Bob is an attorney and bridge player with the rank of Diamond Life master. He lives in Richmond, Indiana, where he is active in the Indivisible movement. The piece below is excerpted from a missive he sent to a group of long-time, but not always like-minded, friends and I thought it deserved a wider audience. Bob says it is a “rewrite, compilation and expansion” of an item posted by Greg Hilligoss, a retired Richmond teacher, who in turn had drawn from a text by a writer whose identity is unknown.
Trump and Pence say the Democrats …
- …hate the police and want to defund and disband them.. That's a lie. We want to root out racism, and police brutality and hold those who abuse power accountable.
- …want to open the borders to criminals and others. That's a lie. We want to give asylum seekers a chance and help those coming from unimaginable terror and poverty. We want to ensure children aren't separated from parents and none are kept in cages.
- …want to take away guns. That's a lie. We want sensible gun control to help prevent mass shootings.
- …want to get everything for free. That's a lie. We want to work hard to ensure that healthcare and education are affordable for all.
- …want to make war against traditional marriage. That's a lie. We want people of all sexual orientations to be able to love freely, no matter whom they love.
- …want to destroy history. That's a lie. We want to recognize ugly parts of our past and say unequivocally that what happened is not okay; we want to prevent ugly episodes from happening again.
- …want to take away constitutional rights. That's a lie. We choose to believe science, wear masks and try to prevent the spread of disease.
- …want to hate America. That's a lie.We recognize our faults (racial injustice, economic inequality, and abuse of police power) and want us to do and be better using truthful civil discourse.
- …want to regulate everyone and everything. That's lie. We want to protect our air, water, soil and people, especially children, and our health. If we go overboard in that regard, that's better than polluting our planet, killing our workers, and battering our children with an unhealthy environment.
- …want to let the protestors destroy our cities. That's a lie. The bulk of our protestors are peaceful and seek action on our societal wrongs.
We know that Trump is a pathological liar and educationally stupid. We know that Putin isn't stupid; he understands propaganda and how to use it and his assets, of which Trump is one.
Are we headed for a dictatorship run by Putin? Or will we recover our democracy and start repairing the enormous damage done by the Trump cult? That is the question.