By Bryan Ault
American politics is sinking to new lows.
Shortly after passing their replacement of the Affordable Care Act (known as “ObamaCare”), House Republicans rolled in beers to “celebrate” a “victory” over legislation many of them haven’t read.
After the vote, and apparently counting on a huge swing of public opinion next year, Democrats began chanting “Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye.”
Is that what we’ve come to? Where passing legislation is considered a “victory?” By necessity it implies that someone else lost, and that someone else is the other side of the aisle. This does nothing to unify our country and does not make us better over the long haul.
Is there any civility or class in politics nowadays outside of a library board meeting? This has been a theme recently, and it’s not adding up to anything good.
That was obviously evident throughout the brutal campaign cycle we just recently had. Donald Trump is Donald Trump. We all know about him by now. Along with mocking a disabled reporter and poking fun at a woman’s menstrual cycle, we need to look no further than the Access Hollywood tape.
But for all their criticisms of the president’s uncouth language, Democrats haven’t behaved much better. A few weeks ago Elizabeth Warren, a likely 2020 presidential candidate, told a crowd in Chicago that she hopes Republicans “leave their bodies to science. I would like to cut them open.”
Talk about setting an example.
If this is a theme that will continue in the 2020 election, those of us with common sense won’t be looking forward to it. Many of us will trudge up to our polling places in the same state of depression that we did last fall. I think many of the American people who voted for either presidential candidate last fall felt that way. At least most people in my family did.
Since many people in political circles are reading this, I, as a common man and taxpayer, have a simple challenge for you and your party’s leadership ahead of the 2020 elections — nominate a grownup, or if you’re a Republican, tell your commander in chief to wisen up and represent himself and his party better. Or nominate a candidate with decency.
I really don’t care if he or she is a Republican or a Democrat. Neither am I asking for a saint. Just someone with decency. Someone with class. Someone who fosters conversation. Someone who puts country over party.
Someone who listens to all of the American people and won’t demean the half that disagrees with their views by calling them a basket of deplorables.
Someone who, likewise, won’t threaten to throw the other candidate in jail during a nationally televised debate.
Such a candidate is appealing indeed.
Bryan Ault is a freelance writer from Indiana. This was distributed by the Franklin College Statehouse Bureau. Send comments to [email protected].
