just remember one thing, the higher the road, the steeper the drop off at the edge of the shoulder. Everybody agrees, believing in God is a perfectly acceptable personal choice, but when do evangelicals become an insufferable pain in the ass? When they pull that “holier than thou” crap. Mike Pence is a perfect example, walking around so arrogant, so damn smug, that you’d swear that he has a sliver of the true cross encased in plastic hanging from a chain around his neck.
I learned a hard lesson a few years ago, and being a rock headed Irishman, of course I had to learn it the hard way. It was the spring of 2016, and party primaries were kicking into gear all over the place. While you all know that I mainly worked the GOP primary side of the street, specifically the Presidential primary, I took keyboard in hand and did a candidate diary for the opponent of Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. I don’t live in Florida, I live in Nevada. And I wasn’t a Bernie supporter either, but I was highly pissed that Wasserman Schultz had tried to put her finger on the scales for Hillary. I received several comments in the diary from Florida residents, politely, but firmly advising me to let actual constituents decide the issue, and keep my damn nose out of it. I haven’t done a primary candidate diary since.
This is the problem that the national Democrats, especially the Presidential candidates are facing, and the tightrope that they have to walk in dealing with the Ralph Northam controversy in Virginia. The Democrats decided quite a while ago on a “zero tolerance” policy in dealing with Trump, a decision in which I totally agree. If you’re gonna talk-the-talk in regards to Trump’s misbehavior, you have to walk-the-walk with members of your own party, or risk being hypocrites. But remember, just because I believe in God doesn’t give me the right to dunk your head in a bucket of water to baptize and save your soul.
National Security expert and MSNBC analyst Malcolm Nance summed the situation up rather bluntly on Real Time with Bill Maher last Friday night, when he said, “I wish all of those people out there that are expressing ;black outrage; all of the time would try checking with actual black people once in a while.” His point was that, while the rest of America, including large swaths of white America, was baying for Northam’s political blood, a poll showed that a clear majority of African Americans in Virginia wanted Northam to remain as Governor.And when you come right down to it, shouldn’t the black constituents of Virginia be the ones who ultimately get to decide just how offended they are with Northam’s behavior, and what to do about him?
The Democrats have already made their decision about “zero tolerance,” and I agree with it. Now the next step has to be deciding how to implement it. For a national office, the parameters are different. The Democrats were able to call the Republicans late-to-the-party on Steve King because they took swift action on members like John Conyers, Anthony Weiner, and Al Franken. And in the House and Senate, they can take steps like removal from committee assignments to make their censure loud and clear. But when you’re talking about state politics, a balance must be struck. Every Democrat should be free to express their disappointment and condemnation of offenses, and to state what their opinion is on a recommended course of action, but they can’t take the step of mandating how other people solve their problems. Nobody in a store liked the person standing in line behind them telling them how to discipline their unruly child.
Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are still sitting around collecting dust, and Amazon is starting to send me nasty e-mails. And what better time to get reacquainted with the roller coaster that was the 2016 election cycle than before the release of the final volume of the trilogy, President Evil III, All the Presidents Fen.
Cross posted on Politizoom.com
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