“Keep Asking…Why‏?”

Many will say the penalty was too severe. They will say Joe Paterno didn't know that assistant coach and family friend, Jerry Sandusky was molesting children. They'll say this was bigger than Joe Paterno.

For me, Joe Paterno was to Penn State what George Washington was to the young Republic. Of course we know that Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin, just to name a few, were equally instrumental to Washington in the formation of the United States. And so, the same must be said of Coach Paterno's bosses who also actively participated in the vile cover-up. They too must be held accountable for the unspeakable acts of child abuse.

To think Joe Paterno didn't know about Sandusky's perverted dark side would be like saying Mitt Romney simply misplaced his tax returns. Although Sandusky is in prison for the rest of his life, and the NCAA handed Penn State a severe and well deserved punishment that would have made Ivan the Terrible say, "damn,” the question that still remains is, “Why was the perpetration of mental and sexual abuse on all of these children able to be carried out for more than a decade?”

Removing a statue, taking away past victories, stripping scholarships, bowl games and imprisoning a life-long pedophilia should not be the end of this heinous chapter. There are still too many questions unanswered. We must continue to ask "why" and until we obtain the truth, keep asking—“Why?"

 Anthony P. Johnson

“Obamacare Now Belongs to the Ages”

Not Bill Clinton, not LBJ and not even Theodore Roosevelt, the man that got the conversation started about ensuring healthcare for every American; none of these former leaders could get it done. President Obama achieved a great milestone in his presidency that will secure his place as one of the "greatest" presidents in U.S. history when the United States Supreme Court upheld his landmark healthcare legislation on June 28, 2012. Whatever criticisms one may have about President Obama, many of those criticisms are unjustified; he achieved what many believed to be the unthinkable and did it during a time in the Republic that many of our elected officials made the very word healthcare a diseased manifestation.

Death panels, socialized, fascist, communist, Nazi healthcare some of the terms that cable news personalities, elected officials and even “Skree Rock” from 30th Street used to attack President Obama’s healthcare bill. The Tea Party was confident that once “Obama Cares” reached the United States Supreme Court it would be struck down faster than you could say “Newt for President.” But it didn’t turn out that way. It turned out that Chief Justice Roberts sided with the minority and with his vote President Obama’s legislation won 5-4.

The healthcare legislation now belongs to the ages. The United States Supreme Court upheld the legislation and other than cry foul and chant “Repeal ObamaCare,” there is nothing more Mr. Romney and the Tea Party can do. For the record, the “Citizen’s United” decision upheld by the highest court in the land ranks with “Dred Scott” as two of the “worst “made by the SCOTUS. Although “ObamaCare” does not balance the scale of those two decisions, as my friend Germaine Kornegay said, “This decision benefits all Americans.” I completely agree.

 Anthony P. Johnson

"A Referendum On Our Resolve and Tenacity"

I am befuddled! After all that the citizens in the Republic know about Mitt Romney, there are many in the country that prefers him over President Obama. I'm amazed that the 2012 presidential election is going to be so close.

I am an educated individual and like so many other citizens, I have more than one job to supplement my income, but is President Obama to blame for this and will Mr. Romney somehow make it all better for me and the other 98%? 

The Republic experienced an economic depression in the 1930's and during that crisis, the citizens reelected Roosevelt three times because they believed he could and he did guide them through it. The voters at the time didn't choose panic over substance and despite a whopping 25% unemployment rate in the country; the citizenry remained steadfast and was later rewarded with a booming economy. President Obama is not Franklin Roosevelt, but he's definitely not Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush either. This didn't happen overnight. It took 8 years for the economy to erode faster than Donald Trump's toupees' and we expect President Obama to fix it in 4 years? The entire Justice League couldn't accomplish this task. We must stay the course. Did we not learn anything when President Jimmy Carter was tossed out for Reagan despite the fact that it was Reagan's pal, Gerald Ford and Nixon that kept the nation in an economic recession? Instead of asking "Are you better off than you were 4 years ago, you should ask, "will you be better with Mr. Romney?

Like all former presidents, President Obama has his flaws, but he has handled the affairs of the nation very well up to this point during his more than three years at the helm. And Romney? He failed at creating jobs as a governor and as a Bain executive, he has a Ph.D. in indecisiveness and he is completely out of step with the needs of the middle class, working poor and poor citizenry. And yet, if the 2012 presidential election was held today--Romney might win.

This presidential election is a referendum on our resolve and tenacity to be vigilant during this time of hardship. On one side is the incumbent who needs us to keep moving forward to weather this storm of economic turmoil and reach the valley of economic prosperity. While on the other end of the spectrum is the presumptive presidential candidate who wants us to panic and press the restart button.



"Progressives will bring balance to the Republic."

Anthony P. Johnson

The Religious Right Empire Strikes

Many on the left have written that the long life of the Religious Right has come to an end. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard this, I’d be able to pay off the national debt--twice. The Religious Right in America is lavishly funded and politically well connected. While the men who lead the fundamentalist Christian political movement hold different opinions about theology, they share a deep and abiding hostility to the separation of church and state. They seek to inject religion into public schools, obtain taxpayer funding for religious schools and other ministries, roll back reproductive choice and deny civil rights to the gay and lesbian community.

Public opinion on the matter of equality for gays and lesbians is rapidly changing and that change is a huge part of Republican support for civil unions in the Republic than has ever existed before. There are those that believe, like GOP attorney Mario Nicholais of “Coloradans for Freedom“, that this is one of several issues on which the GOP must modernize its platform or risk permanently marginalizing itself as attitudes from generation to generation have evolved. But the Religious Right, a powerful force, doesn't agree, and are fighting moderation--regardless of the consequences.

Religious Right politicians cut programs for the poor, reduce scholarships for students, and protect tax breaks for the rich—even as they claim allegiance to a gospel of love. They are usually eager to meld church and state, but when it comes to economics, they deny this historical context: biblical culture treated religion and politics as one. The Bible does not make caring for the poor a purely voluntary, individual responsibility, as Republicans claim. In fact, priests were activist lawgivers; society, church and government were integral, and the Temple imposed taxes for the public good as a mandate, not as a voluntary option.

The Religious Right make up about 32% of the former Republican Party (the party was laid to rest by the Tea Party in 2010) and yet their influence is overwhelming because the one reason that drives the majority of elected officials to bow way below the equator to the wealthy minority is MONEY. From 2009-2011 the Religious Right raised more than three-quarters of a billion dollars and they achieve this annually, the bulk of it is tax-exempt.

With that type of influence and how easy it is for them to "pimp" a politician, you need not wonder why the Religious Right is here to stay.

“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic”

Anthony P. Johnson

A Fragile Foundation

There are some in the Republic that say they are fiscally responsible and steadfast on having a limited government. So, why are they trying to block President Obama's legislation regarding same sex marriage, when in fact, President Obama has NOT proposed ANY legislation on same sex marriage? Isn't it interesting that all these elected officials from the Tea Party are attempting to “increase” government while spending billions of dollars to define abortion, contraception and what constitutes marriage? They’re taking a page from their hero, Ronald Reagan, who once stated “Government was the problem”; but, he went on to increase government spending to record levels. What we’re hearing is rhetoric that they don't believe.

When legislators strip the middle class and poor of what little resources they do have, ban compassionate people from feeding the homeless, cut funding for education while increasing funding for the construction of new prisons, allow Wall Street to devour people's life savings and look the other way while companies destroy the food and medicine and the environment with the stroke of a pen, you begin to understand the seriousness of this conundrum.

What have we become? Instead of moving forward and creating a better society, we resemble barbarians savagely attacking women, gays, lesbians, and minorities, the homeless and religious beliefs. It was my teaching that we were to evolve as a species, but at this moment we have sunken to a level just above crud and the stuff stuck on the side of our eyes when awakened from a long sleep. We are an apathetic society quickly eroding an already fragile foundation that keeps the Republic from falling over. Instead of ensuring that we don’t repeat the darkness of our past, we’re creating a future with frightening similarity.

Greed, apathy, bigotry and hate are attempting to crash the gates of compassion, wisdom, love and humility, while placing the Republic in the history books as a once great nation but no more and the evolution of humanity--regressing expeditiously.



“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic”


Anthony P. Johnson

Respectfully Agree-to-Respectfully Disagree

What I love about being a citizen of the Republic is we have so many opinions and although we may not always agree, we can respectfully disagree. Some of us don't agree with same sex-marriage and some of us do. With that being said, there is no War on Marriage--there has never been a War on Marriage. Unfortunately, there are some in the Republic that attack same sex-marriage by stoking the embers of vile and hatred rhetoric hoping that the rest of us will join them in embracing the darker angels within. But let us not fall prey, hold steadfast and continue to respectfully agree to respectfully disagree.

“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic”

Anthony P. Johnson

"The Curious Case of Mitt Romney"

Mitt Romney has been called up from the major league political bullpen to unite the party and capture the presidency for the Tea Party (Republican Party is dead), but it might have been better to call Sarah Palin from the political minors leagues to challenge President Obama.

Mr. Romney is one of the most disingenuous, convoluted presidential candidates since Adlai Stevenson. The only difference between the two is Stevenson received the former Democratic nod twice. No matter how many times Romney portrays himself as identifying with the middle class, working poor and poor American; it’s just not genuine. It’s like the KKK trying to convince us that they are a civil rights group.

Mr. Romney lies like the very word will soon be extinct. I know some of you will say all politicians lie, but Romney is so bad at it that if President Nixon were alive he'd probably tell him to just stop! Romney, Nixon would say, is an embarrassment to the great political liars of all time. We all know about the Etch-A-Sketch debacle, but in reality his top adviser was in essence saying, "Americans are stupid and can barely remember what they did 20-minutes ago," so Romney will change his lies to, “I believe in Planned Parenthood, women are great and taking their birth control pills is wrong" and the people will believe him.

Mr. Romney says he knows how to create jobs. Really? As governor of Massachusetts the state ranked 47th out of the 50 states in job creation. As a Bain executive, he and his friends made millions while gutting companies as thousands of Americans became jobless with such ferocity that Charles Darwin would have been amazed. Since he announced that he would be running for president, Romney has not given an iota of a plan that would create jobs. He called Paul Ryan’s budget plan “Marvelous." Perhaps it’s because Ryan’s plan resembles the same playbook he used when he was at Bain; gut, strip, and take from those who are in need. Ryan’s plan is so bad Reagan would be offended by it. But that’s another story.

Mitt Romney as president would be a nightmare for foreign policy as he would disregard any sound advice from the Republic’s European allies. He says President Obama is trying to govern like the European nations. In addition, Romney, like the rest of his Tea Party supporters want wars so bad with Iran and North Korea that they can barely keep their glee of the possibility at bay. Do you think Mr. Romney would send any of his sons to fight in those wars? Yeah! Neither do I. President Obama studied and talked extensively with experts on foreign policy. Who is Romney speaking with? John "Bomb, Bomb Iran" McCain.

I’ve stated on several occasions that Mr. Romney is “woefully unqualified” to be President of the Republic and there are mounds of evidence to prove it. The most important evidence though, is that Mitt Romney is un-American.

When elected officials and want-to-be presidents put money in off-shore accounts so they don’t have to pay taxes and/or attack middle class, working poor and poor citizens it is un-American and those that partake in such activities have absolutely no place at the seat of the Republic's government.

Mitt Romney was called to be the Tea Party’s presidential hopeful and unite the party. By the end of November 6, 2012, he will be sent to the political minors leagues…with Sara Palin.



“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic”


Anthony P. Johnson for State Representative 180th District, 2012