A friend of mine emailed me some cartoons recently. Here are a few words by two of the cartoon characters that reflect the humor they were supposed to elicit:
Character 1: "There's a super PAC called 'Ready for Hillary'. What exactly does it mean to be Ready for Hillary"?
Character 2: "It's like being ready for prostate exam ... that will last for eight years."
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This was my radically measured response:
This was my radically measured response:
I’m getting ready to leave the Republican Party, my friend. The GOP is lost. It has endorsed a racist, sexist, egomaniacal, hate-baiter as its candidate for president and yet it continues to demonize and ridicule Hillary Clinton and our twice-elected President, Barack Obama, which suggests it would rather have a nut-case as president and risk whatever catastrophe he will surely cause as a result of his buffoonery and ignorance than another choice who would not.
Your party, apparently the Tea Party, is so doctrinally rigid it is ready to destroy the country rather than admit it has nothing to offer, absolutely nothing, by way of positive, constructive solutions for some of the most complex and dangerous problems this country has ever faced. Tell me one tenet the Tea Party espouses that will benefit a majority of the people in this country. Carpet bombing? Isolationism? Nuclear war? Economic inequality? The Tea Party holds up the Constitution as if only it knows how to read it. It has run the GOP and the ability of this country to govern itself into a ditch and given our country the worst recession in its history. GOP propaganda falsely blames the Democrats for what clearly was caused by the Bush’s - two wars that cost trillions that were never properly financed, which were initiated under false pretenses (WMD’s) and which ultimately resulted in disastrous middle eastern governmental vacuums, religious genocide, the birth of ISIS and a lethal religion-based terrorism from which we can neither extricate nor protect ourselves. The Party is in denial and because it will not face the truth that its failure to find common ground, a fundamental prerequisite for a democracy, is the singular most obvious cause for the deadly paralysis and failure now infecting the highest levels of our government. What used to be moderate Republican principles are now socialism and liberalism. Nothing short of the irrational alarms spewed from the radical right is acceptable. You’re right I don’t like the cartoons. I think they’re foolish and dangerous when Trump is the apparent alternative. What is your purpose for sending them around? Are you supporting Trump?
Well done Sir. I love your writing; keep it up. Don
ReplyDeleteI have been an issue voter, and never voted a straight party line. This year I will vote to elect candidates who want a functioning, active govenment with elected officials who are willing to work together - on both sides of the aisle.
ReplyDeleteI think the GOP has lost its way. While I'm a democrat from way back, back when the GOP ran my home state of Virginia, I have lots of friends and family who are republicans and democrats both. And while I've worked in the private sector for many years, I've also worked for government agencies and been self-employed. The GOP of old - of Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan would not countenance voting for Donald Trump. He favors tax cuts without adjustments to our unsustainable path related to Social Security and Medicare; that is not a republican position. He wants to raise tariffs on imported goods from countries like China and Mexico without considering the impact on the price of those goods (watch your Walmart bills go up when underwear and TVs and such are no longer imported from cheaper wage countries) by telling blue-collar workers that globalization, rather than technology, is the reason for those job losses; hint- look at a picture of an assembly line for a car factory, and compare it to how they looked in the 1970s - a lot fewer people now. His foreign policy is so disjointed that Brent Scowcroft, the republican, Mormon and West Point graduate who served as National Security Advisor under Gerald Ford and George HW Bush is supporting Hillary Clinton.
ReplyDeleteSo no, Sonny, you aren't leaving the GOP, they've left you.
Dave
I absolutely understand Donald Trump's appeal. If someone tells you that it isn't your fault that you don't make enough money, or that you should be able to buy a nicer car or a bigger house, or that your business would be more successful if certain groups were not in this country; then you will want to believe them. It is so much easier to blame others than to take responsibility on ourselves. That rhetoric has worked before. Let's hope it that enough people realize that message for what it is.
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