“Have you no decency, sir, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?”
While this question, uttered by a brave man during the McCarthy hearings, may have been said years ago, it seems particularly relevant still.
I ask the GOP, have you no sense of decency? Is there not one of you who will stand up and become the leader of a new Republican party that will put country before party and help enact laws for the good of all citizens? Who will act as the Congress is supposed to act, as a check and balance for the executive branch of the government and not as the foot soldier to someone who considers himself a king. An ignorant, childish king.
There is an opening for someone to step up and stand out. And we don’t need someone who will condemn the latest childish display of many childish displays, but then go back to kowtowing tomorrow because he can sign off on some bill you want passed. We need someone to stand firm and make sure we are not getting into a new war in Afghanistan or Syria, that ditching our allies in treaties already agreed to is a smart move, that the dismantling of the greatest environmental science agency in the world is really the right thing to do.
Is it really more important to enact your agenda then to maintain our country’s standing in the world? To have our allies still value us? To be able to support our allies and not denigrate their leaders? Is it really more important to support legislation that is not what the majority of Americans want just in order to dismantle what the last President accomplished?
Who of you will take a stand against the latest NRA ad that seeks to divide and incites violence? Who will realize that this only SIX MONTHS IN and that this cannot continue for 3 ½ more years? Which of you will stand for the right of a free press, not just the right of the press that agrees with the President?
Where are you, moderate Republicans? Where are those of you like my neighbor, who even as lifelong Republican could not bring himself to vote for the disaster he saw coming if this man was elected. He cannot even watch the news anymore because it is so outrageous that any director would not make it into a movie because it would be viewed as too much.
And don’t think this only affects a few. Did I ever dream that I would live some place where they would have the right to demand to see my reading material before I got onto a plane? Or show ID before I got OFF a plane?
Where are your principles? Your humanity? Your patriotism? And I mean real patriotism, not the meaningless kind you trot out to defend your actions.
I know there are moderates in there somewhere. We need them. The country needs them.
We need more than protests and calls to legislators. We need the moderates to stand up and demand notice. Democracy does not last forever. It erodes slowly, over time, until people all of a sudden wake up and notice. Why are you letting that happen?