Just a few weeks ago, the Republican establishment was excoriating Donald Trump in the most dire possible terms, as a filthy scum bag, con man, bully, and so on. And they were exactly right.
Now he is the party’s nominee, and with barely a show of reluctance, one by one they are lining up behind his candidacy for president. Our own beloved ex-governor, Rick Perry, was among the very first to climb on board. Then even Marco Rubio. And now, the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. Expect Ted Cruz any day now.
These are the people who have been branding themselves for the last 30-plus years as the party of principles, family values, and Christianity. The party that upholds the Constitution. The party for whom “Character counts.” So let’s examine the character of their nominee, shall we?
Donald Trump was born rich. He began his career with a $1 million loan from his own father, and later inherited $200 million. If he had put it in a trust fund, he would probably have as much as he has today. So his supposed success as a business man is a sham. He rips off common people, lies incessantly, and contradicts himself on a daily basis. He has been married three times, and cheated on all three of his wives.
If elected, who knows how many affairs Trump would have while in office? What reason do we have to believe he would keep his oath of office, if he never bothers keeping his wedding vows? But suddenly, the party of family values, that impeached Bill Clinton having sex with Monica Lewinsky, somehow has no problem with this.
Trump has pledged to violate the first and eighth amendments to the Constitution, and shows his utter disregard for international law by saying that America has not tortured nearly enough and should go after the terrorists’ families. But the party of the Constitution, the party of law and order, the party of Christian decency, has no problem with this lawlessness?
The mask is off the Republican Party, ladies and gentlemen. Their true colors are on display for all to see. The Republican Party is not now, and perhaps never has been, a party of principle, nor of family values, nor of character, nor of the Constitution. They are, and perhaps always have been, the party of big money and powerlust, covering their true agenda with various fig leaves, in order to sell it to decent people.
Their agenda all along, ever since the 1960s at least, has been to destroy democracy, because there have always been more Democrats than Republicans, so elections are a losing proposition. But the Republicans have always had more money per capita, so they have worked steadily and incrementally over the years, to increase the influence of money over our political system, and decrease the power of the individual voter (including denying the right to vote to anyone who disagrees with them, especially if their skin is dark). But slowly, stealthily, incrementally. After all, if the frog knew it was being boiled, it would jump out of the pan.
In the 1980 election, they swindled the entire country into believing that if we would only give them a big tax break, they would invest it to create jobs, and we would all prosper together. They invested it, all right – in politicians, who rewrote the rules in the favor of the rich, who got massively richer while the rest of us stagnated or fell into poverty.
In that same election, they hoodwinked a lot of well-meaning Christians into believing that they, the family values Republicans, would put an end to abortions. And through the presidencies of Reagan, Bush and Bush, they managed to pack the Supreme Court with a majority. And what did that 5-4 conservative majority do? Did they put an end to abortion?
No, but they wasted no time in declaring that money is speech, and therefore campaign contributions cannot be limited. Money controls the process like never before, and thanks to the same “conservatives” on the Supreme Court, we cannot even trace where the money is coming from. For all we know, our government is run by corporations in Russia or Saudi Arabia.
There are many rank and file Republicans who are perfectly good, well-meaning people. But the Republican Party leadership has proved just how phony their “principles” are. Donald Trump is the complete and utter opposite of everything they have pretended to stand for. They have embraced the dark side, purely in the service of power and money, because that, and only that, is what they are all about.
Phil Jones ois a local columnist who makes his living teaching math to kids with “learning disabilities”, especielly dislexia and ADHD. He writes original songs through a nonprofit called Sunrise Ministries.
djones2032@austin.rr.com