Editorial rights purchased from iStock. Photo by Guztemberg.
We’ve all heard the saying “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself.” If that’s true, we should all be scared s***less of today’s Republican Party. They are the embodiment of fear. They’re afraid of history, progress, science, literature, and now math.
The whole math book ban has me puzzled. I’ve yet to find anyone who can tell me what part of math texts they’re objecting to. Perhaps while homeschooling during COVID, their children’s math books made them feel stupid. I get it. I’m sure your child’s textbooks would make me feel stupid. But I’m okay with that.
Each new generation is supposed to give us children who are smarter, more capable, and better educated than the last. It’s part of evolution. But they don’t believe in evolution.
I’ve heard some say that the problem is that math books are teaching Critical Race Theory. I don’t see how that’s even possible unless we are talking about story problems here. If that’s the case, they should relax. Everybody hates story problems. No need to ban the books.
If they’re concerned about literature that references race, that’s different. We surely wouldn’t want white people to feel bad about having forced black people into slavery so white people could sit on the porch and drink mint juleps all day. But since they weren’t even alive then, how is this their fault?
I think that’s a legitimate question. But if it’s not their fault, why are they so defensive about it? I’ve never known anyone to be defensive about something that has nothing to do with them.
Maybe they’re defensive because they’re racists.
There is a simple solution to that dilemma: get them to admit that they’re wrong. Because they are.
There is no evidence to suggest that white people are in any way superior to people of color. However, there is one group of Americans that have shown themselves to be superior to Republicans — and they’re called Democrats.
If you doubt me, here’s the evidence.
Republicans are refusing to participate in the presidential debates in 2024. This is probably based on the dismal performance of their candidate of choice, Donald J. Trump, during the 2020 presidential debates. If Democrats had a candidate who performed so poorly, they’d find another candidate — problem solved.
Republicans have also decided to abandon the concept of a party platform. This too is likely the result of Donald Trump. His consistent inability to telegraph anything other than his own delusions of grandeur makes it impossible for them to adopt a platform for fear that he would veer so wildly from it, that it would be unrecognizable. Again, the solution to the problem is to get another candidate.
But Republicans aren’t about solutions. They are about problems. Specifically, they are about manufacturing problems.
If they also designed the problems they manufactured, I might be willing to credit them with a modicum of creativity — but alas, that’s not the case. Creativity is not in their toolbox. Even their insults and accusations are not original.
Vladimir Putin accused his enemies of pedophilia years ago. When he wanted to hide one of the mass graves left by Stalin in the thirties, he accused the caretakers of the property of being pedophiles. (I can’t find any articles online about this, but Rachel Maddow covered it in her 4.19.22 episode).
It’s an effective tactic if you can get away with it. Who would dare to say pedophiles are good? Who would even be willing to defend one? Newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former public defender, would. As Republicans should know, in America, everybody gets legal representation. It doesn’t matter how heinous the crime of which you are accused. Still, Republicans treated her like a pariah during her confirmation hearings, accusing her of being “soft” on pedophilia.
It’s not just active Republican Senators who are behaving badly. The other day the Michigan Republican candidate for the Senate accused her Democratic opponent of “grooming” and “sexualizing” children. She did it via email. That’s how much of a coward she is. Unfortunately for her, the accusations were not taken lightly by her Democratic opponent Mallory McMorrow.
In a speech worthy of Atticus Finch, McMorrow ripped said Republican a new a**hole. McMorrow’s speech was delivered on the floor of the Michigan State Senate, and true to her democratic nature, she looked right at her accuser as she spoke. When she appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show later, she was asked how her accuser responded. McMorrow said, “She looked the other way the entire time — she wouldn’t even make eye contact.”
Today’s Republicans are only good at one thing: repeating false accusations. They have no penchant for vetting information and their critical thinking skills are nonexistent. They think Q is more credible than the New York Times or the Washington Post. Never mind that both publications have stringent vetting processes and are known to make corrections anytime they publish anything that evidence shows is false.
I believe “pizza gate” came from Q. That was the big story about the pedophile ring being run out of the basement of a pizza parlor in D.C., remember? Some Republican jerk showed up with a rifle and shot the lock off a storage room where he thought he would find the stairs to the basement where the criminal activity was alleged to take place. (That was before he found out they didn’t have a basement.)
Q was also responsible for the idea that liberals contain reptilian DNA in their blood. The result of that was tragic. A Republican (with a liberal wife) took his two kids to Mexico and murdered them. He was saving the world from serpent DNA. (You can’t make this stuff up. Oh, wait — you can.)
Ron Watkins, the man many believe is Q, is now running for Congress in Arizona. He is also the IT person the “My Pillow” guy used for his great “reveal” which was meant to prove the 2020 election was stolen. (There was an embedded video clip of him in the presentation that showed his face clearly.)
Democrats, on the other hand, include some amazing people. Critical thinking skills and creativity are their hallmarks. Democrats are not only a lot quicker on the uptake than Republicans, they’re also creative.
They have ideas. They encourage debate. They have a platform. They are problem-solvers.
Republicans identify with Putin. Democrats identify with Zelenskyy. When Putin shut down all independent media in Russia, one democratically-minded Russian came up with a way to spread the truth.
She posted messages about the war in Ukraine on price tag labels. Despite the threat to her own security, she found a way to tell people what is happening. Of course, she was arrested. And because she did this in Russia, she could be looking at ten years in prison.
That’s how Putin handles dissent. He locks people up. Where do you think Trump got the idea?
Trump thinks Putin is a genius. And even today, despite the atrocities Russian soldiers have committed in Ukraine, the de facto leader of the Republican Party can’t bring himself to condemn Putin’s actions.
Finally, Republicans aren’t funny. They used to be. Remember the Redneck Tour on the comedy circuit? It was pretty good. But those days are over. As Zelenskyy said in an interview with the Atlantic, Putin isn’t funny either. Zelenskyy says Putin is afraid of humor because humor often represents the truth in a simpler form:
“Complex mechanisms and political formulations are difficult for humans to grasp. But through humor, it’s easy; it’s a shortcut.”
Yes, a shortcut to the truth. But Putin can’t handle the truth, and neither can today’s Republicans. Their standard approach is to deny anything they don’t like. But denial doesn’t work because you can’t solve problems if you won’t even acknowledge them.
So, if you’re still trying to decide whether to vote for a Democrat or a Republican in the mid-terms, it really just comes down to this:
Do you want things to get better, or worse — a lot worse?
It’s up to you.
Resources:
Republican accuses Democrat of grooming and sexualizing children
Dad kills kids over serpent DNA conspiracy
Zelenskyy’s interview with the Atlantic
Russian artist swapped grocery store price tags for anti-war slogans