Jackboots, Brownshirts and Woody Guthrie.

Joe Miller's (R Senate candidate, Alaska) security detail handcuffed and detained a reporter at a public rally... for asking questions. At the Rand Paul-Jack Conway debate, a protester has her head held to the ground by a Paul supporter's foot and the candidate says nothing.  Christine O' Donnell's campaign demands a videotape from a radio station under threat of a lawsuit. These candidates have Tea Party support and favor a strict interpretation of the Constitution.  I wonder how they feel about the 1st Amendment? At least the Tea Party is extreme, mainstream Republicans wouldn't allow this to happen. Unless you're Eric Cantor and prefer  to avoid debates. Is this what we are willing to become?

It must be a rule that every summer camper sing "This Land is Your Land",  at least 1000 times.  Written by Woody Guthrie, it's a wonderful upbeat song extolling America's virtues from coast to coast. Unless you know all the verses. Like many Guthrie songs it has numerous verses and most camps don't sing more than a couple. As the song continues it shows a darker side of America alluding to the poor, hungry and disenfranchised.  But even those somber verses lead to the chorus: "this land was made for you and me."

The Republican Party believes in an exclusive America, where a small privileged upper class reaps the benefits and the rest of us fight for scraps.  The GOP has even developed an "extreme" wing, the Tea Party. Using the Tea Party, the Republicans will go to extreme measures to impose their will on the American electorate. I sound severe but I have not heard any "mainstream Republican" decry the intimidation detailed above. I can only assume that the entire GOP finds these abhorrent tactics acceptable.

It is important to remember that this land was made for you and me. Nobody is better than me because they have different beliefs, background, upbringing or race. No one has more rights just because they have more money. Unfortunately, Woody's America isn't free. Sometimes I have to fight for my part of America. The easiest part of this fight for Woody Guthrie's America requires I vote, which I have done. Will you stand up and fight (vote) for this land, made for you and me? The alternative sits before us.