IF A DEMOCRAT HAD DONE THAT... !

by Ruth A. Sheets

For years, I have cried out over and over, “If a Democrat had done that... ”  Republican politicians have been involved with, even done appalling, illegal, unconstitutional, or just plain immoral things.  Their acts are then dismissed as unimportant, sad, a moment of forgetfulness. 

The list is long.  It seems after Nixon’s Watergate “bad judgment,” Republicans just can’t be held accountable for anything happening either on their watch or directly as a result of individual members’ actions.

Some of the highlights include: 

- President Reagan’s Iran-Contra scheme, clearly illegal, but poor Mr. Reagan didn’t know anything about it and his minions were just following orders.”  (Whose orders, no one is quite sure.)

- Shutting down the whole government twice to prove a point. What point was clear neither time.

- 9/11 happened under George W. Bush, but he was seen as a president heroically bringing people together while Jimmy Carter was brought down because of the Iranian Revolution and Hillary Clinton was blamed and pilloried by Republicans for the raid in Benghazi.

-Candidate Donald Trump lied about every one of his opponents, made racist and sexist comments and maligned the family of a soldier killed in the Bush wars, accused a president of not being a legitimate citizen, yet was elected.

Attorney Gen. Jeff Sessions lied to a Congressional Committee in his confirmation hearings and most Republican senators are okay with it because he was “probably talking with the Russian ambassador about issues related to the Senate Committee he was a member of, not on behalf of Mr. Trump on whose election committee he was serving.”

Replace a Democrat’s name for any Republican named above and he or she would have been hung out to dry.  Remember, Bill Clinton was vilified and impeached for the kind of sex act that Mr. Trump brags about. 

I think of the Republican Party as the Teflon party.  Nothing negative they do sticks to them.

Comedian Bill Maher, though, has a better name for this phenomenon.  He calls it “The Magic R.”  If one has the Magic “R” behind his/her name, one can do practically anything and have it dismissed as some minor occurrence or nothing at all.  Cheat on your wife, no problem if you have the Magic R.  Lie to Congress, my goodness, “You must have forgotten.”  Insult fellow citizens from your high office?  No big deal, “He actually didn’t mean what he said.”  Lie to the American people, that’s okay, “the real Americans know you were just a bit angry with those other guys.”  Freeze up when you hear the news about 9/11, “Don’t worry, we’ll write a speech for you that will let you seem tough and in charge.”

And so it goes.  I do not know how to un-magic the R.  Republicans are very good with the language of deceit, finding phrases/slogans that sound good but mean the exact opposite:  “Right to Work bills” that actually lower wages and working conditions, “Religious Freedom bills” that make acceptable discrimination against people whose religion or practices they don’t like, “Voting Rights bills” that deliberately intend to keep specific groups of people from voting.

Maybe the way to remove the magic is to point it out every time we see it.  The media needs to call the “Right to Work,” the “Union-busting, Worker Repressing Bill” and “The Voting Rights Bill” the “Keep People (mostly Democrats) from Voting Bill.”  They started that with the bills discriminating against transgender people “Bathroom Bills.”  Good journalists will call the R’s out on all their hypocrisy so people can see it. Then, if citizens continue to vote for the hypocrites, they will know they are doing it and can be held accountable. 

I know, I know.  wishful thinking!