By Calvin Hill
As I watch the still stunning 84 year old Jane Fonda making the rounds to promote her series, Grace and Frankie, I cannot help but to conjure the visions and cacophony of political angst and talk of betrayal from almost 60 years ago, then compare and contrast that with today’s disloyalty and bad faith actions from her long ago detractors. When I visualize the helmet wearing “Hanoi Jane” atop a Viet Cong tank and compare it to the sight of an American President with his head bowed in obeisance to a gleeful Russian President marching to their podiums in Finland, I cannot help but wonder how long Helsinki Don spent on his knees before rising to insult his country and the people he chose to help lead it. Nothing he said at that podium on that day could erase the totally embarrassing sight of that picture of him coming out that door – though much of it came close.
Now, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in an effort to out Trump Helsinki Don with the Republican base, has taken to attacking free speech, immigrants, black voters, the LGBTQ community, women and all manner of businesses, big and small. He has basically commandeered the state legislature and reformed it into part of the executive branch. Sadly, he is not alone. Republican state legislatures, with the aid of Republican Governors, have followed suit. Many of the states under GOP legislative and executive control are being transformed into their own little Communist fiefdoms courtesy of the aforementioned DeSantis, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and a host of other MAGA-maniacal, anti-democracy public servants.
After crime had reached a 50 year low, Donald Trump signed a Republican bill allowing the mentally ill to buy guns. Republican state legislatures began passing gun purchasing and open carry laws without permits. As gun violence increases nationwide, the GOP message blames the opposing party that seeks better checks and controls on buying, selling and possessing firearms. They blame Democrats for bail reform, but at last check, it is common that when a defendant is released on bail and given their personal effects, they are not given a gun. Should they happen to acquire a gun illegally at some location after having been released on bail, that involves a much bigger problem than the Constitutional right of reasonable bail.
If January 6 taught us nothing else, the four years of Donald Trump as President of the United States has spawned a vast coven of poorly educated, non-civic minded, gullible, uninformed, treacherous and dangerous white criminals exceeding any group of those black and brown immigrants seeking the American Dream at the southern border. The horde of Caucasoid insurrectionists were in such defiance of the GOP’s normal “law and order” platform, they savaged police officers using blunt force and chemical sprays as they desecrated the nation’s Capitol en route to murder the Speaker of the House and lynch the Vice President of the United States for not participating in a Hitlerian lie that was repeatedly dispelled at the highest levels of government. But as the violent mob receded, the lie did not. Members of the Congressional Republicans were audacious to the point of suggesting that the militia and Presidential inspired carnage was merely a free speech tourist visit.
Currently, in a highly suspect bid to acquire Twitter, the peri-pathetic Elon Musk is experiencing a “value added” desire to expand free speech replete with shouting fire in crowded theaters. One would be correct to wonder if Musk’s idea of free speech has evolved from his previous position of applying pressure to silence his critics and the teenager who followed his private jet. However, devout followers of the Hitlerian lie are anxiously looking forward to their cult Tweeter rejoining the platform and spreading the kind of irresponsible bombast that may cause them to take up arms to kidnap and assassinate public officials.
Meanwhile, since “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” Justice Sam Alito and company have decided they would do so instead. In a draft opinion governing a woman’s right of choice under Roe v. Wade, Alito pens a troubling treatise wherein parts could have been edited by the late Jerry Falwell. That privacy or abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution, as a basis for reversal of precedent, smacks of an amateurish moot court argument in my lay opinion. With the right convincing argument, Alito et.al could be a danger to pastor/penitent, doctor/patient, lawyer/client, and spousal privilege, long recognized protections also not specifically noted in the Constitution. For those who are firm believers in the separation of church and state, the justices’ reliance on their own personal theocracy should scare us all.
The latest Republican campaign talking point(s) has been to accuse Democrats of being soft on sex trafficking and pedophilia. And in anticipation of the overthrow of Roe, many Republican states are triggering laws outlawing abortion even in the case of rape and incest. Here irony abounds in that the evangelical Christian right believes that Donald Trump was sent by God to lead America while they deliberately conceal that he was engaged in extramarital sex with women who reminded him of his daughter.
The Op-Ed Alternative 