The carnival is coming to town, and they’re looking for your votes
The freak show is coming to town. No, I don’t mean the carnival with their display of deformed people and animals. I mean the Republican presidential primary. This show has to be the most entertaining fantasy production since the discovery of the “Affluenza Defense”.
The Democrats just can’t compete with these Republican drama queens. These presidential posers promise something for everybody in their “base”. Always taking care of their rich donors first, they promise large tax cuts for the filthy rich.
For those living in the Republican denial bubble with your denial of global warming and your “trickle down” delusion, you never have to grapple with truth with these clowns. Politifact, fact checkers for the Tampa Bay Times found that 76 percent of Trump’s statements were mostly false, completely false, or “pants on fire” lies. Cruz was right behind at 66 percent. In fact, only one of 84 statements by Trump was true, and only four of 77 were by Cruz.
They have a big bonus for the white bigots. It’s open season on Latinos. They want to build a wall at our Southern border, make Mexico build and pay for it, and deport 12 million Mexicans that have been slandered as murders and rapist. In order to keep up with this lynch mob, Jeb Bush may have to send his wife and “anchor baby” back to Mexico.
Moslems have been defamed as terrorist and threatened with deportation and exclusion from the country. Of course, the most obvious “dog whistle” for white supremacist Republicans is the frequent gratuitous attacks on President Obama. These attacks have no basis in fact and are no more than character assassinations. Marco Rubio has adopted the technique of memorizing a 25-second Obama rant to repeat when he doesn’t have an answer to a question.
The “Arm Chair Commandoes” are beside themselves with glee. All of the Republicans, especially Trump and Cruz, believe the rest of the world are no more than our handmaidens. We can bully and bomb them into compliance. This is nothing short of delusional overestimation of military power.
“Bombing them into the stone age” has not been effective since Nagasaki. Cruz promises to use nuclear weapons to make the sand “glow” in the Middle East. This sounds very similar to the “final solution” for the Jews in Nazi Germany.
However, if you think these Republicans have followed a “scorched earth” policy to impress the bigots, white racists, and “cowardly lions” of the Republican base, wait until they descend on gullible evangelicals in Tennessee.
Trump will be reading from “Two Corinthians” and thumping the Bible that has not been opened since his mother gave it to him. Cruz will parade around in his costume of piety babbling about God and Jesus and offering up phony prayers. Rubio will tell us that he is a Baptist and a Catholic and that being a Baptist makes him a better Catholic and vice versa.
A long time ago, someone said, “Ye shall know them by their fruit”. This fruit is rotten to the core and stinks to high heaven.
Just be sure to vote.
Terry Stulce served two combat tours in Vietnam, one with the 101st Airborne and one with the 69th Border Rangers. He was an LCSW and owner of Cleveland Family Counseling before retirement in 2009.
Photo by Kristen Price