I have a question. It could be a rhetorical one, but if someone
can give me a response, especially a well thought out one, I’d sure appreciate
it…
Today (02/23/16) Nevada held its
republican caucus, and so far in the republican race for the nomination, Donald
Trump is commanding a significant lead over the competition… That’s right,
Donald Trump… is winning… Which brings me to my question.
Dear republicans, WHAT THE FUCK?!
Real quick, I’d like to take a
moment to remind you all of some of the greatest moments in the history of the
Republican Party; because I feel like the GOP has become vilified in recent
years, especially by my own generation (though this could be in part due to the
RNC’s total inability to handle their own shit).
First and foremost, please oh
please remember, that the first Republican president is still commonly
considered one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) president in our history,
and one of the greatest leaders in world history… Abraham Lincoln.
That’s right, if you weren’t aware,
Lincoln was a Republican. And only 6
years before he was elected, was when the Republican Party was formed. Why was it formed? Well its primary goal was to stop the spread
of slavery into the western territories, and to work on abolishing it from the
US entirely. Guess what? They succeeded. After an incredible amount of political
strife, war, and blood spilled. (Jefferson Davis was the president of the
Confederate States during the Civil War.
Know what political party he belonged to? Hint: it starts with a “D” and rhymes with
“Bemocrat”.)
Moving on… Women’s suffrage! Remember when women weren’t allowed to vote
because the common belief was that their brains were smaller than men’s, and
that meant that they were too dumb to engage in politics? The Republican Party, led by Senator Aaron
Sargent of California, stood by Susan B. Anthony and suffrage movement. They eventually proposed and passed the 19th
amendment to the constitution in order to allow people to vote regardless of
the genitalia they possess… you know, common sense stuff.
Later, under the guidance and
leadership of another great American president (Theodore Roosevelt, my personal
favorite), who happened to be a Republican, the Panama Canal was built. Think of the incredible engineering feat that
the canal still is to this day… and how vital it still is to trade routes and
economies around the world.
Do you recall when children weren’t
allowed to go to certain schools based upon the color of their skin? About 60 years ago? Remember how ridiculous the idea of
segregated schools was? It was an idea
that was upheld and perpetuated by the Democratic Party, and was eventually
overturned by Dwight Eisenhower and the Republican Party. He then sent in the military as a show of
force in Little Rock, AR in order to ensure that the Little Rock Nine could go
to whichever school they damn well pleased, no matter their skin tone, against
the vehement wishes of the Democratic governor of Arkansas.
56 years ago the Civil Rights Act
was signed by Eisenhower. It took him
almost a week to sign it though… because 18 Democratic senators filibustered it
for 125 hours straight (that’s a solid 5 days + 5 hours).
Ronald Reagan championed and signed
the United Nations Convention Against Torture throughout his presidency. He was
extremely vocal in his stance against
any form of torture against anyone in the world, for any reason whatsoever, as
is stated in the Convention that he signed.
Under primarily Republican
leadership, the US “won” the Cold War with one of the largest military
superpowers in the history of mankind, the Soviet Union. How this came about was extremely complex and
some aspects of the “victory” were beautifully executed, other were, admittedly,
not great… (Training and supplying afghan rebels, including Osama Bin Laden,
for war and ONLY war… yeah… don’t do that.)
Still, won the Cold War without launching a single attack or declaring
war.
Sure, the Republican Party has
taken a sharp downturn in morality and effectiveness in recent years, but
hopefully this list has so far reminded you why the Republican Party is called
the Grand Old Party. And hopefully
you’ll remember\realize that in history, no one’s hands are truly clean…
Now, let’s take a look at the
values and the history of the current Republican front runner for the
nomination… Donnie Trump…
Donnie thinks he knows what qualifies someone as “presidential”
and what doesn’t… For instance, a president doesn’t take a
bathroom break and doesn’t look like
this…
But DOES look like this…
Or, remember that time he called
Ted Cruz a “pussy” because he wouldn’t say he condoned waterboarding?
In summary, the GOP over the last decade has been portrayed
as old, out of touch, combative, discriminatory, and frankly a teensy bit
annoying. But that party was great
once. There was a time when the
Republican Party was a shining beacon of morality and hope that led us through
some of the darkest moments in our history.
Some of those times weren’t so long ago, in fact, many of them took place during the lifetimes of every single one of the current
presidential candidates… which begs the question, how did things get this
fucked up?
Donnie claims that he wants to “Make America Great Again” (a
slogan which he stole, word for word from Reagan’s campaign in 1980)… Well,
back when the Republican Party was great; during the abolition of slavery, the
women’s suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, and the cold war era, it
was great because it stood against
everything that Trump stands for.
When I originally started writing this, I intended for it to
be funny. I wanted to poke fun at Donnie
and point out just how ludicrous he is.
But that’s because I started writing it months ago. He’s not funny anymore. I mean, he is, kind of… but more than that,
he scares me. He genuinely scares me.
Maybe it’s my paranoia speaking to me, but when I look back
at history, Trump’s political rise is eerily similar to how some of the worst
dictators in human history came to power:
They pandered to a nation that was angry, a nation that was
tired of the status quo and that felt it had been abused by the powers that be.
They spoke about using a strong hand, and taking back what
was theirs. These men promised
retribution and dominance through strength.
They whipped their crowds into a frenzy. They demeaned their opponents, implying that
they were less than human, and certainly not fit to lead.
Anyone not involved in the movement dismissed it as a
spectacle, sure to pass in no time.
However, when people would protest against them, the leaders
would encourage their followers to use violence in order to silence the
protesters.
When the violence grew, they institutionalized it, creating
their own security organizations.
While all of this happened, the anger in the nation grew,
and those that opposed the party began to show fear. Fear of speaking out against these men, fear
of the violence they used, but most of all a fear of the anger that was washing
over the nation.
Those that sat back and didn’t participate believed that the
anger would pass. They believed that it
was a phase, that perhaps the anger was necessary, for a time; but that the
leaders of the movement were too extreme, and that they would never be able to
accomplish what they promised, so why worry?
The nation became divided between those that gave into the
anger and became a part of the frenzy, and those that stood by, believing that
this extremism wouldn’t last, and that it couldn’t happen to them.
The few voices that remained against the movement were
either silenced or forced to leave their homes.
Then Poland was invaded.
This, ladies and gents, is the story of how the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party came into power under a man named Adolf
Hitler.
I know, I know… people throw around Hitler comparisons all
the time, and it gets dismissed as hyperbole… and maybe that’s all this is,
maybe I’m overreacting. But encouraging
violence from his followers, claiming that victory (even over unknown adversaries) is a necessity at any cost,
dehumanizing anyone who opposed him as well as an entire religion, and
manipulating a tidal wave of anger, hatred, and fear… those were the
cornerstones of Hitler’s rise to power.
Back then people believed that it couldn’t happen to them,
they believed that reason would win out over fear and hatred. They were wrong. So I ask you, is there a possibility, even a
small one, that we’re wrong too? And is
that possibility a risk that we are willing to take?
Finally, I will end this post on a humorous note. After all, if I learned anything from
Professor Remus Lupin of Hogwarts, it’s that the best way to overcome our
fears, is to laugh at them. Also, let’s
be honest… as scary as Trump can be, anyone would be hard pressed to find an
easier target for jokes.
I’m not saying that he’s an idiot whose grasp of the English
language maxes out after 140 characters.
I’m not saying that he’s actually
Biff Tannen from Back to the Future or that he reminds me of an older, vaguely American Augustus Gloop on the verge
of falling into a river of chocolate.
Also, I would never say that his list of past marriages resembles
spam from a mail-order bride website.
And I would certainly
never say that his grasp on reality is thinner than his hair.
You know what’s really disgusting though? What’s really disgusting is the people that
say he looks like a misshapen, lumpy scrotum that lost a fight with a cheap can of
spray-on-tan, or that his hair looks like a merkin (don’t know what a merkin
is? Google it, thank me later.)
I would also never point out that his fingers are freakishly
short (Google that too) and paired with his face and his attitude, frequently remind me of
Chucky.
No, I would never say any of these things. In fact, the people that DO say these things,
they’re disgusting and rude. It’s
horrible. Just horrible. Who would say that? Not me, I’m not gonna say that, no. But I can’t control what other people say,
they’re very passionate after all. I can’t
stop them from saying those things.
