Dec 2^nd

“With malice toward none, and charity for all…” It is hard to believe now that those words were actually said by a Republican President at the end of this country’s bloodiest war. The latest style was for President George W. Bush to land on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit and from a fixed wing aircraft when the carrier was well within his helicopter’s range.  Can we say theatrics? Then Bush announced “Mission Accomplished;” this was when the majority of the war casualties were yet to come. The times have changed and so have the nature of Republican politicians. Considering today’s crop, can anyone believe that the Republican Party once produced both Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt and produced them within a forty-year span? Now look what they are offering us.

We have Donald Trump calling for the murder of ISIL killer’s family members as the “only way to stop them.” This is the Trump response to the panic about terrorists. Counting the loss’ of life when the Russian airliner was blown up and the murders recently in Paris we have less than five hundred deaths. These deaths were deliberate and that is appalling of course, but the deaths total about 1.5 percent of the 32 thousand plus who die every year in our country from automobile accidents.

When people panic in the face of fear they often do truly unspeakable things; Michael Stargardt in his new book, “The German War” describes the panic produced when the occasional Polish villager shot at the occupying German troops. The instructions were to deal with such an affront by burning down the house from which the firing came as well as all the other houses in that village. In the eight weeks following the invasion between 16 and 27 thousand Poles were executed and 531 town and villages burned. The German Army leaders worried about a “psychosis” that affected their men, an unreasoning fear of the Polish irregulars. This unreasoning fear, this psychosis, is exactly what Donald Trump is so successfully promoting in this country. The only terrorism deaths here have come from domestic terrorists. Consider Tim McVeigh who blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people, most of them children. He did that because he hated the government. Of course we still have people who hate the government; some have been elected to Congress.

Trump wants to kill the families of terrorists and we now also have a Congressional candidate from Iowa, Mark Chelgren, who wants the death penalty for any deported convicted felon who tries to re-enter this country. Mr. Chelgren’s position has not been very popular even with Republicans; Republican officials said, “(These) do not represent the beliefs of Iowa Republicans.” The Democrats were less kind “vile, hateful and downright deplorable.” I doubt that Mr. Chelgren will have much luck raising money unless he backtracks very quickly.