He would have been the President of the United States

I think Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been elected President of the United States in the 1970s. Maybe 1972 or 1976 considering the fields running then. He towered over them in terms of oratory, stature, and vision.

I've finally realized that there really was a Reagan Revolution, and we are still playing by the rules he rewrote in the 1980s.

But that wouldn't have happened, and we would have a lot more hope and justice had MLK, Jr not been taken out while staying at a cheap motel supporting the Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike. What kind of revolution would America have had had Martin Luther King, Jr. been President?

Reagan started his campaign in a racism capitol, continuing Nixon's Southern Strategy, flipping racist white Southern Democrats Republican, using coded symbolism. Reagan campaigned on the back of a chimerical Welfare Queen in a Cadillac. Luxury car makers did well in the wake of the Reagan Revolution as the nation split rich and poor, with the poor doing worse. Both Bushes kept that revolution, spinning our nation to resemble more South and Central American Republicas sans Middle Class than European social democracies, where citizens with dignity and without fear of starvation or lack of medical care is a point of pride. Reagan's first major action in office was to fire (fire!?!) all the PATCO Air Traffic Controllers on strike, compromising domestic air safety for a decade.

Martin Luther King, Jr. sacrificed his life for urban garbage carriers. He received no local or federal protection, even though he won the Nobel Peace Prize, campaigned to change America, and had numerous death threats that the FBI was fully aware of.

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Hillary Clinton jabbed at Barack Obama that it takes more than a vision to make change, that it takes hard work, and that it took President Johnson to work his work and magic with Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act, (not just MLK, Jr.'s oratory and advocacy). But MLK, Jr. was more than a speech maker or grandstander; he was a tireless campaigner who took jailings, wrote books, and he was beaten, bugged, gassed and threatened. As I stated above, I believe that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been President and a National Treasure by now, with the Civil Rights Act being just a stepping stone toward his ultimate greatness through his achievements and his revolutionary changes for justice and compassion in the USA.

Pundits speak of the power of martyrdom. They are shilling for the snipers.

Martyrs have no power. They are symbols used by lessers, like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, or me today.

The dead are the bitches of the universe, carried, then cremated into carbon dust and vapor, or eaten by worms and bacteria in the dirt. Maybe their bloody shirts are waved or invoked. The dead and the martyred have no office, no voice, except for that which the living gives them in their memory or inspiration. Nothing beats being alive.

Barack Obama works hard. Community Organizing, his background, is hard work, and it doesn't pay well, and it is great political experience.

Too bad mainstream Democrats, or even the Democratic Party, doesn't realize, recognize or reward grassroots service and organizing outside of political clubs. This blind spot is part of the reason why parties or 'Democrat' is meaningless to most Americans.

Hillary Clinton speaks of Experience. It sounds like a code word for Qualifications, the code word countering affirmative action. I don't like her Experience or Qualifications,

• speaking in codes,
  
• supporting decades-long wars to look tough for political gain (like President Johnson, except Iraq will last longer than Vietnam -- and would be deadlier for us if battlefield medicine and transportation hadn't advanced so much since the 1960s),
  
• making deals and owing for them,
  
• fronting for corporations - including military profiteers and pharmaceuticals,
  
• shilling for unions no matter what,
  
• not pushing for a real 9/11/01 investigation - even though her home state was not defended and was hit hardest,
  
• not pushing for the 9/11/01 rescue workers' health care,
  
• absolutely failing to put forward a credible health care plan for the US when Bill Clinton was President,
  
• absolutely failing to craft that health care proposal without arrogance or with any political savvy, turning half of America off to her,
  
• working for a politically connected corporate law firm,
  
• standing for nothing but for her own power and importance.

I'm tired of her opportunism, her symbols and codes, her annoying shrill voice (like a put-upon teacher or stressed out mother), her obviously fake expressions, her carefully crafted personae, and her dangerous lust for power and glory.

Barack Obama is my second-to-last choice for Democratic nominee for President, but I prefer him way more to Hillary Clinton.

I miss the 1990s. I did better and had more fun during the Clinton years, but I really don't need Hillary teaming up with Bill as a loose cannon pit-bull, making their connections and standing for their own power, and a nicer status-quo for all. In the 1990s, where was the peace dividend, where was the end of the Gulf War, why did we refuse Sudan's offer of Osama, why did Bill ignore the 1993 WTC bombing, why were SUVs subsidized while alternative energy and mileage standards languished? While Bill was triangulating, and the first thing he came up with was 'don't ask, don't tell,' (some stand for gay rights!), Newt Gingrinch took Congress with a real vision, the Contract on America. It really is time for a change.

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Confederate Flag in the southern state capitols time again.

I've written before that anyone or any state should have the right to leave any union they want whenever they want or vote on it. That is, we shouldn't have had a civil war, and I'd be fine with the South being its own country. Heck, I'm fine with NYC being its own country as long as we get to annex a few more suburban counties in New Jersey, NYS, and Connecticut.

All that being said, a war was fought, and the Confederates were leaving the USA. They were killing over it, and it was treasonous.

I had a problem with Reagan honoring SS soldiers in Bitburg Germany, and I'd have a problem with any US capitol proudly flying a Nazi Flag. We fought a war against the Southern Confederacy for the USA's survival and beat them, and they are supposed to be Americans again. The North more than bent over backwards to heal the South, and they pretty much run the USA today.

We also shouldn't fly Mexican, Spanish, British, or Japanese flags of countries that the USA beat and befriended -- or any other flags in capitols, unless it is for a special occasion, like a visit. And we aren't supposed to be using Euros or Canadian dollars in the USA.

I understand that some Southerners are proud of the Confederacy, and so they should show the Confederate flag in an exhibit explaining its meanings. But to everyone this should be recognized as a flag of treason, and to many this is a flag of racism, redentism, regression, and oppression - a symbol of lynching, lawlessness, and vigilante terror. It is unacceptable to have this fly in a capitol.

True Americans embrace diversity, respect, justice, compassion, happiness, and tolerance.

Have a good Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.