I recently became aware of this opinion piece by Frank Bruni of the New York Times, from an entry on Facebook. It drove me to dust off my more "serious" blog, which has sat silently for two years, and write a response.
(Mr. Bruni is quoted in blue and my response is in red.)
"Family values. How long have we been subjected to that subjective phrase, championed by Republicans who equated it with heterosexuality, fecundity and Christian piety — and who appointed themselves the custodians of those?
Well, they lost any remaining claim to that mantle by embracing Donald Trump and then Roy Moore. Neither won the support of all Republicans, but both won the backing or complicity of enough of them to confirm just how hollow and hypocritical the party’s attachment to conservative morality always was. Quote the Bible. Denounce abortion. Congratulations: You’re upholding family values! No questions asked about the number of your marriages, the extent of your infidelities or the scope of your sexual predation."
The very red, pro-life voters of Alabama were short-changed with two bad choices — one with an ugly past and one, a pro-abortion leftist. Mr. Moore’s accusers did no one any favors by coming forward last minute, after the ballots were printed and mailed. Where were they during the primary when voters had a choice between him and Luther Strange (whom Trump endorsed)? This was all suspiciously timed and there is evidence that in situations like this (including Trump accusers), BIG money from covert leftists is often involved. Bottom line, Moore lost and there was a big sigh of relief from the Republican senate. Is there hypocrisy? Of course! But be careful about being the pot calling the kettle black. Hypocrisy permeates both red and blue government as it does with most any powerful entity. We saw this with Ted Kennedy (the “lion of the senate”) with his notorious reputation and who left a woman to die in his car, yet was revered by his party ….. and Bill Clinton who was elected twice in spite of chronic womanizing and accusations of assault and rape.
Just because the Democrats had a moment of piety as they booted Franken and Conyers from their very safe seats, a few days after they defended them ….. do not doubt it was merely to position themselves on the high ground so to go after Trump with renewed aggressiveness. The manipulation is obvious.
"Fiscal responsibility. How loudly have Republicans harangued us about that? It’s a worthy harangue — or at least it would be if there were an iota of integrity and consistency behind it.
But Republicans are poised to enact a sweeping overhaul of the tax code that will add nearly $1.5 trillion to federal deficits over the next decade. In all the news coverage of their need to finesse the math so that they don’t exceed that amount, the fact that they’re plunging the country so much deeper into the red in the first place almost gets lost.
This, mind you, is the same political party that fetishized balanced budgets and browbeat Democrats about being the foolishly, fatally profligate ones. Republicans’ actions routinely contradicted their words, and their tax reform is a contradiction on steroids. Where’s the fiscal responsibility in legislation with such budgetary hocus-pocus as the expiration of individual rate cuts that the bill’s authors fully expect other lawmakers to preserve down the road?"
Need I remind ….. Barack Obama increased the national debt nearly double of all previous presidents combined. Where were the Democrat outcries?? Where was the NYTimes? Talk about ringing hollow.
With the current rate of spending, there is no way to tax our way out of the debt. The wealthy simply do not have enough to pay it even if they gave 100%. The only hope we have is through real economic growth. That’s it. So Republicans took the only course they could — grow the economy through the private sector. Let the people who earned it keep more of their OWN money to invest, innovate, create, and build. America is rather good at that, when the shackles are removed. The tax cut probably will increase the debt but the hope is that it will kick the economy into overdrive to whittle it back down. Next, I hope, there will be cuts in entitlement spending. There must be. We cannot stay on this course. And maybe I'm wrong, but I've not heard any Democrats suggest a way to solve the problem.
As to the expiration of individual rate cuts, the Reps wanted to make them permanent. It involved maneuvering around certain senate law-making rules that require a way to fund new bills. The GOP has traditionally pushed tax cuts and it makes no sense to claim they want taxes to go up again in eight years. They hope that whomever is in power in 2025, will see that it is continued and the voters will hold them to it.
"What pretty lies Republicans tell, most of all about themselves. And what a gorgeous opportunity they have given Democrats to steal that bogus rhetoric right out from under them.
Try this on for size: Democrats are the party of family values because they promote the creation of more families. They did precisely that with their advocacy of marriage equality, which didn’t tug the country away from convention but toward it, by encouraging gay and lesbian Americans to live in the sorts of arrangements that conservatives in fact extol."
Wow. Okay. We have no secular argument against gay marriage involving two consenting adults, other than this is a complete first in any major society in human history and defies the wisdom of all generations before us, and we have yet to learn of the ultimate consequences.
But when children are involved, they lose big time. Not one gay/lesbian family exists w/o children having to lose a parent. Not one. These children must sacrifice either their father or their mother. Where are their rights? It is unconscionable for adults to deliberately do this to their children to appease their own desires. No one is saying same-sex parents don’t love their kids. Of course they do. But the sacrifice they impose upon their own children is too great. Every child is entitled to his/her mother and father. In this, as with abortion, we side with the innocents. Sorry to the adults …. we know life is hard. But innocent children, born and unborn, must be protected or we as a society degenerate into something truly terrifying.
But when children are involved, they lose big time. Not one gay/lesbian family exists w/o children having to lose a parent. Not one. These children must sacrifice either their father or their mother. Where are their rights? It is unconscionable for adults to deliberately do this to their children to appease their own desires. No one is saying same-sex parents don’t love their kids. Of course they do. But the sacrifice they impose upon their own children is too great. Every child is entitled to his/her mother and father. In this, as with abortion, we side with the innocents. Sorry to the adults …. we know life is hard. But innocent children, born and unborn, must be protected or we as a society degenerate into something truly terrifying.
"Democrats also want to give families the flexibility and security that help keep them afloat and maybe intact. That’s what making the work force more hospitable to women and increasing the number of Americans with health insurance do. And Republicans lag behind Democrats on both fronts.
Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility because they don’t pretend that they can afford grand government commitments — whether distant wars or domestic programs — without collecting the revenue for them."
Again, during the Obama administration, the debt skyrocketed 9 trillion, an increase of approximately 87%. Yes, to answer where Dems always go on this topic ....... we know he was handed a financial disaster from the collapsed housing market, the result of a complex scenario of reckless liberal lending. Bush warned, and he should have warned louder. But the forces promoting the Freddie and Fanny debacle, led by Barney Frank (D. Mass) ranking member of the House Financial Services committee who claimed, “These two entities … are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” and, “I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing.” ….. were formidable.
The welfare rolls also careened upward under Obama, who became the first president to spend more on welfare than on national defense. And to help promote families towards better financial security, nothing beats a real job. The more jobs, the more employers must compete for the workers, which encourages the flexibility mentioned. This is so much better than enacting laws and forcing employers to offer certain hours and benefits. It allows the market to do it naturally without restricting freedoms.
"Democrats are the party of patriotism, because they’re doing something infinitely more urgent and substantive than berating football players who kneel during the national anthem. They’re recognizing that a hostile foreign power tried to change the course of an American presidential election. They’re pressing for a full accounting of that. They’re looking for fixes, so that we can know with confidence that we control our own destiny going forward. The president, meanwhile, plays down the threat, and Republicans prop him up.
Democrats are the party of national security. They don’t taunt and get into Twitter wars with the rulers of countries that just might send nuclear warheads our way. They don’t alienate longtime allies by flashing contradictory signals about their commitment to NATO. The leader of the Republican Party does all of that and more, denying the G.O.P. any pretense to stewardship of a stable world order.
Democrats are the law-and-order party. While many Republicans and their media mouthpiece, Fox News, labor to delegitimize the F.B.I. and thus inoculate Trump, Democrats put faith in prosecutors, agents and the system.
Democrats are the party of decency and modesty. None of their highest leaders uses the public arena to bully private citizens in the way that the Republican president does. None advances his or her financial interests as brazenly or brags as extravagantly."
Really?? Blame the football protests on our dear media who pick and choose the headlines du jour. They totally control which issues will be hot and which will quietly disappear, such as news about ISIS (who thrived during the previous administration) heading towards total defeat since Trump took office.
And you better believe a foreign power stuck its nose in our election process. We have proof that the Clinton campaign paid for Russian-backed dirt on Donald Trump. As to the evidence that Trump colluded with Russia …. we’re still waiting. And while we’re talking about Russian interference ….. What exactly are Trump’s accusers saying Russia DID? It boils down to leading democrats’ emails being hacked and then exposed through wikileaks. Were they warned? Yes. Were the emails false/ fabricated? No. (Unlike much of the infamous dossier.) So essentially what happened was …. the TRUTH was hacked and revealed to the voters. That’s the bottom line. You never hear that in the media.
Delegitimizing the FBI? What about our police force?? Where was the democrat defense of our men and women in blue as they were maligned during the Obama administration? And remember Ms.Clinton’s rants against then FBI director James Comey, blaming him for her loss?
Donald Trump can indeed be a buffoon. He needs a verbal filter and we'd all love to burn his phone. He is a flawed man. We all see it. But in the opinion of a LOT of people, Ms.Clinton is worse. If he had not had his faults, he would have won by a landslide. But many, many moral people could not vote for him. I did. I saw the reality that it was simply between him and her, and she was unacceptable. I KNEW what she would do. I HOPED what Trump would do. So I look past his tweets and clumsiness, and focus on what he DOES. And so far, what he’s DOING ….. is better than I had hoped.
"Democrats are the party of tradition, if it’s interpreted — and it should be — to mean a news media that operates without fear of government interference, an internet to which access isn’t tiered, judicial appointees who have a modicum of fluency in trial law.
Under Trump’s thumb and spell, the Republican Party is watching the pillars of its brand crumble. Democrats should grab hold of and appropriate them. And they’re starting to, fitfully and imperfectly. Jettisoning Al Franken as the Republican National Committee reteamed with Moore was part of that effort.
Who among us doesn’t care about family values, defined justly and embraced honestly? Who doesn’t see the good in patriotism, tradition and decency? They’re neither hokey words nor musty concepts, and that’s why Republicans have been using (and misusing) them. But in the age of Trump, they constitute a language that Democrats can more credibly speak."
As I said, there’s enough hypocrisy to spread across the board. And the hypocrisy in this opinion piece was enough to propel me out of a warm bed, on a very cold morning, and write this post. TOO often in our government — morality, high roads, family values and all around honesty — all seem to depend upon which way the wind blows. And in this NYT piece, the wind is blowing out from where the sun does not shine.
