I will admit right up front that I’m taking an easy path today. I could write an essay if not a book and I still wouldn’t do a complete job of going through the examples why it is hysterically laughable that the Republican Party calls itself the political party of family values. Let’s explore.
You know Kamala Harris is starting to gain traction in the polls because the right wing has begun to attack her with falsehoods. The latest one is that she had an affair with a married man. The man is former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and it is true that Harris dated him in the mid-1990’s. Brown separated in 1982. Harris got married for the first and only time in 2014 at the age of 49. That means Harris, then in her mid-thirties, was dating a man who had been separated from his only wife for over a decade. It’s not like either was covertly cheating on a spouse or she was a homewrecker. It is reasonable to assume that the relationship was sexual. Is it odd or scandalous to think that a professional woman in her 30’s in 1990’s America would be engaged in sexual activity? Harris was almost definitely not a virgin on her wedding day. I also got married for the first and only time at a slightly older age. I assure you that I had experienced the pleasures of the flesh prior to that. I am certain that does not shock you. Considering all that, why is the right wing trying to slut shame Senator Harris?
Contrast that with the Republicans’ current standard bearer, President Trump. He not only publically had an affair while still married to his first wife; he lobbied newspapers to publicize it. Unlike Trump, Harris has never credibly been accused of rape nor been accused of or admitted to sexual assault.
Trump is far from the first family values Republican who didn’t walk the walk. Do the arithmetic between Ronald Reagan’s divorce and the birth of his first child with second wife, Nancy. Spoiler Alert: the number of months is less than nine.
These aren’t some Congressman or City Council member who slipped in; these are Presidential candidates selected by the entire Party at a national convention after a primary.
I can’t think of a family value much more precious than health. The Republicans fought Obamacare and continue to do the same to this day. It appears they may be closer to success than ever. If they are successful they will throw millions of Americans to the wolves. People will die as a direct result of their actions. That is not hyperbole; it is simple reasoning. How does watching a loved one die unnecessarily and/or prematurely strengthen your family?
This isn’t a few renegades on a legislative lark; this is policy and doctrine practiced for more than a decade.
The term family values implies a respect for the nuclear, if not also the extended, family unit. The current administration is bending over backward to separate refugee families at the border often in violation of international and American law.
Again these aren’t the actions of a rogue official here or there. This is the policy of the current administration backed up by virtually the entire GOP Congressional delegation. Furthermore they are doing it because their voting base demands it. These policies are not an accident; they are the manifestation of who today’s Republicans really are.
In case you think it is exclusively a national problem consider the recent actions of the Virginia Legislature. A special session of the body lasted an entire ninety minutes to take up the issue of gun regulation. It ended with nothing being passed. I wasn’t in Richmond that day but I doubt it was the Democrats who caused the “massive productivity”. I guess nothing brings a family together more than one of its members being shot.
I will leave you with a question and a thought. Lies, hyperbole and hypocrisy or just another day for the Republican message machine? You be the judge. Trump is an inevitable symptom of a long ago contracted disease that has infected the GOP.
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