The upheavals of the sixties had political and cultural contexts – the war in Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. There is a great debate about the relationship between culture and politics; a which-came-first conundrum similar to the vexed “chicken or the egg” question. Few deny the critically important relationship between culture and political change. What the sixties generation had however we in the American Renewal movement haven’t got – a soundtrack.

There seems little doubt that the growing bitter rhetoric of American politics signifies a deep national divide. With the centrist middle ground shrunk and ignored, the language of conflict and war is heard more often now than in recent memory in political debate.

The deep relationship between music and politics that was seen during the 1960s was both reactive and causative; culture drives politics and vice versa. Because music plays a far more important role in the lives of young Americans than it has for any preceding generation the power of music to drive change and respond to it both positively and critically should not be neglected. The message is the medium.

As our imperious head of state takes his most recent ill-timed vacation and the stock market falls, the ranks of unemployed Americans grows, and crises and commotions remain unresolved the dustbin of history is being prepared.

Anger at failed leftist policies and leadership from the American black left in the guise of Representative Maxine Waters of the Black Congressional Caucus and the growing American black right as represented by Congressman Allen West of Florida appear to show that a flash point has been reached.

The founders used the term “experiment in self-government” to describe the new nation they had created because they had no expectation that it would be permanent, only a hope that it would be. The founders understood that nothing is stable across the ages but for change – therefore, they made our system of government flexible.

Maxine Water’s legitimate abandonment complaints about the president’s recent big-black-bus tour across several mid-western states were that no black communities had been visited. Allen West said on August 18th “I’m here as the modern-day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the underground railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility.” Congressman West was referring to the Democratic party and the failed liberal policies that it espouses by his use of the term “plantation”.  Both West and Waters, representatives of black America from two opposing political worldviews agree on this point that the Democratic party and its progressive liberal policies have been a great disappointment, if not a complete failure.

The simultaneous disaffection and anger of Waters and West (and those they represent) signals an end to the paradigm of the Democratic party as the sole political defender of the black community and thus the likely demise of the now definitively failed political ideologies of progressivism and fantasist Utopianism.

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Character always matters. Character is the foundation of civilizations, it is the font of understanding a person’s value and values. People of discernment always judge a person based upon their character or want of it. At the core of character is good judgment (and hopefully wisdom). Character always matters except where ideology is concerned.

Character can be understood by a person’s actions and associations. During the 2008 Presidential campaign apparent deficiencies in character – mainly seen through associations with extremists and domestic terrorists, failure to release pertinent personal information and academic writings/grades, and a less than stellar senatorial voting record of “present” were entirely ignored by the majority of the electorate apparently unconcerned with such matters as character.

With falling poll numbers, a disturbingly split and degraded society, and partisans on both sides of the political divide louder than any shrinking rational middle the country now faces a growing economic crisis while fighting multiple wars. The entire world is affected by the precipitous drop in the US financial markets, not only Americans.

The Dow was at approximately -440 when the President, some 40 minutes behind schedule, delivered his partisan-and-blame speech on the economy on Monday afternoon – his most important speech up to this time – whereupon the Dow dropped further to close past -600. The roller coaster markets continued to shake as Tuesday ended up, but Wednesday brought another -520. Instability in the markets translates to fear.

The downgrade by S&P is fundamentally about a loss of trust and faith. Investors at all levels are emotional capitalists trying to gain a profit and also protect their funds in a hostile “irrational market.” In this market “protection of assets” mainly translates to selling as prices collapse.

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This has been a difficult week; debt crisis resolution talks going to the last moment in Washington, an horrific mass murder by a lunatic in Norway, and an aborted followup attack on Fort Hood by a Muslim US soldier. It’s been a week of horror, frustration, sadness, and fear.

There is no question whatever that partisan politics is driving the current debt crisis in the nation’s capitol. Fundamentally, there is no benefit to anyone on either side of the growing American political divide to have the US government default. The idea of a downgrade of US government bonds or of the US economy itself by international arbiters of fiscal responsibility – the very same that recently downgraded some EU members for their failed economies and unrepayable/unsustainable debt – is almost unimaginable. For the longest time the United States has been seen by the international community as a beacon of fiscal stability and power; the possibility that those days are about to come to an ignominious end is difficult to process for most Americans and for many abroad observing the dramatic and frustrating negotiations in Washington.

One AP White House correspondent describes it all as simply “awful.”  But it is much more complex than that. The debt crisis and the feuding concepts of increasing debt versus cutting it are truly the outliers of more fundamental ideological differences of opinion regarding the nature of the mission of our government and its limitations.

Many on the left seem to believe that they alone are the voice of the people, and that those on the right care only for the wealthy. This idea that the left are the protectors of social justice causes has long been a favorite and over-worked meme for them. Elections have been won and lost on this concept of government involvement in the lives of the governed for beneficent purposes. This is the foundation of the liberal/leftist approach to government; it is also the reason why the EU is currently teetering on the edge of complete collapse. There was never any idea among the founding the fathers and the revolutionary generation generally that in the future the US government would fulfill a glorified role of protector/parent to the citizens of the country.

While the debt crisis could be analyzed accurately as a conflict between politicians trying to avert an economic collapse by enforcing the successful Reagan era precedent of tax cutting versus the entitlement driven need to raise taxes to afford all the entitlements there is something much more fundamental at work.

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The passage of SB1028/HB1353 (Material Support to Designated Entities Act of 2011) in the Tennessee Legislature on May 21, 2011 after months of controversy, and inaccurate and misleading reporting in local and national media marks a sea-change moment in America’s awareness and understanding of, and response to, the threat of Islam and its doctrine of jihad.

The bill passed the Tennessee Senate with 26 Yes, and 3 No; the vote in the House was 76 Yes, 16 No, and 1 Present/Not Voting. This bi-partisan support for a bill that does nothing if not increase the ability of the legal and law enforcement authorities of Tennessee to better protect the citizens of that state from terrorist threats (including organizations/entities that encourage/support terrorism) shows that a certain rationality has returned to public discourse, and re-focused the response of government, at least in Tennessee, from politically correct falsehoods and multicultural wishful thinking, to a more pragmatic acceptance of threats and a realistic approach to terrorism prevention.

When the bill is signed into law by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam once an entity has been designated as a terrorist organization, it is a felony for anyone to knowingly help that entity with money, advice or any other aid.

Previous versions of the bill had included the words “jihad” and “Sharia” but the passed version of the bill does not. In fact, there is no differentiation made in the passed legislation between any specific ideology, or religious views that might encourage terrorism, or violence. All those who might support “entities” or “organizations” designated as a terrorist organization whatever their religious or ideological views might be, will fall under the purview of this new law.

The bi-partisan passage of the “Material Support to Designated Entities Act” in Tennessee is an official acknowledgment of realities and a long overdue response on the part of high level politicians in America that threats (and actions) of jihad and terrorism are the results of a specific ideology. The bill did not pass in a political vacuum.

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Former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney announced on April 11 that he is “formally exploring a presidential bid”. As such, because a 2012 Romney run would be a repetition of his 2008 attempt at presidential power, a look back is reasonable due diligence for every voter.

When Michael Dukakis, another Governor of Massachusetts, ran for the great office in 1988 there were many who considered him a serious contender. After all, he had the much-touted but highly questionable “Massachusetts Miracle” claim of economic prosperity in that state during the mid to later parts of that decade to bolster his profile. Many voters in Massachusetts were skeptical (Dukakis carried his home state, but few others).

George Bush appeared a lackluster candidate in comparison and almost “too easy” to beat it seemed at the time. But there were ghosts that haunted Mr. Dukakis. As the Democratic candidate seemed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and Mr. Bush became “Bush #1” it was clear that, for Mr. Dukakis’ campaign, the man and the hour had certainly not met.

Analysts and voters during the 1988 election cycle found at least three negatives about Mr. Dukakis that he could not overcome – and which seemed to unavoidably bring him to defeat. The first was his bizarrely cold and politician-like answer during the second presidential debate to moderator Bernard Shaw’s question: “Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?”

Dukakis’ spiritless, calculating, politician-like answer stunned the nation. “No, I don’t, and I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life.” This unfortunate, but honest, answer essentially ended the debates. Dukakis lost.

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The former Governor of Massachusetts and semi-declared candidate for President, Mr. Romney, has the Massachusetts health care “solution” called now “RomneyCare” (a plan upon which the widely unpopular “Obama Care” plan is based) to discuss with the American people. For some on the Left this provides Mr. Romney with a strong gravitas, but how will RomneyCare play on the Right?

“RomneyCare’s” association with “ObamaCare” and the rampant unrealistic, excessive nanny-statism (and legislative strong-arm process that passed the national plan) combines to create a difficult marketing/public relations challenge for Mr. Romney in the upcoming election should he decide to run.

Michael Graham in the Boston Herald of April 12, 2011 writes,

As a health care plan, Romney care is an unmitigated fiasco. It has caused costs to skyrocket, insurance premiums to soar and nonprofit providers like Blue Cross to suffer hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

Illustrative of the deep rift across the country about RomneyCare/ObamaCare and too many other contentious issues to discuss, Graham cites a new Suffolk University poll showing dissatisfaction with the Massachusetts Romney Plan.

But after five years of actually experiencing this new universe, even the Kennedy Democrats have had enough. A new Suffolk University poll showed that nearly half of Massachusetts voters say the law isn’t helping, while just 38 percent say it is. As Michael Cannon at the Cato Institute pointed out, Romney care is almost as unpopular here as Obama- care is across America.

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