I understand that there are many among us who are holed up in our corners and convinced that there is one side that is right and one that is wrong. I used to be there myself until the truth hit me hard and my disillusionment and humility and insatiable curiosity pushed me through a new doorway, one in which I am learning to better walk my talk of placing principles before personalities. This is certainly an ongoing process for me, this truth seeking.
Meanwhile, there continues to be fierce and consistent arguments in support of — or dehumanizing and demonizing — Donald Trump or Obama and Clinton, Democrats or Republicans, and all the us versus them polarities that our nation is plagued with. However, if one steps back and looks at a larger and larger picture, we come to see that in reality things are more complex. We would not be in this place of extreme peril if all along there had simply been the good guys or the bad guys in positions of power in America. We would not be facing the possible extinction of humankind and much of life on Earth if one political party had truly been aligned with the interests of the people and the planet rather the interests of their corporate donors in the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, Wall Street, the prison industrial complex, the pharmacuetical industry. Etc.
It is my belief that we live at a time where there is an imperative to be brave, brave enough to become fierce about pursuing the threads of truth — wherever they lead. And if we do, we will come upon the truth-tellers. Norman Solomon is among them. May we be courageous enough to listen. The welfare of us all depends on bringing the truth of the larger pictures forward again and again and again. From this vantage point, new possibilities and visions and values emerge. And new stories to live by are birthed. We have long been in urgent need of a New Story. Half the solution is first coming to see the problem.
We are all in this together and responsible for our part of being bearers of truth, integrity, and growing consciousness of a higher good for us all. — Molly
Top Democrats keep aiding and abetting what Dr. King
called “the madness of militarism.”
by
The current political brawl over next year’s budget is highly significant. With Democrats in a House majority for the first time in eight years, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and most other party leaders continue to support even more largesse for the Pentagon. But many progressive congressmembers are challenging the wisdom of deference to the military-industrial complex—and, so far, they’ve been able to stall the leadership’s bill that includes a $17 billion hike in military spending for 2020.
An ostensible solution is on the horizon. More funds for domestic programs could be a quid pro quo for the military increases. In other words: more guns and more butter.
“Guns and butter” is a phrase that gained wide currency during escalation of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s. Then, as now, many Democrats made political peace with vast increases in military spending on the theory that social programs at home could also gain strength.
It was a contention that Martin Luther King Jr. emphatically rejected. “When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, social programs must inevitably suffer,” he pointed out. “We can talk about guns and butter all we want to, but when the guns are there with all of its emphasis you don't even get good oleo [margarine]. These are facts of life.”
But today many Democrats in Congress evade such facts of life. They want to proceed as though continuing to bestow humongous budgets on the Pentagon is compatible with fortifying the kind of domestic spending that they claim to fervently desire.
Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have reflexively promoted militarism that is out of step with the party’s base. In early 2018, after President Trump called for a huge 11 percent increase over two years for the already-bloated military budget, Pelosi declared in an email to House Democrats: “In our negotiations, Congressional Democrats have been fighting for increases in funding for defense.” Meanwhile, the office of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer proudly announced: “We fully support President Trump’s Defense Department’s request.”
What set the stage for the latest funding battle in the House was a Budget Committee vote that approved the new measure with the $17 billion military boost. It squeaked through the committee on April 3 with a surprising pivotal “yes” vote from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who is now among the lawmakers pushing to amend the bill on the House floor to add $33 billion in domestic spending for each of the next two years.
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