AMEND CORNER: We need honest and honorable politicians in D.C.

Posted 5/17/16

I didn’t make that up. Just Google the phrase “The day the Republican Party Died,” which was the actual headline in The Atlantic, or some variation of those words, and see what comes up. Yes, many of the articles come from liberal leaning …

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AMEND CORNER: We need honest and honorable politicians in D.C.

Posted

In case you missed it, the big news in recent weeks was the death of the Republican Party, and Donald Trump’s supporters are responsible.

I didn’t make that up. Just Google the phrase “The day the Republican Party Died,” which was the actual headline in The Atlantic, or some variation of those words, and see what comes up. Yes, many of the articles come from liberal leaning sources, but other writers were moderately conservative, and at least one article I found came from a conservative writer who said the party had really died in 1988, when Ronald Reagan went home to California.

I don’t believe the party is really dead, but it’s a pretty safe bet that the GOP will be a different beast after this, especially if Trump wins in November. Exactly what the differences will be is anybody’s guess, but I think we might be compelled to drop the G part, because I don’t think it will be “grand” any more.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not too many months ago, the conventional wisdom said Donald Trump’s candidacy was a joke. Many Republicans, including the candidates, questioned Trump’s legitimacy as a Republican because he has sometimes supported liberal positions. The expectation was The Donald would eventually fade away in favor of a candidate who was more house-broken, somebody like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio. After all, Ben Carson, who was a sort of kinder, gentler version of Trump, faded away, and Trump would, too.

Now it’s like an old song, “They all laughed,” which contains the immortal refrain, “Ha ha ha, who’s got the last laugh now.”

I suspect that Mr. Trump is laughing himself silly these days.

I could be laughing, too, because there is some irony in the situation. These Republicans, who branded Barack Obama as the most divisive president in our nation’s history before he was even officially the president, are now saddled with a guy who’s so divisive, he has split their party.

I’m not laughing, though, because I’m afraid that, despite the obvious lies he spouts in his speeches and his transparent ignorance of presidential power and civil liberties, voters might just elect him, and as president he can do major damage to America.

The Democrats are wrestling with a split of their own. Like the Republicans, Democrats have an intruder in their party, Bernie Sanders, who has been serving in the Senate as an Independent — not a Democrat. Evidently the Democrats weren’t liberal enough for him, because I have seen comments by his supporters who claim neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama are liberal enough to be Democrats. He only entered the Democratic primaries because that was his best shot at the White House. As a candidate, Sanders has been a swarm of mosquitos invading what was supposed to be a campaign picnic for Clinton. Despite being stung a few times though, she will probably be the Democratic nominee.

As an old civics teacher, I have been bothered by a number of things in this campaign. I’m disappointed, but not surprised, that so many voters have applauded the xenophobia and bigotry that have been a big part of Trump’s campaign. There is no denying that racial and ethnic bigotry are wide-spread in America, and this bigotry plays a significant part in our politics. I know from being around Republicans that they aren’t all bigots. Still, the campaign of the man who now is the face of their party incorporated racial and ethnic animosity in his speeches, sometimes quite openly and often by implication, and it angers me that doing so has attracted voters.

It is troublesome that voters are not questioning what their favored candidates are saying, although again, I’m not surprised. Why aren’t Sanders’ supporters, for example, asking him just how much his proposal to make college tuition free would cost, and how much it would raise taxes? Why aren’t they questioning Trump, who quotes an unrealistically low cost for his ill-advised Mexican wall, how he arrived at that figure, and beyond that, how much it will cost to maintain that wall? Why haven’t they challenged both Trump and Sanders about their trade proposals, because they are likely to mean higher prices? And why haven’t the tax cuts and/or spending increases proposed by all the candidates been challenged by voters, since nearly all of them will balloon the deficit or eliminate important programs?

One explanation for the rise of Trump and Sanders is that voters are angry because politicians have made promises they haven’t kept. For example, Republicans are angry that the Affordable Care Act hasn’t been repealed, and liberal Democrats are angry that the ACA doesn’t go far enough. According to polls, voters are angry about that and are looking for new faces in the hopes of finding that magical president who will resolve all our conflicts and create the proverbial “city on a hill” that America is supposed to be.

But America is already a great nation, and we don’t need a president to make us one. We need to work at keeping it great and making it greater, and one man can’t do that. That will require sending to Congress people dedicated to honest and honorable politics and employing the political process to improve conditions for the nation as a whole.  

Our job as voters is to find that kind of people.

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