When looking for political parties and candidates to support, most people make the same mistake; they look for perfection.
Well, later for dat'!
Perhaps, a better place to look for it might be on a white, sandy beach with turquoise water, hot sun, crystal clear blue skies, and an ice cold beer.
But, not in politics.
By its very nature, politics tends to be a dirty game with the participants doing virtually everything that they can to stay in power.
So, what does one do to fulfill their duties as an American and still vote their conscience?
Well, one way is to stop expecting perfection from our candidates and, instead, look to the ones with the values that are most closely aligned to our vision of what we expect our Country to be.
For me, this has become a VERY easy choice. And, that choice was made as much in opposition of one party as it was in approval of the other. And, here it is:
The Republican Party, for nearly my entire voting tenure of 47 years, has been the party of mendacity, greed, bigotry, and exclusion. And, it's not that you can't find fault with the Democrats but rather that the GOP has just about cornered the market on negative policies and abhorrent people.
Let's review a partial list of those Republicans currently making the news for, shall we be kind and say, less than stellar behavior:
- Ted Cruz
- Marjorie Taylor Greene
- Rand Paul
- Josh Hawley
- Mitch McConnel
- Ron Johnson
- Lauren Boebert
- Stephen Miller
- Madison Cawthorn
- Mark Meadows
- Marco Rubio
- Kevin McCarthy
- Matt Schlapp
- Just about every speaker at CPAC
So much for their Strength of Character.
Now, let's move on to the GOP policies and the effect they have on Americans.
As recently as last night (2/26/2021), The House of Representatives voted in favor of the Biden Administration's $1.9 trillion Pandemic Relief Bill, virtually along party lines. In other words, ALL of the Democrats but 2 voted for the bill, while ALL of the Republicans voted against it - even AFTER the Democrats compromised by removing a dastardly plan to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour. Furthermore, at least 13 of the gutless wonders skipped the vote entirely to attend the farce that is known as CPAC.
The Republicans claim that they voted against the bill because it was bloated and partisan to the Democrats. Yet, despite the fact that millions of Americans are suffering economic woes due to the Pandemic the GOP felt it was not in the best interest of the American people. However, it wasn't too long ago that they voted for tax breaks for corporations and the most wealthy among us.
So, let's add hypocrisy to their list of attributes. They might as well use this as their slogan: Feed the rich. Screw the poor.
This is evidenced by the fact the great majority of our most disadvantage States are under Republican control. 9 out of 10 of our poorest are in the hands of the GOP***. This is not by accident, but by design! Further evidence of this, and their lust to keep power at any cost, can be seen by their use of controlling the vote by passing voter suppression laws and gerrymandering. This is especially true in minority communities.****
Let's look at their immigration policy. Like most of their other programs, it is based on Fear and Loathing. They charge that they didn't invent the deportation of undocumented immigrants and that is true. In an effort to secure our Southern border, Democratic administrations, including that of Barack Obama, instituted policies that included mass deportations. However, the GOP, under then President Donald J. Trump and his chief architect of the Zero Tolerance program, Stephen Miller, raised cruelty to an art form, seeming to actually delight in the separation of families at the border as an incentive for them not to come. Thousands of screaming, crying children were separated from their parents in a heartless effort to stem the tide of immigration.+
Republicans claim that their core principal is Less Government, i.e. keep the government out of our private lives. Yet, they continually pass legislation that attempts to limit a woman's right to choose what is best for her own body by restricting access to safe and legal abortions.++
The GOP economic platform has always been "Trickle Down", i.e. reward wealthy companies and they will create jobs and, thereby, a thriving economy. There is only one problem: it has been proven over and over again that it simply does not work.+++ Still, year after year the Republicans manage to give tax breaks to the rich while weakening unions and other organizations created to level the playing field between rich and poor.
Look, I could keep adding to the list with things like their support of the Death Penalty and other social issues that unfairly target minority communities. ALL of them seem to based on one simple principal:
FEAR and LOATHING.
Perfection is one thing, a reasonable attempt at fair governance is entirely another - one that the GOP can't seem to get right. Perhaps, they simply don't want to. If they truly did they wouldn't be worshipping a statue of their very own Golden Calf. ++++
Thankfully, this is STILL a Country that promotes freedom of choice - at least for most of us. But, we can never be TRULY free until that applies to ALL of us. And, I just don't see that EVER happening under a Republican administration. They simply don't get it and I fear that they never will. . .
* https://rantt.com/gop-admins-had-38-times-more-criminal-convictions-than-democrats-1961-2016
** https://www.pravdori.com/en/story/1/republicans-convicted-of-child-sexual-abuse
*** https://www.politifact.com/9-10-poorest-states-republican/
****https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/30/republicans-restrict-voting-access-bills
+ https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/05/28/the-trump-administrations-immigration-policies-are-impossibly-cruel-thats-the-whole-point/
++ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/12/anti-abortion-activists-womens-rights
+++ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tax-cuts-rich-50-years-no-trickle-down/
++++ https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-cpac-golden-calf-trump-statue-is-spurring-backlash-of-biblical-proportions-11614360507
I like the analogy that you don't vote as if choosing a spouse, ie a permanent match, but rather a bus, a means to take you in the direction you want to go.
ReplyDeleteExcellent metaphor - thanks!!!
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