Politics with Richard Bleil
Today an article was posted by my friend entitled, “CNN’s Margaret Hoover slams Ted Cruz for ‘pandering to bigots’”. Well of course he does. That’s his base. He has backed cutting women’s rights and freedoms and has publicly stated (recently) that same-gender marriages should be illegal. He’s terribly unpopular with his colleagues, and routinely embarrasses his state and the Republican party. And he keeps getting re-elected.
And therein lies the rub. It doesn’t really bother me that bigots exist. They’ve been with us from the beginning and will be with us at the end. The concept that “we’re better than the rest”, that “everybody should live by our personal standards” and that “those people who are doing no harm to me should be punished” is strong, and unfortunately growing. We’ll always have to contend with these shallow people, but what does concern me is that this group is so common and growing.
In Texas, bigots are so populous that there is really no danger to even Ten Cruz being kicked out of office. As long as he continues to pander to the base values of these frightened little idiots he’s got a job, so what is the impetus for him to suddenly change? And it’s not just Texas.
Enough bigots exist throughout the nation that even Trump could win opening his election announcement stating that all Mexicans are rapists and murderers, and today Latin American support for him is growing. His contempt for women goes far enough that he publicly stated grabbing them in a manner that is sexual assault, and he has women lining up hoping they will be next.
Our nation is at cross-roads, whether we want to believe it or not. The insurrection at the Capital could have easily triggered a violent national revolution, lacking nothing more than an organized statement of action for those sitting at home watching and ready to take up arms in support of the violence. I own a small arsenal myself, but not to protect myself from government overreach. I own guns to protect myself from the armed idiots who would come after me because of my liberal viewpoint.
Many extremist Christians are trying to subvert the Constitution by claiming that it was meant to build a Christian nation (it was not) and that the Bible calls for a holy war against those who oppose it (it does not). Their interpretations of the Bible and the Constitution are clouded by their own extreme beliefs to the point of literal blindness as to the actual meaning. Immigrants settled the US in an effort to escape religious persecution, not to build an intolerant society. The Bible calls for loving thy neighbor, not forcing them to capitulate to your will. Anybody who calls on the Bible or the Constitution to force their beliefs down the throats of others call themselves “Christian” or “Patriots”, while they are honestly the exact opposite. They do not understand the basic tenants of Christianity and Americans, and never will because those definitions do not echo what they want to believe.
This nation is turning more hateful, and less tolerant thanks to the efforts of Mitch McConnel and Donald Trump to subvert the Supreme Court, the last bastion of reason in an increasingly intolerantly conservative government. And we are all paying the price. A ten-year-old rape victim had to cross state lines to get an abortion. While this should be getting us all to think about the repercussions of an abortion ban, instead it has Republicans calling for laws that make it illegal to cross state borders for this medical procedure. Healthcare decisions are now being made by attorneys as they are advising doctors to avoid giving necessary abortions to women until they are medically unstable and already dying.
And people like me? Honestly, this should have no impact on me whatsoever. I’m a white male, not married, heterosexual, and I try to placate myself with the mantra “well, it’s what they voted for.” My greatest fears of a Trump presidency are not coming true, because it’s become so much worse than I could have imagined. It’s what happens when you elect an entertainer and businessman into the White House rather than a politician. And thank God that Biden was in office when Russia elected to invade the Ukraine. Biden has given the support the Ukraine needed to continue to push back against the Russian invaders while managing to keep the US out of an armed conflict with Russia. Trump has already raised the specter of nuclear holocaust even as a citizen watching from the sidelines. In office, he either would have supported Russia (his friends) and let them roll over the Ukraine and threaten surrounding nations, or gotten us into what could have easily become the final armed conflict while there is life on Earth.
Bleil's Banter 