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Quid De Cogitatione? Glenn Rose
What has happened to so many of our fellow country men and women that they are so easily deceived by lies and falsehoods from a charlatan “willing to do and say virtually anything to remain in the spotlight”? ( Mer iam-Web ster’s definition of a charlatan.)
This is not about politics. It is not Democrats against Republicans. It is not conservatives versus liberals.
It’s about how decent people treat one another.
It is about the core values in our Declaration of Independence and the codified rules in our Constitution stating how our government is supposed to govern.
It is about electing leaders who have integrity, respect and empathy for others, and an unselfish desire to serve our country and all its citizens.
It is about electing leaders who have moral standards, common sense, and the intellectual ability to create rational solutions to the challenges our nation faces.
What would these people say if Joe Biden was caught on tape saying, “When you’re a star, [women] let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the [private part]. You can do anything,” and then passing it off, at the age of 59, as “locker room banter”?
Beyond the immaturity it shows, what would he be inclined to think he could do as president of the United States?
Who would vote for Kamala Harris if she called on her supporters to punch out a protestor at one of her rallies, assuring them she’d pay for their lawyer?
Suppose she told supporters to throw out one protestor, but “keep his coat? It’s cold out there!”
Suppose either one declined to visit a cemetery for American war dead saying, “Why should I go…? It’s filled with losers.”
Suppose either one said of John McCain, “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
Millions of Americans have served our country with the threat of either or both happening to them. They did not choose to stay home with bone spurs!
Suppose either one had 34 felony convictions and numerous indictments to be addressed?
Suppose either one’s family had been barred from running a nonprofit organization because its members had misused the funds raised?
If either one mused on the effectiveness of putting bleach in the blood as a cure for COVID-19, wouldn’t intelligent people be appalled at the ignorance of anyone over 6 years old not knowing the lethality of chlorine?
How could anyone vote for someone who after losing a legitimate election denied that legitimacy, insisted that the election was stolen without any shred of proof, and incited a violent attempt to overthrow the Constitutionally mandated validation of that election.
What would the pledge “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” mean from someone who had tried to overthrow it?
It would mean nothing. I don’t understand how eyes and ears could experience the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and not see the violence and threat wrought on our Capitol and country.
John Kennedy was prescient of today’s Republican Party with his observation: “We have all seen these circus elephants complete with tusks, ivory in their head, and thick skins, who move about the circus ring and grab the tail of the elephant ahead of them.”
Those who stick to their principles and don’t grab the tail in front of them – Liz Cheney, Denver Riggleman, Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, and Paul Ryan, to name but a few, and numerous cabinet members of the past administration – have been expelled or marginalized by this expropriated Republican Party.
Ronald Reagan could be credited with the same foresight as Kennedy when he said, “We must be cautious in claiming God is on our side. I think the real question is, ‘Are we on His side?’” Their leadership and ethics are to be lionized for their dedication to the principles of our shared rules of conduct. The person who can’t rise above others with enlightened and thoughtful discourse but can only hope to push any opposition down with juvenile name calling, prodigious lying, and raising unfounded xenophobic and jingoistic fears is not qualified to lead this republic.
Republican President Theodore Roosevelt (who would also be ostracized by today’s Republican Party) said it succinctly, “This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make a place for all of us to live in.”
That’s what this election is about! I have watched some of the Olympics and have been moved most by the conduct of those young women and men competing. Winners embrace losers. Losers embrace winners. All congratulate each other for their efforts. I’ve seen no crybabies claiming they were robbed.
That’s what our elections should be about!
“If this be error and upon me proved”…it will need critical thinking and real facts.
