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“Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton.
“With great power comes great responsibility” – Spider-Man.
Republican Party politicians would be wise to heed the above observations. But, they won’t, of course, they are so drunk with power that they are throwing caution to the wind and threatening to destroy the Noble Experiment called “democracy.”
In my previous essay, I related how Republicans are tampering with the right to vote by those who are not Republicans and with ideologically-free education. Here, I focus on gun control and immigration.
- Gun control – Republican politicians are full of “thoughts and prayers” when it comes to mass shootings by individuals who are motivated by ideology or mental illness. What they are not full of is shame – shame for dragging their feet instead of tackling the problem head on, shame for hiding behind a misinterpretation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, shame for claiming that controls are “politicizations” by the Left, shame for kowtowing before the corrupt National Rifle Association (NRA).
The problem has taken a turn for the worse lately (if that’s possible). If you knock on the wrong door, get into the wrong car, pull into the wrong driveway, you will be shot. If you ask your drunken neighbor not to fire his weapon from his porch lest he awaken your child, you and your family will be killed by his AR-15. No one is safe, because some Americans, plagued either by ideology or mental illness, have had their xenophobic tendencies intensified, thanks to the ravings of T. Rump and Company for the past six years.
The problem can be resolved, but it requires bold action on the part of both political parties working on controls and mental illness in tandem. There is no shame in working co-operatively.
- Immigration – speaking of xenophobia, Republican politicians are full of it when it comes to heeding the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. They have forgotten that we are a nation of immigrants; even the so-called “Native Americans” came from somewhere else many thousands of years ago. They have had a long history of targeting certain ethnic/religious groups for no other reason than those are not like them. These days, those from the Global South are the principal targets; they are fleeing from their native countries, because otherwise they will be robbed, raped, and/or murdered by lawless bands who cannot be controlled by corrupt governments (a “by-product” of America’s “foreign policy” in those countries).
The Republicans have not addressed themselves to creating a workable immigration policy for the past 40 years, thanks to their xenophobia. Now, they blame the Democrats for the border crisis. Instead, they want to build T. Rump’s wall across the entire southern border high enough that no one can climb over. No matter that the “illegals” are digging under the wall – The Wall must be built. Any “illegals” who are caught are either put in cages, regardless of their age or gender, or relegated to make-shift camps in Mexico where they wait for their cases to be heard. The GOP could care less about immigrants. They are more worried about “drag queens” corrupting the Nation’s children.
I am reminded that a pundit recently wondered out loud how the Republicans would view the late, great, Fred Rogers, who spent his entire professional career tearing down walls and creating a beautiful neighborhood on a children’s television show.
P.S. Professor Suhuyda claimed recently that the Founding Fathers were Christians and that therefore the U.S. should be governed by “God’s law.” This statement is not true. The Founders were all Deists, having been influenced by the philosophers of Europe. Deists believe in a Supreme Being, however one wants to name him/her/it, but they eschew denominationalism. The Professor apparently misplaced his lecture notes on 18th-Century European culture. The Chas is happy to lend a hand.
Just a thought.