Why I hate Republicans
I’ve never had a problem with any loyal opposition. As a competitive distance runner in my youth I reveled in the magnanimous esprit de corps of the sport. We might have been the fiercest competitors on the track but we were also the best of friends off the track. But I hated anyone who cheated. Engage in blood-doping or use any performance enhancing steroids and you became my enemy. I believed then and still believe now that such people should be banned for life — not one year, not two years, not four years, but for life — particularly from the Olympic Games, the highest expression of human athletic aspiration.
The same goes for politics. In a fair contest of differing ideals, let the best person win. In fact, let the person whose goal is to best serve the Constitutionally-provisioned needs and lawful desires of any constituency win — irrespective of party. But when that party can only win by depriving me of my mandate and tricking me with lies, that party becomes my mortal enemy. Such people should be banned from participating in politics for life, and many should be jailed.
For example, Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott decreed that for the 2020 presidential election there will be only one ballot drop box per county. That works well for small counties where Republicans are a majority, but what about heavily Democratic Harris County, with an area the size of Rhode Island and with a population of 2.4 million eligible voters? One drop box for them? Really?
Recently California Republicans admitted placing illegal ballot drop boxes around the state. Donald Trump thinks that’s just fine. But why would they do that if they didn’t intend throwing out votes they didn’t like?
In white privileged Georgia the average time it takes to vote is fifteen minutes. In the poorer parts of Georgia where people of color are the majority constituent the average time it takes to vote is eight hours.
Republican voter suppression has become so rampant that even a serial pathological liar like Donald Trump doesn’t try to deny it. Trump doesn’t want lots of people voting, and he even said “that if you’d ever agreed to it you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
Voter suppression is the political equivalent of EPO for athletes. It gives the less talented suppressor a clear and unfair statistical edge, and such cheating is strictly a Republican strategy. Republicans know that most Americans don’t like them. America is a liberal nation. Most Americans want choice for women. Most Americans want guns to be registered. Most Americans prefer the separation of church and state. Most Americans hate Donald Trump. So Republicans, instead of having the good grace to leave a country where they aren’t wanted, cheat instead. They cheat so they can cling to raw power, because power is money.
Voter suppression is theft. I may disagree with your politics but I believe in your right to differ. But the minute you steal from me by trying to steal my vote you are no longer the loyal opposition. You are my enemy. I hate people who steal from me. Thieves are not welcome in a free society, nor is the thief they elected president of the United States. If you think winning by theft is acceptable you are not an American, you are a thief.
Nor do I appreciate the theft of truth. Science is truth, not the religious superstition Republicans are selling. A man who is afraid to answer tough questions and needs affirmation through rallies and constant praise is a weak man, not a strong one. Taxes aren’t for the benefit of the elite one percent, they are for the ultimate benefit of all Americans. If free healthcare isn’t the right of all citizens of the richest country in the world then who can it be a right for? Global warming isn’t a Chinese hoax. Anyone who sides with a party that supports such nonsense and lies is a thief, a robber of truth, but not an American.
On November third let’s put an American back in charge. Let’s turn the Russian mole currently infesting the People’s House over to lawfully constituted American Due Process, and get back to the job America was born to do: being a beacon of truth and freedom and justice and tolerance for the rest of the world. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.