undefined 

I generally stay away from partisan politics, but as a very concerned retired educator, and also author, I feel impelled to speak out on some recent troubling events.  Michigan Senator Mallory McMorrow just recently gave one of the most compelling speeches I have ever heard when she blasted Michigan Senator Lana Theis who had made some very disparaging and uncalled for public comments about Senator McMorrow, who by all accounts is a wonderful person, wonderful legislator and most importantly, a wonderful parent.  Theis publicly stated that Mallory McMorrow wants to “groom and sexualize kindergartners”, a completely unfounded allegation.  Senator McMorrow’s speech struck a chord with me when she said “We will not let hate win”.  https://news.yahoo.com/michigan-sen-mallory-mcmorrow-blasts-212318458.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall.  Indeed there is a hate machine going on and it must be stopped.

I’m a Democrat but I have lots of Republican friends.  I have never counted how many of my friends are Democrats and how many are Republicans, and I will never do that, as political party affiliation is of no matter to me when it comes to friendships.  But it seems that loyalty to party politics has gotten to a whole new level which has been tearing the country apart including tearing up personal friendships.  A few of my friends have unfortunately become so radicalized by the current “hate” politics of the day type thing that got so bad that I couldn’t carry on a rational conversation with them, so I made a decision to cut off the friendships with those particular former friends.  They became very cult like with the so called “Trumpism” thing and it simply was too much to have to take.  I like to think that I am a sensible person who can carry on a conversation with just about anybody and everybody about lots of topics, but I draw the line on craziness and won’t have any part of it, especially “political” craziness.  I do my own thinking and I don’t allow others to brainwash me with their political propaganda interests.  And I certainly don’t allow any politicians, irrespective of political party, to do my thinking for me.  I am amazed at how people have allowed themselves to be brainwashed as they have by the hate politics of the day, and by certain politicians who are out there these days pushing their dangerous nonsense and basically forming political cults all over the country and preying on people who apparently don’t have a strong enough ability to rationally think for themselves and are willing to join these cult initiatives.

Things have gotten really ugly in the country, and unfortunately it looks like it is going to get even worse before it gets better —if it ever does get better, that is.  A lot of the damage unfortunately is going to be irreparable, so we as a country have to start taking action to steer the ship back to a sensible course.  The authoritarianism movement started by Donald J. Trump that is still moving along that many are joining simply by being led by the nose by such current political leaders as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott — both wannabe presidential aspirants — is a very dangerous thing for our country.  The culture wars that are resulting from these two political clowns are sickening and actually destroying our country.  And don’t even get me going on the other nutcase, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who just recently testified in a court hearing on the issue of whether or not she should be disqualified from running for Congress again due to her involvement in the insurrection activities of January 6.  Anybody with a brain who watched her testimony and over and over and over “I don’t recall” or “I don’t remember” responses more than 50 times to a range of questions regarding her conduct and public statements during the run-up to the Capitol Riots on January 6, would have to conclude that she is not only a hypocrite for making bold public statements only to act as though she didn’t remember making the statements, but a coward as well for her unwillingness to own up to her public statements by running and hiding from them when the chips were down.  https://news.yahoo.com/adam-schiff-doubts-marjorie-taylor-132641950.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall, https://news.yahoo.com/hearing-held-rep-green-eligibility-050640935.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall. 

These days I do a lot of writing mostly about corruption in the legal profession and corruption in the judiciary that is adversely affecting the rights of so many people in the country who would like to receive a fair judicial process, but generally do not.  Most of my writing is devoted to those topics, although I sometimes do delve into the political landscape if an issue looks me in the eye and challenges me to write my thoughts about it.  And being a retired educator and author, the current nonsense in the country with the small minded politicians who are encouraging the culture wars with ridiculous legislations such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on March 28 and is set to take effect on July 1.  https://news.yahoo.com/desantis-revokes-disneys-special-status-221452637.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall.  It would, in general ban discussions of sexuality and gender identity in classrooms and would allow parents to sue schools if staff members facilitate those conversations.  As a retired educator, I am concerned about this type of censorship and bullying tactic against teachers which is in essence an unsavory strong arm tactic by a political thug.

The censorship is becoming so bad in Florida with DeSantis’ penchant for getting rid of books in schools that teach about race that no book is off of DeSantis’ target including math books where Florida’s Education Department recently rejected 54 math books claiming some of the books referred to critical race theory (CRT) and other so called “prohibited topics”.  The department issued a press release stating that it had rejected 54 of the 132 math textbooks it reviewed, or 41 percent.  Lists of the books that were made available did not say how the rejected books referred to critical race theory.  Legislators passed a bill to limit how teachers discuss race in classrooms.  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-rejects-54-math-books-saying-contain-critical-race-theory-rcna24842.  That’s what we really need in this country, politicians telling teachers how to teach!  Good luck being a teacher in Florida!

And if that wasn’t enough to whet the appetite of the cult that DeSantis caters to, DeSantis went a step even further by following up with the signing of a bill to dissolve Walt Disney World of its self-governing capabilities after Disney slammed Florida’s so called Florida Parental Rights in Education legislation commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill which is basically a cancel culture move espoused by DeSantis.  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stay-culture-war-disney-desantis-205615301.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall.  It is so sad that a governor of a major state in the United States has virtually no regard for contrary opinions that he would go out of his way to flex his political muscle to the point of abuse by retaliating in such a way against a time honored treasure in Florida.  And this guy wants to be the president of the United States.  I say no to that.

And how could one forget about Greg Abbott in Texas who among many ridiculous things is also now on a mission to ban books in Texas schools —and doing so even with the threat of criminal actions against teachers and librarians.  Jonathan Friedman, PEN America’s director of free expression and education said “It is painfully obvious that this ‘investigation’ the governor calls for will be used to target teachers and librarians with potential criminal penalties for making diverse literature available to students.”  And is doing so for “political gain.”  https://pen.org/press-release/texas-governor-invokes-pornography-to-ban-books-threaten-criminal-action-against-librarians-and-teachers/.  Abbott's disdain for the teaching of critical race theory is shown by his signing of a new law that was opposed by educators and advocacy groups of which new law prohibits teaching certain concepts about race and largely bars schools from giving credit to students for advocacy work.  Abbot's new law bans the concept on race and slavery from Texas classrooms.  https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2021/09/17/gov-greg-abbott-signs-tougher-anti-critical-race-theory-law/.  And this guy also wants to be the president of the United States.  I say no to that.

What DeSantis and Abbott are doing with the censoring of the school books and intimidation threats to prosecute teachers and librarians who oppose their censorship policies borders on Nazism and we should be very concerned as a country that these two nutcases are bringing the country close to the Nazism that took place in the 1930’s where Nazi book burnings were commonplace.  The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism.  The books included many authors including Albert Einstein and Helen Keller, writers in French and English, and effectively any book that was not ardent in its support of Nazism.  In a campaign of cultural genocide, books were burned by the Nazis en masse in occupied territories.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings.  This is essentially what DeSantis and Abbott are doing, only in a different way.  The only thing missing on DeSantis and Abbott is the Nazi uniform. 

I really doubt the authenticity of DeSantis’ and Abbott’s Victorian era holier than art thou public personas that they are trying to portray with these political maneuvers.  I also doubt just how pious many of the politicians really are who these days try to utilize religion while trying to make political points. I think most of them are fakes.

The late-great Senator from Arizona and 1964 Republican Party nominee for president, Barry Goldwater, was very prophetic as he warned long ago “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”  https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/777519-mark-my-word-if-and-when-these-preachers-get-control.

What DeSantis and Abbott are currently trying to do with their attempts to portray themselves as Victorian era holier than art thou public personas brings back memories of a time when many other Republican wannabe Victorian era holier than art thou politicians got themselves into a whole lot of trouble with such tactics when they were acting as quasi evangelists when they went after Bill Clinton’s presidency for his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky.  The witch hunt was led by the then incoming House Speaker Robert Livingston and several more prominent Republicans joined in including Dan Burton, Helen Chenoweth and Henry Hyde who called for Clinton’s impeachment because of his extramarital affair.  Unfortunately for each one of these holier than art thou Republican politicians, the publisher of Hustler Magazine, Larry Flynt, bought a full-page ad in The Washington Post announcing a reward of up to $1 million for anyone who could prove having had “an adulterous sexual encounter with a current member of the United States Congress or a high-ranking government official.”  According to Flynt he obtained information about four extramarital affairs by the then incoming House Speaker Robert Livingston, along with sexual disclosures about other lawmakers or senior officials.  The reward offer prompted Livingston to acknowledge his past affairs.  The media exposure resulted in Dan Burton, Helen Chenoweth and Henry Hyde, all House Republicans, to admit infidelities in the recent months of the controversy.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/flynt121998.htm.  It was a classic case of the old saying “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Cancel culture is a very ugly thing and it has no business in our country.  If there is anything that needs to be cancelled, it is the immoral politicians who are promoting hate and division in our country such as Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the many others.  There is no shortage of these immoral misfits, to be sure.

The moral of the story for Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and all other Republicans who are trying to put on a public persona of “holiness”, is that they should be checking to see how thick the glass is on the houses that they live in, and that they should be careful for what they wish for with their political stunts, or they could get the same present that Robert Livingston, Dan Burton, Helen Chenoweth and Henry Hyde received when they played the same Victorian card as a way to advance their personal political interests.