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Republicans Are Now Completely Immoral

This is why they need Fascist leaders, or God, or whathaveyou: They simply cannot tell right from wrong themselves.

By David BulleyPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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In the 9th grade, I took great delight in pissing off my sociology teacher. He was a WW2 veteran, had literally marched on Auschwitz, was an evangelical Christian, and deeply conservative. In classroom “discussions,” I used to quote anarchists from Camus to Sid Vicious just to infuriate the man. One day, as I argued the benefits of anarchy, he became enraged like I’d never seen him. He pounded his fists on my desk and leaned in close enough that spittle flew into my face. His eyes gleamed, and he savored what he said next with the delight of a wonderful fantasy. He said, “If there were no law, Mr. Bulley, I would shoot you.” He cocked his head to the side, considering his options, then continued, “I would use a high-powered rifle with a scope, a 30.06 and I would wait on the hill behind your house and when you stepped outside, smiling, confident, cocky, you would never see it coming. You would never realize you were dead until your own chest burst apart and your front door was littered with gore.” He grinned, I think because he finally shook me. “That, sir, is why we must have law.”

In the years since, I have thought of a million sassy come-backs. But in the moment, I was stunned. I was not worried about my safety: I knew then and know now that people like this are cowards. It's true he would have loved to murder me, but he feared prison too much to ever try. What had happened is in that moment he had shown me a new facet of human nature. Until that moment, I didn’t know people like this existed. I was naive. I was silent in my horror that some people in my world would kill if only it were legal.

Think of all the times you have heard Christians talk about the Bible being the source of their morality. On television, I have heard these people openly worry that a country without god would be a country full of immorality. The unspoken but vital aspect of this fear is that they do not understand most people treat each other with kindness because it's right. Not, because God or Law told them they must.

And now we are in the age of Trump, the most profoundly immoral, dishonest, self-serving buffoon that has ever set foot in the White House. Christians have shrugged off all pretense of morality, or kindness, or virtue in support of a president whose very nature is of self-serving cruelty. The laundry list of his failings, sexual, criminal, anti-social, unkind, etc., are well known and unnecessary here. Many writers and talking heads and even a majority of citizens have pointed out with withering disgust the hypocrisy on full, brazen display. But I would go a step further.

They have always been this way. They have always been this way. Conservatism itself is a philosophy based on fear and selfishness. Conservatives call themselves the law and order people because they keep trying to make new laws against all the things they want to do! All the things they would do if given a chance. Over and over we see anti-gay Congressional representatives arrested in bathrooms for soliciting gay sex, anti-abortion zealots encouraging their own mistresses to abort, thieves, bribe takers, sexual harassers… The list is endless, but the point is that they need to protect themselves against people like them.

Consider, Trump’s main point in the Russia probe is that some people may be partisan. Of course, a partisan investigator doesn’t actually matter at all because they still must find facts. But in Trump’s world, in the world of his supporters, partisanship is only one step away from cheating, lying, framing, and other dirty tricks. He is trying to defend himself by publicly being afraid investigators might act like him.

No. Today there is no such thing as a moral Republican. Perhaps there never was.

opinion
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About the Creator

David Bulley

History teacher, writer, storyteller

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