Chris Jepson: It ain't easy for Democrats either

The Republican presidential aspirants are garnering much of the national press these days, what with the controversy over the actual size of each candidate’s, uh, manhood and the “relative” beauty of their wives. Donald Trump makes no bones of his marital unfaithfulness, but rumors of Ted Cruz’s five – count’um – five mistresses seems on-the-surface a bit excessive. Could you even find five women nationally who would cavort with Mr. Cruz? All the women I talk with are appalled at the prospect of either man as president, let alone as a lover.

I am a Democrat. I grew up in an old-guard Republican’s home. My father considered FDR a traitor to his class (whatever that meant) and JFK an East Coast weenie. There was only one “group” worthy of loyalty according to my father, and that was family. That was it. Blood. I read years ago a great quote on American pioneers, “The cowards never started and the weak died on the way.” That was my father’s approach to life and people.

I ultimately parted ways with the Republican Party in 1972 over the Vietnam War and have been a Democrat ever since. Well, that’s not true. I voted for Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter in 1976 because I couldn’t stomach Carter’s overt religiosity. Mea culpa. My mistake.

Republicans offer simplistic, ineffectual solutions to America’s challenges; tax cuts for the affluent and deregulation for corporations. That’s essentially it. Trickle down economics has been discredited as a fraud by no less than the man who once so fervently advocated for it, David Stockman. Deregulation contributed to the 2008 economic meltdown and, but for government environmental regulations America’s air, water and land would be far dirtier today. Republicans have gutted labor laws, weakened collective bargaining and have essentially forsaken all of America’s economic classes but the upper, uber-rich. That is fact.

Republicans do not particularly care for America’s vulnerable. According to ’Pubs, “they” just need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps but, regardless, just go away.

I am a Democrat because I unequivocally believe in reproductive choice for women. That issue alone greatly determines whom I support. That and issues relating to the environment.

I have problems with both Democrat candidates for president.

I do not care that Hillary Clinton used a private server during her stint as Secretary of State. She was not responsible for the deaths of American personnel during “Benghazi.” Is she “supportive” of the interests of her rich donors? Sure, when it meets her needs. Is that surprising? No.

My major concern with Hillary Clinton, and it is “huge,” is her foreign policy perspective. She supported the war in Iraq and that has turned out to be, arguably, the worst foreign policy decision in the last 100 years. Know that America’s own mendacity is responsible for ISIS. Clinton supported America’s intervention in Libya and wants to further destabilize Syria by ousting Bashar al-Assad. Who died and made America Pope, such that we stick our military nose in the affairs of Middle East despots (further destabilizing the region)? I’m tired of wars of our own making. Enough already.

Bernie Sanders, a bit of a sanctimonious scold, proposes any number of programs that have absolutely no chance of being enacted by a Republican Congress. If you think Barack Obama’s agenda was dead on arrival, well, that will be remembered as a honeymoon compared to what Mr. Sanders would receive.

Regardless, Democrats debate issues, Republicans the mythical size of their, uh, Mr. Johnson.