How times have changed.   After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in late 1941 America shifted gears.  People payed their taxes as a patriotic duty.  Food was rationed, rubber was rationed, gasoline was rationed.  Men volunteered for the military – women volunteered to work in factories.  Everyone contributed.  So what is different today?

Did someone attack America – killing more people than were killed at Pearl Harbor – Yes!  Did America shift gears?  I don’t think so – unless we shifted into reverse.  Within weeks of September 11, 2001, President Bush urged everyone to go out shopping for Christmas presents.  Our leader assured us everything would be fine.  Bush and his Republican colleagues in Congress passed a TAX CUT!  The long term economic future of America was discounted as something not important.

Check out this Donald Duck Cartoon titled The Spirit of 43 – made in 1943 to encourage the American people to sacrifice for their country:

Like it or not America – we are at War.  In the 1940’s cartoons were made to make fun of the enemy.  Anything that made the Nazi’s look like fools.  The enemy was portrayed as vultures or raving lunatics.

So what is different today?  In America of the 21st Century people call themselves patriotic if they can make fun of our leaders.   The Donald Duck cartoon proudly asserted we were fighting to preserve freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  What is different today?  There is a movement afoot which calls itself the Tea Party.  They delight in making cartoon posters of our President.  They carry the signs of religious intolerance – calling for a Christian Nation.  They are proud to tell others to Shut the F**k Up – probably because they see this as a sign of the sort of Dignity American afforded each other back when this was a Christian Nation.   They claim they are not racist (We have a black President) but what do the signs at their rallies reflect?  What is the reference to Obama – Your Massa on his new plantation?  What are they trying to say – did they just misspell something?  Are they innocent of racist propaganda?

This is a really sad day in America.

We are not making this up.   The FOX News cable channel broadcasts regular propaganda against our own government.  One of their most popular spokespersons condemns any Church that use terminology such as social justice.

The Tea Party clearly says:  Do not pay taxes to the American Government.  Deny freedom of speech for anyone who disagrees.  Turn the government into a theocracy – or at least make the Constitution subordinate to their interpretation of the Bible.   When challenged their leaders say this is not true – but where d id we get these  images – these pictures were taken at Tea Party rallies.   Republican members of Congress stood on the balcony of the Capital Building and encouraged the lunacy.

But get this – when asked the Tea Party members claim this is a grassroots effort – there are no leaders.  Not until they need to refute some of their obvious anti-American rhetoric.  They know clearly that what they are doing is unpatriotic.  They know clearly that what they are doing is contrary to everything that America stands for.  And they call themselves patriots.

How disgusting.