Sharon Kennedy: Was it a debate or a debacle?
When did we become so captivated with men and women who act more like buffoons than serious candidates vying for the job of president of the United States? The six men and one female who recently participated in a so-called “debate” did little more than constantly interrupt and scream at each other. I hope no one under the age of 60 watched the bizarre behavior of these people. If they represent the best the Republican Party has to offer, Lord help us.
How much worse does it have to get before we come to our senses? We’re tumbling down Alice’s rabbit hole. We’re listening to people who, with each debate, continue to prove they’re incapable of engaging in calm, intelligent discussion of issues pertinent to governing our country. If high school debates were on par with the clown show we witnessed, the students would have been pulled off the stage and sent home. Their teachers would have been embarrassed and the debate club either disbanded or its members severely reprimanded.
But politicians are different from serious debaters who are expected to maintain good manners even when they disagree with their competition. Politicians have no such guidelines. They take the stage and turn into actors, comedians and buffoons. They’re playing to DJT’s base. Apparently, they believe acting as their boss does will garner votes so they resort to cussing, name-calling and generally act like idiots. They should be laughed off the stage and banished to their separate rabbit holes.
How did we become immune to such shameful behavior from educated people we assumed knew and would follow the rules of etiquette? You know the answer as well as I do. When we decided an outspoken “non-politician” who “funded” his own campaign was a “man of and for the people.” Did you listen to Steve Bannon’s interview I recommended? If so, you know the sole purpose of promoting Trump was to destroy the traditional Republican Party. The endeavor was an outstanding success.
Why? Why would the ultra-right want to do this to their own party? Why won’t the candidates acknowledge the elephant in the room? Why skirt around DJT and all his legal problems as if they don’t exist? They do and they’re real. They’re not fake news even if Trump wants people to believe they are. Why would a good Christian like Mike Pence keep swilling the poisonous Kool-Aid? Is Chris Christie the only one with an ounce of courage?
Maybe I’m just thick. Maybe I’m too stupid to recognize truth from fiction. After all, I believed everything the Catholic Church and the Baltimore II Catechism taught me. I swallowed all that rot about buying an “indulgence” to help release people from purgatory. I confessed my puny sins to a priest who might have been a pedophile. I thought intentionally eating meat on Friday could land me in hell and “bearing false witness” was a commandment not to be broken unless you’re a politician.
Eventually, I woke up. I started reading the Bible. I saw discrepancies between what I’d been taught and what Jesus said. For 20 years I researched my religion and read books written by scholars who had no political axe to grind.
It took courage to leave my tribe. It will take courage for the MAGA followers to leave theirs, but for the sake of their sanity and our country's good, they must turn away and vote for a Republican who will not declare war on democracy and civility.
— To contact Sharon Kennedy, send her an email at sharonkennedy1947@gmail.com. Kennedy's new book, "View from the SideRoad: A Collection of Upper Peninsula Stories," is available from her or Amazon.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Sharon Kennedy: Was it a debate or a debacle?
