My response to a FB post full of misinformed Republican talking points.
A friends recent FaceBook post made me question my knowledge about the issues mentioned. They appeared to be misinformed Republican talking points. I am a lifelong learner and educator, so I was concerned that some things I thought were true might not be. My friend challenged me to, Check it out”, so I did. Here is what I found. My comments are in italics.
I just have a few questions for you….Let me start with, I already know you don’t like President Trump…that’s a given, SO
let’s move on from that…
How about the division of America….
Do you not blame Trump for that? Trump constantly uses divisive rhetoric that divides us then pits the subgroups against each other. The Democrats, on the other hand have a message of inclusion.
How about when NONE of the DEMOCRATS showed up for his inauguration? Don’t you think that started the division? He hadn’t even been president yet, and EXCEPT for Clinton and Obama, not one democrat showed up….Is that when Trump divided America? Can you imagine if the REPUBLICANS didn’t show up for Obama’s inauguration because they lost??? Can you even start to imagine what would have happened?
Lie and distortion. 67 Democrats skipped the inauguration — and each of them took the time to explain the principle that drove them to make that decision. They did not stay away because they lost, but because Trump’s message and intentions were so abhorrent to them — as they explained. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/16/more-than-30-democratic-lawmakers-now-skipping-trumps-inauguration/
How about when 19 minutes after Trump was inaugurated, the Washington Post declared the IMPEACHMENT CAMPAIGN has STARTED? Was that when Trump divided America?
The Comey investigations, the Mueller report, and countless other issues made not forecasting Trump’s impeachment irresponsible journalism. WAPO may have been early, but they were not wrong. 19 minutes is also about how long it took Trump to tell his first major and unneeded whopper, claiming his inaugural crowd size was the biggest ever — despite clear and available photographic evidence to the contrary.
How about when Nancy Pelosi ripped up Trump’s state of the union right in front of the world, showing complete disrespect for the President of the United States? Did that bring the country together and is THAT when Trump divided America?
PolitiFact went through Trump’s SOU Address pointing out Trump’s list of lies and distortions and refuted or disproved many of Trump’s statements. Go to https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/feb/05/fact-checking-2020-state-union-address/ for examples. Nancy just did I more dramatically — and in real time. She was not seeking to divide, just to dispute.
How about when America had to endure, 3 years and over 30 million dollars spent on trying to PROVE that Trump only won because of RUSSIAN COLLUSION and NOT because America voted him in and 17 democrats did EVERYTHING in their power to PROVE that there was Russian Collusion…and came up with ZERO…?
A Senate committee (led by Republicans) just concluded that the Russians interfered with the 2016 election and colluded with the Trump campaign while doing it. The Mueller Report and other earlier efforts got buried or distorted by partisan maneuvering. https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/18/politics/senate-intelligence-report-russia-election-interference-efforts/index.html
Was THAT when Trump divided America?
I can’t even start to go over the NEGATIVE PRESS he’s received since his surprise win…
Is it negative press when they report the facts? Trump spends more time playing golf than he does in his PDBs. Six close policy and political advisors have left the administration as felons. Former European allies and friends now look at Trump and the US with pity, disappointment, and disdain because of Trump’s selfish, boorish, and offensive behavior.
Remember, the DONORS, the likes Bloomberg, who gave 27 million, Tom Steyer who gave 17 million, George Soros who gave 9 million and MANY MORE that gave MULTI-MILLIONS to Hillary, wanted a return on their investment…
Do you really think that donors give MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS just because they love Hillary?
NO, these weren’t campaign donations, they were INVESTMENTS into what HILLARY had promised them when she became president….
They were so sure she would win and they would be SHOWERED with HUGE RETURNS, and when it didn’t happen and they LOST all those millions, they went all out to TAKE TRUMP out of OFFICE by any means possible…
This happens with every election and both political parties.
DID YOU KNOW that 90% of the Mainstream media and the corporations that own them, are owned by or run by BIG DEMOCRAT DONORS? You can verify all of that for yourselves…I did…
I looked at the Forbes list of media owners and of the top ten, they were evenly divided between Democrats Republican, and non-partisan. Looking at the list of wealthiest Americans showed “Of the 50 richest families, 28 mainly donate to Republicans and only seven contribute mainly to Democrats. Not all families stay on the same side of the political spectrum — 15 support candidates from both parties.
Since the moment Trump won, even before he was inaugurated, the mainstream media’s reporting was 92% negative on Trump, do you know why? .”
The media bias chart shows most major outlets. https://www.adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/. The outlets are evenly distributed across the political spectrum. My guess for the reason for the perceived preponderance of negative coverage is that the coverage accurately reflects Trumps outrageous actions (Kids in cages) and terrible performance (over 170,000 Americans dead from COVID-19). I guess you could consider that negative press. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2686395/Americas-wealthiest-families-revealed-From-Rockefellers-Kennedys-185-clans-worth-1billion-yes-Republicans.html
It was those big donors that lost their dream of MILLIONS of dollars, on their returns that they were going to receive when Hillary was president and they weren’t going to take that loss lightly…They needed to PUNISH TRUMP and those that VOTED HIM IN…
I’ve said this since the night he was elected…
“There is NOTHING the left won’t do to take down our President”, our country and us, no low they won’t go to, to get their power back”, and sadly, we have seen this every single day since his election.
Let me ask you this…Have you ever listened to Trump or appreciated any accomplishment or campaign promises he’s kept, have you ever gone to one of his rallies or have you just closed your mind to ANYTHING he does?
I have listened to Trump and am either made sad, angry, or disgusted. He lies and distorts so much that Kellyanne Conway came up for a new name for it, “Alternate Facts”. WTF? I have never attended any political rallies for either party — so that issue is a wash. I have not closed my mind to what he is doing, but I find it hard to give him credit for anything he claims when so much of what he says is lies and distortions. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/13/president-trump-has-made-more-than-20000-false-or-misleading-claims/
Please ask yourselves the following questions, if you dare…
What has Joe Biden done for America for the last 47 years that he’s held an office?
Here is a partial list.
1990 — Introduces a bill that becomes the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The act addresses sexual assault and domestic violence. It is signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
2001–2003 — Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, now known as the 1994 crime law, was the result of years of work by Biden, who oversaw the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, and other Democrats.
2008 — Is elected vice president of the United States.
2009 — Resigns from the US Senate.
2009 — Is sworn in as vice president of the United States.
In early 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea, which was part of Ukraine, Vice President Biden became the Obama administration’s “highest ranking emissary” to Eastern European nations, such as Ukraine, that were alarmed at Russian aggression.
In 2014, Joe Biden was listed as one of America’s least wealthy government officials, ranking 577 of 581.
2017 — Obama surprises Biden by presenting him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, during a White House ceremony.
2017 — Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, launch the Biden Foundation, an organization that will work on seven issues: foreign policy; Biden’s cancer initiative; community colleges and military families; protecting children; equality; ending violence against women; and strengthening the middle class.
2017 — Is named the Benjamin Franklin presidential practice professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he will lead the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. He will also serve as the founding chair of the University of Delaware’s Biden Institute, the university announces.
2017 — Biden receives the Congressional Patriot Award from the Bipartisan Policy Center. He receives the honor in recognition of his work crafting bipartisan legislation with Republicans and Democrats.
Biden was instrumental in passing the Affordable Care Act.
What did Joe Biden ever do for BLACKS when HE and Obama were in office?
The Biden Plan for Black America will:
· Advance the economic mobility of African Americans and close the racial wealth and income gaps.
· Expand access to high-quality education and tackle racial inequity in our education system.
· Make far-reaching investments in ending health disparities by race.
· Strengthen America’s commitment to justice.
· Make the right to vote and the right to equal protection real for African Americans.
· Address environmental justice.
What has Joe Biden ever done in his entire life to create a private-sector job?
As VP, Joe put together a comprehensive infrastructure bill that would have created 400,000 private-sector jobs. The Republican-controlled Senate defeated it, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/vice-president-biden-400000-jobs-be-created-nationwide-investing-our-countrys-infra
What has Joe Biden done to help the American middle-class worker?
The Brookings Institute provides a list. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/06/26/joe-bidens-ideas-to-help-the-middle-class/ https://www.investopedia.com/joe-biden-s-economic-plan-save-the-middle-class-4769869
Let me also ask you this…Why do you think there are so many people tearing down statues, our burning flag, beating up police officers, disrespecting our founders and hating our country?
You won’t like the answer, but Trump has encouraged divisiveness and violence on many occasions. He didn’t start the Klan or neo-Nazis, but his message emboldened them to violence — look at Charlottesville. Colin Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter are peaceful protests that become violent when Trump encourages it. No other country in the world displays monuments commemorating people who committed treason. Confederate symbols celebrate the South’s attempt to continue to allow slavery. Surely you do not think slavery was a good thing that should have been preserved.
It comes straight from our SCHOOLS that have slowly been tearing down our history…
In fact, our public school history books omit most of the atrocities we committed in this country. Our genocide against Native Americans is seldom mentioned. Instead, the US Army is celebrated for defeating the ‘Indians’. Very little mention of the WWII Japanese-American internment camps. Our treatment of blacks is shameful to this day.
If there is a teacher out there, please tell me the following:
I’m a teacher.
Do you teach the truth that it was the DEMOCRATS that were the KKK?
The claim: The Democratic Party started the Civil War to preserve slavery and later the KKK
As America marks a month of protests against systemic racism and many people draw comparisons between current events and the Civil Rights Movement, an oversimplified trope about the Democratic Party’s racist past has been resurrected online.
“Friendly reminder that if you support the Democrat Party, you support the party that founded the KKK and start a civil war to keep their slaves,” claims an image of a tweet Instagram user @snowflake.tears shared June 19.
Many Instagram users read between the lines for the tweet’s implication about the modern Democratic and Republican parties. Some argued this past action discredited current liberal policies, while others said it did not matter. “Everyone knows that Abraham Lincoln fought to free the slaves, but he also created the Republican Party, and was the leader of it to help fight to free the slaves, yet it’s said that most black people still vote for Democrats who fought to keep the slaves,” user @shrukenshmuck commented.
“I’m a conservative but I find this argument pretty stupid because clearly that’s not what they support anymore, values change overtime,” user @james.dubee wrote.
Historians agree that although factions of the Democratic Party did majorly contribute to the
This is not a new argument
Princeton University Edwards Professor of American History Tera Hunter told USA TODAY that this trope is a fallback argument used to discredit current Democratic Party policies. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/30/fact-check-democratic-party-did-not-found-kkk-start-civil-war/3253803001/
That the GRAND LEADER of the KKK was Robert Byrd, who was elected to congress and served for decades, and that it was Hillary, Bill, and Obama that gave his EULOGY praising him?
Byrd was a long-time Senator who later regretted his role in the KKK. When Byrd died in 2010, he had served in the Senate longer than anyone else; the New York Times described him as “a pillar of Capitol Hill.” In a statement, then-President Barack Obama called him “a voice of principle and reason.” Biden said Byrd was “a dear friend.”
He was also once a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
“It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one’s life, career, and reputation,” Byrd wrote in a 2005 memoir. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/aug/15/viral-image/robert-byrd-wasnt-grand-wizard-kkk-he-once-led-loc/
That the DEMOCRATS fought the Civil war to KEEP SLAVERY?
Just not true. Southerner plantation owners of both parties fought to keep slavery.
That the inner-city ghettos were created by DEMOCRATS to keep control of slaves after they were freed?
Ghettos were not created by anybody, they evolved because whites refused to support a living wage, driving blacks and some whites into poverty — and the ghettos resulted — and continue.
That planned parenthood was founded in inner cities to CONTROL the BLACK POPULATION?
No evidence of any such nefarious goals. The mission of Planned Parenthood is:
· to provide comprehensive reproductive and complementary health care services in settings which preserve and protect the essential privacy and rights of each individual;
· to advocate public policies which guarantee these rights and ensure access to such services;
· to provide educational programs which enhance understanding of individual and societal implications of human sexuality;
· to promote research and the advancement of technology in reproductive health care and encourage understanding of their inherent bioethical, behavioral, and social implications.
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/mission
Is any of this in your history books?
Most of the history textbooks were written with a clear bias to make America look good. Are U.S. History Textbooks Still Full of Lies and Half-Truths? https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/7219
Let me ask you this as well.
Can a student speak up when he/she disagrees with a teacher when they say that Trump is a horrible president or the electoral college has to be eliminated? I don’t think so?
Well, I know a student that actually happened to…When the teacher said it had to be eliminated because Hillary lost, and he stated the reason it should stay,
She ripped him apart and gave the entire class a 5 hour test, and stated it was because he DARED to disagree with her…
Is that happening in your schools?
Wow! You have one example of a bad teacher and you portray it as something that happens in all schools. I am a lifelong educator and I can tell you that most teachers would treat the impact of the electoral college on the 2016 election as a ‘Teachable moment’, during which an open and rational discussion would be encouraged.
I’m only asking questions….I’d like your answers..
You have them, but you probably do not believe them.
President Trump and his entire family has been vilified, demeaned and disrespected, for one reason and one reason only…….HE WON…
NO! It is because he has disrespected his office and diminished the country in the eyes of the world.
Have you noticed the DEMOCRATS only throw tantrums and OBJECT to everything he does and have NEVER ONCE gotten behind him to make America the best it can be? WHY?
Because his programs help the top 1% and make life worse for the rest.
They can’t afford to get behind him…he would WIN AGAIN, and they can’t let that happen….if he wins again, the Democrat party will be destroyed and they know it…
Did you notice that the “CAGES” the left claimed that Trump built to put Illegal children in, WERE BUILT BY OBAMA for the very purpose of PUTTING ILLEGAL CHILDREN IN?
Was THAT all over the news when Obama did it? The very same “CAGES”…but the media was silent!!
Since the public outrage about the kids in cages occurred, what has Trump done to fix it. He does not hesitate to reverse other Obama programs. In fact, he seems to deliberately destroy anything Obama accomplished, regardless of the consequences.
How about when Trump commuted Roger Stone’s sentence, and was DEMONIZED 24/7 but NOT A WORD when Obama commuted 1715 inmates, which included 330 that he granted on his last day in office…
DID WE EVEN HEAR one WORD about it?
Were there reporters even reporting it…NO! Just look at the difference in the reporting. By the way, since Trump’s been in office, he’s commuted 10 people…compare that to Obama…Is that reporting fair?
The difference is in the motive. Obama commuted sentences as a part of a major prison reform effort. Trump commuted sentences in return for political and criminal favors. Typically, Obama has granted clemency to 40 or 50 inmates a month. In this case, 67 of the 214 inmates had been sentenced to life in prison. Almost all of those released from their sentences on Wednesday had been convicted of nonviolent drug crimes, according to the White House.
The White House said the large number of commutations underscores the need for broader criminal justice reform, which has some bipartisan support but has stalled in Congress.
How about when Biden and Obama allowed the H1N1, the SWINE FLU, to INFECT MILLIONS of Americans before declaring it a health emergency….
Was the press losing it’s minds and calling it the OBAMAFLU AND BLAMING OBAMA and BIDEN for the spread ? SILENCE!
Compare this to the NEGATIVE COVERAGE that Trump got when, he immediately halted travel from China when, in February, Nancy Pelosi went to Chinatown and said come on down, or when DeBlasio, in March, said ride the subways and go to Broadway…BUT those same people are blaming Trump for the spread of coronavirus..
Over 170,000 Americans have died as a result of Trumps failure as a leader. There just is no comparison to be made here.
A FINAL QUESTION:
What have the DEMOCRATS done to help make America the best, to get behind a president that works tirelessly to care about WE THE PEOPLE instead of using us as political pawns.
Trump’s WE THE PEOPLE are the top 1%. When he provides programs for the rest of us, let me know.
What have the democrats done for people of color EXCEPT for GIVING ILLEGALS more rights than citizens and having us pay for it…
Have you heard of DACA and The Dream Act? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dream-and-promise-act-2019-passes-house-approves-bill-that-would-place-millions-of-immigrants-on-path-to-citizenship/
JUST imagine what this country could accomplish if the Democrats worked with him on the economy, the coronavirus, the inner cities where he’s created opportunity zones, job training etc.
In the first COVID-19 stimulus bill, Republican included language that enabled large profitable businesses to take big amounts of money, reducing the amount available for small businesses. Democrats in the House have put forward bills on the economy, the coronavirus, the inner cities, opportunity zones, and job training but Moscow Mitch will not bring them to the Senate floor for a discussion.
When Trump tried to get school choice for inner-city students they ran Betsy DeVos out!! The dems running those innercity schools wanted no part of school choice.
School choice perpetuates the disparities between good and bad schools. Devos fights spending money to improve public schools, in favor of more charter schools. According to the NY Times, “It is hard to find anyone more passionate about the idea of steering public dollars away from traditional public schools than Betsy DeVos, Donald J. Trump’s pick as the cabinet secretary overseeing the nation’s education system.” A New Study Reveals Much About How Parents Really Choose Schools.
“It seems self-evident that parents, empowered by choice, will vote with their feet for academically stronger schools. As the argument goes, the overall effect should be to improve equity as well: Lower-income parents won’t have to send their kids to an under-resourced and underperforming school just because it is the closest one to them geographically.
But an intriguing new study from the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans suggests that parent choice doesn’t always work that way. Parents, especially low-income parents, actually show strong preferences for other qualities like location and extracurriculars — preferences that can outweigh academics.”
The article goes on to point out many disadvantages of school choice. It turns out, people seeking choice are looking to escape a bad school, not go away from their neighborhood school. In fact, they will choose a slightly inferior neighborhood school over a slightly better school a greater distance from home. If offered a better neighborhood school, their choice is obvious. They will choose to transform their neighborhood school.
Have you ever wondered why it’s cities that have been run, for decades, that have the MOST HOMELESS, the MOST CRIME, the most MURDERS, the worst INNER CITY schools, ARE ALL RUN BY DEMOCRATS???
Here are a couple of thoughts. Republicans refuse to support a living wage, creating the poverty in the cities. Fixing poverty will not, by itself, fix the inner city problems, but if we don’t fix poverty, then it is impossible to cure the other problems. So, when will Republicans get serious about fixing poverty?
If you haven’t started asking yourselves those questions, maybe you should..
As I said, my entire family used to be democrats, but NOT ONE will ever vote for a democrat again….They asked themselves the same questions and the answer was clear….
I’m not looking for debates on this. I’m a Christian, and will not support the Democrats in Nov.
Trump seldom goes to church, is an adulterer and a philanderer, and uses a Bible as a political prop. Biden is a faithful catholic who practices his religion instead of exploiting it. I don’t understand how your Christianity leads you to support Trump.
