Republican Strategy

Today I heard Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaking to the issue of violence and bi-partisan legislating. He said this session of Congress had been one of the most bi-partisan ever and the media simply weren't telling the public about it.

Of course, we aren't seeing bi-partisan legislation authored by Democrats and ready to go to the floor for a vote because a Democratic Speaker of the House enables it. The reason we aren't seeing that is the political strategy the Republicans have been using has been very effective at getting Republican majorities in the House and Senate, so they (and only they) can control the agenda. If there is bi-partisanship it's because the Republicans think it will favor them. As far as I know, they still follow the "Hastert Rule" which says that a majority of Republicans must favor legislation before it gets sent up for a vote. That makes bi-partisanship mere icing on the cake for them. They don't really care if Democrats support their legislation in most cases.

How did the Republicans get majorities in the House and Senate? By using the most divisive disgusting attack tactics available.

They've been dog whistling to the racists, white supremacists, Klan members, neo-Nazis, and other deplorables and they've been doing that for a long long time. For example, in 1980 Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party nominee for president, went to Philadelphia to kick off his campaign. That sounds patriotic and all red, white, and blue, until you know it was Philadelphia, Mississippi and the purpose was to speak directly to the racists in America to let them know the Republican Party and Ronald Reagan were in their corner, fighting for their white supremacy. Disgusting.

Since then all their Right-Wing pundits have amped up the talk and incited more violence and fear than you can shake a stick at. Their constant attacks on the Clintons is historic. Their use of conspiracy theories is monumental. Their attempt to lead the crazies to power is legend.

Then, with Donald Trump they realized they had to have a higher percentage than ever of that voting bloc to stay in power. Trump began to directly incite violence. At first it was against the media and blacks who had come to his rallies. Later his constant harangue against the media and the continued attacks on Hillary Clinton (after the election) showed he had no shame and never intended to lead Americans to "come together". Trump IS a divider.

This plan to gain power, to control the legislative process, to control the media, to discredit any and all opponents, and to instill actual fear into people, is a first in recent history (perhaps in all American history). Then came the actual violence.

When a Right-Wing conspiracy theory about the Clintons, pedophilia, and a pizza parlor in Washington was promoted, a gunman appeared to try to end that horrible thing. But, there was no pedophilia at the pizza parlor. It was just a pizza parlor and the Clintons were in no way involved. The Right Wing is guilty.

This past week a madman mailed over a dozen pipe bombs to high-level Democrats, including two former presidents and a former attorney general. And, yesterday another madman went into a Pennsylvania synagogue and killed eleven people because he hated Jews.

Donald Trump and the Republican party and their supporters at FOX news and other outlets are guilty of enabling and promoting this.

Talk about a bi-partisan Congress is hardly to the point when Republicans are murdering people.