Saturday, June 04, 2016

To my remaining (Sane) Republican Friends

Dear Republicans,

I get it, I really do...These past years have been tough for you

For the last eight years you have been stoking your Base with cries of how you want to “take our country back”. Your base heard that as; Back to the days when people who don't look, think, or believe like they do, knew their place. Yet clearly that hasn't worked out, and your now VERY scared, very angry and numerically smaller base went looking for someone who would rescue them from the horror of  being forced to share America with  people they really don’t like.

Well I'll give you this, they certainly took you in a new direction.

2016 rolls around and clearly you all thought you really needed to “think outside the establishment box”. So you have gone and picked a guy who actually says out loud in PUBLIC the stuff you usually only say to your base in private. You found a guy who isn’t afraid to blame all those dirty brown people for making your base feel angry that America doesn’t belong just to then anymore. You found a candidate who, like your base, is someone for whom "facts" just don't matter

.

Now you have finally found a guy who isn’t bothered with all those pesky liberally-biased “facts”. A guy who knows that details are for losers! It’s the promised RESULTS that count, right? Your Presidential nominee, is a guy who thinks “Trust Me, it will be Greeaaaaat!!!” , is a perfectly valid answer to any policy question.

So here we now are. Your 2016 Presidential nominee is Donald J. Trump.

But let’s be honest. You panicked. Like in the dim light of a singles bar at closing time, you made a really bad decision, and went home with a mistake. A guy who spent half the night telling you  how rich he is, but had you pay for most of his drinks and the cab ride back to your place.

Now it’s the next morning,  and this tangerine nightmare is walking around your house in his monogrammed, made-in-China  boxer shorts,  saying how you should be grateful you ended up with him instead of any of the other “losers”.  Also, how you need to tell all your friends who questioned your judgement,  that they are stupid, biased “haters” for not seeing how totally awesome he is.

Now this primary night stand wants to move into your place. A guy who has been bankrupt multiple times, is demanding control of your credit cards and bank account because he is "way smarter at managing money than you" so… you just need to trust him. If any of your friends and family even mildly, question the wisdom of this, they all are stupid haters and sleazy, and not “treating him fairly”.

Dear Republicans, congratulations this is your life now.

But it doesn’t have to be. There is something you can do. You can take your Party back.

It’s time to kick the god awful Primary night-stand out of your house, clean yourself up, and remember who you used to be. Yes,  that means you are going to lose this election.  I know that you have been conditioned to think that is the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to you . So much so that you went home the guy who bellowed the loudest that he could win.  (He also said his hands were big… but we won’t go into how that worked out for you..)

But trust me,  it’s  really not the end of the world.  It’s the beginning of getting back to who you used to be. Remember?

Abraham Lincoln believed in freeing the oppressed, uniting the nation, and punishing War Profiteers. Dwight Eisenhower viewed war is always a last desperate resort, and an unchecked military industrial complex is a threat to democracy

Richard Nixon understood that we live in a world of interconnected global relationships. Constructive engagement and detente' are always more successful than direct conflict.  Gerald Ford truly believed in duty, and that the interests of the nation are more important than polls or elections. He was a living example on how accepting responsibility for the actions you take in office, is a president's first obligation.

Ronald Reagan sought PEACE through strength, knowing America's allies were the key to America's security. He knew that Big Government is never a substitute for American Ingenuity, and he understood that Faith is a private matter not a prop, or a tool for political posturing. Moreover, he understood that immigrants are the basecloth of the fabric of our nation, opening doors for thousands to come out of the shadows and seek the American Dream

Now you are about to move in with a guy who wants to build a wall around our country, and ridicules those who fought and sacrificed for our nation. A guy who is likely to start a war to avenge his bruised ego, which for him would be more important than either America’s national security or global stability. . A guy with a bizarre fetish for strongman dictators, and insults our closest allies if they don’t join the chorus of “how great” he is.

Your choice is a guy who talks a big game, huge even. Yet when asked to provide proof of what he says, throws a tantrum and asks why are you being so mean to him? Someone who thinks God is is a marketing tool,  and treats. America's allies as disposable.  Who says big Government is the greatest evil there is, EXCEPT when it bails him out of failed business ventures.

George HW Bush said it best in his inaugural address; " In crucial things, unity, in important things diversity, and in all things generosity... When America says something, America means it. Whether a treaty an agreement or a vow made on marble steps." He used Personal diplomacy to build a grand coalition of nations the likes of which had not been seen since World War II.

But now, you have nominated a guy who thinks that the Geneva Convention is a Swiss beauty pageant , and ", "public" meetings should only be open to hand picked supporters If anyone dares voice dissent, they should get beaten up.

Here is the truth you don’t want to hear;  Your guy doesn't care about you . For Trump, ,the Grand Old Party, the party that has shaped so much of American history is at best a vehicle for his own ego, and at worst something he will toss aside as soon as he feels your focus isn't all about him.


It's not too late, tell him it isn’t you , it’s him. Kick this scrub to the curb and take back your Party. I know it’s too late to go back the bar and find someone else, but it is not too late to take back your own dignity, so four years from now, its not about who’s left standing at the closing , but who is worthy of you at the opening.

But to do that you are going to have to do something you have convinced your base was worse than death, You need to vote for Hillary Clinton.   I know you dont think you can, you would rather not vote at all.  Yet the fact is, you have to.

This is no longer an election, it needs to be an intervention.

You have spent decades teaching your base not to do what you now must. You have to think for yourself, and put the good of your Party and the Nation, ahead of short term poltitics.

This isn't just about defeating Trump, it's about saving the Republian Party,  but the first step has to be all yours.    The true test of anyone stuck in the bottom of a hole, is when they realize the first step towards getting out, is to stop digging.

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