THOMPSON: Why are you still a Republican?

OPINION

Republicans – those who hold or held public office or those who voted for them – please let me know why you’re still a Republican. Really, I want desperately to understand your thinking?

I cannot grasp your allegiance to a political party that is undermining 246 years of American Democracy, whose most fervent desires are to stay in power and benefit those who are mostly wealthy white folks.

I must admit a strong bias…even though it is firmly built on a foundation of undeniable truths about Republicans. I have witnessed decades of their actions, inactions and self-centred behaviours. Yes, I have opinions…but they are based on facts and truths.

This is not to say there have never been Democrats or Independents who were neither corrupt nor immoral. Clearly, there have been…and they exist today. Please, no fascist crowd chants of “Lock her up” or “Benghazi!” or any other rallying cries of Republican-led investigations that mostly found nothing.

You see, I’m not talking about the non-partisan, garden-variety corruption that sends lowlifes to prison every year. Politics likely draws criminals no more and no less than any career path…and the crooks are proportional to the population…comprising every race, creed, colour, sexual identity and ideology.

The corruption of which I write has less to do with individual perfidy…and more to do with institutional depravity. There are Republicans everywhere – in every state, every community – who are to politics what the minor leagues are to Major League Baseball. The locally elected gain power and then are called up to play in Washington, D.C., along with lawyers deemed “right” enough to become judges in courts all across America.

Are all Republicans guilty? No, of course, not. But when your party is controlled by dangerously evil folks playing in a world where anything goes as long as you win…and you simply shrug your shoulders and look the other way…well, when does your good conscience kick in? It’s not easy, I guess, when reality challenges your thinking. But I wonder exactly when was the tipping point for those who once supported Nazis in Germany…1934?…1939?…1945…never?

The Republican Party has given kooks – seriously, near certifiably crazy folks – a paint brush…and old-school Republicans seem surprised that they’ve been painted into corner. Given a choice between Democracy and power…the Republican Party today overwhelmingly choose power. They appear to see no problem with their leadership.

The Republican Party leaders see democracy – the right to vote, fair and equal justice and the protection of human rights, the rule of law – as sometimes useful, sometimes inconvenient tools…but always disposable.

Republicans – overwhelmingly – are the source of more evils, more corruption and more dealing from the bottom of the deck than all the other American political parties combined. Republicans – more than Russia…more than the China…more than North Korea – pose the single biggest threat to American freedom and democracy. Proof? I’m glad you asked.

Let’s start with the Big Lie…that Donald Trump rather than Joseph Biden…won the election in 2020. The presidency was stolen, say more than 70 percent of registered Republicans in five different polls this year…nearly two years after the election and with no proof or evidence.

Of course, this false notion is not based on fact or truth…rather on attitude…a tribal response. Biden’s more than 8-million-vote win was a result of massive voter fraud, they say. But more than 50 courts – more than half controlled by Republican-appointed judges – found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. In fact, the relatively few instances of voter fraud uncovered since the election were perpetrated by individuals supporting Donald Trump.

It is telling how far Republicans have fallen from grace when you consider the widespread belief – the acceptance as truth – of wild conspiracy theories that on the surface are ridiculous.

Why do 23 percent of Republicans believe “the government, media and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child-sex trafficking operation?”

Why do 72 percent of Republicans still doubt former President Obama’s U.S. citizenship…with 43 percent sure he is a Muslim?

Are Republicans in Congress as stupid as they seem…a reflection of those who vote for them?

When Rep. Lauren Boebert last week didn’t know the difference between "wanton" and "wonton" while reading a passage from the Bible…then tried to joke about her own ignorance.

Do you support Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – whose ignorance is on display weekly – who said “We have Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff and spying on American citizens."

Some proof of widespread Republican corruption is simply prima facia evidence…a statement of fact and truth not requiring my questions. Republicans have for decades played with the justice system – stacking the courts with mostly young, questionable Conservatives – who willingly bend the rule of law to satisfy a Republican base driven by staunchly Conservative, Right Wing zealotry.

For example, Donald Trump taking and keeping hundreds of Top Secret documents at Mar-a-Lago for 18 months is clearly against the American rule of law. But Aileen Cannon, a 41-year-old lawyer, who was named a U.S. District Court judge by Trump after he lost the last election, has made decisions that are beyond suspect.

She is fast becoming known for undermining the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into former-President Donald Trump…twisting existing law to the point of knotting it. Almost every legal scholar has noted in the past two weeks the lack of legal basis for her rulings. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, I predict, will overturn Judge Cannon’s overreach.

But she is one of many Trump-appointed judges whose political zeal exceeds their legal expertise and judgment. There are three levels of the U.S. court system; district courts (where trials occur), circuit courts (the first level of appeals), and the Supreme Court of the United States, the final level of appeal. There are 94 district courts, 13 circuit courts, and one Supreme Court.

Trump’s and Republicans’ impact on the judiciary is profound. In four years, Republicans replaced one third of the Supreme Court, 54 members of the circuit appeals courts and 174 district court judges. In all, about 30 percent of the federal bench.

The Right-Wing controlled Supreme Court’s disregard of a 50-year precedent – Roe v. Wade – marks the first time in U.S. history that rights were taken from citizens. It will, I predict, be met with overwhelming disapproval when the votes are counted in November’s mid-term election.

Recently, Florida Governor DeSantis lured two plane loads of Venezuelan asylum seekers in Texas and sent them to Martha’s Vineyard. A woman approached them outside the shelter, offered them $200 each and lied…saying they would be flown to Boston where they could get expedited work papers.

This dehumanizing bit of political theatre is what DeSantis and Republicans do best. DeSantis thought the liberals of Martha’s Vineyard would reject the migrants out of hypocrisy…proving that Democrats aren’t actually interested in welcoming immigrants into their communities. What happened, of course, was that residents of Martha’s Vineyard rushed to provide food, shelter and clothing to human beings…they cared. Republicans just don't get it.

As far as Republicans in Congress…scores of Republican Senators and House Members have criticized Biden’s forgiveness of $10,000 and $20,000 student loans…even as they accepted forgiveness of bigger Paycheck Protection Program loans from the Small Business Administration…often $1 million or more.

There are hundreds more examples of current Republican malfeasance – too many anecdotal references to mention in this column – but if you’re in doubt…please research the facts…truths. Don’t seek biased sites spouting propaganda…look at bonafide sites with no axes to grind. The truth is there for all to see. Of course, truth was there for all to see about Nazis 80+ years ago…and that party still exists.

And if you don’t like what you read here, your defence? But no deflections, please. When your political party’s best actions are giving the rich tax breaks, loading the courts with Right Wing zealots who don’t reflect America’s majority, sending conspiracy theorists and Q Anon members to Congress…and embracing white supremacists and Neo-Nazis, your chants of “Benghazi” sound a bit disingenuous.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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