Carly's Turn in the Spotlight

Republican presidential hopefuls held another gabfest the other night, not far from where I live, down the coast and then inland to Simi Valley and the Reagan Library. Trump and Rubio and Walker and the rest of the nitwits who believe they are of presidential timber love standing in the shadow of Ronnie Reagan, despite the fact that Reagan’s actual accomplishments as president were not remarkable and were, in many respects, criminal.  

Good Morning America, which focuses daily on every deed or utterance by Donald Trump, no matter how mundane or ridiculous, announced the morning after the debate that Carly Fiorina was the “breakout star.” Oh boy, competition for the current poll leader! And from a woman no less! Fiorina will take her turn in the media glare and remain there until the machine tires of her and decides that one of the other candidates has traction and offers a more enticing narrative. By that time Trump may still be around, insulting immigrants, making absurd statements about winning trade deals with Mexico and China, building walls along our southern border, and displaying, with pride, his complete ignorance of what governance is all about.

There is one front on which I have to hand it to the GOP and their paid strategists and that is the ability to find a wedge issue, whether Affirmative Action, abortion, prayer in school, gay marriage, and now Planned Parenthood, that evil, immoral organization that murders fetuses on demand from poor and reproductively irresponsible women. The GOP message is that PP doesn’t deserve public funding, and in order to insure it doesn’t get it, the morally superior GOP will shut the federal government down.

Never mind the facts, never mind all the important services PP provides, focus exclusively on those dead fetuses and defund, defund, defund!

Jumping on the defund PP bandwagon, Carly Fiorina said it was an issue of the nation’s character. Oh my, imagine that, nothing less than our national character. Are the masses clamoring at the doors of Congress to strip funding from Planned Parenthood? Marching in the streets? Holding candlelight vigils outside the White House? Not that I’m aware of. If we’re going to discuss threats to the nation’s character let’s start with illegal wars, indefinite detention and torture of suspected terrorists, mass incarceration of people of color, financial manipulation and fraud by our major banks, the corroding influence of money in our political system, gross income inequality, mass surveillance and collection of our personal communications and other data, and our unwavering support for despotic regimes in the Middle East, including Israel. Start with any of these subjects.

There never was a shining American city on a hill; that was a fantasy, a myth, a tale told the gullible by Ronald Reagan and every GOP president since.