Today is the mid-term election day, and if you live in the United States and you’re not planning on voting, then shame on you.
Seriously.
President Obergropenführer wants to make this a referendum on him, and I think we should do just that. If you don’t know what you think of President Pussygrabber by now, then shame on you.
Seriously.
So let me begin by saying that one can still be a Republican and an honorable person, but it’s getting harder and harder by the day. Certainly one can support Republican policy positions – less regulation, fewer taxes, an emphasis on military spending, and even discouragement of immigration – and still be an honorable person.[1] But supporting this President personally and still being an honorable person, that’s an oxymoron in waiting.
As I’ve said on several occasions before – and it’s becoming clearer to me as time marches on how true this is – a large number of his supporters voted for Trump not despite the fact that he is an asshole, but precisely because he is an asshole. This is the “I hate libtards” crowd, and anything that will piss us off will be something they can support. Luckily, this is still a large minority of the electorate.
The other people who voted for Trump were the “I want something different crowd” who thought to themselves, “how bad can he be?” Now you know.
It should be clear to anyone who is paying attention that this President has become the “baiter-in-chief.” Despite his and Sarah Huckster Sanders adamant denials, the Trumpster has definitely created the conditions that provoked the attempted bombings of high profile Democrats by Ceasar Sayoc, or the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburg by Robert Bowers. No, of course there isn’t a direct line between Trump’s hateful rhetoric and these events; but he’s definitely creating the conditions that allow these things to happen.
Trump is now lying about the “migrant caravan” and the danger that it supposedly poses to the United States. He’s threatening to send 25,000 troops to the U.S. Border to stop the migrants, notwithstanding that the caravan is still 900 miles from the U.S. border, that the migrants have a right under U.S. law to seek asylum, and that federal troops cannot be used for police purposes. It’s simply an election year stunt.
Trump is also lying about being able to use an executive order to overturn “birthright citizenship” as guaranteed to anyone born in the United States through the 14th Amendment. This is settled law, and all Constitutional scholars view it as such. Even if any portion of birthright citizenship could be modified, it would have to be done through legislation passed by the federal Congress, and can certainly not be done through an executive order. Every Constitutional scholar agrees on that.
Trump has also lied about how many countries have birthright citizenship, claiming that we’re the only one. As it happens, we’re only one of thirty. Other countries that have birthright citizenship include Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Pakistan, among others. Countries that have a kind of “qualified” birthright citizenship include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Iran and South Africa. In other words, some pretty significant countries.
Trump has also lied about the non-existent middle class tax cut that he claimed the Republicans were going to pass, even though Congress is currently out of session.
Trump has also lied about supporting coverage of pre-existing conditions in the ACA (the most popular provision in the Affordable Care Act by far) even though he and his fellow Republicans have consistently opposed such coverage.
Trump has also lied about guaranteeing that there will be no cuts in Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, when that is exactly what Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have proposed.
But then, as we know, Trump is a compulsive liar. He lies so much that the media can barely keep track of it all. Some of you may remember how much Obama was excoriated for saying that no one would have to change doctors after the Affordable Care Act was instituted, and it turned out that some small percentage of people would have to change doctors after all. Those were the days.[2]
So again, I can understand supporting Republic policies or even the Republican party. But this President? Come on people. If you’re still supporting this President, then you too are an asshole. There really is no other way to describe it.
[1] Remarkably enough, the economy is still going strong for the moment, despite Trump’s best efforts to screw it up. I do believe his erratic tariff policies and the ballooning federal deficit will eventually catch up to him, but maybe not soon enough.
[2] When we’re talking about “false equivalence” – the notion, for example, that all politicians lie – some of you may have noticed that Trump (and by extension the Republicans) lie without compunction, whereas the Democrats (burdened by a sense of fair play) are not lying ahead of the mid-terms. One glaring example of the difference between the parties.
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