Max Boot, who recently renounced his ties to the Republican Party, urges you to vote for Democrats. He begins by quoting Joe Biden. He is sickened by the Trump dominance of his former party.
“ I am sick and tired of this administration.
“I’m sick and tired of what’s going on.
“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I hope you are, too.” — Joe Biden
[Boot writes ]
I’m sick and tired, too.
I’m sick and tired of a president who pretends that a caravan of impoverished refugees is an “invasion” by “unknown Middle Easterners” and “bad thugs” — and whose followers on Fox News pretend the refugees are bringing leprosy and smallpox to the United States. (Smallpox was eliminated about 40 years ago.)
Donald Trump has irreversibly changed the Republican Party. The upheaval might seem unusual, but as Opinion writer Robert Gebelhoff explains, political transformations crop up throughout U.S. history.
I’m sick and tired of a president who misuses his office to demagogue on immigration — by unnecessarily sending 5,200 troops [editor’s note: now upped to 15,000] to the border and by threatening to rescind by executive order the 14th Amendment guarantee of citizenship to anyone born in the United States.
I’m sick and tired of a president who is so self-absorbed that he thinks he is the real victim of mail-bomb attacks on his political opponents — and who, after visiting Pittsburgh despite being asked by local leaders to stay away, tweeted about how he was treated, not about the victims of the synagogue massacre.
I’m sick and tired of a president who cheers a congressman for his physical assault of a reporter, calls the press the “enemy of the people ” and won’t stop or apologize even after bombs were sent to CNN in the mail.
I’m sick and tired of a president who employs the language of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish financier George Soros and “globalists,” and won’t apologize or retract even after what is believed to be the worst attack on Jews in U.S. history.
I’m sick and tired of a president who won’t stop engaging in crazed partisanship, denouncing Democrats as “evil,” “un-American” and “treasonous” subversives who are in league with criminals.
I’m sick and tired of a president who cares so little about right-wing terrorism that, on the very day of the synagogue shooting, he proceeded with a campaign rally, telling his supporters, “Let’s have a good time.”
I’m sick and tired of a president who presides over one of the most unethical administrations in U.S. history — with three Cabinet members resigning for reported ethical infractions and the secretary of the interior the subject of at least 18 federal investigations.
I’m sick and tired of a president who flouts norms of accountability by refusing to release his tax returns or place his business holdings in a blind trust.
I’m sick and tired of a president who lies outrageously and incessantly — an average of eight times a day — claiming recently that there are riots in California and that a bill that passed the Senate 98 to 1 had “very little Democrat support.”
I’m sick and tired of a president who can’t be bothered to work hard and instead prefers to spend his time watching Fox News and acting like a Twitter troll.
And I’m sick and tired of Republicans who go along with Trump — defending, abetting and imitating his egregious excesses. I’m sick and tired of Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) acting like a caddie for the man he once denounced as a “kook” — just this week, Graham endorsed Trump’s call for rescinding “birthright citizenship,” a kooky idea if ever there was one.
I’m sick and tired of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who got his start in politics as a protege of the “bleeding-heart conservative” Jack Kemp, refusing to call out Trump’s race-baiting.
I’m sick and tired of Republicans who once complained about the federal debt adding $113 billion to the debt just in fiscal year 2018.
I’m sick and tired of Republicans who once championed free trade refusing to stop Trump as he launches trade wars with all of our major trade partners.
I’m sick and tired of Republicans who not only refuse to investigate Trump’s alleged ethical violations but who also help him to obstruct justice by maligning the FBI, the special counsel and the Justice Department.
Most of all, I’m sick and tired of Republicans who feel that Trump’s blatant bigotry gives them license to do the same — with Rep. Pete Olson (R-Tex.) denouncing his opponent as an “Indo-American carpetbagger,” Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis warning voters not to “monkey this up” by electing his African American opponent, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) labeling his “Palestinian Mexican” opponent a “security risk” who is “working to infiltrate Congress,” and Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) accusing his opponent, who is of Indian Tibetan heritage, of “selling out Americans” because he once worked at a law firm that settled terrorism-related cases against Libya.
If you’re sick and tired, too, here is what you can do.
Vote for Democrats on Tuesday. For every office. Regardless of who they are. And I say that as a former Republican. Some Republicans in suburban districts may claim they aren’t for Trump. Don’t believe them. Whatever their private qualms, no Republicans have consistently held Trump to account. They are too scared that doing so will hurt their chances of reelection.
If you’re as sick and tired as I am of being sick and tired about what’s going on, vote against all Republicans. Every single one.

Good advice, even Allan Nairn (a fierce critic of Democrats) recommends voting straight Democratic in order to lessen the power of the crazed and craven GOP.
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When my voter pamphlet arrived, the first thing I did as go through it and cross out every Republican candidate leaving all the others to research before deciding who my vote would go for.
But, nothing will change as long as Trump and the GOP hold any power in the federal government and in any states. If even one state is still controlled by the Republican Party of Trump, that state will be a cancer that can spread again.
And, nothing will change as long as the majority of elected officials in the Democratic Party are neo-liberals/corporate Democrats.
For real change to take place, “I’m sick and tired” will have to become, “I’m sick and tired, miserable, hungry, and desperate enough to risk my life to bring back sanity to the United States. I refuse to live in fear. I will not wait for the knock on my door or anyone’s door when Trump’s storm troopers come for anyone suspected of thinking and believing the media Trump calls FAKE.”
Two times in US history, the country reached that point of anger and/or desperation. The first time, America wasn’t a country, it was a colony of the British Empire. The second time was the 1st Civil War.
Every attack by American born conservative extremists on US soil is another one-sided attack in the 2nd Civil War that has been taking place in the US for years. These extremists are the wolves eating away at the fringes of our flock of sheep.
When will the rest of us wake up and realize that the 2nd Civil War is already here and start fighting back?
“Study Says White Extremists Have Killed More Americans in the U.S. Than Jihadists Since 9/11”
http://time.com/3934980/right-wing-extremists-white-terrorism-islamist-jihadi-dangerous/
Martin Niemöller’s quotation revised to fit our times:
First, the far-right extremist Trumpists came to kill the minorities with bullets and bombs, and I did nothing—because I was not a minority.
Then the far-right extremist Trumpists came to kill registered Democrats with bullets and bombs, and I did not speak out— because I was not a member of the Democratic Party.
Then the far right extremist Trumpists came to kill and blow up the Jews, and I did nothing—because I was not a Jew.
Then the far-right extremist Trumpists came to exterminate the children born in the United States of illegal immigrant parents, and I did nothing—because I was born a citizen and my parents had been citizens too.
Then the far right extremist Trumpists arrived outside my house with their bullets and bombs—and there was no one left to fight for me and my family.
After my house was in ruin and my family and I were dead, Trump tweeted that there were many good people among his far right extremist storm troopers.
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“Robert Pondiscio
The health of our democracy depends on a well-educated citizenry and ensuring each generation of Americans is committed to continuing it. The evidence does not argue the traditional public schools serve this end. Private and parochial schools appear to get better civic outcomes.”
Hundreds of millions of Americans educated in public schools, and ed reformers dismiss us all with a wave of their hand.
Apparently we need them to tell us how to participate in our own communities, now, too.
The President attended some of the most expensive private schools in the country. if I were a private school graduate or promoter I would be looking to sweep my own side of the street before delivering stern lectures to the unwashed masses in the public schools.
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The problem with public schools now is not their publicness or their unions. It’s the dismal approach to education they practice. It’s a combination of Common Core test prep and anti-knowledge ed school ideology. Pondiscio is right that the public schools, on the whole, are not producing a well-educated citizenry. I see it every weekend as I talk to ignorant citizens about voting. I see it every day amongst my students who know almost nothing of what schools used to teach (most cannot even read an analog clock). The skills curriculum that dominates our public schools is a vast fraud. My impression is that parochial schools are more likely to resist the skills curriculum, and hence do actually add value to students’ minds. Though I teach at a public school and believe in public schools, I am losing faith in the schools as currently constituted. I’d rather have my nephews go to a private school with a strong curriculum than a public school, because I know how bad the public school curriculum is these days.
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Before “our” public schools can get back to the way “they used to work” before NCLB and all the other top down diarrhea, we have to flush all the publicly funded private sector corporate charter schools into the sewer and get rid of the horrible failing internet voucher schools, and last but not least, those high-stakes, rank and punish tests that by their very nature dictate how the schools operate.
After all that, the next step is to implement bottom up decisions in a public school system where teachers are treated and trusted like professionals.
The colleges that train teachers will then step up and improve the quality of their programs.
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I listened to Max speak last week at the NY Historical- a riveting speaker – he is a major intellectual on the National Review right, calls himself a Rockefeller Republican… he now realizes the “intellectual right” community is virtually non-existent, he says the cynicism and venality of current Republicans would allow them to jump off the Trump train as fast as they jumped on .. says he had to re-evaluate his life ….
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Who is Max Boot?
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Google, Duane, Google (or whatever search engine you use). You’ll love him, he was one cheerleaders of the Iraq War and now a prominent chattering class Never Trumper.
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The “You’ll love him” was meant to be a chuckle.
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I applaud every Republican who oppose Trump
The rest of the Party are sycophants
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Wholeheartedly agree.
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Max Boot is a Republican pundit who writes about foreign policy. Like George Will, he despises Trump. I applaud Republicans willing to say that the Emperor is a fraud.
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Like the ancient proverb: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, or my enemy”
Until we get rid of “our” enemy and then we can be enemies again if we were before we had a common enemy.
Sort of like the Soviet Union during World War II after Germany invaded Russia. The US became friends with Russia until after Hitler’s Germany was defeated.
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This song by Frightened Rabbit won’t leave my head right now.
When my blood stops
Someone else’s will have not
When my head rolls off
Someone else’s will turn
You can mark my words,
I’ll make changes to earth
While I’m alive, I’ll make tiny changes to earth
Sadly Scott Hutchison, the singer/songwriter, committed suicide earlier this year after a very long struggle with depression.
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Good reads from Florida:
Florida Teacher Voting for DeSantis? Read and Remember This…
Orange County private school removed from Florida’s voucher program for hiring felon as MMA coach
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-ne-elite-preparatory-fighting-car-death-20181102-story.html
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After reading the teacher voting for DeSantis I was reminded of my father’s take on making sure that neither party had complete control of government. He figured that they were less likely to do something stupid if any decisions had to be bipartisan; no legislation would pass muster quickly.
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Yes. I am a fan of the executive and legislative branches being opposing parties.
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The Founders insisted on checks and balances to prevent tyranny
That is why we must vote for Democrats to check the tyranny of Trump
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Max Boot is right.
The Republican party is the party of white nationalism and voter suppression. And lies. Lots and lots of lies.
Here’s how the NY Times reported Trump’s last rallies for Republican candidates:
“Trump closed out an us-against-them midterm election campaign that was built on fear, nationalism and racial animosity…his remarks were laced with acerbic attacks on his adversaries — ‘radical,’ ‘left-wing socialists,’ ‘corrupt’…he warned Democrats would invite murderers to come into the United States to kill men, women and children…Describing himself as a ‘nationalist,’ Trump vilified immigrants, both legal and illegal, in racially changed language once considered unacceptable in national politics… Trump’s supporters cheered him on…Led by Barack Obama, Democrats sought to make the vote a test of the nation’s values…’The character of this country is on the ballot,’ Obama said during an appearance on Monday in Virginia on behalf of Senator Tim Kaine…”
Lies. Racism. White Nationalism. More lies. Xenophobia. More lies.
And his supporters “cheered him on.”
I’ll say it again. The focus of public schooling should NOT be on STEM, or ACT and SAT and PSAT tests. or Advanced Placement courses and tests.
It should be on democratic citizenship. It should be one those core values that define the character of democracy: popular sovereignty, equality, justice, freedoms for all citizens, tolerance, and promoting the general welfare of the republic.
We have a long way to go….
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