Congressional Republicans, including the 2016 presidential candidates, seem to have no limit to what they are willing to say. They say what they want to say, when they want to say it and where they want to say it even if they have no real idea whether what they are saying is true.  And when they find out that it is not true – more often than not, they go silent on that issue and move on to the next one.  And if anyone questions them about their mistake rather than own it they slither into an explanation that somehow makes it seem as if they were right anyway.

They have no qualms about doing this because they have always done it with impunity; so, they continue to do it. One recent example is how they publicly verbally ripped Planned Parenthood to shreds and tried to defund it because of videos that were released that supposedly proved that Planned Parenthood was illegally selling fetus parts.

When a grand jury in Texas cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing and instead indicted those who made the videos, those Republicans who had vigorously publicly accused Planned Parenthood and worked to strip them of federal funding went silent. When they were questioned about how the tables had now turned against them they went with talking points that made it seem that they were right anyway.

Another example began when President Obama was elected, continues even now and will likely continue until he leaves office. Based on an article in The Week dated January 9, 2016 by Paul Waldman, at least two Republicans recently expressed what seems to be the sentiment of all of the congressional Republicans in Washington.

According to this article, back in 2012 one of this year’s presidential candidates, Senator Marco Rubio said; “If we are divided, it’s only because Obama has divided us. ‘We have not seen such a divisive figure in modern American history’ as Barack Obama.”  This same article said another 2016 presidential candidate, Senator Ted Cruz said after the recent State of the Union address; “He lectures us on civility yet [President Obama] has been one of the most divisive presidents in American history.”  And yet another Republican congressman who was not identified in the article recently said, “There probably has not been a more racially-divisive, economic-divisive president in the White House since we had presidents who supported slavery.”

Initially, as a result of watching all off the endless finger pointing by the Republicans that laid not just the blame for divisiveness in this country at the doorstep of President Obama but the blame for all of America’s problems at his doorstep, I decided that I would write an article that would clearly delineate what has occurred to create these problems and show that the Republicans contributed more than their fair share to the creation of them. I further decided that I would then tie the article to one that I wrote back in October of 2014 that talked about what the entire congress could have and should have done to begin the trek down the road toward healing America’s racial divide.

However, just as I began my research so that I could accurately recount some of the things that the Republicans had said and done I read Paul Waldman’s article in The Week. This article was succinct and so encapsulated what I want to share with the readers of my blog that I decided that instead of writing an article that certainly would not be any more succinct and informative than his, I would instead point you to his.  You can read the full article here.

You can read my 2014 article entitled A Wasted (Dwindling) Opportunity by clicking on the link. I hope that these articles will be beneficial to you in helping you to better understand how important the 2016 presidential election is, who it is and what it is that you are voting for and why it is extremely important to vote for the candidate who is best equipped to move America forward.

So whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent be sure to get informed on the issues and always vote. And always remember, your vote is the most important one of all… unless you don’t use it.

Eulus Dennis