When you’re running as many cons as the Republican Party it’s hard for its intended victims – the poor and middle class – to keep up with them.
That’s why it’s important to look at two events in the news recently: Nikki Haley’s stupendous failure in answering a question about the cause of the Civil War, and the Ohio state legislature’s attack on transgender kids. Combined, they display the party’s hypocrisy, lies, hatred, and cowardice.
Let’s start with Haley. Here’s a short video of her at a town hall answering the question of what caused the Civil War
Haley throws out a lot of buzzwords and cliches, like “freedom,” “liberties,” and so on.
“I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are,” she said. “I think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people.”
Amazingly she never mentioned the actual cause of the Civil War: slavery. When the questioner followed up saying he was surprised by that, she played dumb, saying, “What do you want me to say about slavery?”
How about this, Nicki: Slavery was absolutely the cause of the Civil War. It laid the foundation for the racial inequality we see to this day. It’s a black mark on the history of our nation and should always be a reminder that we need to address important issues by being honest that they exist in the first place. And it starts by making sure our educational system teaches the truth about our history, not some sanitized version concocted by the Right to make whites feel good about themselves.
But she didn’t say that, although she did agree the next day that the war was about slavery. That’s because Haley is a political coward who’s so afraid of losing the MAGA vote, so frightened of angering the racist wing of her party, so terrified of turning away the idiots with their confederate flags who can’t admit the Civil War was an insurrection against our government by traitors from the South because they wanted the despicable ownership of African Americans slaves to continue and grow.
Haley is so weak that she can’t tell the truth when it’s staring her right in the face. It’s in the damn history books. Why in the hell would anyone think someone this pathetic could run an entire country?
But there’s another aspect of Haley’s comments we shouldn’t ignore: her calling for a limited role of government. You see, this is just another way to say the GOP’s small government lie. It’s a lie because it has nothing to do with freedom or liberty. It’s about cutting government programs and agencies, specifically the social safety net and regulations.
It’s really important to remember this: The ultimate goal of the Republican Party, what you see in just about every position it takes, is this: More money for the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class.
Haley simply wants what just about every Republican wants: Less spending to help people, less regulations, particularly in the fossil fuel and finance industries, leading to lower costs and more profits for these businesses, and lower taxes for the rich and corporations.
That’s it. Period.
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Meanwhile in Ohio, the state legislature passed a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors. Up until now, Ohio has allowed this legitimate medical treatment. In fact, transgender youths living in states that have banned it have traveled to there for treatment, the Washington Post reported.
The law allows minors who are already receiving gender-affirming care to continue doing so, but prohibits the seeking of such treatment for others in the future.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed the bill. He rightly said that “These are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by parents and should be informed by teams of doctors who are advising them.”
“This bill would impact a very small number of Ohio’s children. But for those children who face gender dysphoria, the consequences of this bill could not be more profound,” DeWine said. “Ultimately, I believe this is about protecting human life. Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today, if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio’s children’s hospitals.”
Republicans, thanks to gerrymandering, have a supermajority in the legislature and could override DeWine’s veto. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Gary Click, has called for an override.
Where do we start with the lies? How about with Click, who said the measure was not about “culture wars” but about “medical ethics.” That’s a blatant lie. This is all about culture wars. It’s all about ginning up support among so-called Christians for a party that’s so impotent legislatively that it has to relay on smoke and mirrors like this to cover its own failings and its pro-rich, anti-poor-and-middle-class, anti-environment agenda.
Even the title is a lie: the Saving Adolescents From Experimentation Act, or the SAFE Act. Experimentation? These aren’t experiments. These are accepted medical procedures.
But beyond the lies we see another of the GOP’s cons. What about their beloved freedoms? What about their cherished “parents’ rights?” Why, in their proclaimed world, should parents not be allowed to make critical medical decisions for their children?
Is it because it terrifies the Bible thumpers in their base who jump right to the sex stuff in there and skip over the love-thy-neighbor and judge-not-that-you-be-judged parts? To them it’s love thy neighbor, as long as he or she isn’t doing something in their bedroom that makes them uncomfortable. Or maybe, for some, piques their interest.
But one thing’s for sure, any country that elects leaders whose path to power is paved with lies, hypocrisy, racism, hatred, and corruption is also setting a path for itself: To the end of its rule of law, the end of its democracy, and the end of its greatness, albeit a greatness that’s been stained by its periodic falls from grace over the course of its history.
Almost half the states in the country have passed laws targeting transgender people, the Post reported. This is an all-out Republican war against the LGBTQ community, who they’ve demonized to play to the Christian hypocrites that make up a good part of their base.
So, the pro-life party again shows that it’s really pro-fetus, and after that if it has to screw you over to win elections, it’ll screw you over to win elections.
You can read the Post story here.
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In November, we’ll see what kind of country we’re going to have. Of course, it will be up to the voters.
But one thing’s for sure, any country that elects leaders whose path to power is paved with lies, hypocrisy, racism, hatred, and corruption is also setting a path for itself: To the end of its rule of law, the end of its democracy, and the end of its greatness, albeit a greatness that’s been stained by its periodic falls from grace over the course of its history.
I don’t want to go down that path. I hope enough others don’t, either.
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Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writing on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. Also, please check out my video blog: The 3:13 on Politics.