BY BOB BEARDEN
As far as the Grand Old Party of Lincoln concerned the race for the nomination is over. The Donald is the presumptive nominee and has essentially wrapped up the nomination. And now comes the time for nose-holding. We are hearing calls for party unity and calls for getting behind the Donald as their party’s leader. Reince Priebus, RNC chair, is saying he is their nominee and all Republicans should be supporting him.
WTF? They are going to support a man who has been playing footsy with the KKK, the Aryan Nation, the Aryan Brotherhood, white supremacists, and David Duke, former grand dragon of the KKK. All of these people and groups have endorsed him for president.
Meanwhile, out on the campaign trail he has trashed almost all segments of our society including women, Hispanics, African Americans, veterans, union members, workers, the homeless, working poor, students, seniors and all of his opponents in both parties.
He is against the minimum wage, except when he isn’t. He’s against immigration reform, except when he isn’t. He’s anti-union except, when he isn’t. He loves women, except when he calls them names. He’s against almost everything this country stands for, except when he isn’t. He goes with the wind. Whichever way it is blowing he’s either for or against it. He stands for nothing and he stands for everything. He has more mood swings than a five-and-dime mood ring.
The question is, what does he stand for? You ask that question one day and then ask him again the next day and you will get answers that are totally opposite from one day to the next. He has often contradicted himself in the same speech. His take on foreign policy is to carpet bomb any nation or group of people who disagree with him.
He wants to bankrupt this nation by building a 50-foot wall on our southern border to fix a problem that needs fixing. A 50-foot wall will never solve the problem, but it would effectively bankrupt our nation so that the problem of immigration would have little meaning to our citizens.
He spews forth hatred, bigotry and vile anti-everything in speech after speech and never tells us how he will make this country great again except to say, trust me, you’ll love it. That also begs the question: isn’t America great already? So why do we need to make it great again?
It appears that taking us into bankruptcy is his only solution to economic problems. That might have worked for him in the world of high finance and venture capitalism, but it won’t work in solving the economic problems of our nation nor the world.
He already is persona non-grata in several nations of the world. And those are just the nations that are our friends. The nations who aren’t our friends, he simply wishes to carpet bomb them into submission – something, of course, that isn’t possible, much less a sane policy strategy for the most powerful nation in the world.
His grasp of foreign policy is on a kindergarten level and, as cute as that may seem to some pointy-headed supporters, it’s not something that we need in our president.
My take is if the GOP establishment embraces him as their nominee for president, then not only are they totally embracing outdated, failed, racist and bigoted policies, but they also are proving once and for all they are totally out of sync with the rest of our nation.
The Grand Old Party of Lincoln used to stand on high principles. They freed the slaves. They helped give our nation’s seniors affordable health care with the passage of Medicare and they stood with LBJ when the Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Acts were passed.
If they go with The Donald, then they are repudiating their past, and the principles their party has stood for since Abraham Lincoln helped found the Grand Old Party, effectively negating their claim to be the Party of Lincoln.
– Bob Bearden is a trustee for the Central Oklahoma Labor Federation, a member of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City and a frequent contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
