It’s Time For an Apology from the GOP

David Posnett — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 18:20:31 +0000

Published in The East Hampton Star

Dear David:

Republicans owe America an apology.

Sadly, we have arrived at a point at which the White House, the political crown jewel that the GOP so ardently sought, is in disarray, which has taken down the GOP-led Congress as well. After making President Obama’s failure its No. 1 priority (so much so that it became an obsession), the GOP worked hard to get a rich white guy – any rich white guy – to take the mantle of leadership after Obama. In pursuing its obsession, it abandoned its stated principles and abandoned those it promises to serve.

Republicans refused to negotiate honestly when Democrats spent months seeking Republican support for the Affordable Care Act. Then they tried repeatedly over seven-plus years to take away that health care – not, as it turns out because they had a better idea, but because it was Obama’s idea. Even worse, for seventy-plus years Congress has worked to create, and then perfect (or try to) a safety net that would protect working class America and the disadvantaged among us from financial and social ruin. The current Republican credo, adhered to from the top of the ticket to its most local echelons, holds dear the destruction of those protections.

Yet, in the last election cycle, all one heard from GOP candidates was the mantra that working class America had been “forgotten” and only they were the ones capable of repairing this so-called injustice. Decrying the political opposition by fomenting race-based paranoia allowed these candidates to camouflage their real agenda. It is not the furtherance of the “forgotten,” it is the furtherance of unscrupulous greed.

Help the “forgotten”? Not Trump. The policies that have actually been implemented by the Trump administration, with the help of a Republican Congress, reflect a disdain for ordinary working-class Americans. Shortly after Trump took office, he and the GOP-led Congress rejected numerous Obama-era regulations that were actually designed to support workers, including rules barring worker discrimination, rules designed to enhance workers’ wages and rules enhancing workplace protection, such as barring companies with a history wage, labor or workplace safety violations laws from receiving federal contracts. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

So, the GOP agenda has no intention of protecting the “forgotten.” Its true colors are shown in its efforts to rip away healthcare, savage the social safety net and, in so doing, leaving the “forgotten” to fend for themselves. Under the GOP agenda, the “forgotten” will soon be the “trampled.”

The sad truth behind the GOP camouflage is that millions of hard-working Americans drank the GOP Kool-Aid, believing that the party truly cared for them and would make good on promises to deliver wealth, improve healthcare and preserve the all-important safety net protecting these folks. For some, it was hard not to be seduced by Trump and his GOP cohorts.

However, like everyone else who has succumbed to Trump’s wiles, these voters too have been had.

And for this, the GOP owes America an apology. And the lesson for voters from all this is that old adage: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Let’s not be fooled again, either in our local elections this year or next year when the GOP Congress has to face the music. Trust not the GOP Kool-Aid another time.

Sincerely,

Bruce Colbath

Mr. Zeldin Learns the Trump “Two-Step”

David Posnett — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 16:49:35 +0000

How many times is Congressman Zeldin going to try to disavow his embrace of Trump’s pro-white supremacy, without really doing so

By Sally Persons – The Washington Times – Friday, August 18, 2017

Rep. Lee Zeldin said Friday that there were parts of President Trump’s statement on white supremacists that were “factually inaccurate.”

“There should not be anyone, who is a good person, who is participating in any type of an effort that in any way, shape, or form is associated with the KKK and Nazism and all of the evil they represent. There are parts of what the president said that you can say are factually inaccurate. There are other parts that are hard truths. But as far as the factually inaccurate piece, I don’t know of anyone who would be there, who would associate themselves with that particular protest, who are good people,” Mr. Zeldin, New York Republican, said on CNN.

But Mr. Zeldin said criticism of the president, like that from Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, was “a little broader” than he would agree with. Mr. Corker said Thursday at a media availability that Mr. Trump had not shown the “competence” or “stability” of a successful leader.

“Sen. Corker is making a statement that could be interpreted a little broader than I would necessarily agree with. Sen. Corker might have a disagreement on, for example what we just had happen in Charlottesville. Speaking for myself for sure — I’m Jewish — I have zero tolerance whatsoever for any individual that associates themselves with KKK and Nazism and the hatred and bigotry and intolerance evil that is filled within their ranks,” Mr. Zeldin said.

The New York Republican came under fire after posting his support for Mr. Trump on Facebook in the wake of white supremacists protesting in Charlottesville, Virginia, last week. Mr. Zeldin said the president was right for blaming the violence on “both sides.”

Alt-Right – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

It’s Time For an Apology from the GOP

Mr. Zeldin Learns the Trump “Two-Step”

By Sally Persons – The Washington Times – Friday, August 18, 2017