The Republican Party
Mitch McConnell sees himself as Jim Bowie, another Kentuckian who died defending the Alamo from the Mexican hoards. I think this time, Mitch, you are on the wrong side. The symbol of the Alamo has power because it represented the battle between a depressed minority, the Texans, and the dominant Mexicans. Today, the colors have reversed.
Obama's election as president was blame by the Republican party on changing racial demographics in America. After the election a group of Republican political educators was sent out to talk to all the state Republican groups, I assumed, about the changing demographics and how to bring persons of color into the Republican party. If white people became the minority and if the populace votes along racial lines, then the Republican were in trouble. I assumed this was the purpose of this educational road trip. I didn't hear the presentation but now I think I was wrong. Rather than saying 'let's make peace with our colored majority and offer them a place at the money trough' it seems they shouted 'Circle the Wagons!' The last stand of white tribalism is taking place in America. It is interesting that actually the circle is the coastline of America where all the Democrats and non-Trump voters are and the center of America is where the Trump-voters are. The Republican action-squad got the geometry wrong - somehow.
The actions of the Republican majority congress and presidency indicate that the strategy decided upon by the party policy setters was not to incorporate people of color into the party but to exclude them in a way that made their increasing numbers unimportant.
First, there was gerrymandering. In many states the majority vote democratic but the republican have the most representatives. Arranging voting districts to benefit one party over another is both illegal and unAmerican. In America, a democracy, each person gets a vote. We add up the votes and those with the most votes is the winner. This is not a game, or a business, or a sport like football where tough play is okay. This is our way of life, our government, our legacy to our children, a legacy of honest government. If you support gerrymandering you are unAmerican. The Republican not only support it, they did it. One may shrug and say 'all's fair in love and war' but in fact that isn't true. Some things are not fair and gerrymandering is one of them.
Second, the war on immigration is a Republican strategy and probably the reason Trump got elected. We are all immigrants or the children or grandchildren of immigrants. The symbol of America is the Statue of Liberty - "give me you poor, your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free...". Not anymore. After generations of immigration, waves of poor, distressed, starving people coming here to live and work under the rule of law and democracy, the Republicans suddenly want it to stop because it is shifting the balance of power.
Third, racism. The election of Obama set off deep racial antipathy in America. It galled people who believe in the superiority of white people, that a half black man should represent them and, in some cases, tell them what to do. Then Trump came along and made oblique racial comments, comments whose message was that its okay to hate people who are not your color; its okay to call them stupid (see Trump's tweet about Don Lemon and Lebron James); its okay to cheat on your wife. At least he is not a drinker, or says he isn't anyway. Could an unseen nightcap or three be the reason for those outrageous early morning tweets? By encouraging the feeling that the white race is superior to the darker skinned races, it gives justification for all manner of racially motivated intimidation both in person and at the voting booth.
Fourth, the Republican party has decided to make decisions without using facts. Being the party of christian fundamentalism they have decided that the bible is a better source of guidance than science. Facts obscure the truth. This is not because they are all religious but because the bible is subject to interpretation. The laws of our country are much more specific and harder to work around than a biblical phrase. Our Republican Attorney General Sessions quoted the bible rather than the law to support his position: “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” And the Republican shudder at sharia law? Using the bible as their go-to reference book rather than a law library, they can exclude whole groups from the conversation: atheists, islamic people, buddhists, hindus. They have a hard time with the blacks here, since many of them are christian, but plain racism works about as well.
No, Mitch, you're not Jim Bowie and Trump is not certainly not Davy Crockett but I'm afraid you both will suffer the same fate but for the right reasons.
Obama's election as president was blame by the Republican party on changing racial demographics in America. After the election a group of Republican political educators was sent out to talk to all the state Republican groups, I assumed, about the changing demographics and how to bring persons of color into the Republican party. If white people became the minority and if the populace votes along racial lines, then the Republican were in trouble. I assumed this was the purpose of this educational road trip. I didn't hear the presentation but now I think I was wrong. Rather than saying 'let's make peace with our colored majority and offer them a place at the money trough' it seems they shouted 'Circle the Wagons!' The last stand of white tribalism is taking place in America. It is interesting that actually the circle is the coastline of America where all the Democrats and non-Trump voters are and the center of America is where the Trump-voters are. The Republican action-squad got the geometry wrong - somehow.
The actions of the Republican majority congress and presidency indicate that the strategy decided upon by the party policy setters was not to incorporate people of color into the party but to exclude them in a way that made their increasing numbers unimportant.
First, there was gerrymandering. In many states the majority vote democratic but the republican have the most representatives. Arranging voting districts to benefit one party over another is both illegal and unAmerican. In America, a democracy, each person gets a vote. We add up the votes and those with the most votes is the winner. This is not a game, or a business, or a sport like football where tough play is okay. This is our way of life, our government, our legacy to our children, a legacy of honest government. If you support gerrymandering you are unAmerican. The Republican not only support it, they did it. One may shrug and say 'all's fair in love and war' but in fact that isn't true. Some things are not fair and gerrymandering is one of them.
Second, the war on immigration is a Republican strategy and probably the reason Trump got elected. We are all immigrants or the children or grandchildren of immigrants. The symbol of America is the Statue of Liberty - "give me you poor, your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free...". Not anymore. After generations of immigration, waves of poor, distressed, starving people coming here to live and work under the rule of law and democracy, the Republicans suddenly want it to stop because it is shifting the balance of power.
Third, racism. The election of Obama set off deep racial antipathy in America. It galled people who believe in the superiority of white people, that a half black man should represent them and, in some cases, tell them what to do. Then Trump came along and made oblique racial comments, comments whose message was that its okay to hate people who are not your color; its okay to call them stupid (see Trump's tweet about Don Lemon and Lebron James); its okay to cheat on your wife. At least he is not a drinker, or says he isn't anyway. Could an unseen nightcap or three be the reason for those outrageous early morning tweets? By encouraging the feeling that the white race is superior to the darker skinned races, it gives justification for all manner of racially motivated intimidation both in person and at the voting booth.
Fourth, the Republican party has decided to make decisions without using facts. Being the party of christian fundamentalism they have decided that the bible is a better source of guidance than science. Facts obscure the truth. This is not because they are all religious but because the bible is subject to interpretation. The laws of our country are much more specific and harder to work around than a biblical phrase. Our Republican Attorney General Sessions quoted the bible rather than the law to support his position: “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” And the Republican shudder at sharia law? Using the bible as their go-to reference book rather than a law library, they can exclude whole groups from the conversation: atheists, islamic people, buddhists, hindus. They have a hard time with the blacks here, since many of them are christian, but plain racism works about as well.
No, Mitch, you're not Jim Bowie and Trump is not certainly not Davy Crockett but I'm afraid you both will suffer the same fate but for the right reasons.
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