Crazy Faith Ministries

In spite of being in charge of “everything Washington,” the GOP was unsuccessful in saving the government from shutting down. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said moments after midnight on Friday voiced disappointment, blaming the Democrats for not caring about “the American people.” Specifically, he said, “We’ll vote again so the American people know who cares about them.”

It was hard to listen to.

Nothing this GOP has done over this past year has indicated that it cares about the masses of American people. From its work to repeal the Affordable Care Act to its specious process for passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, ramming it through the Congress with no hearings, this Congress, which has shamelessly sanctioned everything the current president has done, it has shown that it cares about American people – as long as they are the correct race, the correct religion and fall into the correct economic class.

In voicing his disappointment over the government shutdown, McConnell sounded almost human. Had one not known his role in making sure the struggling masses continue to struggle, one might have been fooled.

But clearly, what this GOP government wants to do is be “loyal” to the president, who is trying desperately to honor his “base” – reportedly about 30 percent – and leave rest of Americans alone. They have watched and stood by silently for the most part while he has attacked Muslims, the press, the FBI and the Department of Justice and members of America’s security detail. They have said very little about the president’s obvious racism, shown by racist remarks he made following the eruption of violence in Charlottesville, and his most resent comments about immigrants from so-called “sh*thole countries,” which include, in his opinion, Haiti and African countries.

They have virtually given him a pass to be an arrogant white male who says he wants to “make America great again” which is a euphemism for his desire to “make America White again.”

The Congress – both House and Senate – has shown its lack of spine, principles and Christian morality. Even the Evangelicals, who once stood for a strict morality that one could respect even if one did not agree with it – has jumped on the president’s bandwagon. Even as this president has revealed his racism and sexism and homophobia and Xenophobia, his arrogance and ignorance, frankly, about the issues, which he must deal with, they have been silent.

McConnell has not ever, to my knowledge, supported the right of all Americans to have health care; he and the GOP have voiced no concern about the masses of people who work not one, but two or three jobs, making minimum wage, if that, and still cannot make ends meet.

The GOP has come off as a “good ol’ boys” club, led by a jock-type bully who cares about nobody but themselves. The GOP is coming off as being very concerned with the military and is making what is happening about “putting immigration before the military.” That sentiment will enrage the vast numbers of Americans and will help the GOP gain traction to do what it wants as concerns immigrations, including making the children who have been allowed to flourish in this country bait for their ultimate goal. The GOP wants more people from white countries to be allowed in this country, and the number of people of color to be vastly reduced.

The preoccupation of White people with the so-called “Browning” of America is not new. Benjamin Franklin voiced concern about it in 1751. He asked, in a document he wrote that year, “Why increase the sons of Africa by planting them in America, where we have so fair an opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys (sic) of increasing the lovely White and Red? The history of the world is full of the cries of White people trying to keep the world white – ironic, since the majority of peoples in this world are people of color.

The administration does not want people of color in this country; the GOP will work to make it more and more difficult for people of color of any religious persuasion to come to this country and to stay in this country. It [the GOP] has shown and will not show compassion or a desire for mercy for tax-paying immigrants to be deported. The dog and pony show of shutting the government down seems to be a theatrical ploy to make it easier for the administration’s immigration policies to be passed. In their political minds, they are hearing the man who is now president say, “Build that wall” while he was a candidate.

They like that and they want that.

So, McConnell’s statements of caring for “the American people” sound particularly hollow. Honesty and civility has not ever been a part of politics; politicians uses the people in order to catapult them into power, and then they ignore the cries and the needs of those same people as they increase their wealth and power.

It is no different now. McConnell’s words after the shutdown began were sickening to listen to, coming from a man who has shown no regard for the masses for the last eight years. He and the GOP are destroying democracy, as we have known it. They have shown they have no courage, no morals and no ethics, even as they waddle behind a president who cares for nothing and no one but himself.

Rev. Dr. Susan K Smith is available for speaking and workshops. She is working on a book examining the failure of the Constitution and the Bible to destroy racism.