A lot of us are more than sick of the Taliban-ish behavior of some Republicans and the mob-like behavior of others. We’re sick of the Republicans who are also sick of it - but turn a blind eye.
Republican Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens has an ad showing him “hunting RINOs”. He declares, “Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.” RINO refers to the Republican-In-Name-Only insult they use for those they don’t consider extreme enough. The ad clearly advocates for armed breaking and entering into people’s homes to root out those who might lack sufficient Republican fervor. If that isn’t Taliban-like behavior I’m not sure what is.
Recently a Florida public health official was fired for the sin of voicing concern about covid vaccine access. Florida is alone among states in not acquiring doses for 6 month to 5 year old children. This health official noted that many in rural and poor areas only get access to these vaccines via state run clinics. She didn’t advocate that kids get the shots, didn’t promote the vaccine, just expressed a concern that by not the state not purchasing the doses, Florida may have trouble getting kids vaccinated. For this, she was summarily fired. Don’t question Governor DeSantis, or else!
When Disney disagreed with DeSantis’s legislation limiting how schools teach history and science, he went after their tax abatements. You can almost hear a 1930s crime movie line, “Nice little theme park you got there - would be a shame if something happened to it.” DeSantis is out Trumping Trump.
All this horrible behavior is enabled by the rest of the party who continue to dismiss it all. They say things like: “Gee I guess I didn’t see that ad, probably shouldn’t comment until I do,” “Yeah that Florida situation is something, great Cubs game yesterday wasn’t it?” With their silence, they encourage it.
In our local area, us Democrats have a lot of work to do. We need to energize our voters and keep them that way. We need to find those Republicans who are sick of being embarrassed by their party and willing to have a civil discussion of the issues, so they can learn what we already know - that Democratic policies benefit us all. We need to start developing candidates to compete locally so that we can have a complete slate for all offices. Making this area Democratic will take time and energy, but we’ll never get there if we don’t start now. Given the hideous nature of the Republicans in 2022, we pray we aren’t too late.