LIBERALS, TOLERANT NO LONGER

                                      LIBERALS, TOLERANT NO LONGER.

The left wing has been assumed to be the tolerant left. It is not a difficult standard when compared to the example set by those in the dark underground of the GOP. More recently that dark underground has been solidly above ground, illuminated by the klieg lights of arrogance and ignorance. As of Jan. 22, 2025, 1500 of those inhabiting the dark underground have been pardoned. Just 2.5 days after the new president was sworn in.

Some of us lefties, perhaps many, or most of us, are no longer tolerant. Republicans have been abusive partners for too long and we will no longer tolerate this abuse of power. Perhaps we should have done this long ago,when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House, or even when Republicans refused to sanction Trump for his insurrection with anything stronger than tepid words. But we didn't. Tolerance is a sticky thing, especially when it is considered by most people, including those Christians who are not the Christians who support Trump, as a virtue. Not to mention essential to democracy. As this essay is written, the Trump family and Vance family are smarting (for you MAGA out there, smarting in this context does not refer to gaining more knowledge), from a sermon delivered by a mild-mannered Episcopalian Bishop by the name of Maryann Edgar Budde. Episcopalians are not known for the fire and brimstone sermons of the tent preachers. Perhaps because they haven't had to hold services in a tent. Bishop Budde, in her mild-mannered homily, took Trump, his administration,and the authors of Project 2025, to the woodshed. And it stung! The president we didn't want again wants to have her deported to another country,one still in the free world. But she is a US citizen. I guess the President will not be attending  Bishop Budde's church again. Maybe they'll find a tent meeting next time they wish to exercise their public display of hypocrisy.

Republicans have promoted their Christian bona fide's since Joseph McCarthy was looking for communists under the bed. Somehow they always look like the hypocrites they are, but it works for them even though it can no way be considered tolerant. Back in 1988, Gary Hart was preparing to run for president. He was a popular Democratic Senator. Young, good looking, smart. He was a shoo-in. Instead we got Mike Dukakis, who was not a bad candidate. He just looked silly riding in an M-1Abrams tank with a tankers helmet. Gary Hart had been exposed for having a mistress; something Republicans don't like to admit about themselves, and ignore if revealed. Somewhere there is a picture of Gary Hart and his mistress on the aft-deck of a boat named Monkey Business. Not a yacht, but a simple pleasure craft in the 50' range. At about the same time Newt Gingrich was telling his wife, in a hospital for a mastectomy, that he was divorcing her for a young office assistant. The young office assistant-qua second wife of Gingrich would later be thrown over for a third Mrs. Gingrich, also an office assistant. But we remained tolerant. Did I mention, Gingrich and wife III, both remain Catholic? On the eve of the presidential election, in 1966 or so, Republicans impeached President Bill Clinton for the crime of lying to Congress, when asked if he had been getting blow-jobs in the Oval Office by a young intern. It was a cheap shot, but they couldn't find anything to charge him with, for an Arkansas land deal on the Swift Water River that lost money. Gingrich was enjoying the dalliance with the not yet third wife, at the time. Nobody saw the hypocrisy. Even worse, Ken Starr, the Special Counsel to the Clinton impeachment, who retired with a sinecure job at a Texas university, resigned due to ignoring the sexual harassment complaints from it's coeds. The Speaker who followed Gingrich, Dennys Hastert, is in federal prison for sexually abusing his wrestlers during his coaching years. We remained tolerant.

In the 2000 election Al Gore, then Vice President and a competent federal bureaucrat was the Democratic standard-bearer. Gore, at one time had studied climate science. Like any public-minded citizens, which does not include Republicans, Vice President Gore was warning us of the need to admit the science of climate change, which we had a pretty good chance to mitigate, had we elected him. We almost did. He won the popular vote. THE POPULAR VOTE. But he lost in the Electoral College. Well, that's not quite right. He lost the Electoral College in Florida because the vote was so close that they had to have a recount in Miami-Dade County. Except they stopped the recount because this disorderly group was banging on the doors where the recount was taking place. The unruly group was nicknamed The Brooks Brothers Brigade. Aside from the alliteration, it also signified that these well-fed, wealthy, white guys didn't buy those suits off the rack at Nordstroms. Among these people assaulting the very roots of democracy, hanging chads and all, were a couple unknown judges. More about them later. Since the recount could no longer be completed, it was decided that this needed to be a legal case going to the Supreme Court, and pretty damn quick, since the election count needed to be finalized. Funny thing, three of the justices who ruled for Bush in Bush v Gore were expecting to have family members receive jobs, either in the RNC or Bush Whitehouse. Nothing to see here. The 5-4 decision was handed down, in favor of Bush. Remember those two judges in the Brooks Brothers Brigade? One would soon become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, appointed by George W. Bush. The other was Brett Kavenaugh, who would be nominated by President Trump, after a short hearing where his past sexual aggressions were not adequately examined. Did I happen to mention that the Governor of Florida at this time was the Republican presidential candidate's older brother? Nothing to see here. We remained tolerant.

During the presidential election of 2004, the Democrats saw two great candidates ripped apart by Republican lies. Howard Dean, a Governor of Vermont, and  medical doctor, whose excited scream at a  campaign speech was disapproved by the conservative thought framers. John Kerry would replace him in the general election. He was a decorated Vietnam veteran who once had been a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. A Heritage Foundation group was formed to tarnish his service record: Swiftboat Veterans for Truth. I know this will shock you, but their purpose was to lie about John Kerry's service in Vietnam. His opponent,  George W. Bush, had spent the Vietnam years in the Texas Air National Guard, flying aged fighter jets. He left his commission under a cloud, having been grounded for testing positive for cocaine. But that was of no concern when compared to a Democrat.  We remained tolerant.

Barrack Obama ran for president in 2008 against John McCain. Aside from his choice for a running-mate, McCain wasn't a bad candidate. For a Republican. Obama was a bright, young man with a beautiful young family. Unfortunately they weren't white and you know how Republicans feel about dark skin. An interloper to the GOP, a former Reality Show character of low character, tried to undermine then Senator Obama's citizenship. Have you noticed how Republicans are stuck on citizenship? Senator Obama  became President Obama and the only Reublican to treat him honorably was John McCain. We remained tolerant.

There's  a pattern here and it continues to worsen. The abuses of power continued during President Obama's two terms. They refused to admit proof of Obama's citizenship the whole time, among other exhibitions of racial intolerance. They broadcasted a persistent lie when Hillary Clinton ran to oppose Trump in 2016. According to them she ran a child sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor. Like Republicans who have no honor, the pizza parlor had no basement. The fact was inadvertently proven by a young man from Maryland who drove to the pizza parlor armed with an AR-15, which he used to fire into the floor. Which was solid concrete. Nobody, fortunately, was injured. The young man recently died. I don't care why. I'm now less tolerant. Trump won the election, again with the help of the Electoral College. He was twice impeached. Once for trying to bribe Ukraine to dredge up stuff on Biden. The second time because Trump lost the 2020 election and caused an insurrection to hold up the Jan. 6 certification of the election he lost, resulting in the deaths of several Capital Police Officers. The 1500 people incarcerated for that insurrection have now been pardoned, thanks to Donald Trump who is now both the 45th President,  and 47th president, currently serving while undeserving. Tolerance? I no longer care to be tolerant. You cannot have a democracy when one party uses its freedoms to attack democracy from within.