As we get closer to the November election the real problems in this country surfaces - suppression and oppression.  To me the party of smaller government is really the party of gigantic government. Oh sure they want to do away with regulations and safeguards on businesses that protect things like the environment and questionable business practices. When you know you have huge government is when they are going into your homes and your bedrooms. When they begin controlling people’s everyday lives you have gigantic government. I have heard that Republicans want to restrict birth control pills and condoms. There has been talk from Republicans of wanting to outlaw mix race marriages. There has been talk of Republicans wanting outlawing same sex marriages. I am sorry to have to tell this but letting a business cut down a forest is going to do a lot more damage to the world than some gay couple getting married. People want to control the things that offend them, but really don’t harm them and not control the things that really can do harm for generations to come.

How did we get here? I bet if you ask ten different people you will get ten different answers. I think we got here because the problems of the past have never really gone away. Racism never left America. Yes we had a Black President and he was a very popular President not only here but around the world but that did not mean racism went away. If anything the opposite happened. In my opinion it helped mobilize the racist and bring them to the forefront of American politics. I have said that if we had never had Obama as President we would never have had Trump as President. The hate and bigotry that Trump brought to his campaign spoke to the racism and bigotry that still prevailed here in America. People said that Trump’s message really spoke to them. I will say that yes, racism and bigotry does speak to a large segment of our population. Trump did not create these issues. They never went away. Just because we have a Martin Luther King Day and a Black History Month does not mean that racism has left America. I may be just the opposite because we need to be reminded that Blacks are part of America. Education is always the keys to fixing most problems but with how the Republicans are attacking our educational system and suppressing race history you can tell that they do not want the problems fixed.

White Supremacy and Christian Nationalism is not a good combination for our Country. Christianity has never been a democratic institution. Christianity is a dictatorship which may be fine for a religion but not good for a form of government. If anything White Supremacy and Christian Nationalism has made America more racist and oppressive that it has been in my lifetime. White Supremists shouting you will not replace us. It is like Hitler’s Brown Shirts have come to America. This is an old message that has been used to persecute people throughout not only American History but also world history. The message you will not replace us has brought about genocide around the world. Other religions have been part of American culture from the very beginning. And from the very beginning Christianity has been trying to suppress all other religions. Jewish, Muslim and religions of the indigenous people all have been suppressed by Christianity. It is hard to say that Christianity has been good to America or even the world when it has caused so much death and suppression. I really don’t think that Jesus’s message has caused all this death. I think that people using Christianity for suppression and oppression has been the things that cause so much death. That may be true from most religions not only Christianity.

I had a minister or at least he claimed that he was a minister in his profile tell me that Jesus in fact was a violent man justifying the violence now in our society. I was bowled over by that statement. He used the example of how Jesus attacked the money people in the temple to justify his position. I had always been taught the Jesus’s message was one of non-violence but it now appears that the message the Pastor Siersbeck taught me as a child has now been twisted to justify all the violence that is now part of the Republican platform. This turn the other cheek man has somehow been morphed into a Rambo type guy running around with an AR15. What about all those Christians willing to go into the lion’s den because they would not betray their faith in Jesus. The reason that Jesus was crucified was because he didn’t have an AR15. Isn’t that was what Lauren Boebert said? Has the message changed just to justify all the guns and violence in society and on our streets? Has the message been changed to justify the destruction of our Constitution and the eliminating of the separation church and state? The fact that I am talking about the church and guns in the same posting just boggles my mind. The message I got from growing up and being a confirmed Lutheran is way different than the message is out there today.

Our country was built by liberal forward thinking men that tried to do something that had never been done before. They created a form of Government that could evolve as the world evolved. That form of government is now under attack by those that would create a government that is no longer chosen by the people, but more by a type of authoritarian American Apartheid where gerrymandering and vote suppression is the norm. A type of minority ruled government with limited representation by actual minorities similar to South Africa but worse. That is the real meaning of “You will not replace us”.