Facts from the Front – June 2016

by Moe White –

Empathy

Empathy: “the psychological identification with, or vicarious experiencing of, the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.”

What a valuable human trait! Empathy allows us to “get it” when a baby cries or a person looks sad or when we wonder “what it must be like” to be going through some special moment. It’s what lets us stand in another person’s shoes. It’s what got white people involved in civil rights, and straight people supporting LGBT rights. Empathy, at heart, is what Jesus preached: “agape,” or love, for your fellow human beings.

It’s also what divides most Republicans from the rest of the human race. They can never understand what it’s like to be someone else, never imagine the thoughts, feelings, moods, or outlook of someone who’s not just like them … until someone in their own family is affected.

Right-wing icon Barry Goldwater suddenly approved of gay rights when his grandson came out; sociopath and former VP Dick Cheney did the same – though still opposing gay marriage – when his lesbian daughter married a woman. Stalwart Republican Rep. Rob Portman (OH) decided to support gay marriage … when his son wanted to marry his boyfriend. And Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) wants equal rights for transgendered people … now that her daughter has become her son.

Then again, Arizona Republican State Senator Matt Salmon still votes for anti-gay legislation that would ban same-sex marriage and gay adoption rights, though his son, Matt R. Salmon, came out in 2010. Privately, the son says, Sen. Salmon supports his right to marry another man – but publicly and in the legislature he opposes equal marriage rights for everybody else.

Hypocrisy

A fascinating similarity between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is their tendency to blame defeat on “a rigged system” or a dishonest umpire.

Watching Trump attack Judge Gonzalo Curiel for some imaginary bias based on the judge’s Mexican heritage, and Sanders attack DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz over her long friendship with Hillary Clinton, is like déjà vu all over again. Both “referees” are following rules set long before Trump or Sanders decided to compete; now that they’re in the ring, they want the rules changed.

Sanders has lost the Democratic primaries by 3.7 million votes (56.5% – 43.5%), lost the pledged delegate count by 9%, and will lose the superdelegates by a huge margin, if for no other reason that they will support the candidate who has won the pledged delegate vote—Hillary Clinton.

Several months ago (when it looked like he might win the pledged delegate count) Sanders insisted that superdelegates should all support the winner of the popular vote; now that Clinton is the winner of the popular vote, he insists that the superdelegate count is dishonest, that the party has rigged the system against him, and that those superdelegates support him instead of the winner because he “has the best chance of defeating Donald Trump.”

It’s sad to see a man who has built a 30-year reputation as a principled, moral politician cast away his principles and his morals in favor of the same win-at-any-cost mentality that has driven Donald Trump throughout his 40-year business career.

Chutzpah: “gall; ability to claim special privileges for oneself”

Congressional Republicans have voted more than 60 times to overturn the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Having failed, they have voted to restrict the administration’s ability to give states the money promised for defraying the cost of insuring older, sicker patients.

They insist that the money must be appropriated each year, and then refuse to appropriate it. That way they can claim A) the administration is not fulfilling its pledge to the American people (“Obama lied”); and B) “Obama care is a failure: even the insurance companies are being ripped off.” Now Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC is suing the administration for not providing the $130 million promised for 2014 and an estimated $175 million for 2015—money Congress refuses to appropriate.

Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott, whose company ripped off Medicaid to the tune of nearly $1 billion dollars, and who was the first governor to sue to overturn the part of the law requiring Medicaid expansion—is now suing the administration for not renewing a Bush Administration waiver that gives Florida between $1 billion and $2 billion a year to support … Medicaid.

Every year since 2005, low-income pool (LIP) funding has compensated Florida safety net providers—primarily hospital emergency rooms—for uncompensated care. The waiver expires June 30, but now Scott claims his state has “a right” to that money—without having to expand Medicaid coverage.

Scott is also demanding that the president provide emergency funds to help Florida combat the Zika virus. Mr. Obama has asked the Republican-held Congress for $1.9 billion in Zika funding; the House has offered $622 million, and the Senate voted allocate $1.1 billion, but no action can be taken until they agree.

So the Republican governor of Florida claims the Democratic president is at fault. He wants Mr. Obama to ignore Congress and somehow issue an Executive Order to reallocate money from elsewhere in the budget to look after Sunshine State residents. Then, of course, he could sue the president for issuing illegal executive orders and misappropriating unallocated funds—but only after he’s got his money.

Can anyone, anywhere, point to anyone, anywhere, who is as hypocritical, dishonest, crooked, and utterly without morals as Republican elected officials in the United States today?

Facts From The Front is a monthly column by copy editor Moe White in which America’s Constitutional democracy is defended against ongoing assaults by those who prefer less palatable alternatives: oligarchy, autocracy, theocracy, feudalism, fascism, and other nondemocratic methods of government. Among the qualifications for White’s commentary and ridicule are hypocrisy, dishonesty, corruption, unbridled greed, flat-out lies, and sheer idiocy on the part of public figures.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in “Facts from the Front” are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.