America's new value: truthful hyperbole

This weekend I read the op-ed piece in the USA TODAY by John J. Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont Kenna College who from the age of age 13 has done a tremendous amount of work for the Republican party. It seems that he has lost faith in his party. He writes, “I knew from the start that I could never vote for Trump. He’s a mashup of the sorriest parts of Republican history: Herbert Hoover’s trade policy, warren Harding’s incompetence, Charles Lindbergh’s dictator worship and Joseph McCarthy’s dishonesty” (Pitney, 2017).

I too have lost faith in the party, but that was somewhere around the weapons of mass destruction stuff and the Dick Cheney era. Don’t get me wrong, the Democratic Party is equally lousy. Hillary Clinton was probably the worst candidate to ever be offered up, even worse than Trump according to the American people. The two-party systems sucks, but I do not have the means or the method for getting a third party going. That is up to our leaders, who apparently like the status quo and appear to want to continue offering up shitty candidates every two to four years for us to choose from.

“I don’t disparage those who voted for Trump,” writes Pitney. And neither do I. Many of my closest friends have made that choice, and quite frankly I don’t blame them and neither does Pitney. “Economic change has left millions of working Americans behind,” Pitney continues. “They think an increasingly affluent professional class pushes them around. Voting for Trump was a way to push back. I get it,” Pitney concludes.

Pitney points out that parties are “tribal.” I call this brand loyalty. Brand loyalty goes a long way in America whether you like Fords or Chevys, Republican or Democrat. But what are conservative values anymore? What the hell are all these Russian connections? And why is Trump the poster child for the common man? Who knows these things? I certainly don’t.

We are continually misled by politicians who don’t have our best interests in mind. Clinton didn’t give a shit about us, but neither does Trump. What concerns me is this apparent distancing that is occurring between the Republican party and conservative values. When I say these values, I am not referring to fiscal policy. I am referring to the values of decency, good Christian kind of shit. From what I remember about Jesus was that he cared for the sick and the poor. The current health care bill that is being offered up seems very un-Jesus-like.

Another thing that concerns me goes to the quote provided by Pitney from Sen. James Buckley during the Nixon investigations. He points out that a country’s people will eventually begin to adhere to the values of its leaders. Bill Clinton gave our teenagers a way to remain virgins by providing the blowjob as he claimed that it was not “sexual relations.” Trump’s administration and his spin masters seem to want to give us the “truthful hyperbole” as an excuse for outright lying.

Are these are newly adopted values as Americans? I hope not.

Pitney, J. (2017) . I was a GOP stalwart until Trump: It is painfully evident that his sorry brand will stick to the Republican Party for years. USA TODAY . July 14 -16, 2017 . p 7A