Anyone who is even remotely considering voting for anyone other than Biden needs help or a brain transplant
IF IT WASN’T clear before that Donald Trump and almost all of the modern-day Neo-Nazi Republican Party are calling for the total destruction of The United States of America and the Democracy that has guided it since its founded, comments and actions of the last month or so should make it starkly clear.
Let’s start with Trump himself and then wade further into the Republican sewer.
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world,” Trump said at a New Hampshire rally a few days ago.
Back in September he said in an interview with the far right “National Pulse, “Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from. (Speaking of migrants) We know they come from prisons. We know they come from mental institutions and centers, islands we know they’re terrorists. Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad and people are coming in with disease, people are coming in with — with every possible thing that you can have.”
In a November speech, also in New Hampshire, Trump again used language that echoed Hitler and fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini when he pledged to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.”
Hitler used the term “blood poisoning” in his manifesto “Mein Kampf” to criticize the mixing of races, specifically, German blood being “poisoned” by Jews. The exact Hitler quote was “All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning.”
Trump also doubled down on dictators, citing their support of him and restating his fondness for them.
“Viktor Orbán, the highly respected prime minister of Hungary, said Trump is the man who can save the western world,” exclaimed Trump. Putin “says that Biden’s, and this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.” As for Kim, “He’s not so fond of this administration, but he’s fond of me.” So, no surprise Trump said he would be a dictator, even if only “on the first day.”
If you are one of those people waiting for the “moderate” Republicans to rise up and reject all this talk, give it up. Only Chris Christie has launched a full-on assault on Trump for his comments. So, consider Republicans either all-in for Trump and an American dictatorship or to lacking in courage to even whimper about it. Let’s look at other examples what the Republican Party is as we go into the critical 2024 elections.
OHIO REPUBLICAN SENATOR J.D. Vance was so uninspired has joined those who are just fine with Ukraine ceasing to exist. During Ukrainian President Zelensky’s visit to Washington a week or so ago, Vance got up and left a meeting with the foreign leader who was pleading for more aid. Vance was just one of several Republicans who appeared not to care a lick what happens to Ukraine. He was joined by Texas Senator John Cornyn who said of “I don’t know whether he moved the needle at all.
Vance first gained fame for his book “Hillbilly Elegy,” set in large part in the county and town my father’s family comes from. I read the book and thought it was a heart-felt account. Now I wonder if he even wrote it. The man has become the first-in-line to kiss Trump’s backside and he doesn’t care a lick how many people suffer and die because of his actions, or what happens to his country.
MY, MY. THE founder of Moms for Liberty and her husband, head of the Florida Republican Party, engaged in a three-way with another woman. When Bridget Zeigler could not make a scheduled three-way her husband allegedly went to the house of the other woman and raped her after she told him she didn’t want to do it just with him. “Sorry, I was mostly in it for her,” she told him.
Now, I am not bothered in the least that three consenting adults had three-ways. To each their own. But, given that Bridget Zeigler and Moms have led the book-banning, curriculum-bending assault on our public education system, most stridently screaming about LGBTQ+ books and teachings, the hypocrisy is beyond measure.
She currently serves on the Sarasota County School Board, covering the Gulf Coast district south of Tampa, and all but one of her colleagues voted to ask her to resign. Her husband has been stripped of all his authority on the Republican committee until he can be formally fired.
If you still take Moms for Liberty seriously on anything you are damaged goods beyond hope. Seriously.
THEN, WE HAVE Texas….but then, don’t we always “have Texas?”
The Texas Supreme Court overturned a court order that would have allowed a Dallas woman, Kate Cox, to get an abortion. More than a week ago Cox, 31, filed a lawsuit, asking the courts to allow her to terminate her pregnancy after she learned her fetus had full trisomy 18, a lethal fetal anomaly. Not only would the child not live but carrying it to term and giving birth could result in her losing the ability to have children. Cox is not a raving anti-abortion person. She is a woman facing seriously health issues. The lawsuit, brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights, said continuing the pregnancy posed a threat to Cox’s health and future fertility, but her doctors refused to perform an abortion due to the state’s near-total ban on the procedure.
Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble originally ruled neither Cox, nor her husband or OB/GYN, should be criminally or civilly penalized for terminating her pregnancy. But, of course, the oft indicted and totally corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an emergency petition, asking the state Supreme Court to overturn that ruling. And it did.
At this point Cox reportedly has left the state to get an abortion. There are two problems with this. First, it starkly points out how women without the means to leave the state are being victimized by this dark ages law. Second, some legal experts say that the way the law is written anyone in Texas who helps her – her husband taking her out of state, friends giving money – could be charged with aiding and abetting felonies.
How sick are we in this country at this point?
DON’T WORRY. I have not forgotten George Santos. You remember the Congressman from Long Island who was ousted from the House in a rare vote for being a con artist, pathological liar, thief and just general unethical asshat. If you are tempted to say his ouster shows that even Republicans have a breaking point, consider this – 112 Republicans voted against kicking him out. They said they did so out of a concern for precedent but really, given the Republicans’ slim hold on a House majority it really was all about power, not ethics. Those voting to keep Santos included new House Speaker Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan (who is leading the Impeach Biden efforts), unabashed Putin support Paul Gosar and a host of other hard-core Trumpers. Oh, and we don’t want to forget Scott Perry. I mention him because I currently live in Pennsylvania, and he has been one of the state’s biggest pro-Trumpers.
I could go on. Tommy Tuberville, for instance. It is hard to find anything that passes for ethics or love of democracy in what is today’s Republican Party.
It’s easy to dismiss all this and say when it’s time to vote we will do the right thing. But, will we? After all, about a third of US voters are solidly in Trump’s camp. Call them delusional, call them stupid (you would not be wrong) but they are voters. Add in the number of people who are saying they will vote third party over some “single issue” they have with Joe Biden and it wouldn’t take much to swell those ranks. Keep in mind that just like previous years the popular vote won’t matter. It’s all about the archaic Electoral College and Republican voter suppression and gerrymandering have given them a clear advantage in the EC.
What that means is that those who want to save democracy must turn out in unprecedented numbers. Democrats must run a brilliant campaign, not exactly their strength. They have to keep voters from defecting to third parties, some of which actually are funded by Republican sources in the name of “moderation” but in reality, are designed to take votes from Biden.
Case in point. In an interview a young voter upset with Biden’s stance on the current Gaza horror show said “I do not support this war and so I will not vote for Biden. I don’t know what the impact of that will be but I know I won’t be a part of the war.” OK, then. You will be a part of installing Trump as a dictator. Someone needs a brain transplant.
Republicans have told us who they are, never more than in the last few days. Believe them.
Rich Heiland, has been a reporter, editor, publisher/general manager at daily papers in Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and New Hampshire. He was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team at the Xenia Daily (OH) Daily Gazette, a National Newspaper Association Columnist of the Year, and a recipient of the Molly Ivins First Amendment Award from the Walker County (TX) Democrat Club. He taught journalism at Western Illinois University and leadership and community development at Woodbury College in Vermont. Since 1995 he has operated an international consulting, public speaking and training business specializing in customer service, general management, leadership and staff development with major corporations, organizations, and government. Semi-retired, he lives with his wife in West Chester, PA. He can be reached at heilandrich1@gmail.com.