Ricky Jones: Republicans are not dumb, they've been led astray. GOP heroes are using them.
I write this in peace and with a warning out of love and concern. Some people believe Republicans are incapable of sophisticated thought. I disagree with them, here's why. As Malcolm X, a great American once said, “You've been had! You've been took! You've been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok!” by the very Republican leaders you idolize.
I’m not a Democrat. Oh no, I’m no shill for those fools. I’m not recruiting for them. Most of them are terrible in too many ways to list here! But I’m sorry to say, my elephant-riding brothers and sisters, the Republicans who are unfailingly supported are worse! GOP heroes are using their followers. They are Republican champions lying to everyone. They’re hustling to gain personal and party power. And they think Republican constituents are too dumb to figure it out.
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The only question is, are they right?
The charlatans over at Fox News were lying before they admitted to it and paid over $787M as a result of it, right? Did people really buy into pernicious Tucker Carlson’s racism, lies and conspiracy theories? Do viewers really believe in the “great replacement theory” canard he pushes that there is a grand Democratic plan to import colored folk who will displace white people?
Do Republications really believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election? Even he doesn’t believe that. Do they agree with all the lies, racism, homophobia and transphobia coming from Ron DeSantis down in Florida? Do people believe he can really win the epic man vs. mouse battle with Mickey? No way. Ronald Duck is done.
Do Republicans really believe LGBTQ people are traipsing around the country trying to “groom” children and turn everybody gay or that Hillary Clinton and other Democrats were running a child sex trafficking ring out of the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza joint? I really hope not.
Do they think Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders banning the term “Latinx” on her first day in office is sensible? Do Republicans believe Kentucky gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron isn’t a bald-faced deceiver when he says Gov. Andy Beshear wantonly tried to take away your right to attend church, while omitting the fact that Beshear was trying to keep people alive during a pandemic in which over a million people died? Shame on you, Daniel.
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The Kentucky race for governor is just as bad
Cameron’s primary opponent, the self-proclaimed “grizzly bear” Kelly Craft, is just as bad. Can anyone keep from laughing at her ridiculous commercial about ABCs and CRTs? Do people think she and many other Republicans even have a working knowledge of what critical race theory is? Do Republicans really believe there’s a cabal of teachers across the country trying to teach white children to hate themselves? How ridiculous.
Do politicians like Kentucky’s Thomas Massie and Tennessee’s Andy Ogle really believe we need more guns in America while men, women and children are being shot more and more frequently? Did Republicans really believe election-denying wingnut Kari Lake was qualified to be a governor or vampire-loving Herschel Walker a senator? Seriously?
I have faith in my dear Republican brothers and sisters. I think people underestimate them. There’s no way they are as easily deceived as these political pimps and hustlers think. I don’t think they believe any of their foolishness. They're not that naïve. They’re not that dumb. Are they?
Dr. Ricky L. Jones is professor and chair of the Pan-African Studies department at the University of Louisville. His column appears bi-weekly in the Courier-Journal. Visit him at rickyljones.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Ricky Jones: Republicans are not dumb, they've been led astray by GOP
