Rolling Stone Magazine dubbed the mob of Republican presidential candidates the “Clown Car.” It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad to see our nation’s “Grand Old Party” sinking to one low after another.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse than Trump (bankrupt six times, berating women and disabled persons, accusing MIAs of being “losers,” ad nauseam), he and the rest of the clowns think it’s OK for candidates of the free world’s most powerful leadership position to promise they’d match the worst of terrorist actions. Ted Cruz, who seems to be vying for leader of a U.S. theocracy, promises to bring back waterboarding. Trump would go “as far as necessary” to match ISIL’s most heinous crimes. Per their consistently fact-free train of thoughts and claims, Republican candidates say that torture is consistent with Christ’s teachings and effecting in obtaining important information — science, truth, and facts be damned. With the bile, outright lies, and hypocrisy coming out of 2016’s right-wing presidential candidates and the public support its garnered, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would feel anything but hateful and afraid of where our country is heading and where it will go if one of those candidates becomes President of the United States.
Dangerous neoconservative signatures like deadly, costly wars, scenes of American brutality at Abu Graib, secret U.S.-aided renditions, capture and decade-long imprisonment of untried and even innocent prisoners at Guantanamo, and promises to build walls around our nation and turn suffering refugees away from our shores based upon religious beliefs explain much about why terrorism has become a pervasive threat. To our nation’s great peril, the conservative stamp of international hostility and diplomatic ignorance has been only tenuously derailed with the more measured diplomacy of the Obama administration — a safety net that could be torn apart by a Republican president.
Attacks on the scary clowns are coming from divergent corners. Notable conservative columnist David Brooks wrote in his recent piece “I Miss Obama” that, “Cruz is a stranger to most of what would generally be considered the Christian virtues: humility, mercy, compassion and grace.” He added, “Cruz’s speeches are marked by what you might call pagan brutalism. There is not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy.”
A quote from People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group, further explains the candidates’ extremism: “Donald Trump courted — and received — the backing of anti-immigrant birther Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and proudly touted Sarah Palin’s endorsement. Many anti-gay, anti-choice Religious Right leaders have coalesced around Ted Cruz, who has shamelessly cozied up with pastors who have supported putting gay people and abortion providers to death. And while Marco Rubio might want voters to think he’s a moderate, he’s really a longtime Tea Party darling who denies climate change, opposes any increase to the minimum wage, and says Christians in America face more discrimination than Muslims.” I’d add that empty rhetoric in support of “small government” contradicts support for Big Brother deciding a woman’s reproductive destiny. And who can expect these fingers-crossed-behind-their back, blowhards to make decisions that respect our country’s diversity when they’re willing to stoop to the lowest level of attacks upon members of their own party?
Acclaimed political writer Matt Tiabi wrote, “Carly Fiorina, in a nationally televised debate, claimed to have watched a nonexistent video of evil feminists harvesting fetal brains. Ben Carson has been through a half-dozen factual dustups, including furious debates over whether or not he stabbed someone and whether or not he once won $10 for being the only honest student in an (apparently nonexistent) Yale psychology class.” As Salon.com said, “Trump has decided that voters are so clueless, so deliriously angry, that feigned bigotry and empty promises to ‘make America great again’ will do – no specifics needed. And he’s obviously right.” Most recently (though it’ll get worse by the time this goes to print), Trump refused to diss Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s endorsement. What’s undeniable is that if any Republican candidate takes the helm (finger on the nuclear button), the strong-arming of Congressional Republicans would insure flashback to the Cheney/Rumsfeld, “good for business,” bad old, war-loving days — or worse.
Sitting around bemoaning the potential of a Trump or other iron-fisted, fear-based presidency or the potential horror of having our three branches of government hijacked by right-wing extremists is not enough. It’s time for everyone who cares about decency, freedom, democracy, and the future of their grandchildren’s children to abandon the doomed GOP and work diligently in support of candidates who stand up against the Clown Car before it, and our nation, are totally derailed.
Janice Palma-Glennie is a resident of Kailua-Kona
My Turn opinions are those of the writer and not of West Hawaii Today