Senator Jeff Sessions: GOAT?

Alabama's Senator Jeff Sessions got on a moral high-horse to defend the GOP's efforts to slash food stamps for poor Americans.

Is our national goal to place as many people on welfare, food stamp support, as we can possibly put on that program? Is that our goal? Is that a moral vision for the United States of America, just to see how many people we can place in a situation where they're dependent on the federal government for their food? I just ask that. I think we should wrestle with that question.

Senator Sessions was arguing against an Amenment to the Agriculture Bill sponsored by Senator Gillibrand (D-NY) to re-instate the $45 billion in the Food Stamp Program that the GOP had taken out. Apparently, feeding the poor is, in the eyes of Senator Sessions, a moral failing.

I've never met a liberal who thinks we need to keep as many people as possible on government assistance. On the contrary, liberals favor programs to educate and train people so they can get good paying jobs and be productive and self-sufficient. But to pretend that productivity and self-sufficiency will just happen if we take away poor people's food is equal parts cruel and stupid.

Proving that the GOP does not own all the copies of the Bible in DC, Senator Gillibrand took Senator Sessions to school - Sunday School, that is. She pointed out to Senator Sessions (and everyone else listening) that according to Matthew chapter 25, the first question we will be asked on Judgment Day is "Did you feed the poor?" Here's what Matthew 25 says.

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ”

Matthew 25:31-46 (emphasis added).

So, you see, for believers in the Gospel, as Senator Sessions claims to be, if you care for the poor - feed them, quench their thirst, tend them in their sickness, clothe them - the Lord will regard you as a sheep (a righteous and faithful follower) and you will remain in the presence of the Lord. Not so for the goats. Those who turn their backs on the poor (the "least of these brothers and sisters") are condemned to eternal punishment. So, you see, Senator Sessions is, according to the Bible, advocating the position of the infamous GOATS.

I'm sure Senator Sessions is busy trying to find an Ayn Rand version of the Bible to justify his utter lack of compassion, some way to twist these words around and put the goats of higher ground (mountain goats?). Unfortunately, one does not exist. She was an athiest.

A Bible-a-thon as justification for policy is not a good idea. The Bible is arcane and is used to justify bigotry, misogyny, and many other ills. But I understand the need to hoist the GOP on its own petarb when they get morally indignant in order to justify making poor children starve. I applaud Senator Gillibrand for her Bible knowledge and her commitment to doing something to ease the suffering of the poor in this, the wealthiest country in the world.

If Alabama could get above its raisin' and remove Jeff Session from the US Senate, we would have one less GOAT to deal with. Unfortunately, in Alabama, there is a line of younger GOATS waiting their turn behind him.

Voter Suppression Is the Greatest Evil We Face

Of all the principles and beliefs on which we built and continue to reconstruct our republic, the fundamental truth that all government power comes from the people, for the people, and by the people is the cornerstone.

This principle is true in every society, even though we only think of it applying to democratically elected governments. But in fact, it is true in every dictatorship, every puppet regime, and in every theocracy as well. Sometimes, exerting the power of the citizenry to choose a government costs lives (the American Revolution, South Africa, India, the Arab Spring) but the government people have is the government they choose, either by active choice (revolution, voting) or by acquiescence. The free will of the citizenry in some countries have been suppressed by force (the Taliban, China), by religious ideology (Iran and the long-abandoned idea of the divine right of kings), and in our country, by operation of law.

Government power is granted and exercised by the consent of the people. Look at what the people of Florida have chosen. Despite the absence of a voter fraud problem, the GOP state officials are trying to remove people from voter rolls with the stated purpose of removing "non-citizens." But when 20% of the first purge resulted in the removal of registered, legal citizens from voter roles, forcing them to petition and fight (again) for the right to vote, the Department of Justice stepped in.

Again, there is no voter fraud problem in Florida. I defy anyone reading this to find proof of voter fraud in Florida or in any state that amounts to anything close to being significant enough to affect outcomes. It just doesn't exist. This entire campaign is an effort to remove minorities (in Florida, primarily Hispanics) from the voter roles because the GOP knows they vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates.

In discussing this with a colleague, he agreed that we need to know how much voter fraud is occurring and then decide whether these actions are necessary. He suggested that if the voter fraud exceeded 100,000 bad votes, and the "remedy" only prevented 10,000 legitimate voters from voting, then the numbers say we should enact the remedy to prevent fraud. What?!

I was aghast! Would gun advocates (which my colleague is, BTW) agree to remove all guns from private ownership because to do so would reduce deaths in the US by HUGE numbers? Do we lock up innocent people in this country to prevent the guilty from going free? Did I fall into bizarro America when I fell asleep last night?

In this country, we do NOT take away people's fundamental rights to prevent abuse of rights by others. WE DO NOT! We let guilty people go free to protect against innocent people wrongfully losing their freedom. We protect private gun ownership even though the result is many unnecessary deaths. The very idea that we can just casually take away someone's right to vote in order to protect against voter fraud by someone else is about as unAmerican an idea as I've ever heard.

The DOJ has filed a lawsuit to stop what is happening in Florida, but the Governor and the Secretary of State insist they are not going to stop. The people of Florida elected these yahoos, and they are getting what they deserve.

If you vote for a party that advocates voter suppression, you are voting for tyranny, not democracy. I don't think this is an exaggeration. It isn't. Everything our free society is built on depends on the equal and free right to vote in elections. An attack on people's ability to vote is an offense far worse than lying, than fiscal irresponsibility, even than blowing up a building, because it is not an attck on Americans, but an attack on the American experiment that Lincoln talked about in his Gettysburg Address.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Lincoln's fear for America was even more profound than the unholy scurge of slavery. It was the fear that America, as it was envisioned, would cease to exist. This was the burden he carried.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us— that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

From 1775 until now, people have given their lives so that we can vote and choose who governs us. In every century since then more have died to protect that right. Constitutional amendments were passed to extend the right to people of all races and to women. Voting is the most important thing we do as citizens. And there are people in elected office trying to take that right away from us.

If you live in Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, or Pennsylvania, your citizenry's right to vote is under attack. Get Above Your Raisin' and put a stop to it.