Deja vu is a term we all have heard. It means you feel you are experiencing something that you have experienced before. However, putting your finger on just where and just when is sometimes really hard. With a little luck, sometimes in a moment when your mind is at complete ease, thoughts seem to randomly float through the mind. With a little more luck, the answers to some perplexing questions can appear. Such questions as, where have I seen this before?

A few years back the feeling of deja vu was around the health care protesters who were showing up with fists upraised and angry, red faces screaming out strange sayings like “keep your government hands off my Medicare” and “death panels.” I had seen those faces before and in a moment of inspiration, I remembered similar faces in Little Rock in September of 1957, as Little Rock’s Central High was forced to integrate.

This time around I have been haunted by the facial smirks, the comments that seem to say, “I have no idea what I am talking about, but don’t stop me.” These smirks and comments are coming from Republicans, mostly in Congress but also at almost any level. What they have to say – or shall I say what they spew – is hate. Unfounded and barely disguised hate. Hate for those who are not men; hate for those who are from foreign backgrounds; hate for those who express a religion they do not approve; those who believe in science; those whose skin color is different; those who are not rich; but most of all, those who are poor.

When they are not making public pronouncements claiming some form of connection to the gods who want them to smite those who are not favored they are in Congress and state legislatures throughout the land creating laws that hurt the unfavored while bestowing gifts the select few that meet their standards of acceptance – the white, the male, the religious.

You think it is not so? All you have to do is look at the legislation or policies that Republicans have been pushing where ever they have control. Laws to restrict the right to vote; laws to force women to have babies against their will; laws to outlaw or limit birth control; trying to curtail the ACA which will allow many poor for the first time to have actual health care; cutting state support of public schools while increasing state support of private schools; privatizing prisons which makes full prisons a profit concern.

As usual, I could go on and on. The policies that the Republican party supports on a day to day basis are policies that purposely bestow gifts from the state on the rich while purposely hurting the middle class and poor. They pass laws that purposely maintain and increase the stratification oif our society.

Republicans are acting just like middle school bullies – they are doing all of the above with little blowback because every one acts afraid of them. Their little act is supported by the media – or in the middle school scenario – the faculty. That is because the media is owned by people just like them so the media doesn’t want to lose the special place the bullies have carved out for them.

It takes little courage to be a bully – what it takes is an acquiescent society that won’t stand up to the bully. They have perfected the art of playing one side against another so no one combines forces against them. The poor don’t vote in a solid block because the bullies have learned to control them through policy and law. The same is true of the middle class. And they fuel the antagonism between classes to keep them from joining together and putting a stop to the bullies.

Starting now, we, especially in Iowa, need to bring together all people who are hurt by Republican policies. That should be all of Iowa but about 10%. It may be a hard sell to some to see how the current Republican bullies are hurting them, but they are. If they are poor, policies against food banks and food stamps have brought back Hunger in America with a vengeance. If you are middle class, your wages have been suppressed by Republican policies since the Reagan presidency. If you are religious, you must be wary lest those who were once you allies turn on you and you become the enemy. This is a theme throughout history. Better that the government be neutral in matters of religion.

We have and will have great candidates. Our government was meant to be run by the people and FOR the people, not run by the rich for the rich. We need to get our message out and get people registered to vote, not for us, but for themselves.