Donald Trump is just the outbreak of a disease that has been a long incubating virus in Republican circles.
The voice of mean, Ann Coulter, became the leading voice of Republican denigration when she insidiously derided the reputation of war hero and former Georgia Congressmen and Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the President Bill Clinton administration, Max Cleland. For those of you who have forgotten, he lost three limbs in the battle of Khe San as a result of his combat tour in Vietnam. Ms. Coulter wrote Mr. Cleland, “lost three limbs in an accident during a routine combat mission where he was about to drink beer... Luckily for Cleland’s political career and current pomposity about Bush, he happened to do it in Vietnam.” (Excerpted from Joe Conason)- observer.com/....
Follow this up by the attacks on Illinois Representative Tammy Duckworth, who was gravely wounded as a helicopter pilot in Iraq, lost both legs, and severely damaged her right arm. She has been called a braggart by former Rep. Joe Walsh who once tweeted, “this is now war” against President Obama. In referring to Ms. Duckworth’s service he said, “now I am running against a woman who, my God that’s all she talks about.” Walsh lost his 2012 re-election bid for the 8th district in Illinois and now gives his unfettered opinions daily as a right wing radio talk show host. Coulter and Walsh are fixtures in the right wing world of opinionated bias.
The Republican party has defended and bolstered these people as heroes and voices of their cause. Out of this modern selfish philosophy with its standard- bearer being, the late President Ronald Reagan, we have been going down this road of mean-spirited, me-ism since the late eighties. Reagan set the standard by kicking off his two-term presidency by holding his first campaign rally in Neshoba County, Mississippi. This was the site where civil rights workers, Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman were brutally murdered, the most notorious case of southern atrocity during the civil rights era.
All of these dog-whistling and shouting opportunists have given rise to the Trump era. Mr. Trump has become the spousal abuser to America. Should we really be surprised he went after the grieving American-Muslim parents of an American war hero? He lies to us incessantly, blames us for making him behave badly, sends gifts of atonement through intermediaries and then beats us again. Day after day I hear pundits tell me this is “unique” and we have “never seen this before.” I beg to differ, we have been bombarded by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage, collectively for over 30 years.
From this radio propaganda sprung Fox News. Led by a man whom most of the world now believes is a serial sexual harasser, Roger Ailes. Ailes has mastered the art of misinformation and intellectual bigotry. Donald Trump is not unique he is what the modern Republican has always wanted to be, white, exclusionary and selfish. Mr. Trump just opened the door and revealed what has always been there. Fox News can come out of the closet and change their catch phrase to ‘Just Unbalanced’ they have their new standard bearer.
Vote 2016