Why I Am Here

I'm fed up with all the nutty, weird, and bizarre information being pimped to a distracted, consumerist public by The Republican Party.

So I've subscribed to some of the most right-wing newsletters I can find, such as:

• American Family Foundation
• Alain's Newsletter
• ACLJ - American Center for Law and Justice

... and more to come. With the caveat that there are, after all, only so many hours in a day.

I will be commenting at least once or twice a week on the items I find in these newsletters--items which I believe reveal the American Right to be anti-democratic, anti-liberty, and anti-American.

Someone needs to be pointing this stuff out. The mainstream media isn't doing it, so I guess the job falls to us amateurs. Maybe that's how it should have been, all along.

My political and religious views don't fall easily into one neat category. I was reared in a conservative Catholic home and attended parochial schools through approx. 1/2 of 9th grade. When my father died, the remainder of our family moved to Greenville, SC (though not before an an ill-fated trip to Miami, Florida) and I was enrolled at Bob Jones Academy. I earned my high school diploma at BJA and attended Bob Jones University for a year. I attended another local Christian college for my sophomore year.

I was brought up to be a nice girl, to smile a lot, to obey God and the earthly authorities, to never complain about anything, and definitely never to question anything. (I'm lucky never to have encountered a child molester--I would have been a dream victim for any of these disgusting predators.)

Boy, have things changed. Boy, have *I* changed.

You know, in spite of this, I think the American Right is *occasionally* correct (in my estimation) about some things. Some of their thoughts on some issues deserve to be explored further. Occasionally. When I find that's true, I'll point that out and explain why I feel that way.

I'm fascinated by Pat Buchanan, as well as by the televangelists... in rather the same way that you're interested in a jellyfish that washes up on the beach. You just want to poke it with a sharp stick and see how it reacts.

I've mostly found conservative newsletters to be libertarian and democratic (small "l" and "d", please note) train wrecks. Thousands of Americans are reading these nutty newsletters and taking what's said therein as "gospel truth." We should ALL be concerned about THAT. These are the folks who currently hold power in the USA, after all.

I will explain my thoughts about these items, elucidating the underlying principles from the point of view of a "regular American." And I am definitely a regular American... not enough money, too many bills. Always worried about my job going away. I'm interested in frugality and simple living... by necessity, not by choice. I enjoy sipping lattes when my budget and my IBS allow, but I don't drive a Volvo. I guess I can't be a real GSL until I get a Volvo.

And I hate grits, unless they have cheese in them.

Speaking of grits... my mom is a Southerner born and bred, but I'm not. I was born overseas because my dad was in the Navy (enlisted man who became an officer... retired with 30 years of service). I am a U.S. citizen. I've been in the South for an awfully long time now... almost 30 years. I've had plenty of time to observe the idiosyncrasies of the area and its people. The South is a sociologist's wet dream.

At the end of the day, is it all really just about how much power you can amass for yourself, or your own ideological group? Or are there some universal truths, some shared values, around which we can all gather and make a last stand for America, the Beautiful?