Empathy For The Republicans

This isn’t satire. I honestly feel terrible for the Republicans, for the hard working, average citizen who has grown up, or believed in this once proud and effective party. Republicans haven’t always been the party determined to see Russia from their window, or degrade huge amounts of people in a single poorly worded sentence. This party has roots that freed slaves(a very federalist view if you consider it), initiated a bill to give women the right to vote(rather than the current denial of women rights), Desegregated school systems and pushed through civil rights movement causes (because Black Lives Mattered)!

It’s true that throughout history parties sway and change. Sadly, the Republican party has swayed so far to exclusion and hardness that I wonder where and what happened. Time after time they have taken hard stances over rights of individuals considered “not of us,” gay rights, women’s rights, people of color. They have allowed covert racism to run through the lines, and during the past decade have allowed outward racism to become almost a staple of their political stance. Currently the frontrunner of the party has agreed to pay legal fees of individuals who get into fights. His running mate, a good choice to grab the otherwise wary evangelical Christian voters(not sure what a New York businessman might do for them), has constantly been at the forefront of defunding planned parenthood and other organizations for healthcare, claimed that rape is what happens if women are integrated with men by nature, pushed for anti-LGTBQ rights and supported individuals denying gay marriage. He is at every turn, what Republican has come to mean to the rest of the world. And that’s sad. Because that isn’t what I want, even as a non-republican. I want the option to vote on either side for the best person, not because they have incorporated what the party has come to believe. It’s the best person for the job, not whomever can sway or strong arm the party. The voice of voters is lost. The power of the people have been handed over. And if they truly believed in the party, that would be an outrage for Republicans.

There are arguments for fiscal differences. There are arguments for state right vs. federal. But there can be no argument for human rights. You can argue that freeing slaves was a political move. Lincoln himself was quoted that if he could save the union by freeing slaves or keeping slaves he would do whatever it took. Fortunately, freeing was the route, and he goes down into history as the man, and the party which stood on the right side of history. Can the same be said of today? Politically everyone has their gripes. You can’t go two feet without hearing about emails, thrown out every time someone goes up against Donald Trump. But no one seems to care or cover the multiple decade long history of legal trouble Trump has faced and continues to face. But that’s another conversation isn’t it?

Last night the Republican National Convention kicked off with true fanfare, the likes of which I’ve never seen. Steven Colbert mocking Hunger Games, WWE style entrance from someone who should be entering as the potential President(of course he only has experience with one of the two), a almost sad plagiarism of a speech by Mrs. Trump from Michelle Obama’s DNC speech 8 years prior. This from the party who wished to distance themselves from everything Obama. And of course, a miraculous disappearing act of the chairwoman as Republican super-delegates hand over the right to call a roll call immediately. Both chair-people of the conventions seem to be handling the discord the same way. Hide. The leaders of the parties are so hand tied and disrupted that they rather hide away than stand amongst their own and deal with situations brought forth.

So again, I’m sorry to my fellow Republicans, you deserve a better candidate, you deserve to live up to your party’s history. I can live with the loss of Sanders, I’m not in direct opposition with Hillary even if some ideologies and traits don’t meet my perfect candidate. I feel sorry not only for the state America is in, but for those whose goals are really to try to make America better. You have been let down, we all have. And it is time that we decide what it means to be an American. It’s time for us to change the way the political process is held, and that our voices, ours, not those with enough money to buy a mouth are the ones heard. And the ones swaying.