Not All Republicans

When the #MeToo movement took off, numerous men went into defense mode and made the claim that not all men are part of the problem.

We already know not all men do it. But enough do it to be of concern and addressing. So the need to say things like “not all men” is more of a fear of being personally attacked instead of addressing a reality that yes, some men, enough men, and that’s what it’s about.

When a Muslim commits an attack of terrorism in the name of his religion, immediately on the heels of the atrocity comes the not all Muslim defenders.

We already know not all Muslims do it. But enough do it to be of concern and addressing. So the need to say things like “not all Muslims” is more of a fear of being personally attacked instead of addressing a reality that yes, some Muslims, enough Muslims, and that’s what it’s about.

When many members of the Republican Party abandoned their values to side with President Trump, some in the party dug in and declared “not all Republicans”.

We already know not all Republicans do it. But enough do it to be of concern and addressing. So the need to say things like “not all Republicans” is more of a fear of being personally attacked instead of addressing a reality that yes, some Republicans, enough Republicans, and that’s what this essay is about.

Although there was habitual lying and the first inkling of alternative facts during the campaign, many (including myself) hoped the circus act would end once Trump won and maybe he’d turn out to be a great president. But on the very next day of the Inauguration, when the Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, came out to tell us all the Inauguration crowd was bigger than what we all saw with our own eyes and was captured on film to review, that’s when I knew. And then when Kellyanne Conway followed on Meet the Press by informing Chuck Todd that Spicer was just giving “alternative facts”, that sealed it. It wasn’t going to just be Trump. His administration was going to play along.

The question was: How many others would?

It’s been like Groundhog Day with the never ending lying and alternative facts ever since. In fact, as I write this, the latest revelation is that during the campaign, when Trump showed everyone his letter of great physical health from his personal physician, it turned out said letter was dictated by Donald Trump himself! And yet, despite this nearly day to day lying and creating his own alternative reality, enough Republicans go about shoulder-shrugging that it might be time to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Trump has no problem calling others liars. During the 2016 campaign, he gave Ted Cruz the nickname “Lyin Ted Cruz”. Trump also accused Cruz’s father of being part of the Kennedy assassination. If this happened to you, how would you see that person? What would you think of him? Do you think you’d ever embrace this man? Ted Cruz is okay with it.

Mitt Romney attempted to warn his party. As Trump was closing in on the nomination, Romney held a news conference pointing out Trump was a liar, dishonest and a conman. And then after Trump won, Romney went about entertaining a position as a servant to Trump (even though he was probably just being toyed with) and then thanked him later when Trump endorsed Romney’s own campaign and today, keeps his trap shut despite being proven right.

Former Congressman, Joe Walsh, now radio host is one of the more realistic conservatives who haven’t sucked up the shit Trump put in front of him. He’s often out on Twitter complaining about Trump’s lies and asking other conservatives if they’re okay with it. Unfortunately, too many other Republicans are not as concerned as Walsh. He doesn’t have a lot of defenders.

Many I used to consider reasonable during the Obama years are no longer worth listening to due to abandonment of consistency. They were quick to point out how Hillary Clinton was a liar during the 2016 campaign and now conveniently forget how important it is to be honest.

I remember arguments that Congress could rein Trump in. But the opposite has happened. Despite a primarily Republican congress that could have chosen differently, he reined them in. For the sake of party unity, once principled people gave up prior values and became Trump people. They haven’t just accepted his lying. They’ve accepted all his awfulness. I think Ta-Nehisi Coates sums it up best: “The planks of Trumpism are clear—the better banning of Muslims, the improved scapegoating of Latinos, the endorsement of racist conspiracy, the denialism of science, the cheering of economic charlatans, the urging on of barbarian cops and barbarian bosses, the cheering of torture, and the condemnation of whole countries.”

When Trump came to Michigan instead of attending the 2018 White House Correspondence Dinner and he asked the audience if there were any Hispanics in the audience, members in the audience booed. They were booing possible Hispanics in the audience! Trump did nothing to address that awful response. Instead, he simply said, “Not so many? That’s okay…” and then called for his stupid US/Mexico border wall again.

All this leads me to conclude the best thing to do is assist the Republican Party into the intellectual grave they first put shovels into creating. They’ve demonstrated they’re not the party of small government. And now not all, but enough Republicans have demonstrated this party is becoming awful and to borrow a term I use for the first time: Deplorable.

Right now, the only party that can compete with the GOP is the Democratic Party. So to make the GOP lose for making and embracing bad choices, I’ll have to postpone my usual support for Libertarians and throw my vote to the Democrats if only in order to achieve the first objective. We can clean up later.

The enemy of my enemy is my…wait…stop.

No one on any side of the political spectrum is my “enemy”. I have no problem and even encourage disciplined, cordial conversation airing out differences. I encourage different opinions and thoughts. I encourage at all times the use of facts and logic. And if applicable (which always seems to be) the use of the scientific method to rule out biases and human error. And this is why the GOP must be debased and removed.

Not all Republicans, but enough Republicans have decided facts don’t matter.

Not all Republicans, but enough Republicans are okay with the chief executive being a habitual liar.

And that’s enough reason for me to make the choice I now make.

Not all Republicans are Trump Republicans. But enough are that the first priority is to make this party lose and lose big in the next few elections. They’ll then have to make a choice between cutting their losses and returning to small government, principled honest people or going the way of the Whig Party. Which wouldn’t be so bad. That would just leave more room for the Libertarian Party to slide in and do what the GOP won’t do.

As a life-long libertarian, it hurts to write all this. But also as a life-long libertarian, we’ve been warning the Republican Party for decades that their lack of principles (campaigning like libertarians, governing like Democrats) would hurt. Now put on top of all this the GOP’s embrace of a pathological liar and their uselessness is complete. So unless the Democrats put up someone truly awful, I’ll be using them as final nails.

If you’re a Republican who managed to make it to the end of this piece, congratulations and thanks. One final word: Resist the urge to descend into WhatAboutIsm now. I’m aware the Democrats lie. Super liberals are really good at it. What you should be doing instead is accepting your party is just as bad right now and asking the hard questions like, how do we do better? Because if you’re okay with lies because the other side does it too, then you’ve just become what you always hated. You’re supposed to keep your own house in order despite what the neighbors are doing. Not join the riot and burn it all down.

See you all at the voter’s booth.