This past July 7, Signal columnist Gwendolyn Sims penned a column titled, “Democrats Don’t Really Care About Kids.”
Let that sink in for a moment. You mean, all those 30-odd years I worked away in the tough parenting trenches was mere thoughtless goofing off?
You mean all those Democratic school teachers slaving away nurturing our kids – don’t really care? Even when they use their own salaries to buy school supplies?
Boy, I sure care about kids. I bet you do, too – regardless of your political affiliation. So why would Gwendolyn post such an inflammatory title for her column, regardless of actual column content? The title was, in and of itself, offensive, simply for offensive-ness’ sake.
Fellow Signal columnist and generally independent thinker Steve Lunetta summed it up well: “…(Sims’) title is just stupid and meant to inflame folks. I sure hope this was not her intention. Why not title it, “Dems Eat Babies for Lunch”? It would have the same impact and be just as truthful.”
I don’t think “Dems” eat babies for lunch. At least, I’ve never actually witnessed it.
But we do seem wanton to politically eat one another up, don’t we? Our blogs, websites, Facebook posts and partisan news sites are forever at each other’s throats, in the most uncivil and essentially un-American way. Any drive for unity and consensus is essentially out the door these days.
That’s the plague that’s plaguing our still great nation more than anything. More than deficits, Supreme Court picks, immigration. Our great flaw is our infighting and intense partisanship.
Our company’s controller just got back from a long trip in Spain. All lot of Spaniards talked with them about America. They watched a lot of Spanish news covering America. The upshot? Spaniards think Americans have lost their minds and the country itself isn’t long for the world – at least the country as we now know it.
So bad has our internal strife become, so bad has our international reputation become, folks overseas are seriously thinking we’ve lost our moorings and are fully adrift.
So much is happening, changing, being thrown at us so quickly we can’t even remember the last shock, insult, surprise, change, or shift. Americans themselves aren’t the only ones overloaded with it all – the whole world sees us and they too can hardly believe what they’re hearing and seeing. But we’re just getting started now…
We’ll soon forget all about caged kids and separated families at the border and walls not being built (or are they?) the same way we’ve forgotten about Stormy Daniels. We might even forget that Robert Mueller is closing in on Trump by the day, securing indictments further and further up the ladder… maybe to the Big Guy himself.
No, starting now we’ve got a Battle Royale on our hands – the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. “We ain’t seen ‘nothin yet, folks.”
As to Kavanaugh himself, I think Democrats lucked out that Trump didn’t pick anyone a more conservative than he did. By all appearances Kavanaugh is super well educated, a decent man, a Beltway insider, and just moderately right of center.
Given that Trump got the manipulated gift of a second court pick, for progressives, this could have been much worse.
Much more unfair than Democrats getting stuck with Kavanaugh is the stonewalling that Obama got for his nominee, Merrick Garland. You recall the Republicans refused Garland even a hearing, saying, “Nine months was too close to a mid-term election for such an important pick.”
What a ploy and it worked! Now, with just four months remaining until mid-terms, and with this president very much under suspicion of election collusion and financial misdeeds – this same potentially indictable president is afforded his pick – one that truly could shift the U.S. for a decade or more – and perhaps even grant him some immunity for crimes during his presidency.
I’ll give you this: Republicans have learned to play politics like it’s a knife fight. Toss fairness out the window on this one – Merrick Garland should have been on the court right now. Still, there’s some cold comfort that Kavanaugh is in striking range of “middle America.”
Nevertheless, get used to even louder outrage and ever more rash accusations and even more heightened rhetoric, especially as Roe vs. Wade takes center stage in this Supreme Court drama.
Yes, there’s little doubt we’ll soon see a column titled not too unlike Gwendolyn Sims’: “Democrats Eat Aborted Fetuses.”
More stupid, overblown, inflammatory rhetoric will soon be blasted your way, every which way.
And yes, the Spaniards are right to think us nuts.
Gary Horton is a Santa Clarita resident. His column, “Full Speed to Port!” appears Wednesdays in The Signal.
