I also need to update Politicus faithful on a story I submitted some 10 or so days ago. I was bemoaning the censorship of my contributions to a local opinion column regarding a stunning distortion of a domestic violence study. I stated that the paper, on occasion, refused to print my factual and sourced rebuttals to total right-wing nonsense. I included the domestic violence example. Well, guess what, a few days ago, right after the appearance of my modest rant, my story appeared in the column. The day before, another reasonable response was published. My, my!
On to today’s topic. Given the absurd results of the recently completed mid-terms, you just knew the far right was going to puff out it’s chest and pretend that a miniscule turnout of just over a third of eligible voters actually represented what America is all about. You also knew every extremist wackadoo was going to jump into the 2016 presidential fray. With the election nearly two years distant, an endless horde of radical right termites is gnawing its way through the political woodwork to the primaries. None you’d elect to dogcatcher mind you, (though I’ve known some very competent and intelligent holders of that “office”) but would-be candidates nonetheless.
The latest name to come wafting out of the hateful hustings of the Republican Party brought his squirrelly message to an otherwise perfectly acceptable Wofford College. That George Pataki is marking Upstate South Carolina as a must stop is a virtual guarantee that he will join the roster of hopefuls for the next Republican Presidential Primary. It didn’t take the former three-term (after initially promising only two) New York governor long to unloosen his vitriol on Democrats for the assembled, relatively moderate conservative, young crowd.
He started with the raw meat for Southern Manhood in describing the ISIS threat: “We have to work to kill them today.” Ah, the magic right-wing foreign policy approach to a greater world, kill, kill, kill. If it was a good enough American historical policy for Native Americans, blacks, gays and wives, it sure as hell ought to be good enough for ISIS. Talk and negotiation are for sissies.
Then it was on to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), sneeringly called by the racist name “Obamacare.” Displaying the inherent ignorance of yet another Republican who hasn’t read the first word of the act, Pataki called the ACA the “worst law passed in my lifetime.” I won’t waste my aging energies at this time refuting statements of abject doltishness other than to offer to debate this uninformed propagandist on the subject at a time and place of his choosing. Maybe that’s a challenge that should emerge from the Democratic leadership.
Another knee-jerk issue guaranteed to rile the rednecks is immigration. Pataki went for the Hispanic jugular in calling the president’s latest Executive Order on immigration “very unfortunate, to be kind.” He proposes to secure the country’s borders and issue stricter penalties for those who break immigration laws. Pataki would be thrilled to know that the U.S. is closing in on a half-million immigrants being held in over 250 facilities existing for just that purpose; a multi-billion dollar enterprise. How many are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council? A few biggies.
You should really be more accepting, Mr. Ex-Governor. After all, Grandpa Pataki was an immigrant in the early 20th century. He arrived during the Ellis Island Heyday that officially ended in 1954. During its 6 decades as an intake center for new arrivals, some 12 million immigrants (including gramps) stopped on their way to assorted destinations in their “dream” country. That 12 million number sounds familiar. So does George’s hypocrisy.
Pataki continued to inveigle the captive and doubtlessly naïve students with more right-wing pap by talking about accessing assorted media and seeing things get worse and worse. You want worse? I’ll give you Pataki “worse.” During one of his runs for governor ten years ago, it was revealed that this heartless, greedy b*****d, shoehorned his 82-year-old father into a state-funded home for indigent volunteer firefighters. And Pataki was reportedly worth a million bucks. Shortly before that evil deed, Pataki and his equally disgusting brother, took ownership of the family farm from dad. There’s good old Republican responsibility for you. Eschewing anything to do with their pop’s care while letting the state fund the room, board and care for a millionaire’s father.
After the fact, a clueless Wofford freshman, quoted in the local paper, said he was impressed with Pataki’s talk. He added that the former governor presented solutions, not just criticism and naysaying. This, after the former governor spent most of his speech criticizing and naysaying.
Forgive me Abe or Mr. Barnum or whoever originated this iconic statement, but you CAN fool ALL of the Republicans ALL of the time.
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