Somewhere along the way, I realized there was a difference between a Democrat and a Progressive.  There’s not supposed to be but there it is – clear to anyone who cares to take a look.  The Democratic Party moved right, leaving Progressives behind.  Why?  The usual suspects: greed, money, power…

At turns I’ve felt isolated in my understanding but from time to time something happens to remind me that I’m not alone.  Recently, it was the election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  This morning, it’s this piece in the Guardian by David Sirota.  It’s a good read.  He lays out the disconnect between Democratic rhetoric and Democratic actions quite well.  He makes a point I’ve made many times: “…liberal America’s pattern of electing corporate Democrats – rather than progressives – has been a big part of the problem that led to Trump and that continues to make America’s economic and political system a neo-feudal dystopia.”

The piece gave me hope because I realized while I was reading it that Progressives are doing to the Democratic Party what Libertarians did to the GOP – only saner.  The Libertarian Party has existed since 1971 but they were mostly – and correctly – dismissed as far-right, no-practical-application extremists.  They couldn’t get any traction with the mainstream conservatives.  So, they eventually packed up their far-right, no-practical-application “ideas” and registered as Republicans.  They ran as Republicans.  Eventually, they took over the Republican Party and Republicans have appeared cruel and insane ever since.

But the Progressives these days seem to have co-opted the idea (thank you, Bernie) and are running as Democrats, hopefully moving the party in the right – I guess I should say the correct direction.  It will take time but maybe not as much time as it took for the Libertarians to deconstruct the Republican Party.  Hope springs eternal, I guess…

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We’ve all heard of the Seven Deadly Sins but do you know what they actually are?  These days, it’s important to know because they’re living in the White House.  All of them.  They are Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth.  Trump hits every one of them with perfect precision.  Every time he opens his mouth (or his Twitter feed) he reinforces his fealty to at least one of them.

If I were a religious man, I would be concerned about the anti-Christ.  According to Revelations 13:5, the anti-Christ will be allowed to exercise power for 42 months.  That’s three and a half years.  (Then things get ugly.)  Trump took power in January, 2017.  That puts the end of his reign at July, 2020.  I’m just sayin’…