My party has gone bat shit crazy.
South Carolina republican Senator, Lindsey Graham
That's certainly one way to put it.
When Don Trump announced his candidacy for the republican presidential nomination, he promised to save the United States from unrelenting hordes of Hispanic rapists and drug pushers. According to him, he will force the Mexican government, who he says has been savagely bilking the American people for decades, to build a vast wall on our border. Apparently, he envisions it as a super sized version of the one which once separated Berlin, only in reverse.
Within a month of his auspicious entrance into the race, he told CNN the only reason everyone considered AZ Senator and former GOP presidential candidate, John McCain, a war hero was because he had been shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese. Brother Trump opined, "I'm sorry, I like people that weren't captured."
Since then he has vowed to establish a national data base of every Muslim in the country--U.S. citizens included--for tracking purposes. At the same time he advocated for the closing of, "some mosques," and promised to stop Muslims from immigrating into the country. This after declaring he personally witnessed, "thousands and thousands," of Muslims on the Jersey side of the Hudson River celebrating the collapse of the World Trade Center during the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Additionally he's said, he supports the torture of prisoners, "...even if it doesn't work."
About three months ago he retweeted, (a favorite tactic--hey, I didn't say it, I was just repeating something I was told) that 81% of white murder victims are killed by African-Americans. Columnist George Will pointed out yesterday the reality is 82% of white murder victims are killed by other whites.
He told a crowd at one rally that a black protester should have, "...been roughed up." Then a few days ago police escorted 30 some odd black students out of a hall at Valdosta State University before another rally began. Despite claims of innocence from Trump's staff and the candidate himself, the cops have insisted they kicked the kids out only because members of the Trump campaign expressly instructed them to.
A couple of days before, El Don had denied knowing who former KKK leader and current white supremacist, David Duke is and seemingly refused to disavow his avid support and the support of various white nationalist groups. The next day, after everyone, both left and right went ballistic, he complained the whole thing was a misunderstanding because he had been given a bad earpiece and didn't hear the questions correctly.
In a print column today, Michael Gerson reminded us that a couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump took to a social media outlet where he darkly warned the Ricketts family, who had contributed millions to an anti Trump Super Pac, "They better be careful, they have a lot to hide." Gerson also pointed out that last week Trump threatened to, "Open up the libel laws," and said of the Washington Post, "If I become president, oh do they have problems. They are going to have such problems."
After USA Today ran a story about the Valdosta State incident Trump's people refused to give them credentials to his press conference last night. It wasn't the first time the campaign has thrown such a churlish snit. On previous occasions the organization has refused to allow reporters from The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and the New York Times to attend speeches because they had published unflattering stories about the founder of the defunct and possibly fraudulent, Trump University.
Gerson also reported that in 1990 Brother Trump claimed Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev didn't have a, "firm enough hand." Last year, after Vladimir Putin was accused of putting out successful hits on opposition journalists, the now leading GOP candidate shrugged and said "He's running his country and at least he's a leader, unlike what we have in this country."
Yesterday, Will wrote, "Trump is a presidential aspirant who would flunk an eighth grade civics exam." Today, Gerson observed, Trump has no evident knowledge of American history, or of a conservative ideology. He lives only in the vivid present of his wants and needs. He is squandering an inheritance he does not value, that he does not even understand."
There you go, the vile liberal press strikes again.
Well, not really.
George Will has been known to brag that the first presidential candidate he ever voted for was Barry Goldwater. Gerson has previously worked as a ghostwriter for Charles Colson and was once listed by Time Magazine as the ninth most influential evangelical in the United States.
As of today, Donald Trump has won 10 of 15 republican primaries and caucuses and controls 316 delegates to the party convention in July. He needs 1,237 to win the nomination.
It would seem Senator Graham's eloquent assessment of the situation is, indeed, correct. In all honesty, how else would you describe it?
Yes, ladies and gentlemen of the world, welcome to 21st century American fascism and the cruel, amoral, bully boy who is leading its terrible charge.
God help us all.
3-2-16
I am amazed that it has come to this. When Hitler came to power, the Germans were undergoing severe hardship. That's not an excuse for a normally strong-willed people to have been taken in by him, but a reason. What is our reason? We don't like Obama? We had better wake up, and wake up fast, for we are close to getting the government, and leader, we deserve.
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