Mitch McConnell and John Boehner/Paul Ryan are the swamp, according to Jon Stewart. He makes the point that the swamp that Trump ran against was in large part a creation of the very people who refused to allow any legislation to pass and who deliberately ran an 8 year campaign to destroy the government rather than to cooperate with the President. I fully agree with him. I find it incredibly crass that all too many conservatives blame President Obama because the Republican Congress preferred to destroy the country rather than to negotiate in good faith.
At the same time, Jon Stewart makes the good point that Democrats cannot react the same way that Republicans began to react 8 years ago. It is utter hypocrisy to attack President-elect Trump and his appointees based on statements made over 30 years ago. For instance, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is indeed an ultra-conservative. However, to jump on him for remarks made over 30 years ago is utterly hypocritical. I do not agree with the opinions of Sen. Jeff Sessions. At the same time, his history in Alabama for the last couple of decades has shown absolutely no sign of anything resembling racism or biased behavior. I do not agree with his stance on Guantanamo, long-sentences, or on deporting undocumented immigrants. But, none of those stances necessarily mean that he is a racist.
Jon Stewart calls some liberals hypocrites. He is correct. The demonstrations and the over-analyzing every person who is appointed (or rumored to be appointed) to a Trump cabinet or advisory post stinks of the same treatment that President Obama received when he was the President-elect. It is no more correct to assume that the current President-elect will be a fascist leader than it was to assume that President-elect Obama would be a Marxist. Both claims are highly unlikely. Therefore, the game of finding the worst statements from someone’s past in order to “stop” the President-elect is a hypocritical political game that matches the worst of what conservative Republicans have been doing for the last 8 years.
In other words, stop it! Chill out; lean back; wait for Trump to take office; see what he will do. Then, if he begins to act in an extreme fashion, do go after him. But, you paint yourself as the rankest sort of hypocrite when you engage in the exact same actions as the Republicans did when Obama was about to take office.
I agree with most of your post, with one caveat. I, too, think it’s not only hypocritical but counterproductive to protest …esp if you didn’t bother to vote. As much as I hate the idea, we need to wait to see what he does or else we are no different than the Republicans. It is possible that he could actually do something good for the people. I don’t think he will. I see nothing that gives me any hope but it serves us all to at least allow him the opportunity to prove us wrong. However I disagree with your normalization of him…as if he is simply another opinion we don’t like. That is simply not true. No one in history has done and said what he has-and that’s just the campaign! That doesn’t even address the whole business-international ties-Russian-hacking connection-lack of transparency-conflict of interest thing. No, I vehemently disagree that we should allow him any latitude in his behavior. He has already made extremely questionable and outrageous decisions and not just his cabinet choices. The false equivalency of Trump and Obama is quite frankly obscene. There is no comparison between these men. The horrible actions of the right when Obama won were not based on actual behavior seen, they were based on fevered minds…as is some of the talk on the left. But to compare the two men as equal but opposite is almost offensive to me.
So I will carry myself to D.C. in January to send the message that I am a woman and I will be here and I will fight for myself and for those marginalized.
Well done, Father! Thank You.