The Republican Party & The Boy Who Cried Wolf: A Fight For The Heart & Soul Of American Democracy
At age 18, I was a Republican. And I remained a Republican until about 35 years of age. I even walked precincts for the first George Bush.
That was back when the party stood for something. I didn’t agree with all their views, but on the big issues, I felt their values best served the long-term interests of the United States.
When Ronald Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down the wall, I felt so proud. Entire books were written about Reagan’s firm but engaging approach, his long walks with foreign leaders was legendary.
Truth be told, I was a bit naive. But all that naivety ended when my former party decided to impeach President Clinton. Ironically, many of the leaders that led that charge have since been accused of sexual misconduct.
I mean, cheating on a spouse is one thing. But cheating on a spouse with cancer? DURING a trial of the President for, essentially, the same thing? And yes, a famous Democrat did the same. But did that Democrat lead the charge to impeach anyone? No, he did not.
When will Republicans realize that sexuality does not have near the power they continually give it? And when will they own up to their own power-hungry hypocrisy? It was then that they realized … we can get away with it.
People in our party will still vote for us.
And it was then that I decided Republican politics were no longer about being FOR something, such as tearing down walls. The Republican narrative and their mission had fundamentally changed.
Republican politics became about being AGAINST all things Democrat. Gone were the famed days of Tip O’Neill & The Gipper. And once that shot had been fired, there was no turning back. Impeachment was the ultimate line, or so we thought, to cross. I became a Democrat soon after.
Step Four: made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step Five: admitted to God, ourselves and another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.
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A close friend and I got into a serious enough spat to where it almost got physical. I came up through the school of hard knocks, eventually achieving success. He came up through the frat experience in a well known college, eventually achieving success.
A mutual friend at the time arranged for great seats to a football game between their famed college and another equally famous university. The problem was, no place to stay, the night before the game.
So through a friend of a friend, me in my late 30s at the time, we stayed with some recently graduated frat types.
They got drunk and began bragging about various date rape adventures they had while in college. Now, I get that not all educated, frat types are like this, but it horrified me.
And sexually speaking, I’m a rather open dude. But this was RAPE they were bragging about! RAPE! An act of violence. I couldn’t handle it and I came home, blowing off the game.
My Republican friend back home got very angry, EVEN after I told him about WHY I had left the game.
It so angered me, I called him out. And had he come out, I would have beat his ass into the ground and lost a good friend, albeit, a sheep following friend.
Was my Republican friend condoning rape? No, absolutely not. He’s a good man. But what he was doing speaks to what is MASSIVELY broken with the Republican party, and to a degree, the Democratic party.
Don’t make waves. Protect the group AT ALL COSTS. Never challenge the group’s orthodoxy. Never admit to making a mistake. FALL IN LINE or there will be consequences!
In other words, the Republican party has become a cult.
There several defining characteristics of a cult, just click the link above to find out more. But the characteristic that keeps people “in check” is a passionate opposition to independent thinking.
When a move was made to impeach President Clinton, Republicans did not stand against such a move. And when Newt Gingrich’s transgressions came out, there were no apologies for his hypocrisy. The cult remained obedient.
Which led, eventually, to this guy ….
Who is heavily supported by these guys …
And these guys …
And these guys …
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Step Four: made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step Five: admitted to God, ourselves and another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.
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So FINALLY, the Republican party has hit it’s limit, right? I mean, FINALLY they have gone too far and even they can see, CRAP- we’ve created a monster! This can’t continue! The constant peddling of fear has to end!
Nope. Not by a long shot.
I almost voted for John McCain once. I don’t even recognize him anymore. And then there’s Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House and his recent apology, which I believe was heartfelt. But does he TRULY get it? No, he does not.
In a interview today, the topic of the speaker not endorsing Donald Trump came up, with the speaker taking a “we’ll see” attitude. The key thing to notice is what he did not do.
Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House of one of most powerful countries on the planet DID NOT stand up to his own party and simply say, AS A REPUBLICAN, I cannot stand behind nor endorse a racist, bigot and misogynist.
The cult remains 100% in tact. Obedience, it would seem, is still far more important to the Republican party than integrity and honor. And nowhere have I found this to be more true than how they have treated President Obama.
Republicans have stopped reading. They have stopped challenging the rhetoric and finding out for themselves, FACTUALLY, using bi-partisan resources, how has our current president has done.
They could care less about the facts and THAT is why they got Trump. He is a monster of their own creation.
Here’s the irony to this fiasco. While some of the Republican elite are screaming foul, that somehow they have fallen victim to Donald Trump, they CONTINUE to fertilize the very soil from which he was brought to life.
Benghazi, the email accusations, both have been vetted over and over again. But rather than fight the former Secretary of State on the issues, they remain stuck in the same mentality that tried to impeach her husband.
While the Republican that was leading that charge was cheating on his cancer stricken wife.
BUT NO ONE SPEAK UP!
The cult remains. The soil from which The Donald was raised, continues to be fertilized by the VERY SAME people that are crying foul. We all know the story of the boy who cried wolf. Or at least, I thought we did.
So, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. I’m one of those progressive liberals, right? Somebody that believes all the world’s problems can be hugged out. Live and let live, pass me a doobie! Right? WRONG!
The thing that drives me batty about many Republicans and Democrats is their total inability to just give us a straight damn answers. No ducking and dodging. No pretending, us mortals, really don’t get it.
Hillary Clinton bugs me and Sanders bugs me even more. Many progressives are to me, what hard right conservatives are to me, A CULT. Our country will collapse under extreme points of view because of one simple truth.
An extreme point of seeks compliance, seeks only to WIN. There is no such thing as common ground with extremists of any type, so Sanders is a no go for me for just that reason.
We already have division among us, we DON’T need more!
When Hillary Clinton recently did an interview in West Virginia, I FINALLY saw a real human being! That is what sane, non-racists need to see more of, both Republicans and Democrats. We need real people back in politics again.
While I am a huge fan of President Obama, he is not without his flaws. I like the idea of Affordable Care, but as a business owner, I can tell you- it’s a mess. I think his passion for rapidly exiting Iraq was short sighted and has cost us.
Not to be clear, we never should have been there to begin with. But when The President arrived, we were there and thus, it had to be dealt with in a way that should have been far more effective than what happened.
On and on I could go, on how BOTH PARTIES have failed us and continue to fail us. But that is not what this post is about. It’s about this …
Donald Trump is neither a Republican (whatever that is, at this point),nor is he a Democrat. Donald Trump is not a liberal nor is he a conservative. And the fact that we as a people, care MORE about what club Donald belongs to than WHO HE REALLY IS, is the worst indictment of all.
When John McCain endorsed Donald Trump, he endorsed Hitler. When Governor Christie endorsed Donal Trump, he endorsed Hitler. I liked both of these gents in the past. From this point forward, they will forever be seen by me as co-conspirators to Hitler level hate.
As Americans, we are massively arrogant. What we call struggles are nothing compared to what other parts of the world face on a daily basis. So we think, no way a Hitler could rise in OUR WORLD.
Read your history, people … Hitler came to power as a slow burn, not an overnight event. Donald Trump threatens the very fabric of our way of life. And if Republicans don’t get off their butts and start standing up for this great country of ours, then they don’t deserve to call themselves Americans.