Are Democrats racist?

Wandering around the conservative end of the internet, every so often I'll slam up against the phrase "the Democrat Party is the most racist!" Usually misspelled, and often in all-caps.

It's easy to refute, but you end up knocking down the same arguments, over and over. For example:

The Democrats are the Party of the Klan

Now, it's true that Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Democrat even before he set up the first iteration of the Ku Klux Klan (there have been three, if you're curious). And it's also true that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican when he was first elected.

(Fun fact: Lincoln left the Republican Party at the end of his first term. Republicans are rarely aware of that: for his second term, Lincoln created the National Union Party, a coalition party made up of both Republicans and Democrats.)

But here's the thing: at that point in time, the Republican Party was liberal, and the Democratic Party was conservative. (This fact particularly angers the Teabaggers, who've been brainwashed to think that liberalism is synonymous with "evil.") And from the Civil War to about 1950, the Southern Democrats (sometimes called "Dixiecrats") were among the most conservative (and usually racist) people in America.

In 1948, though, Truman, as the Democratic candidate, put forward a very mild civil rights platform, and that was too much for the Southern Democrats: 35 of them walked out of the Democratic National Convention, and they split off into their own political party, called the States Rights Democratic Party (a.k.a. "Dixiecrats," a term which has been used ever since for hyper-conservative Southern Democrats).

The Dixiecrats ran Strom Thurmond for president, and actually managed to carry four states (Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina) along with one stray electoral vote from Tennessee. (Incidentally, that, plus the 39 electoral votes drained from Truman by Progressive Party nominee Henry A. Wallace, was expected to have produced a Republican victory, which is why we have the most famous newspaper flub of all time.)

The Dixiecrats never ran another presidential candidate, and eventually the party dissolved. And following that victory, the liberal Democrats became a stronger and stronger force in the party, eventually reversing the formerly conservative platforms, and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This same action, of course, drew the Republican Party to the right, in an effort to pick up the disillusioned Southern Democrats.

Following the 1964 Civil Rights act, LBJ famously said “I think we just lost the South,” which would prove to be remarkably prescient: in the late Sixties, Richard Nixon, with the help of his advisor Pat Buchanan, devised the "Southern Strategy," using dog-whistle racist terms (example: "states' rights" - the states would have the "right" to ignore these new civil rights laws).

In 1980, Ronald Reagan (working with Nixon's advisor Pat Buchanan) further honed the "Southern Strategy." In fact, it was another of his aides, Lee Atwater, who famously spilled the beans years later, thinking he was speaking off the record to a reporter.

You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."

And that's where the Republican myth of the "racist Democrats" comes from: the Dixiecrats, and the changing face of the Democratic party. Back when Democrats were the conservative party, they were, in fact, racist; in swinging to the left, they also became the party of racial equality. To the point that, yes, the Ku Klux Klan may have been founded by Democrats, but these days, while not every Republican is in the KKK, almost every Klansman votes Republican.

__________________

Edit: (12/6/14) Corrected "North Carolina" to "South Carolina," with apologies to any North Carolinian in the audience.

President Pardons Turkey - GOP Outraged

A Ferguson Post Mortem

In the months since the Ferguson incident, I have followed the news accounts and commentary - but assiduously avoided expressing a viewpoint on the subject until now.  Bad news travels faster than the speed of light – especially sensationalized news or inflammatory news whose motive is to bring out the pitchfork brigade. So I have adopted this attitude:  Read but refrain from commentary until all facts are known.

Within the first weeks after the Ferguson incident, we did learn that the black Community had been harassed for years by local police – with numerous documented abuses ranging from speed traps to racial profiling.  Add political under-representation, and you have community with little or no voice in their own affairs.  We need not determine the guilt or innocence of subject officer or subject victim to understand community resentments that had been smoldering for years.

Furthermore, we need not determine the guilt or innocence of anyone to know that some citizens are marginalized and treated with callous disregard or even with depraved indifference compared with citizens in other communities.  For me, the Ferguson story is not about a specific incident but about pent up rage far removed from the spark that ignited it.

Virtually every week, there are reports of law enforcement officers all too often making tragic mistakes. As recently as yesterday, a 12-year old boy was killed in Cleveland for carrying a toy gun on a playground. A chokehold - banned under official police policy – caused the death of a Staten Island man. A swat team mistakenly shot a 911 caller during a manhunt.  Innocent lives lost due to momentary lapses of forethought and self-restraint. We read accounts of citizens living under siege - not attributable to crime - but attributable to an overbearing, "over-militarized" police force acting as an army of occupation.  Clearly, a review of law enforcement procedures is long overdue.

These days, the default condition – on the part of police officers, the news media, and the general public - is to “shoot first, ask questions later.”  It appears this national tendency to react in an instant without forethought pervades every corner of society and runs counter to the priorities of law and common sense.  This is not merely a Ferguson problem but a national problem.

LHTC

Scarlett.  

She's "the most accomplished woman in e-sports" and "is known for her macro mutalisk style and kick-ass creep spread." according to New Yorker. I don't need to ask Dorothy if we're still in Kansas any more or if they still speak English there. If this were a 'tweet' or a 'text,' or if I were 14, I'd say WTF?  It's not your fathers English any more, it's your granddaughter's and Madison Avenue's.  And yes, sometimes Madison is still an avenue and back in 1957, for a short while, a dance that made you hip.

Being willing to bet that a mutalisk isn't the gastropod it might appear to any speaker of Old English (last Thursday's) to be, I looked it up.  Apparently there's a Heart of the Swarm and a Wings of Liberty version of this beast, for beast it is or would be if virtual reality were more real than virtual.

I suppose that knowing I'm dealing with Video game dialect and that indeed it is a dialect separated by several degrees from the language formerly known as English, relieves me of the need to look up e-sports.  This being the age that it is, the universal and sole metaphor for defeat is the kicking of ass. Movies today can be based on video games which are based on Comic books which are based on life as people fantasize it with the aid of movies.  As I said, the hip world is removed by several degrees as is the language they speak there.

A cartoon in the same issue carries the punch line: "@FBarnes12 favorited a prophecy you were mentioned in"  WTF?  

Language has to change, rufft uns die Stimme. And of course, like it or not, it does change. LHTC is not just a dispassionate observation I fear, as much as a phrase usually used to stop all conversation about the nature, extent, causation or direction of that change or the question of whether the change is inevitable as much as it is profitable, a thing of politics, a thing of choice --  of proclamation, hortatory or compulsory or sought after.  I often think that the inevitability of that reaction, the peremptory attitude and conclusive pose of that retort smells strongly of  one of those social, cultural or academic cults that proliferate and evolve, expand and contract like planes in a Multiverse, and like universes, resist the transit between or access to each other. Things all that are for me like reading Kierkegaard -- things of nausea and sickness unto death.  It doesn't matter whether I walk, or march or ride or crawl as much as it matters -- where.

While cultures world wide seem to be agglutinating and homogenizing and Americanizing, there is a level at which it is fragmenting and racing apart at an accelerating rate.  Gamer-speak or Business school babble of  last week is harder for me than Chaucer and the number and compartmentalizing of dialects  follows suit.  The question for me however is whether this change is a "must-be" or an attempt to make the fool seem intelligent, the nerd hip and the outsider belong. Do we accept clumsy, indecipherable English because the English Department bullies insist we do, or because we are so afraid that if we can't understand it, it's because we are inadequate?  Did the Sokal hoax succeed because people who needed to seem smart thought it was over their heads, because we thought that academics talked like this?  I hate the Imperial nudity fallacy, a form of the argument from ignorance, but sometimes -- hey!

It's been suggested that the main attraction of being able to quote Derrida or Foucault is that it sounds impenetrable and thus immune from contradiction because it puts the opposition on the indefensible defensive and at the point of aporia.  I have to ask whether this is the kind of change that has to happen or is this, like so many changes we see: simply marketing.  Do changes in nomenclature reflect diversity of objects as much as the desire to create false choices, make things more attractive or less undesirable -- to cover the emperor's ass?  We used to laugh 50 years ago at the insistence that we call the garbage collector a 'solid waste transfer technician' while we don't seem to be amused any more at ordering some tongue twister at Starbucks instead of  a cup of coffee. Marketing of marketing, all is marketing.

Is the LHTC, Language Has To Change catechism here mostly to support this sort of thing?  Is the teaching of English now no more than rigid spelling exercises?  Do we indulge and feel good about ourselves because video game lovers want to be seen as athletes, participants in "e-sports" instead of nerds, because 'homes' are more attractive than houses or apartments, pre-owned sounds less sordid than used.  Are we suddenly "gifting" presents at Christmas instead of giving them because it sounds more technically knowledgeable to the easily confused?  Do things "negatively impact on" rather than hurt, damage, harm, degrade, retard or a dozen other nuanced words because we think it elevates our speech or because it reduces the need for vocabulary?  Are we seeing change for change's sake, for business sake, for political reasons, for the furtherance of  a cause -- for social climbing, for social equality, for identifying with criminals or saints or intellectuals or food faddists?  When we talk about gluts or abs are we trying to seem athletic and fit in with those who are?  Again, it doesn't matter that change is inevitable, but where it inevitably takes us.

Orwell had a grand old time showing us the benefits of change in 1984, where language had to change because you had to change.  Whether you call it Obamacare, the ACA or Swiss style or Socialized medicine has everything to do with who you're trying to keep on track for your station as well as which track you've been put on. Control the language, control the thought, control the purchasing and call it lifestyle.

Yes, jargon has a use. Acronyms and abbreviations have a use although we so often use them to ridiculous extremes  SOS or QRM make life easier for the telegrapher, ALS is easier to say than Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but so much is simply marketing or euphemy or other ways to hide fraud, fallacy and fakery:  FFF if you will. There does seem to be an expansion in that universe, but contrary to the message of the LHTC, all change isn't the same, doesn't serve the same purpose and may or may not be deleterious (may negatively impact on) to your health, well being, freedom of thought or solvency.

We have to have new words -- sometimes.  We don't necessarily have to learn to talk like people who  are 12 years old or are illiterate, confused or dialect infused, although we might buy more or more foolishly if we do.  We don't have to think we're sophisticated multilingual sophisticates by ordering an Americano in Fargo like a phony.  We don't have to assume Liberal means Fascist or Conservative means Anarchist or that calling Asia the Orient means you're a racist any more than you are just being current, hip or up to date by thinking your uncomfortable chair might discomfit you.

How much of LHTC is really "follow orders" posing as "do as thou wilt?"

The question is not whether language has to change, but whether lack of  education is to be the driving force or whether the need to deceive, persuade or to sell should never be interfered with, that any idea must be allowed to masquerade as something else and most of all the self esteem of the unread should never be risked.  Telling us it has to change is more than a way of  giving up, it's a way of facilitating deception, interfering with cognitive function and increasing the difficulty of  communicating.  

AND SO IT BEGINS?

This is Lennon Lacy, 17 year old football player, son, nephew and dead as of August 29, 2014. Lennon lived in the town of Bladenboro, a small berg in the eastern part of North Carolina. He was found hanging from a swing set in a predominantly white occupied trailer park. 

There wasn't much media coverage so most of us, even those of us who live in North Carolina, were not aware of his death but that is about to change.

The case of Lennon Lacy was quickly ruled a suicide, supposedly brought on by depression over the death of his sick great uncle with whom he was close. But Lennon did not appear depressed and had no prior medical diagnosis of depression or any other mental illness. In fact, Lennon was cleaning his football equipment earlier on the day he died in preparation for a Friday night game.

He was found hanging from a 7'6" cross beam of a swingset without any swings attached. There was nothing found at the scene for him to stand on and he was 5'9". There were two connected belts used, one of which was a blue belt that did not belong to Lennon.“There are a number of concerning factors about the apparent noose. The picture provided show that the black belt was not consistent with the one worn by Lennon. The blue belt is reported to be consistent with a belt worn by a male who resided in the mobile home where Lennon was last known alive.” (Finding of Dr Christena Roberts, FL based pathologist hired by NAACP)

He was wearing white sneakers without laces two sizes too small for him and between the trailer park and the medical examiner's office, the sneakers disappeared from his feet!

"An official autopsy carried out by the chief medical examiner, Dr Deborah Radisch, soon after Lacy’s body was discovered concluded that the cause of death was “asphyxia due to hanging”. But both the medical examiner investigation report and the death certificate went further, listing the manner of death as “suicide”."

Story Here

More disturbing information: "Furthermore, no photographs were taken at the scene of Lacy’s death. According to the local medical examiner identified in the report as “Mr. Kinlaw,” SBI officials at the scene wouldn’t allow him to take pictures and threatened to confiscate his camera if he did. Kinlaw also stated that local officers didn’t want an autopsy performed on Lacy’s body and that he had to order one from the local District Attorney’s office." Article Here

Every North Carolinian who lets this slip by without demanding further investigation should hang their head in shame. To lose one of our bright and shining stars without shedding a tear or raising a fist in rage will certainly prove the comment left by amjad65: "We are ceased to exist as civilized, compassionate , God fearing , society."

Contact one or both of these two people to demand a thorough and complete investigation into the death of Lennon Lacy.

Thomas G. Walker, USA
Office of the United States Attorney
310 New Bern Avenue
Federal Building, Suite 800
Raleigh, North Carolina 27601-1461
Phone: (919) 856-4530
Fax: (919) 856-4487
USANCE.webmaster@usdoj.gov

Congressman Mike McIntyre (outgoing)
2428 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2731
Fax: (202) 225-5773

Remembrance

Poor old uncle Boner.  He's really past it, sitting in his rocker mumbling about how Obama is defying the "will of the American people" even though immigration and health care reform is the reason he was elected twice by a greater than usual majority. As though the minority party and it's massively discredited dogmas were "the American People." 

He's forgotten some of his own party's attempts at reform under Reagan, and both Bush's. He has no recollection of the Supreme Court having said, no, it's not unconstitutional. (and hopes you don't either.)  Perhaps he can't remember who is a Republican and who is "the American people."  Perhaps he can't remember what the Constitution allows a President to do or what presidents have always done. 

I do of course, still remember how his party tried tying up Clinton with lawsuits and laughing at his attempts to go after Al Qaeda.  Remember how not one of the torrent of dire predictions ever came true?  I do, every time I listen to the same recycled grunts and snorts from the same old swine.

But Aunt Sarah?   Maybe we can't  write it off to age related dementia.  Did she ever know where Mexico is? 

Executive Orders

In some respects, the current state of our body politic is akin to a troubled marriage.  Borrowing a metaphor and methodology from marriage counseling, there are rules of engagement, i.e. how to have a fair fight:

• Avoid character assassination (never hit below the belt);
• Argue only the current impasse (never dredge up ancient history);
• Never let arguments fester (keep them timely and relevant);
• Anger should be proportional to the issue;
• A constructive argument means leaving your partner’s dignity intact;
• If your goal is to destroy your partner, you will destroy the relationship.

If you compare the commenting styles of various blogging communities, you can discern (metaphorically speaking) which marriages are troubled versus which ones are broken beyond repair.  Among the Cringe Fringe, posted topics are rarely discussed.  All too often, comment threads default into character assassination, invective, off-topic rants, and demonizing.  Conversing with the Fringe is akin to a bad marriage with a verbally abusive spouse.  This is why I refuse to converse with these Cringe Fringe.  Pointless!

In contrast, we have friends of various persuasions who visit our respective forums and engage us in conversation.  What makes them different from the Fringe?  We share this motive in common: We want to fix this troubled marriage of government - not break it.

Compare discussion threads:  Although sometimes heated, ours are far more constructive than destructive and rarely degenerate into the kinds of antagonisms and hostilities that characterize the Fringe. 

The topic of immigration reform is a paradigm example of a troubled marriage between partisans.  A Republican bill (the Marco Rubio plan) is acceptable to both parties.  Yet, Speaker Boehner and the Tea Party Fringe refuse to consider it.  Threats of litigation and/or impeachment are examples of disproportionate anger that poison the well.  Uncompromising attitudes that seek to “destroy” the president undermine this marriage of government.  Instead of compromise and consensus, we have brinksmanship.  We deserve better. 

So which will it be:  Marriage counseling or divorce?

Sweet Land of

Hypocrisy.

'Tis because of thee I want to puke.  There I said it. I think I can ask whether it's the most ill-informed, intransigently opinionated, superstitious, assholier than thou country on Earth and yes I'm talking about every part of the political spectrum -- I think I can damned well ask that rhetorical question, and if you don't know the answer, maybe you prove my point. 

Rant Warning.  

One of the reasons that I watch The Walking Dead, and I suspect it's true of many others, is that the fantasy of  being alone, or almost alone in a world full of vicious, mindless Zombies destroying everything is so close to a true picture of life in a country like ours, except that it's easier to dispose of a rotting Zombie than of a political party or parties hell bent on destruction -- easier to cut off the head of the undead than to change the minds of  all those nice people who think Democrats like to tax and spend, that Taxes are higher than ever, that the economy is tanking, that Obama is a tyrant but afraid to act while he's arrogantly and "megalomaniacally"   taking over the government from its rightful owners while giving your money to the willfully indigent "takers."  Perhaps easier than to change the minds of those who insist there has never been any progress in their pet Crusade or Jihad and so they can set your car on fire, wave guns at you or hang you without trial.

Yes, he went over there and apologized to them -- sure he did -- even if he didn't, and he's a  Muslim who hates white people even if he's not,  and he's not a real American and all the other horseshit we've been fed by the Evil Empire (you're damned right I'm talking about the GOP) and he certainly did lie to trick us into the Affordable Care Act which is Communism even if it's administered by private insurance companies who profit from it, developed by the Republicans and keeping millions from being a burden on the state and a danger to public health -- just like those notorious Communists, the Swiss have.

I'm warning you, this is a rant.

America makes me sick.

We're so damned stupid we don't remember that this is round two, it's the sequel to "Revenge of the Nixonians"  the real life drama of  getting back at law and order for the crimes of the law and order president who took money from the mafia and said he wasn't a crook.  It's plan A in the rulebook for handling any Democratic presidency, Accuse, sabotage, impeach, repeat.

They did all this to Clinton, tried to impeach him on trumped up charges.  Rush insulted his wife, told us his daughter was ugly. They told us he made up Al Qaeda to distract from his "crimes." Did any of the horrifying predictions the damned GOP blowhards gave us come true?  Did the economy collapse from the "biggest tax increase in history" or did we have unprecedented prosperity?  Did Al Qaeda actually exist?  Do Americans shit on the truth?

Remember the posters of the First Lady and her little girls with Gorilla heads?  I do.  Remember who thought it was funny?  Remember who called him a tyrant for appointing advisers as all presidents do?  Remember who blocked virtually every appointment and then told us he was negligent (but tyrannical) for not doing it?  

They've been talking about impeaching him since before he walked in the front door of the White house  and having found no cause, ridiculous or otherwise, they're going to do it anyway.  Boehner keeps talking about a lawsuit he hasn't filed for lack of anything to sue about and the best excuse they've found to date is that he just might, but hasn't do what virtually any other chief executive has done.  He's suggested that he might use the power invested in him by the voters to shield some immigrants from less than completely white  nations from deportation.  You know, he just might do what St. Ronald the Reagan did and St. Bush the Elder did.  What even W supported. And that's why they need to impeach him, tie him up in the courts like they did to Clinton for the high crime of not being Republican, crooked and incompetent. Yes, that's a tautology and yes, America you can't remember what you ate for breakfast or your congressman's name but you know all about those football scores.

Damn right it's a rant

And it ain't over yet.  And I'm not letting you off the hook, you self-declared Liberals preaching authoritarianism while your enemies laugh.  You're not liberals because they couldn't get away with this if you didn't hand the arguments to the Tea Traitors, didn't hand the elections to the Tea Traitors, didn't make fools and enemies of people who used to support you -- if you weren't willing to let it all go to hell because the president didn't solve your problems, because he's only the president, not a Czar --  and because your problems aren't quite as important as the real crises that threaten us. Can't accept criticism, you see science as heresy and put doctrine above evidence? You won't vote because Obama didn't make your problem go away?  Why then, you made yourself a second class citizen.  First Class citizens vote and they can tell up from down, increase from decrease and they don't follow leaders who lie.  You're happy to play Sons of Anarchy when you don't get you way and Sons of Apathy when it requires more than signs and chants and rhyming slogans and corybantic street dancing

OK so that's enough

But not because I couldn't go on for days Captain America, or that you don't deserve it, but because I'm sick of and disgusted with you and your smug self-righteousness, your Beliefs and Values and Principles and Loyalties and straw men you use to evade responsibility and dignify self importance and you'll never change.

Rapture of the Road

"Well, Harleys aren't really up to international standards you know.  My BMW has active handling and antilock . . ."

"Cup holders, GPS and cruise control. . ."  I interjected.

He's a typical "aspirational" vehicle owner, the kind of person that will wait outside of Best Buy all night to be the first person with the latest iThis or iThat and will be quick to let you know he owns the latest and greatest mysterious black box technology.

Frankly when I bought my Harley last year, moving up from a 1957 vintage machine, I felt embarrassed by the superfluous accessories like turn signals and electric start.  My concept of  "ultimate driving machine" is just that:  wheels, an engine, the road and me.  It doesn't have WiFi or Bluetooth or stereo or even a windshield, it doesn't read my text messages to me and will kill me in a moment if I don't pay attention. My heart sings every time I look at it, resplendent and gleaming in machine age glory, a pearl blue and chrome angel, slouching on it's side stand in a fish-camp or tavern parking lot out by Okeechobee or by a secluded Atlantic beach on the barrier island, it's like the flag of  a lost America that still had and perhaps deserved it's self respect; exuberant, confident, looking both forward and back at endless roads, saying YES as though some voice had called it forth, saying  "This road is yours, go now and ride"

To each his own.  So many bikers today build their own, Bobbers, stripped of everything but what is needed, saying "hang on for dear life," choppers looking back at the 60's with longing for long roads.  Rat bikes look like they're put together in the junkyard, saying "death, where is thy sting?" Vintage bikes carry huge price tags but all of them say something about the love of  classic mechanical engineering and rider skill. 

To each his own and to me, in boots and goggles, letting in the clutch on all that torque, time stops, and while there is no e-mail and Skype and social media, no play list; and while there is neither cup nor holder, still those lost days and lost dreams are with me in the beat of the pistons, the rumble of the road.  Be quiet and listen.

ELECTION 2014: PROFILES IN COWARDICE

“What we now have is tyranny by apathy, tyranny by chicanery and corruption of our election process, a tyranny of dark money, and a tyranny of incompetence by the opposition party” (Octopus).

My purpose here is to embellish upon an earlier comment that originally appeared under this post. How can you expect voters to support a candidate who acts ashamed of his or her own party! This year, all too many Democrats distanced themselves from President Obama. If I were an undecided voter, I would have a hard time finding good reasons to vote for any person who claimed to be running as a Democrat - yet failed to support the policies of party and president. These milquetoast toadies even went out of their way to avoid campaign appearances with the POTUS.

The most hypocritical and cowardly of all was Alison Grimes who embarrassed herself by tap dancing around this question: “Did you vote for the president in 2012?” Her evasive and lame reply failed the test of courage and leadership.

By all accounts, KYNECT, the Kentucky Healthcare Exchange, has been one of the most successful rollouts of ObamaCare in the nation and popular among Kentuckians; yet Grimes missed a golden opportunity to remind voters that KYNECT is a state healthcare insurance exchange made possible under ObamaCare. Even her opponent, Mitch “Blobfish” McConnell, extolled the virtues of KYNECT while vowing to repeal ObamaCare; yet Grimes missed this opportunity to make her opponent appear petty and foolish.

Speaking of political malpractice, no Democratic candidate took any Republican to task for budget cutbacks at the NIH or CDC that delayed development of an Ebola vaccine. Nor did any Democratic candidate cite new economic data that showed record improvements in GDP and employment.  According to press accounts, at least two Democratic Senate candidates petitioned the president to delay executive action on immigration reform until after the election - a misstep that kept Hispanic voters away from the polls and cost the Democrats crucial votes in key states.

Not just political malpractice, but criminal cowardice! When you run and hide from the very same principles and policies you are supposed to espouse, then you deserve to lose.