Well, the most recent Republican “debate” certainly disavowed that idea. I have not been able to get through an entire debate of either side, but twenty minutes into this one and I had had enough. And to think what we may have to go through when it is narrowed down to the party’s nominees!
It has been astounding on many levels. First of all, virtually nothing has been presented on the policy front. All the Republicans are in agreement on only two things: The sad state of the nation is entirely President Obama’s fault and each of the candidates will correct all the problems the instant they are inaugurated.
How gullible do they think we are? Apparently presidential aspirants subscribe to the theory that if you state a position loudly and often enough it assumes the proportion of fact. Tell a lie until it seems like the truth.
The debate used to be important. The first one in 1960 was pivotal. Nixon’s poor performance against Kennedy was decisive as was Reagan v Carter in 1980. The most recent debate set a new level for offensiveness. After we began to hear about how small hands might not be equated with equally diminutive male anatomy, it had reached a new low and I clicked the power button. The following morning news shows confirmed that I had made a wise decision.
As disgusting as this has been, there are those that are thoroughly enjoying it Sad to say, many are following the vituperative delusions that are being distributed and fail to see what may really be happening.
There has not been a presidential season so dysfunctional since the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Vietnam was heating up; the assassination of Robert Kennedy was still fresh in everyone’s minds. After the election Richard Nixon was going to be our salvation. We can remember how well that worked out.
The difference between those times and today is that the whole world is watching this fracas and the level of personal attacks totally unrelated to issues has never been so vile. What must civilized countries be thinking!
Few have considered what comfort this is giving to those who really hate the United States. The behavior being exhibited by the candidates and being supported by a substantial portion the electorate can be seen by our adversaries as vindication of the poison they are spreading across the world.
Won’t ISIL use this as justification for their distorted views? How can a million immigrants, they are really refugees displaced by the Syrian war, feel any sense of hope from America when crowds applaud building border walls? Does any sane person fail to recognize that the Mexican drug smugglers are so successful because of our insatiable appetite for their product? A wall won’t stop them. Is it a coincidence that Kim Jong-un chose this time to roll out his nuclear arsenal? With a psychotic poised to push the North Korean button we should give very careful thought to who has similar power on our soil. The Republicans sound like The Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s.
It’s not enough to be outraged. A long as millions support this kind of behavior, it will continue. The media, one of the usual suspects when events like these gain traction, are not the culpable party. The public is caught in a conundrum: genuine interest in supporting a candidate is not only desirable, but necessary. Watching these events is like opening a package and instead of finding something useful it is garbage.
What’s a proper citizen to do?
Unless we stand up to the current political circus and insist that the freak show stops, we may well find ourselves on the verge of a national calamity the scale of which has never been experienced. The death of the Republican Party may be the least of our worries.
Hayden Hollingsworth
