GOP has no room to talk when attacking the president

Editor,

Inflation has absolutely devoured American wages for the last three decades. If Obama was really a socialist, wouldn’t the ACA include a single-payer public option?

Republicans seem to have forgotten that we live in a republic. The GOP claims to believe in individual freedom and personal liberty, but that only seems to apply to white, Christian, mostly straight men.

In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton are attempting to un-marry Texas residents Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, who have been in a loving and committed relationship for 31 years. Sarah was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Republicans like New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have proclaimed that the issue of same-sex marriage should be put to a popular vote. Republicanism may be distinguished from other forms of democracy as it asserts that people have unalienable rights that cannot be voted away by a majority of voters. You just have to feel sorry for these so-called Christians and these so-called Republicans.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak in Congress in an attempt to subvert United States foreign policy. The Speaker didn’t notify the White House, and the whole thing blew up in his face. In 2002 Netanyahu gave a speech warning about the existential threat from Iraq’s WMDs. After thousands of American lives were lost, tens of thousands of Americans maimed, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed in chaos and violence, there was no threat. In 2012 Netanyahu gave a speech warning about the existential threat from Iran’s WMDs. Yesterday it was reported in leaked spy cables that the Israeli Mossad disagreed with Netanyahu’s 2012 speech about the immediate threat.

Republicans would love nothing more than to start a War with Iran for their benefactors in Israel. Iran is three times the size of Iraq. The Shiites in Iran also happen to be our allies in the fight against ISIS, the result of the blowback from our disastrous War in Iraq. President Bush didn’t know that there was a difference between Sunni and Shiite Islam.

This past week America’s Mayor Rudolph Giuliani invited himself to speak at a fundraising dinner for Scott Walker. Giuliani stated, “I do not believe — and I know this is a horrible thing to say — but I do not believe that the president loves America. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.” Obama was mostly raised by his grandparents, and his grandfather served this country in World War II. Giuliani was the son of a mob enforcer and felon. The next day Giuliani said he wasn’t a psychiatrist, that Obama was a patriot, and he wasn’t a racist... because Obama had a white mother?

When Gov. Walker asked about Rudy’s comments, the college dropout just shrugged. The next day, when Walker was asked if he thought Obama was a Christian, he stated, “I don’t know, I’ve never actually talked to him about it.” Last week, when Walker was in London, he was asked if he accepted the scientific theory of evolution. He responded by saying, “That’s a question a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or the other.”

The Grand Old Party has to appeal to the lowest common denominator of America. It has been six years now — has Obama come for those guns and taken them away? The GOP claims to believe in American Exceptionalism, but they want to turn the USA into Wal-Mart: low-wage jobs with no benefits, no investment in infrastructure, just money.

Even though the GOP doesn’t believe the president is a Christian, they found it offensive and deplorable when Obama quoted the Bible when announcing his immigration order: “Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger — we were strangers once, too.” When the President cited human history during a recent national prayer breakfast, in explaining that every religion has grappled with extremists, again the GOP went crazy! I was listening to local 770 KKOB talk radio, and heard caller after caller bleating about the anti-Christ and that Obama was an Islamo-Fascist. Jesus Christ would be horrified by the ignorant zealots preaching such hate in his name.

If you ever want to peer into this madhouse, just go to The Drudge Report, and click on any link. If the link has a comment section, well, it just breaks the heart! Tune into talk radio 770 KKOB after work to the Stig Show — again, broken heart. Click on the Fox News website for a few minutes, then tune in a little later, and later than that, and you will notice a similarity to the looping of talking points, spin, propaganda, and mostly horseshit.

Under Democrat presidents like Obama and Clinton, budgets get reigned in, big government shrinks, taxes on the wealthy go up, the deficit plunges, the stock market booms, unemployment falls, and the economy expands. Under Republican presidents like Bush 43 or Reagan, budgets get blown up with military spending and tax cuts for the wealthy, government gets bigger, the deficit skyrockets, the stock market crashes (1987/2008), unemployment rises, and the economy contracts. The GOP claims to be the party of fiscal responsibility, but every time they are in charge they blow it all up. These folks would really benefit from some courses in science, math, history, logic, reasoning and critical thinking. Perhaps they could shake off the Obama hate and get back to governing, compromising and leading instead of just whining and bitching.

Obama isn’t perfect, his handling of the Middle East in Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq has been a hot mess, but at least he has a foundation of logic, pragmatism and reality.

Sincerely,

Brian Fejer

UNM alumni