This past weekend 2024 Republican presidential candidates, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence and Donald Trump were all in North Carolina. Could that be why I’ve been having an issue with air quality?

DeSantis promised to renamed Fort Liberty, Fort Bragg. Basically, Pence did his usual empty suit routine and Trump claimed to be an innocent and persecuted man. You would have to be willfully ignorant to believe Trump but fortunately for him most Americans who fall into that category are Republican primary voters.

The renaming of the fort was long, long overdue! Fort Bragg was named after confederate General Braxton Bragg whose major “accomplishments” appear to be owning slaves and losing several key battles that led to the Confederates’ defeat. How either of those warrants having a major base named after you is something I simply cannot comprehend.

When did the word “liberty” become a threat to Republicans? I’d say it was when the wannabe autocrats took over the party.

I see Pence as an also ran so I won’t comment on him much other than to say he is trying to walk a thin rope and simultaneously stay on all sides of almost every issue.

I like the comparison many are making of John Gotti, nicknamed The Teflon Don, and Trump. Both ran or are running organized criminal enterprises and seemingly continually graced the covers of tabloid newspapers. Gotti eventually got his and it appears Trump is headed down that same road.

The word “freedom” has been one of the latest rallying cries of the extreme right in America. As one example we have the Freedom Caucus. That was also the “justification” for dangerous behavior during the earlier stages of the pandemic. We all remember at many points in our life saying, “It’s a free country.” Well, let’s take an incomplete look at what that freedom might look like if today’s Republicans ever completely took over.

Republican government resembles Soviet Russia more than my ideas of America, liberty and democracy. What happened to small government Republicans?

They will tell you what books you are allowed to read and write. They think putting writers and librarians in prison is necessary to maintain order. (In an oppressive state they are correct on that count, but do we really want an oppressive state?)

They want to control curriculum and debate in classrooms. The penalty is to imprison teachers. I guess they think we have too many already. Can you imagine the harm a teacher acknowledged that slavery, discrimination or gay people actually existed in America can cause to wannabe autocrats?

Every day when I peruse the newspapers I read of fatalities caused by drag queens. Well, not really but gun deaths in America have become so common they now fight for news coverage. Republicans ban drag shows and make it easier to obtain and carry guns.

There are right wing political parties in most democracies. Only one denies man’s involvement in climate change – you’ve got it, the American Republican party. Many of their prominent elected officials go so far as to deny that climate change exists. I jokingly alluded to the bad air across much of the United Stets as being caused by Republican presidential wannabes. In reality we know it was caused by Canadian wildfires (it’s a global problem) whose smoke drifted across the US. Solving it will be challenging but ignoring it is certainly not a solution! Hey, but at least the Republicans are protecting me from those dangerous drag queens. (For the record I’m never encounter one – even of the non-dangerous variety – in the flesh. However, I (somewhat reluctantly) went back to wearing a mask outdoors over the past few days.)

The Republicans are working on installing their 21st century version of slavery. They want to make people capable of conception state property with forced births. The move to end birth control is well under way and access to abortion is all but being made non-existent in red states. How long before they push for a national ban? A pregnant person effectively becomes state property until they give birth. In most cases with no, or very limited, exceptions for rape, incest, the viability of the fetus at birth or the life of the mother. Sounds a lot like how slave owners treated their breeding stock to me. In the process the Republicans want to imprison physicians and other medical professionals. Well, to be honest even Uber drivers.

There is one last thing that binds Republicans, (and at least it’s consistent with traditional Republican stances), they want to lower taxes for the people who need a passport to visit their money. How that helps Joe Lunchbucket is beyond me. (In truth it doesn’t.)

Now that you know what they are for how can you be for them? To date I haven’t seen a 2024 Republican candidate worth voting for. However, regardless of who he will be (and it will be a male) by simple virtue of the Republican line they have a decent chance of winning. That is terrifying!

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