Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Core Middle Party

Increasing challenges as our nation moves into the 21st century have not been met by our current political parties, while technological change has given a unique in history opportunity for the voice of the people, including each individual to emerge.

For the first time in our history, each individual has the opportunity through connecting technology to put forward a position, a platform or even ideas for an entirely new political party, with the flexibility, vision, and objectivity to handle the needs of our new world. And we, the people, should not miss this opportunity to be heard.

So here in this post, I'll present the foundations for a new political party, envisioned to leap forward with the best of today, while holding on to the best of our past, as a nation, as a people who have always striven to keep getting better.

Wonderful thing about today is you can have your say, and what I say here is mine, and I hope many others take the opportunity to put forward even more of their own ideas, including new political parties, as we need change that works, and works for us.

Not just words, but real opportunity, real vision, and real progress so that we compete on the world stage at our best, literally being the best that we can be.

And who am I? Just one citizen, living in San Francisco, California, who is a registered Democrat, but I'd really like one day to put down my affiliation as: Core Middle Party

The Core Middle Party believes fundamentally that intelligent governance is what is needed, and that reality tells us: in an intelligently governed world people's lives tend to get better, not worse.

The role of government is to protect and enable its citizens.

All our rights under the Constitution of the United States and under the Declaration of Independence are re-affirmed.

The separation of church and state is a core value that goes to the heart of maintaining both our freedoms and our objectivity in seeing the world as it is, and not as some wish it to be.

And it guarantees the power of our plurality, with the recognition that as a nation we are better from the strengths in our differences than by trying to stand in a complex world on one particular religious point of view.

Freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the freedom to gather peacefully are critical to the health of the nation.

That there is a fundamental right to access to information, and also a fundamental right to privacy, as well as the right to, as best one can, choose one's own destiny, including as a matter of course, a woman's right to choose.

That in protecting its citizens government must maintain a strong defense, and face the world objectively, with the means to defend its citizens against all enemies foreign or domestic. And in so doing the the US military remains under civilian authority as it has always, from its founding.

Proper governance requires accountability.

Those who say one thing to gain office, in order to do something else, shall under this political party's platform face mechanisms for their recall or dismissal from office, sufficient to make this practice a thing of the past.

The need to care for those in need is fundamental to a modern, civilized healthy society, which requires education for all children, food for all children, and healthcare for all children.

The needs for a healthy populace require healthcare for all, paid for by the able.

In order for accountability, there must be transparency so that at all times the citizens know what their elected representatives are doing, so that if necessary corrective actions can be taken by a knowledgeable electorate.

As government requires funds, it is accepted that a progressive tax system is necessary for the proper funding of government, with no more complexity than necessary. And that cherished deductions are not part of political game playing, specifically, deductions for the care of children, the mortgage deduction, and charitable deductions are to remain.

These positions represent what is fundamental to the basic core of governance in an advanced, modern and just society. They do not represent all that is necessary, but are a guide to what can be, should be, as a template for working for an ever better nation.

The history of our nation is more brilliant for those who spoke up, and let themselves be heard, and today each person who is willing, has that potential to reach out to others and be heard.

The ideas here represent one approach, and more should speak, and more voices must be heard, as we, the people, should not miss this wonderful opportunity that technology has given us, which is to make our wishes, our hopes, our dreams for a better future be known.

For the betterment of us all.


James Harris

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Understanding tax cuts

As an issue there are few that get as much interest in modern American society as tax cuts. And I think a problem in this society is that people think it's obvious why some people would want tax cuts, which is where you get a massive fail.

It's not obvious enough.

If it were obvious then the issues could be discussed intelligently, while instead people seem to be intransigent, I think is the word, with two sides who are crazed enough at times to endanger the entire planet's economy over the issue!

Seems it should be figured out.

The best answer I have is that some people get really rich, and then they eventually die. If they have descendants, often those descendants are not as capable as the person who got really rich!

It's the same problem that nobility have. The guy who became king is a bad-ass. His kids? Not so much.

Well the descendants want to do well as well, and of course it kind of bites for them to realize they're not as good as the one who became king, or master of finance, which means they engage in all kinds of bizarre behavior around the issue.

With nobility maybe they'd start a war and just get killed, but with finance, maybe they start a financial war and go bankrupt! (I think there are people who would rather start a physical war and get killed because of their shoddy skills than end up bankrupt.)

So there you have it: people who really need tax cuts are people afraid of losing their money.

Oh, how is it that Americans can miss something so simple?

Well the United States has bizarre beliefs about money, and many in this country believe that rich people are automatically awesome and intelligent.

They do not realize that you can both be rich and stupid.

Our global financial system is getting really competitive. It's easier to lose your money, ergo people afraid of losing their money are fighting hard for a leg-up, which means tax cuts!

Many of these people gained their money from someone else giving it to them while for the most part the ones who fought hard and earned it themselves, like say, Warren Buffett, are more agnostic towards tax cuts because they are not as afraid.

They know how to make money.

The others are those pitiful things called descendants, who have that eternal problem that Mother Nature or chance or Fate can give some dude or dudette all kinds of abilities to conquer and dammit, just leave their kids high and dry as ordinary as the day is long.

I don't blame them for wanting help!

Now then, when you see people howl about the need for tax cuts, just look at how they got their money, and you will be puzzled no more.


James Harris

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Country music is not racist

One of the odd things to me is a feeling at times that I need to defend liking country music, which seems to be colored by concerns about American racism. But the thing is, in my experience, country music has rarely if ever had anything to do with race, and when it does, it has stood out as being peculiar to certain artists, and not the genre itself.

For instance one of my best memories was from when I was a soldier in training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and us soldiers just loved bars. And one night when we went to a country bar, I had a great night dancing. At one point, holding in my arms a beautiful blonde, one of many wonderful women I danced with that night, I asked her about the willingness of the women to so freely dance, and she said they just liked dancing. Such a simple answer. Her husband was taking a break. No big deal. To my embarrassment I got a little forward, and she just corrected me and I flew straight the rest of the night.

When you look for innovation in American music it's all over the place, but it's worth pointing out that you can usually find it in country music, where you will find any number of other genres considered with covers, can see a wellspring of appreciation for all forms of music. And listen to artists who tell you of inspirations from all over.

I grew up with country music as I grew up in Georgia, USA, so to me it's just natural. I heard country music along with everything else.

And for those who appreciate it, it has so much to offer, especially for those couples that, well, just like to dance.


James Harris

Monday, January 31, 2011

My take on American racism

Having grown up "black" in the American South as I grew up a black kid next to a farm in a small town in Georgia, in the United States, I have my own unique view on American racism, which is a subject on which I've given much thought.

Here I will present my own very peculiar and highly opinionated take on what most people in the United States think is American racism, which is wrong: they think I suggest that it is physical repulsion for someone because of their race.

Physical repulsion is key here to the wrong definition!

That's important as I've encountered American "whites" that I see as being very racist who claim they aren't! And it's like, they may put a hand on my shoulder as if that proves it! See? Not physically repulsed!--they seem to be saying.

But racism is not physical repulsion.

It's believing you're superior or that another person is inferior because of the color of their skin for the most part, as that is usually the biggest racial indicator that people use, though they also go with a variety of physical characteristics.

Surprisingly to some, scientists are not quite sure what race is, and a good introduction can be seen on, yup, the Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(classification_of_humans)

I've noted on this blog that I believe that racism is actually about class in the United States and is an attempt by some people to believe they're members of a nobility (without actually saying it).

Why? Because I believe, a lot of early American settlers came from England, and pretending to be nobility was kind of a bad thing to do, which could be punished. Americans are dead-set on not actually stating that they believe they are noble by birth, so American racism is a bizarre variant where they behave as if they are, while refusing to state they believe they are.

It is an attempt at a back-door into English nobility, in my opinion.

So yes, a white man who is racist can not only date a black woman, he might marry her! Because American racism is not physical repulsion. It is a feeling of innate superiority on the basis of "race". So a racist white man might marry a black woman because he feels he can dominate someone he believes is inferior. Just like a noble in Old England might marry a commoner. (Of course, women can find men who will marry them because they're believed to be inferior for lots of reasons of which race is just one.)

And a white racist can have black friends!!!

He or she simply associates with people believed to be innately of a lower class.

So why again the dodge? Why is American racism presented so often as physical repulsion as if that's all that matters?

Again, because America inherits a lot of its heritage from England, and pretending to be royalty is a major crime under feudal law!!!

Commoners are not allowed to pretend to be of a higher class.

In the South where I grew up Southerners would claim to be "gentlemen" and engage in a lot of pretend royalty behavior, which they would not admit was pretending to be actual English royalty in any way shape or form because that is forbidden under feudal law!

But that's what they were doing and still do when they engage in such behavior.

You see, they wish to be English nobles. They wish to be better than commoners. They wish to be royalty.

So they find some people to be beneath them and that is American racism, in my opinion.

So how racist then is modern American society? I'd say, not really.

Most Americans actually shirk from seeing themselves as innately superior to anyone, and really are not racist. But God help you if you run into one who is.

He may lie to you incessantly. She may calmly inform you that she is not racist and then just as calmly insult your intelligence to your face, because of your race. He may quietly inform you of bizarre things as if they were absolute facts.

My favorite such thing is the assertion that Asians do not like black people.

Living in San Francisco, I know quite a few Asians and haven't noticed much if any American racism from any of them.

But I'll end with a story that puzzled me for a while.

I was at a private party a few years back at a new nightclub that had been rented for the occasion. In the course of a conversation with a seemingly nice fellow where it's pertinent for the story to note that he was white, I realized he was becoming a bit agitated as he talked about having lived in Chinatown, and not getting along well with the Asian community there.

Inwardly I shrugged, not particularly caring, as I was half listening to him, but he got my attention quickly when he said to me like a confidant that he was sure I knew how Asians were, and that they really didn't like black people, even more than white people.

So yeah, end of that conversation, but what made the story fascinating to me for years was that I was actually eye-flirting with a beautiful Asian woman, which was why I was distracted while I listened to him! He'd not only reacted badly to try and convince me of the hopelessness of my interest I surmised later, he'd tried to smear the entire Asian race while so doing!

But why? Well, it occurred to me that it made him feel inferior for her attention to be on me, if he thought himself the superior male, by race, then he needed to convince me.

More than once in San Francisco I've been informed by whites that Asians don't like black people. Isn't that fascinating? In my experience, Asians seem to take you as you are, more than anything else, and to adjust based on how you behave--not the color of your skin.

Which is what we should all do, and I think, thankfully, most Americans do.


James Harris