Believes Republicans don’t ‘walk the walk’
I have observed something we can all learn from our President: how to live in a superlative world. When the President speaks, it is nearly always in superlatives. A perfect phone call. The best President ever. The very best nominees. The worst witch hunt ever. His use of superlatives may exceed his use of lies and insults. His example has shown us how to escape the humdrum world of mere comparisons.
To move from the President to his party, the letter from James Hodges reinforces something I have long believed. The Republican Party, from the time of Andrew Johnson, has been the party dedicated to the preservation of privilege, and the concentration of wealth. How does such a party get its candidates elected when its policies favor so few? In my view, they claim issues that are popular as their own. Evangelical movements swept the country during Reconstruction and alert Republicans took up their issues. But it is all talk. If banning abortion made rich people money, it would be the law of the land. Selling guns to one and all does make people money, so that IS the law of the land.
Worse than this hypocrisy is the adoption of hate-mongering as a political tool. The beauty of this is that, even more than evangelical issues, all it requires is talk. No actual action is ever needed. The elected Republicans can cut taxes, subsidize industries, bail out banks, deregulate pollution, make laws favoring moving factories to the cheapest labor, and wage incessant war on any Federal program that serves ordinary people. And ordinary people vote for them because they talk the talk. As Mr. Hodges pointed out, they do not walk the walk.
Bill Gillmore
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.