WORDS MATTER!

Do our words matter?  Do we have the ability to change the dynamic by uttering a few simple phrases?

The Republican candidates for president would most certainly have us believe that their words DO matter.  After all if you are seeking the highest office in the land you expect that your world views would carry some weight.  So it seems to me that when these candidates engage in polarizing, inflammatory rhetoric they do so with the intent of affecting their audience.  The pundits like to call it: “rallying the base” or “changing the narrative.”

I find it interesting that these folks are more than willing to stoke the partisan flames and take full credit when the venues are full to capacity.  But when the narrative runs off the rails they disavow any responsibility for the result of their fearmongering.

Take for example the circumstances surrounding the shooting at the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs.  A guy with serious mental issues opens fire in a Planned Parenthood facility; killing three and wounding several others before surrendering to authorities.  Arresting officers say that once in custody he is rambling on about “politics” and “no more baby parts.”

Republicans have spent the better part of the last two decades demonizing women who exercise their right to choose and the clinics that provide them service.  During this campaign Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina have used particularly graphic and inflammatory rhetoric to further their right to life views and have been more than willing to accept the accolades from their likeminded supporters.  But when some guy shoots up a health clinic they want no part of any correlation between their rhetoric and the resulting carnage.

The same holds true with immigration.  Republicans categorize Mexican immigrants as criminals, rapists and drug dealers…terrified Syrian refugees as ISIS terrorists…gays as immoral deviants who should be executed.  All are portrayed as threats to our “American way of life.”  Watch what happens when someone decides to act on that message.  Republicans deny any culpability for the aftermath.

I’ll catch hell for this but…

The neocons want a full-fledged war with ISIS.  As fodder for their viewpoint they site ISIS’ radicalization of our children via online videos, chat rooms and other social media.  Let me be clear…ISIS’ efforts to turn our most impressionable to their cause is a most vile and heinous act.  But is it any worse than Republicans calling on Evangelical Christians to execute gay Americans?  Republicans can’t have it both ways.

Words matter!  Those who seek the highest office in the land should be particularly careful of how they use them.

 

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