OPINION

OPINION | DEBRA HALE-SHELTON: Pursuers of political advancement

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

--I Corinthians 13: 11-13

Like the Apostle Paul, I too once saw life through the eyes of a child. Life was black and white, good and bad, right and wrong. There was no gray, no amoral, no well-intended but. ...

I was convinced that I knew the answers, except maybe on that math or geography test. I was confident that I understood the challenges of life far better than my parents did, that I was the mature one, the one being unjustly disciplined.

Decades later, I now qualify for senior-citizen benefits. My vision is cloudier, but my eyes are wide open and see things I once did not. I still see black and white but also plenty of gray. No longer do I know all of the answers. No longer am I blind and deaf to ignorance and hate.

The Ku Klux Klan hates. Proud Boys and the Aryan Brotherhood hate. Donald Trump hates, enough to sic thousands of his cult members onto the U.S. Capitol.

"Hang Mike Pence!" some of the terrorists shouted. Nearby, they erected a gallows with a noose.

"Trial by combat," declared Rudy Giuliani, once a healer praised by many but now an instigator.

Overseas, yeah, we tryin' to stop terrorism

But we still got terrorists here livin'

In the USA, the big CIA

The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK

--From Black Eyed Peas'

"Where Is The Love"

Not all, but far too many of the Americans I once thought were good, even righteous people flock to Trump largely because of his disdain for immigrants, Blacks, women who dare not bow to men--even one who boasts of grabbing a woman's vagina, who has five children by three living women. (And who knows if there are other children or aborted pregnancies out there?)

These people worship not democracy, not the charity of which Paul spoke, but a scared, pouting, seething politician who incited a terrorist attack at the U.S. Capitol and who is proudly unrepentant.

I don't understand why so many Americans hate immigrants--even those here legally--more than they dislike politicians plotting a coup, a debt-ridden rich boy conning supporters out of millions of dollars, and petulant state and federal legislators who refuse to wear masks and thus risk infecting others with the coronavirus.

Life is anything but easy for many immigrants, especially poor Hispanics here illegally as they try to protect their children from gangs and drug lords back home, as they try to make enough money to feed those children. I do not defend illegal immigration, but also do not defend locking out good people who happen to be poor or simply don't have ties to the wealthy and powerful in this country.

Some of our parents and grandparents once paid Mexican laborers who came to this country illegally to pick cotton. But that apparently was OK because middle-class white families benefited from the cheap labor.

It's much the same way these days at chicken-processing factories, where Hispanic workers take jobs that many whites didn't want even before the coronavirus made the job conditions far worse. We'd prefer the unemployment checks, I suppose.

People killin', people dyin'

Children hurt and you hear

them cryin'

Can you practice what you

preach?

Or would you turn

the other cheek?

--"Where Is The Love"

I don't hear many people openly defending the Capitol invader who wore horns or the terrorists climbing Capitol walls. I don't hear support for the thugs who smashed windows and smeared feces inside, who were armed with zip ties for purposes we don't want to ponder. But I'd prefer to hear more disdain for these domestic terrorists and instigators.

I am appalled at the Arkansas politicians who chose to pretend Trump was cheated out of re-election when the truth said otherwise. These politicians--yes, politicians, not statesmen--include Rep. Rick Crawford, the only Arkansas Republican member of Congress to object to the election of Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris even after the mob stormed the Capitol.

Those politicians also include Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican who in December joined a farcical and unsuccessful lawsuit seeking the appointment of new electors in four states that dared to vote for Biden.

I wonder how Rutledge would have felt if other states' attorneys general had dared to challenge Arkansas' election results. For someone who has repeatedly promoted herself with television ads at taxpayer expense, she was not surprisingly on the wrong side of history.

And don't forget U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.). Dressed more like he was going hunting than playing politics, Brooks removed his camouflage cap during the rally that preceded the riots and replaced it with a red cap saying "Fire Pelosi." Powerful women such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi always make handy targets for

insecure men.

"Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass," Brooks said.

Brooks got his wish and then some. The terrorists kicked, but they also beat, stole and killed. He later got around to saying that he found the violence and the mob "highly disturbing." I'm sure the families of those who lost their lives would agree.

Rutledge, Crawford and their ilk should quit preaching about democracy and morals until they get their own moral standards and understanding of basic civics at least on par with those of a junior high school student. That means they should quit pushing dangerous conspiracy theories and lies to win votes.

For that, dear reader, is exactly what's going on. Politicians like these two don't care about you or me except when we're in line at the polls. They don't even care about Trump. They care about advancing their own political careers, no matter the cost.

Debra Hale-Shelton can be reached at dhaleshelton@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at @nottalking.

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