CommentsMY TURN--Politics has always been a dirty game, and it seems that it happens in a lot of countries. Our founding fathers knew this and had first-hand experience of it.
While they made valiant attempts to ensure that there are checks-and-balances to try to thwart a lot of the cheating, they never anticipated that the U.S. would become the nation that it is and that the “conservative side” would go to any lengths of cheating to win. When you have one side trying to play by the rules and the other side undermining our so-called “Democracy”, it becomes imbalanced. The question is: when will the tipping point be reached?
The intense bias and hypocrisy of the Republicans goes beyond what most critical thinkers can wrap their heads around. When President Obama was in office you saw the likes of Fox trying to rip him apart for wearing a tan suit, eating Grey Poupon mustard, and they attacked Michelle Obama for wearing a sleeveless dress and trying to get healthier lunches in our schools. Meanwhile, the illegitimate orange man in the White House can lie over 8,000 times, send signals out to his cult followers for violence against people of color and other religions, alienate our allies, and do illegal payoffs to porn stars, and has a wife whose nude photos have been seen all over the world….and they are silent. This lays the groundwork for the type of people that they are, so it’s no surprise that “cheating” falls right into their lines of acceptance.
The Republicans have devoted decades to gerrymandering in many states. This involves realigning specific communities so that each one has a Republican representative, no matter how many Democrats or Independents are in the voting population. Republican State Governors have also been involved in everything from voter suppression to requiring that signatures on mail-in ballots be an exact likeness and this means throwing out any that didn’t include a middle initial or not, based on the original signature. When Republicans are “caught” in this horror of a charade and new elections are demanded, conservatives (including the “I’ve got mine — to hell with the rest of you Libertarians) accuse liberals of celebrating the nullification of an election.
Republicans often throw around the words “will of the people,” when in reality, it is the will of the mostly white, heterosexual males that run the Republican Party. Their goal is to ensure that their party and the country maintains a white-only control, and they will go to any extent to accomplish it. We are seeing outright illegal activities in North Carolina where they have point-blank announced an election to have been filled with voter suppression and fraud.
Even when Republicans are voted OUT in certain districts and states, they continue to have criminal activities to try to destroy the incoming Democrats. In an article in Rolling Stone:
“In those [Wisconsin and Michigan] states, there is no question who won. Voters in both Wisconsin and Michigan elected Democrats to take over for their appalling Republican governors: Tony Evers to replace the anti-labor villain Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Gretchen Whitmer to oust Flint disaster architect Rick Snyder in Michigan. Yet the Republican-led state legislatures in both states were kept in power by gerrymandered districts. Democrats netted nearly 200,000 more votes in Wisconsin last month, but state Republicans increased their slight senate majority and walked away with 63 of the 99assembly seats. A Michigan ballot proposal to reign in partisan redistricting passed in November, but Republicans still retained majorities in both houses.
Now, Republicans in Wisconsin have just passed legislation that amounts to an assault on the state’s rule of law. It will strip Evers of powers that he doesn’t even have yet. It will prevent the new governor and the incoming state Attorney General, Democrat Josh Kaul, from withdrawing from litigation against the Affordable Care without the permission of the Republican majority. The measure also usurps Kaul’s job, giving many of his powers to the state legislative branch. Consider a state law unconstitutional? The Republicans in the statehouse will not only be able to intervene and prevent the attorney general from settling any claims — a provision will allow them to “retain legal counsel other than the Department of Justice.” The state’s top lawyer has essentially been fired before he even takes the job, without the say of the plurality of voters who hired him to represent their interests.
Liberals Aren’t Perfect, But DO Have a Cleaner Record
Overall, Democrats and liberals in general have a much more honest approach to government. This is not to say that there hasn’t been wrong doing on that side. Power changes people and there have been a few incidents where liberals fell prey to it. However, if you take a walk down the halls of history you can see that Democrats are consistently fighting for rights for we-the-people, whereas Republicans support companies, tax breaks for the wealthy, destruction of the planet…and yes…greed. Another question that I am always posing is “why.” Why are they willing to sell out even their own children and grandchildren for the almighty dollar?
The other thing that is quite noticeable in the “hall” is that when Democrats DO succeed in getting legislation passed, members of the conservative parties benefit from it. This runs the gamut from social security and Medicare to the minimum wage, and beyond. They may run down the streets ripping their hair out at the fear trigger word of “socialism,” but the very streets that they are on are due to Democratic socialist programs.
Cheating takes on many guises and, since conservatives are outnumbered by liberals and independents, they decided a long time ago that cheating is the only way that they can “win.” We are still waiting for the fallout from Mueller’s investigation, and for those of us that have been trying to connect the dots, the observable evidence of an illegal Presidential election is overpowering. The sheer number of indictments that have been made are unheard of. Imagine if a Democrat had done 1/100th of what we are uncovering?
You see, in the eyes of the conservatives, only THEY are allowed to cheat. When THEY do it, it’s alright, even expected. It is some form of white machismo to demonstrate power. In reality, it is criminal.
In the same Rolling Stone article:
“Voter suppression is not merely about gerrymandering, closing polling places and requiring IDs to shape an electorate. It is a declaration that only Republicans are allowed to run things, even when the voters say otherwise, and that any challenges to their power are invalid. We worry, rightfully, about what Trump does and will do to our democracy. He soils it with his lies about undocumented voting and his encouragement of intimidation at the polls. But the embarrassment of his “voter fraud” panel demonstrated that he is actually rather ineffective at suppressing votes. Trump is a small man, but that isn’t why this is bigger than him. When it comes to protecting Republican power for themselves and their shrinking white electorate, the real pros are at the state level.”
Representative Elijah Cummings Said it Best
After watching the travesty of the Michael Cohen testimony in front of Congress, each of us witnessed the blatant and blind loyalty of the Republicans to trump. Not once did they decry the allegations or even say his name, but instead continued to attack Mr. Cohen. If I didn’t know better, I would think that I was an observer in a dictator country, with a trial being held only for show. The Republicans know that the “jig is up” and that many of them will be found guilty of numerous fraud, crimes, and possibly even accepting money from Russia and other enemies of the state. One Republican even resorted to the childish antics of a sign. One supposes that it was to appease the man-baby in the White House who only seems to relate to immature actions.
All the while during Mr. Cohen’s testimony, not one Democrat ever mentioned the word “impeachment” — but the Republicans did.
The conservatives have lowered the bar SO low, that many are surprised that it hasn’t hit the mantle of the earth. There doesn’t seem to be anything that they won’t excuse of their party, and it is nauseating and disgusting.
There was a moment when many looked up and that was when Representative Elijah Cummings made his closing statement. It wasn’t just moving, it reminded us of an America that once caused us to hold our heads up with pride. An America that has many faults, but keeps trying to be better. An America that so many look to with envy.
Representative Cummings said:
“I’m sitting here listening to all this, and it’s very painful, very painful. As I sat here and listened to both sides, I just felt as if … we are better than this. We really are. As a country, we are so much better than this.”
Elijah Cummings also said in his closing statement:
“And I’m hoping all of us can get back to this democracy we want and we should be passing on to our children, so they can do better than we did,” he said. “When we’re dancing with the angels, the question will be asked, ‘In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing?’ ”
(S. Novi is a journalist that worked in the media and continues to seek out truth and integrity. A liberal and one that is suspicious of cults and empty promises. She is a member of Medium.com and a contributor to CityWatch.)
-cw
