremely wealthy, who already pay obscenely low amounts, while the GOP candidates propose higher taxes for the middle and lower income folks. Another word for the letter "T" is "TRAP". Obama has indeed set a trap, and the GOP has walked into it!

H -- HERMAN.   Cain has done his share  -  and it's been a big one  -  to make the whole Republican party look even more ridiculous than Rick "the Rock" Perry and Michele B did, put together. And that's saying a lot.

A -- AMERICA.   For all its problems, what other country would you call yours? What other country tries so hard to live up to dreams, to reach beyond the bruising realities of a disparate people ever struggling to be one, with liberty and justice for all? It's easy for small countries of one ethnicity and one common culture to agree sensibly. America is a continent, and its people are from everywhere. But somehow this crazy quilt works most of the time and keeps pursuing the dream.

N -- NEWT.    He reminds the voting public of the most corrupt political practices of the GOP, especially that of selling out the public for lobbying dollars from big corporations while spending a million dollars at Tiffany's.  And he looks old, doughy fat, smug and unhealthy, just like the Republican party. Newt, the poster boy!

K -- K STREET.    Just the term, that is. This street of D.C. lobbyists is such a handy gizmo for writers and readers. Use the term "K Street" and everybody knows what you're talking about. Saves a lot of words like "undue influence", "corporate takeover of American politics", etc. Just say "K"!

S -- The SENATE.   True, it ain't much. (Remember the wretched carryings on of Max Baucus and others during the enactment of the health insurance reform bill?) But the Democratic Senate has at least served the function of blocking the horrible bills that have passed the Tea Peeing House since the trolls took it over in 2010. God bless the founding fathers who gave us the Senate. They called it "the saucer to cool the tea." Wow! They could see into the future! Even foresee the "Tea" Party! Thanks, Dads!

G --  GINGRICH.  Yeah, he's already on the list, but can you really have too much of a bad thing?

I -- IOWA.    Against all predictions and contra to the historical bigotry of the white-dominated Midwest, Iowa went for Obama in its 2008 primary. It was a moment in American history almost as glorious -  and more meaningful  -  as Grant Park on the night he won the presidency. And it was in Iowa that Obama gave the speech that lit hope within Americans who yet mourned the great figures of JFK, Martin, Bobby, and Cesar Chavez, the leaders who had once spoken to the best in us. We had waited so long for a voice like theirs.

V -- VICTORY or VICISSITUDES?    Tough choice here. Victories like 2008 and smushing Bin Laden are treasures, for sure. But the vicissitudes now and until November  2012 are what will test us in our resolve to save this country from the greedy and the crazy. The tougher the battle, the greater the victory to come. And the more deserving we Battlers for Obama will be. So get ready for the job ahead!

I --  IOWA.    Well, if Newt gets two spots on our "thankful" list, why not Iowa? Long after Newt and his current wife's blonde wig helmet have gone to dust, the 2008 Iowa primary and Obama's speech  will shine with a brilliance all of Tiffany diamonds can't match. Thank you, you Iowans!

N --  NEW MEXICO.     Let's put politics aside for a moment and just rejoice. The pueblos and their art and dancing and rituals. The Latino culture.  Chaco Canyon. The biggest, most wondrous sky in the world. The colors of the mesas and cliffs, colors without names. The shrubs at the foot of such cliffs, replicating in November the lavenders, rose and golds layered above them in stone. Homemade flour tortillas, still warm. The Native Americans who sit on the platform at the Albuquerque railroad station with their little clay figures and weaving spread around them for sale to the passengers, just as their ancestors have done since the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad first came through over a century ago.

Okay, enough of that sweet stuff! Before we go on to the last G in Thanksgiving,  let's get back to politics.

Politically, New Mexico represents the future of the Democratic party as it squeezes the GOP relentlessly into being solely a party of the white South. The Latinos of New Mexico are part of the fastest growing ethnic group in America, and the GOP are stupidly alienating this wonderful segment of our society by using the "immigration" issue as thinly-disguised racism.

Hey, GOP!  Latinos aren't just a big part of our future; they are as deeply rooted in the USA as the PilGRIMs who put GRIM in your white racist roots. In fact, Latinos have been calling New Mexico  "home" since the 1500s. And the Native Americans have been here for perhaps 30,000 years.  So maybe the real "illegal aliens" are you white racist gringos who murdered your way across a continent and then took New Mexico and much of the Far West in a war so blatantly unjust that even the guys fighting it, like the young Ulysses S. Grant, questioned its morality.

G -- GOODNESS.    It is still everywhere. In people everywhere. In the beauty of the world everywhere. In spite of the ugliness humankind experiences or creates, as alluded to in the above paragraph, it is still in this young nation. Even in Washington D.C., there is goodness. The quiet, hard-working members of Congress you never hear about. The graying young president in the White House. The people who run Social Security efficiently. The "bureaucrats" at EPA who care desperately about the environment. In the Occupiers everywhere and the eleven UC Davis students who heroically held on to each others' arms while being drenched in pepper stray.

Goodness will not be denied. On November 19, 1863, in his Gettysburg address, Abraham Lincoln firmly recognized its power to persist even as the country was torn asunder and 600,000 Americans were killing each other. "Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

We couldn't destroy ourselves then, and we couldn't destroy America. We tried so hard to do it in the Civil War that the scars are yet with us. But as Teddy Kennedy said, "The dream shall never die." Goodness will prevail. Goodness will overcome.

In the same year as Gettsyburg, in the nation's darkest hour, Lincoln established Thanksgiving Day. He knew what we must know now. That we must be thankful for all that is yet good, in the sure and certain hope that we can make things better. Yes  -  most thankfully  -  we can!

Now, let's eat!