If you've stopped in here over the last nearly eight years (yeah, I know; imagine how old that feels on this side of the screen), you've long since realized my heart beats on the left side of my chest and my politics tends to more often than not follow my heart.
With that as prologue, you will not be surprised to learn I did not watch any of the two Republican Candidates for President Debates, either the Really Big Shoe, sorry Ed, that was on in prime time, or the one earlier for the candidates at the kiddie table, with the sippy cups and the drop cloth on the floor to facilitate easy clean-up. But it doesn't mean I cannot enjoy an informed and dispassionate report on aspects of life in the arena.
Ever since the Republicans in Congress in October of '13 gave me and my fellow federal employees some extra time off in a sword-fish fight with the President over the budget that was reduced to Moot Point, I've not had a lot of use for anyone who stands for any office from the Party of Lincoln (especially as many of its members think that's a reference to a luxury automobile of the Ford Motor Company).
Besides, the current crop of Republicans aren't like any of the ones I grew up with. There's no Bill Scranton, Nelson Rockefeller, Charles Percy, Everett Dirkson, Edward Brooke, Clifford Case or Peter Frelinghuysen or Millicent Fenwick (most of those folks wouldn't get an invite to the current "party").
My prejudice, and that is exactly what it is and I make NO apology for it, means "the other folks" (the Democrats) have extra pressure to seek out people for whom I could vote (and often fall very short of the mark as well).
I say it that way because I'm the kind of asshat who went to local elections in November of 2013 (and last year, too) and after ignoring all those on the ballot with (R) after their names discovered about two people on the entire ballot I could actually endorse. I'd brought a pocket novel, so I did some reading as I'd have otherwise been out of the polling place so fast I would have knocked myself down coming out going in.
With all due respect to the very sainted Thomas Paine, whom more than one of these representatives of the Crypto-Fascist wing of the Republican Party are so inordinately fond of quoting, these are the times that try a man's soul and also, seemingly allow for a thorough if uninformed discussion of a woman's reproductive rights without actually conceding that a woman has any rights in this area at all.
And nearly all of these discussions, these verbal and intellectual abominations, happen in the name of a Lord that, were S/He to meet any of these clowns as they got out of the car, wouldn't waste the seltzer it would take to drown them.
So far, I've concluded nearly all those seeking office seem to agree on is that anyone who doesn't worship as they do or have the same sexual preference as theirs or know the secret handshake that unlocks the political action committee dollars to abrogate and nullify the basic freedoms of speech and choice outlined in the Bill of Rights they wipe their butts with (when given the chance) will be unsuccessful in gaining my vote or even earning my respect.
You have been weighed and found wanting. Move along, little doggies.
-bill kenny
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