i wrote a piece, a second part to last week’s Now What? about Dr. Christine Ford’s testimony and the fall out. It was supposed to post Wednesday morning. I had intended to re-read it, tweak it a bit, and then post, and I did finally do that last night. However, the last two days since the original first draft have been a minefield of emotion and anger. Rage.

I don’t like lumping all conservatives and all registered Republicans into one uncaring category. I have several friends who are genuinely conservative, who are anti-abortion, who think the government is spending too much money. I’m not that old, but I’ve been alive through ten presidencies including this one, and a pattern I’ve noticed over the years and through my study of political science is that Republicans say one thing, their people vote for them, and then they do the opposite. They raise the deficit, they give tax cuts to their rich friends, they give subsidies to oil companies that continue to raise prices on the rest of us, they vote down minimum wage and health care because it’s too expensive.

When we finally get fed up, we elect a Democrat, but the Republican Congress tells him that we can’t afford this, we can’t afford that, and we need to cut “entitlements”. Entitlements! It’s only entitlements when it’s for the working class, for the blue collar, for the families, and the poor.

And then we do it all over again.

And again.

No more.

Would you be surprised if I told you that House Speaker Paul Ryan used government benefits to go to college after his father died? Would it surprise you to know that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had polio and was treated and cured by the government which he now admonishes for spending too much on working families. Without the help of the government they are currently destroying they wouldn’t be where they are today. While Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House, he was having an affair (with the woman he’s now married to, who is the Ambassador to the Vatican! of all things) while his wife was sick in the hospital, and at the same time as this, he was leading the impeachment fight against President Bill Clinton.

There are no both sides; no equivocation between the parties; no lesser of two evils.

There must be another word for hypocrisy because the Republicans have used up the current definition.

In the last two days, I have seen the President of the United States call a sexual assault survivor evil, that she has perpetuated a hoax; he apologized to her assailant on behalf of the American people. Not me, Mr. President; not me.

Do you know what’s a hoax? The FBI supplemental background check into Dr. Ford’s allegations against Judge Kavanaugh. It was hamstrung from the beginning by the White House counsel, who conveniently will be leaving his position at year’s end. This was confirmed Wednesday when FBI Director Wray was answering Senator Kamala Harris’ questions about this very subject.

This same President lies on an hourly basis, and just had an op-ed published in a national newspaper that was filled with exaggerations, incitement, and lies! How does this get through the editorial process? I have lost all respect for the editorial branch of USA Today.

“The Democrats have become too extreme and they’ve become, frankly, too dangerous to govern. They’ve gone wacko!” “They’re the party of crime, there’s an open borders bill in Congress now.” These are only a few of the things the President said. He is inciting his followers to violence. They’ve already murdered (Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, VA) and threatened military-style unrest.

He wants to know who “drew” the most recent report on climate change before he comments on it. DREW. Is he waiting for the Rebus version? Have we dumbed down the presidency so much that we don’t even question these assaults on our intelligence?

When the Tea Party carried loaded weapons into Democratic protests and town halls, that was called an American right. They were encouraged to shout down Democrats asking their Congresspeople questions and to yell at the Democratic representatives.

I remember.

When Nazis gather and murder a teacher in Virginia, there’s blame on both sides.

When women gather in the Senate building, a public, citizen owned building telling their sexual assault stories, and protesting (peacefully by the way, with no weapons), they are called an angry mob by the President and the Majority Leader.

When women gather on a public street to protest their elected representatives, it is called an assault (as stated by McConnell), but the assault perpetrated on Dr. Ford is called faulty memory by the exact same person.

A Virginia resident went to the Saudi embassy in Turkey to get a wedding license. He has not been seen since. His name is Jamal Khashoggi, and he is a journalist for the Washington Post. It was leaked on Tuesday that US intel had information that the Saudis were trying to lure him home because of his opposition to the Crown Prince (friend of Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner). The Turkish government believes that he was murdered in the embassy, dismembered, and removed in boxes. There were two Saudi planes flown in and out of Turkey during the same time, so best case is that he’s been kidnapped and returned to Saudi Arabia, but after today’s reporting that seems unlikely.

The NY Times knew, KNEW, that the Trump campaign was tied up with a counterintelligence investigation two years ago, BEFORE Election Day in 2016 and said nothing, published nothing, but they still talked about emails and Benghazi to distract the rest of us. They capitalized on the unreasonable, irrational hatred for Hillary Clinton. Despite her not running again for any office, they continue to demonize her to distract from their own mismanagement of the government.

Have we investigated Russia’s involvement in our election; their interference? Their act of cyber war?

No.

Why?

Because Rep. Devin Nunes of CA intentionally and traitorously hid information for the White House and released an incomplete memo of lies.

Republicans are now misleading, and by misleading, I mean lying to the American people about the health care they will offer. It’s not health care. The plans are not adequate, and the Republicans know it, but their voters will believe them until their insurance plans refuse to honor the most basic of health care rights. On Wednesday, the Republicans had an opportunity to keep their campaign promise to protect pre-existing conditions in health insurance plans that are “better and cheaper” than Obamacare. They voted against it. AGAINST the pre-existing conditions protections!

There was just a report that many of the detained children, still in cages at the border will be put up for adoption because the Trump Administration couldn’t be bothered to keep track of which parents were deported or which kids belonged to who. We are 76 days past the court deadline of reunification, but with the circus that is the Trump government, the only ones paying attention are the ACLU, Jacob Soboroff, and RAICES.

Let me be clear. The United States government kidnapped these kids, some under one year old, deported their parents, and have moved these kids into foster care and for adoption. One of the adoption agencies has money ties to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. In some cases, these kids were moved in the dead of night to start the adoption process right from the beginning of their detention without due process or their parents’ permission.

Sad and angry do not scratch the surface of the emotions I’m feeling, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. Every day is a new hailstorm of insanity.

I’m becoming disheartened. I’m falling into depression. I’m losing faith.

And I’m not the only one.

I think what’s most frustrating is that if you look at polling and anecdotal evidence, the liberal side of politics, the side that is for all the people equally, the side that wants to protect our civil rights and our health and humanity, that is the side that is in the majority.

The majority.

We can no longer remain silent.

We can no longer stay home.

We can no longer let someone else take care of it.

We must get into public service; public office. We must speak out, and elect like-minded people. We must VOTE.

“Republicans will always be better at defending yesterday.” I read this in What Happened by Hillary Clinton, and it is the perfect encapsulation of the Republican party. They are living in the past and put up roadblocks to change, to modernization, to progress.

Think about this difference between Republicans and Democrats: 

Republicans want to disenfranchise minorities through biased laws and unattainable poll tax-like hoops to jump through. They want THEIR PEOPLE to vote.

Democrats want EVERYBODY to vote. We will help you register, we will drive you to the polling place. We won’t ask who you’re voting for. The act of voting is enough to maintain our democracy. It’s all about participation, and it’s up to us, we the people.

You have twenty-six (26) days to get ready. Visit Vote Save America to see what you can do between now and Election Day.

VOTE.

NOVEMBER 6th.

[*Lyric from My Shot by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton: An American Musical. Borrowed with love.]