-OPINION March 25th, 2016 BY:
Dr. Sherice J. Nelson
This presidential primary cycle has been one for the ages. Historians will squall with glee to have an abundance of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources to study, and evaluate this time in our relatively young democracy. On the Republican side, we started out with 16 candidates. Never in the history of the party have they seen so many candidates. On the Democratic side, we started with four contenders, two fell by the wayside fairly quickly. Now we’re down to three Republicans and two Democrats. Well, maybe not two Democrats. Maybe just one and the allusion of another. Have we been told so many lies that we don’t know the truth? In this political process is everyone a prostitute or are we evolving into better people, a better country? The inspiration for this piece is a culmination of recent world events. The recent loss of life in Brussels Belgium, the President of the United States first visit to communist Cuba in 70 years, the question about Hillary Clinton’s truthfulness, all these things have inspired such a complex piece.
Hillary is the only candidate not lying its why she’ll win. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
At the commencement of 2009, the Grand Old Party made a decisive statement. Then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the party was determined to make President Barack Obama a one term president. The parties’ repudiation of Barack’s Blackness, commenced a season of obstructionism and fantastical stories that were rooted in stereotypical believes about Black laziness, lack of intellect, and violent behavior. Instead of the Grand Old Party realizing that the problems of their party were displayed in their title; they were old and White, they continuously denied their problem. The ideals held by Grand old White men were no longer the ideals of the nation. They were no longer the party of Lincoln, and haven’t been in a longtime. They were the frat boys entering their sixth year of college, still excited and exuberant about pledge week while others were confused, why were they even still there?
Instead of the Grand Old Party facing the facts that the electorate was quickly changing and that conservatism and it’s staunch ideals needed to evolve, they dug their heels in deeper. They galvanized a community, once heterogeneous in their political views, by refusing to concede that deporting 11 million people was ludicrous and unconscionable. Instead, they lie to themselves and lied to the American people. So much so, the American people now expect a lie regardless of their political party affiliation.
Trump is constantly lying, its part of his strategy.
Eight years of lies and bigotry, created a Tea Party, a radical right group bound together by inconsistent ideals and principles that are too complex for most of the party faithful to comprehend. It literally set the table for a Fascist Demagogue known to us as Donald J. Trump, who has lied repeatedly without much more than verbal disdain by establishment Republicans and cable media. All the while his supporters admits he lies, but they are too tied with the emotional charge he provides and they feel, to stop, hear, and act upon the truth.
Please do not think the Democrats are blameless. Quite the opposite, many of them have used the obstruction as an excuse not to work on pressing needs of their constituents. Others have secretly rejoiced as they never liked the junior Senator representing the great state of Illinois: and not because of his race- on no, because they are prejudice free- but because he is too self assured, and did not then and does not now, need their approval to define his success.
The physical loss of life in Brussels, Belgium mirrored for me the death of civility, reasoned arguments, and our model example of democracy. Each of the aforementioned are necessary for a successful society. Ostracizing Muslims can only happen and be successful, if lies are continuously told, which allow a characterization of violent extremism to define an entire Faith of people. When facts are presented strung together to make a reasonable argument we-the American people-are so accustom to lies that fear and bigotry paralyze us. Truth may be right before us; however, it has shown to be much more of a commitment and may not be as profitable as just one lie.
Foreign Policy experts have said that hostile relations with Cuba have been profitable. Many have said that the invasion of Iraq was ill advised. The truth in each of these scenarios lies somewhere in the middle. Many Americans would be surprised to know we have spent close to double the amount of money in Iraq and Afghanistan, in comparison to the funds provided to Western Europe known as the Marshall Plan. The truth is that greed is the common denominator in both policies just either ends of the spectrum. So the question still stands. Have we decided to prostitute ourselves in the continual and now habitual act of lying? Or instead are we reaching for truth, evolving in the understanding of our differences so that we do not neglect our own humanity?
Our collective humanity provides an excellent segue into the consistent and narcissistic conversation about Hillary Clinton’s truthfulness. The idea that we are discussing her truthfulness, when the leading candidate in the Republican Party is asserting that he will get a foreign state to pay for the building of a wall, while her direct primary opponent, who is still registered as an independent, admits to running under the party protection for media coverage, disingenuously advocates for single payer healthcare when Obamacare, a hybrid approach, was repealed 62 times since 2010, and free public college tuition, when states struggle to establish a universal teaching cannon, let alone implement curriculum without vigorous debate, is laughable at best and sexist at worst! The humanity in all of us provide each of us, indiscriminate of your race, sex, or religious affiliation, the proclivity to lie. All human beings lie! If I would be so fortunate to receive $100 each time Donald Trump calls someone else a liar or asserts that he is not lying, I would be a millionaire. The moral turpitude of Hillary Clinton is not any better or worse than any other presidential candidate, certainly not in this presidential contest, or any other in the history of this country.
Sanders is a White Supremacist Communist posing as a progressive.
As the polls closed on the west coast of this country, and I watched Bernie Sanders win Idaho, Hillary Clinton win Arizona, Donald Trump win Arizona, and Ted Cruz win Utah, I realized that there was not any difference in Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump. Both men are using emotion to dictate and possibly rewrite the rules of politics as we known it, and why might you ask? Because the lies about the Black man have been emphatically rebuffed by President Barack Obama’s intellect, humility, genuine love for his family and Black wife, poise, and confidence under pressure, regardless of your adoration or disdain for his policies. Now as history foretold, with the constitutional right to vote clearly established yet denied to women even after men of any race legally could, she, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, is set to be the Democratic Party nominee and the President of the United States. Come January 20, 2017, almost a century after the 19th amendment was signed by Congress, she can become the first female Commander and Chief. This signifies that lies, bigotry, oppression, they do not win. Yet truth and personal as well as societal evolution, which forces us to see each others humanity and respect it, wins. Without emotional manipulations, the Grand Old Party, and all the men of that elk, will experience what they dread the very most, the loss of power, the loss of superiority, the loss of dominance!
So the answer is yes! We are evolving into better people, a better country, a more perfect union albeit, the torrential consequences of a countries original sin, slavery, are still upon us. To the Grand Old Parties chagrin, this land is just as much yours as mine, from California’s Golden Gate, to New York’s Niagara Falls, this land was made on my ancestral back for you, not me, and yet, I’m still FREE!
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