If you’ve seen the movie Patton (and who hasn’t?), you well remember the scene in the Army hospital where Gen. George S. Patton is comforting the wounded until he encounters the soldier suffering from “nerves.”
“Why, you’re nothing but a g-d–n coward,” he says as he begins slapping the soldier with his gloves and ordering doctors to send the soldier to the front lines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrtS2_TfbeY
It was an event that got Patton into a lot of hot water and he was forced to issue a public apology for his outburst.
Well, fast-forward some seven decades and we find a lot of cowards in the Republican Party, including some representing Louisiana in the U.S. Congress.
These are the “leaders,” in case you need reminding, who champion family values above all else as they court the so-called religious right, the evangelicals. Accordingly, woe be unto all who dare cross that substantial voting bloc by standing up for labor, choice, the environment, a sane approach to gun control (that one’s gonna get me in hot water but that’s okay; I’ve been there before) equal pay, equal rights, gay rights, women’s rights or rights for any other group that’s not in lock-step with Tony Perkins and Gene Mills.
(Tony Perkins, you may remember, blamed gays for Hurricanes Joaquin and Katrina, saying the storms were God’s punishment for such debauchery. The flood of 2016, which destroyed his home as well as those of most of his church members, on the other hand, represented “a great opportunity for the Church to minister.”) http://religionnews.com/2016/08/18/tony-perkins-eschews-theodicy-after-home-destroyed/
Oooohkay…That seems to be the same line of thinking adopted by Perkins and all those Republicans who once screamed for the head of Bill Clinton for his foolish and despicable trysts with Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, and others.
Their position, then as now, reflected perfectly the sentiments of their core base. And now, as then, they merely mirror the hysteria of the electorate who have deluded themselves into believing he is our savior. Donald Trump, who is just about as sorry a spectacle as ever graced the political landscape in this country, is still their boy. Those Republican congressmen, like Steve Scalise, who refuse to budge in their support of Trump, are spineless invertebrates who share a common cowardly fear of that same electorate.
Their jellyfish-like fortitude is a character trait worthy of Rush Limbaugh’s revulsion—were it possible for him to be repulsed by anything Republican.
With no courage of their own convictions and in true political tradition, they waffle with the breeze. Do you seriously believe these guys were born Republicans? They were all originally Democrats who only changed when their constituency changed—not because of some great epiphany or some great social awakening. Can you really trust a chameleon?
I like to call them Trumpettes. Like some adolescent cheerleader, they continue to do their mindless “two-bits, four-bits…” screaming on the sidelines as their team, even as it commits inexplicable personal fouls in the process, is being pummeled only a few feet away.
This is by no means an endorsement of Hillary Clinton. God knows, the controversies swirling around her emails is enough to make Jack Abramoff blush. Her direct involvement in steering contracts to Friends of Bill in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake makes Warren Harding’s Teapot-Dome-Scandal pale by comparison. http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/10/11/emails-hillarys-state-dept-gave-special-access-to-vips-and-friends-of-bill-clinton-after-haiti-earthquake/
But the Republicans’ self-righteous rejection of Trump after release of that “locker room banter” recording has now been followed by their contrite and nauseating re-endorsement after he gave them a vintage Trump tongue lashing as if they were childish miscreants.
So, the bottom line is we likely are now faced with the worst choice for leader of the Free World in the history of this nation.
One the one hand, we have a complete and total buffoon with no grasp of what the presidency is all about. All the rationalization by supporters that “He says things I like to hear” is a pitiful excuse for voting for the man (I can say what you like to hear; so would you vote for me? Lord, I hope not.).
We have a man who has not paid income taxes for 18 years because, he says, he is “smart.” That must mean those of us who do not have a lineup of all-star tax accountants and lawyers to exploit all those hidden tax breaks—those of us who pay our taxes—are “stupid.”
We have a candidate who says he will release his tax returns after an ongoing audit is complete even though there is no prohibition against his doing so during the audit.
On the other, we have substantial evidence that the Clintons established their foundation for their own financial gain.
We have Hillary who deleted thousands of emails.
We have a candidate who conspired with the chairman of the National Democratic Party to undermine her chief opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
We have a candidate who has been shown by the latest release of emails to have put her husband’s friends’ financial welfare above the welfare of poverty-stricken victims of that 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
And we have Hillary who, just as Trump refuses to release his tax returns, refuses to release the content of her speeches (given at top-dollar prices, by the way) to her Wall Street friends. (The latest email leaks reveal that she told bankers she had their backs while she tells us she is going to close tax loopholes that benefit them.)
What to do, what to do.
Where are Kiefer Sutherland or Martin Sheen when we need them?
Both sides are not the same. The choice is easy for me. I’m voting for Clinton.
There is one and only one key to understanding the evangelical support of Trump. Abortion. This is a single issue election for those people. They are horrfied at what they consider the murder of millions of babies. The idea of Hillarys’ appointing several pro-choice justices sounds like Armageddon to them, many of them very good people. They believe DT would appoint pro-life justices who will overturn Roe/Wade and begin to turn their country back. This is the ONLY issue for them that matters. No point in discussing anything else. They constantly repeat this like a mantra.
The idea Trump might have the nuclear codes scares the daylight out of me. He could kill many more than unborn babies!
So in the quiet reflective hours of the night, who do you decide to vote for? EWE said it best when he admonished the electorate to “Vote For The Crook.” And, although me thinks you dost protest too much, that is HRC.
Breitbart as a source? Do you know that Steve Bannon, who is now the CEO of Trump’s campaign, is the former chairman of Breitbart News? If you care to, read the piece from a year ago at Bloomberg News about Bannon. The title of the article is “This Man Is the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America”. The article is long, but here’s a quote:
“Bannon is the executive chairman of Breitbart News, the crusading right-wing populist website that’s a lineal descendant of the Drudge Report (its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, spent years apprenticing with Matt Drudge) and a haven for people who think Fox News is too polite and restrained.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2015-steve-bannon/
I wasn’t using Breitbart as a source on Trump or Hillary; it was the Teapot Dome scandal, which is well-established history not subject to the political leanings of Breitbart, Bloomberg, AP, CNN or Fox. The facts of Teapot Dome are irrefutable, regardless of the source cited.
The article you linked to is not about the Teapot Dome Scandal, which I have indeed heard of, but about the Clintons. So you were not using the link to share information about Bill and Hillary Clinton? Okay.
Oops, you are correct. My bad. Guess I wasn’t paying attention. I’m not a fan of Breitbart but just about all the internet news services say the same thing about the latest email release–that favors were done for FOB. (I will see to it that I use more reliable sources in the future.)
If Trump weren’t so egomaniacal he wouldn’t have assaulted women, much less bragged about it.
Speaking of crooks and EWE, he also said the only way he could lose an election was to get caught in bed with a dead woman or a live boy. Mr. Yenni should have taken note. Whatever EWE may have done he
was a politician good at mending fences. After winning he invited his opponents to a meeting at which he was quoted as saying “Gentlemen, what can I do for you?” Nobody can deny LA was in much better shape with Democrats in charge, both Edwin and Blanco who left surpluses while Jindal and his brain-dead legislators bankrupted our state.
BTW, HRC has good reason to be wary, even paranoid, given 30 years of attacks by the Republican noise machine. I’m proud to know she will be our first woman President.
you left out the No Party or Independents, they will support Trump, and they are not cowards, just a tad arrogant, and will never accept they could be wrong or being used by the GOP. the hatemongers and the poor will always be with us. “I don’t like either candidate” is an example of this arrogance. This is exactly what the GOP wants, and yes they have the $$ to play hardball to the fearful, ignorant, and prejudiced. I am proud to be a Democrat and I can still learn, thankfully. love always ron Thompson( you bet I am voting for Hillary)
Glad to see I have company. The electoral vote in Louisiana will almost certainly go to Trump, but I will be proud to cast my vote for Clinton on the very first day of early voting. Though my vote may not make a difference, I believe it’s always important to vote.
Trump will carry Louisiana, but he won’t me or my family, he hasn’t changed. he is still the same person he has always been…I have followed HRC career for decades, the so called scandals, the accomplishment, the endless investigations, without indictment. the relentless persecution by those who detested the Clinton’s, especially Hillary, she wasn’t content to host Tea’s, and choose new china. and furnishings for the White House, she stepped away from the traditional role of FLOTUS and p%$#ed off the party of old white men. I am still trying to reconcile the so called religious right, and the support of Donald Trump, he admitted to sexual assault, I guess that’s acceptable to them….I am an old woman, but I have a daughter, and granddaughters, and its their world I am concerned about.
Charmaine – I agree. I am an old, white woman. But, I cannot in any way condone Trump’s sexual misconduct, either verbal or in action. However, there is nothing else in his platform or his campaign that would even tempt to consider a vote for him. He has always been vile – especially on the “You’re Fired!” show. He is just hateful!
Shall we call the thread a gathering of old white women? Poor Tom. He didn’t know what he was getting into.