How did an imbecile like Trump become President?

Featured image courtesy of The Daily Beast.

Bush 43

When Bush 41 was President of the United States I and most of the Republicans I know didn’t think we could ever have a worse candidate presented by our beloved party. We were wrong. They even ran him twice. Being in Bush 43’s orbit destroyed your credibility.

Colin Powell was a much respected and trusted individual. He then got caught up in the Weapons of Mass Destruction scandal where Bush 43 lied to the American people so he could try to win Daddy’s War.

It was during the reign of Bush 43 that we learned the true result of turning the money spigot off too soon in Afghanistan. If you haven’t already watched Charlie Wilson’s War please do so now. You can’t begin to understand how we got to 9/11 without understanding how we left a mess in Afghanistan.

That documentary was aired on March 10, 2002 by CBS to mark the six month anniversary of the attacks. By most estimates it was watched by 39.4 million viewers. It is one of the rare times profanity was allowed to be on a regular television station. There have been various “later” and “after” documentaries created for five year anniversaries.

After the 9/11 attacks America had Carte Blanche to do what was needed. Bush 43 squandered it. He kind of threw America under a bus wanting to win Daddy’s War by taking Iraq.

In the case of Bush 43 it appears to have been Texas Oil money, family connections, and big money from the military industrial complex mostly located in the foreign country of California that funded him into office.

Once again the fly-over states were screwed.

It’s impossible to list all of the things that Nixon era Republicans were morally offended about with Bush 43. Here’s a short list:

(Photo by Paul Morse/White House via Getty Images)

Abu Ghraib actually didn’t offend as many Republicans as it did extreme liberal Clintocrats who’ve never had a family member in service. For the rest of the world we know that war is ugly, torture happens, make your peace with that. Many people (myself included) believe the Abu Ghraib story went viral because it happened to be a slow news week.

For the record, he never won Daddy’s War. It’s a quagmire we are still stuck in.

Never go into a war without an exit strategy.

Never go into a second war while fighting a first war.

Adolph Hitler and the German people learned that second one the hard way courtesy of the Russian Winter.

Barack Obama

Speaking as a life long Republican, Barack Obama was a breath of fresh air. He mostly funded his campaign via a great big pile of little bitty donations from people in the fly-over states. Those of us who had been shit on by multiple administrations and both parties had someone who did the math.

The little people in the fly-over states don’t have much money, but they have an awful lot of votes. It was rather sad that John McCain rose to the top here, because he wouldn’t have been a bad President either. Barack Obama had 365 Electoral College votes to John McCain’s 173 in 2008. In 2012 he had 332 Electoral College votes to Mitt Romney’s 206.

There was some small hope that the Clintocrats had been forever banished from the Democratic party. Since the Republican party had completely abandoned the working class they were overjoyed to find one lone Democrat had returned to listen to them.

One of the biggest things he did for the working class was the passage of Obamacare. It isn’t perfect, but it is better than what we had.

On March 23, 2010, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) became effective.

For some inexplicable reason a big chunk of the Republican Party started chanting “De-fund Obamacare” like it was some Wiccan charm chant that would reign demons and pestilence down on Clintocrats and Democrats alike.

Speaking as someone who never drank the Kool-Aid, you had the entire time it was being worked on to make changes. “Like it was before” wasn’t working for most people, just a token few at the top.

I never understood the frothing at the mouth other Republicans did over this. Personally, the first year I signed up my health insurance costs were cut in half. The price of my prescription drugs went down to $5 for 90-days or something like that. I kept my doctor. I kept my pharmacy. The same company that wanted roughly $2700/month for the same policy coverage pre-ACA sold me that policy on the exchange for $1200/month.

This chanting went on for years. When you watched a group of Republicans speak it was almost like watching a NatGeo special about some small previously undiscovered Rain Forrest tribe. I say this as a Republican. It was embarrassing.

Do you want to know the worst part? When they were finally in a position to force through a repeal the hospitals and healthcare providers asked

So. What are you going to replace it with?

It was then you heard the sound of turds hitting the new bright white carpet. Instead of coming up with an actual plan or list of things to fix in the existing plan they just kept mystically chanting “De-fund Obamacare. De-fund Obamacare.” Coming up with a replacement plan that actually worked was too much effort for their brains.

The ACA was a huge change. Like any large government managed change it went pear shaped out of the gate. It did become functional though. Lots more people had healthcare coverage and medical providers weren’t having to eat as much charity care. Everybody was scared of it to begin with but after it had been in place a few years people figured out how to make it work.

I still hear Republicans chanting this Wiccan charm. You had four years to come up with something to replace it with and could have slammed it through. Obviously you don’t have the mental horsepower to do it so stop with the chanting.

Part of my understands why some of them chant it. They are backed/funded by some of America’s worst employers.

I remember as a kid listening to people talk about horrible jobs they took (and clung to) just to get health care. These people were terribly exploited. Most of them couldn’t leave to find another employer because the insurance company for the better employer wouldn’t cover them due to pre-existing conditions. You never hear much about that when people talk about Obamacare. I lived through it. That kind of Third World treatment of American citizens cannot be allowed to return.