GOP’s message based on fear

By now you probably know that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for President of the United States. Monday at the Republican convention had the theme “Make America Safe Again”. It was all about fear, fear of others, fear of job loss, fear of loss of status.

Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani took the podium and claimed Americans have reason to live in fear but that’s just a lie since crime statistics show that the country is safer than it has been in 20 years and police officers have also been safer over the last 5 years than over the prior 20 years.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke told attendees that the peaceful protesters of Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street are anarchists and the crowd cheered. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that in other venues Clarke has called the Black Lives Matter movement “black slime” that “needs to be eradicated from the American society and the American culture,” and a “subversive movement” that seeks to overthrow the government. That’s really funny for someone like Clarke who recently accepted the “ Constitutional Sheriff of the Year” award from the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, an anti-government group that promotes the idea that county sheriffs are the highest law enforcement officers in the country and thus have the power to defy federal laws that they believe are unconstitutional. In his acceptance speech , Clarke declared that “government” was the “common enemy” of the “patriots” in the room. In a radio interview he said that “on an everyday basis, to me, federal government is a bigger threat” than terrorism.

Rep. Mike McCaul, Congressman from Texas promoted fear of immigrants. So did Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions who also claimed that immigration is the reason that wages are down and jobs are scarce. He went on to say Trump will build the wall and stop immigration.

Though not a speaker at the convention Congressman Steve King of Iowa was on the set of one of the cable channels covering the convention and claimed that western civilization, which he defined as Europe and the United States, contributed more to civilization than any other subgroup. I wonder if he understands what China or Egypt were like while Europeans were still living in squalor. Mr. King either has no grasp of history and geography or he is a racist, you decide.

Rick Perry said “making America great again starts with taking care of our veterans”. The problem with this statement is that it is his party which has prevented increasing the VA budget to adequately provide the care our veterans deserve because, according the Alabama Congressman Jeff Sessions, it’s an entitlement we can’t afford.

Arkansas Congressman Tom Cotton blamed Hillary Clinton for all he perceives wrong with American foreign policy without once mentioning his traitorous letter to the Iranian leadership in which he attempted to undermine the nuclear deal President Obama signed with them.

Former Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell, Rudy Giuliani and Tom Cotton all blamed Hillary Clinton for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi even though it was Republicans who blocked funding for more security at our embassies.

I don’t know how conservatives can stand to live in such constant fear especially when their fears are baseless. If they want something to be afraid of they should consider global climate change, but that would mean upsetting coal mining operators and oil industry executives.