Republicans swing the word freedom over the heads of their voters like the Sword of Damocles. It has become a meaningless mantra, cutting away real freedoms like affordable housing, healthcare, pay equity, and a clean environment. Freedom for a majority of Republicans has translated into the freedom to kill their neighbors with a deadly virus. Dr. Fauci, the CDC, and state health officials all want to control you, they preach; but no one asks; why? Money cannot be the reason, Dr. Fauci has had chances with the Swine Flu and Ebola to monetize mass death. State health officials have fixed salaries as municipal employees, and I find it hard to believe that doctors who took an oath to ‘do no harm’ suddenly excised all their moral scruples.
The warped mind it takes to project that kind of evil on another’s motives says more about the finger pointer than the accused. Conservative ideologists have trouble accepting that people are capable of doing good just for the sake of doing good. Look at their recent history. The fact that former President Obama was a church-going, academic scholar, who used his talents to be a low-paid community organizer was both confusing and infuriating for them. If that were not enough, he and his Princeton-educated wife chose to live the American dream and serve their country and family over the dollar.
The vitriol became so all-consuming, for Conservatives, that their countermeasure was to choose an alleged tax cheat whose personal habits and business acumen were so suspect and self-serving, his reputation in New York was that of a grifter who did not pay his debts. His proven philandering and accusations ranging from groping to rape made him manly in the eyes of the male Republican voter; and more disturbingly desirable, in the minds of lots of conservative women. This was not unknown to Republican voters, they publicly admired his admission in a debate with Hillary (I told you so) Clinton of how he cheated the government; when asked about his avoidance of taxes he braggingly said, [that] “makes me smart.” Liberals were appalled and Conservatives applauded.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) who saw poverty in her neighborhoods partially fueled by environmental bigotry could not possibly want to see a cleaner planet; she is a socialist with an agenda they surmise she wants to take away your freedom(s). Black Lives Matter must hate white people. The moral compunction to protect black bodies from continued injustice and extra-judicial killing cannot possibly be a legitimate motive; “the existence of Black Lives Matter is a national humiliation,”said Tucker Carlson.
Yesterday the soon-to-be-former Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo had his lawyer spend 45 minutes trashing the accusers who charged him with sexual harassment. Cuomo, then, invoking the names of his children subsequently sat behind a desk and resigned his office, effective August 24. Make no mistake Cuomo did not willingly resign, he was renounced, denounced, and forced to leave office by his fellow Democrats.
On October 7, 2016, weeks before the Presidential election, an audiotape was released of former President Donald Trump. Needless to say, the admission of his sexual assaults would have sunk a member of what used to be the Republican party[pre-2012]. I watched, as Republicans first abhorred his words, then rushed to the front of the line to defend him when they realized their voters had become irrational, unprincipled zealots. I believe in the two-party system, but right now we have one decent party, and one in fear of their own psyche.
Continue to Vote for Change.