Trump, Cruz are both scary
Ted Cruz said a mouthful when in the wake of his victory in the Kansas Republican presidential primary, he exclaimed, “The scream you hear, the howl that comes from Washington, D. C., is utter terror at what the people are doing together.”
This is a rare instance in which I completely agree with the upstart freshman Texas senator.聽 Reasonable people in Washington and throughout the country are terrified at what lies ahead for our country if we were to elect as the leader of the free world either Senator Cruz or “Lord” Donald Trump, the most handsome, rich, shrewd, smart, intelligent, and savvy man that ever lived (just ask him).
Messrs. Cruz and Trump pose different types of dangers to our country, but they are united in their hatred and intolerance for our neighbors: Muslims, gay men and women (the thrice-married Trump who humiliated one of his wives as he openly engaged in an extra-marital affair, is laughably a proponent of traditional marriage only), and the 11 million or more who are here illegally, whom both now promise to deport (with no details as to how this would be accomplished, how much it would cost, or how it would impact the nation’s reputation internationally).
Trump’s hair-trigger temper is likely to get us into what would perhaps be “the final war” in no time and Cruz is not much better, pledging to use our military might to “carpet bomb” as we “see whether (Middle Eastern) sand glows in the dark,” whatever that ominous statement means.
This is the year in which the misguided voter says, “Establishment political figures have failed us, so we are going to elect someone who will blow up the entire system and perhaps the world!聽 Government shutdowns, debt crises, intransigence: bring them on! We do not care how hateful or intolerant, how coarse, crude, or vulgar our nominee is, just that he “says it like it is”, and is strong and rebellious.
The only benefit in a surge by Cruz is that it gives hope that there could be a brokered convention in which mature and sensible members of the party might be able to substitute as nominee a person who would be a positive, well-grounded individual possessing broad appeal in the general election.聽 The party would then lose the devotion of white supremacists, but so be it.
I have never been so disillusioned or ashamed of my country as I am today. I fear for our future.
Better era
The sad passing of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the age of 94 brings to mind a better era in the history of our country.
Nancy and Ronald Reagan always comported themselves with the utmost dignity, poise, grace, and refinement.聽 Nancy Reagan was always a lady and President Reagan unfailingly a gentleman.聽
President Reagan surely could not have imagined that we would reach the era in which those who vied to become the leader of the free world would seek to insult their way to the top, bringing into to the debate perspiration, urine, and sexual prowess.聽 Airing such laundry in public would have been anathema to him.聽 He could not have imagined that the contest in his party would be among a group of men seeking to outdo the others for intolerance and hatred toward those who do not look like them or worship like them or that any responsible candidate would promise to forcibly remove 11 million or more people from our country.
As we mourn and remember a First Lady of distinction, I also weep for a time in which one could be proud to identify as an American citizen.
Oren M. Spiegler is a resident of Upper Saint Clair.