Chris Roemer: How about a reasonable person with common sense solutions for president? | COMMENTARY
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are mirror images of each other. Both have the emotional maturity of the average middle school student.
Recently, during a House committee meeting, Taylor Greene told a Democratic member of that committee, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”
Coming to her colleague’s defense, AOC told MTG, “Oh girl, oh baby girl, don’t even play.”
Not to be out done, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whose eyelashes were the original bone of contention, jumped into the fray, describing MTG as a “bleach blonde” with a “bad-built butch body.”
A little later, Crockett told her Republican colleagues, “Don’t tell me to calm down, because y’all talk noise and then you can’t take it, because if I come and talk s*** about her, y’all gonna have a problem.”
Class acts all around.
Why their parties fear these mental pygmies is beyond me.
The American system of government was designed to minimize, not empower, fringe elements of the electorate, left or right. Any influence these juvenile delinquents enjoy is only as significant as the political center allows that influence to be.
Both parties need to give their fringe members their say, study their policy positions and give consideration to their ideas, but they cannot be allowed to have defacto veto power over any legislation that does not fit perfectly into their respective boxes.
Americans are growing tired of the theatrics and the inability of their elected officials to govern. Donald Trump’s presidency, both past and prospective, is in large part a reaction to the mountain of dysfunction Democrats and Republicans are responsible for creating.
Still, the two dominant parties are again scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to choosing their nominees for president.
The No Labels movement fizzled as politician after politician refused its nomination, afraid of the consequences of getting on the wrong side of their party.
The politicians who declined its nomination missed a golden opportunity this election cycle to capitalize on the current disillusionment so many Americans have for their government.
I honestly believe, if No Labels is ever able to recruit a top-tier politician to be its standard bearer, Americans across the political spectrum would rush to their support.
Unfortunately, in state after state, Democrats and Republicans collaborate to pass laws that create significant barriers preventing third-party candidates from showing up on state ballots.
Right now the DNC is doing everything it can to keep Robert Kennedy Jr. off as many ballots as possible, thus denying millions of Americans the opportunity to even consider him as a candidate.
Seems a strange thing for “Saviors of Democracy” to do. Whether you like him or not, shouldn’t people have the right to vote for Kennedy if they wish?
At this point, I would gladly embrace a reasonable person who seeks common sense solutions to the myriad of problems facing the country, rather than one who uses those problems to divide the American electorate to gain political advantage.
I do not have to agree with every position a candidate holds.
That said, a person’s character is important to me. I’m not looking for a saint, just a decent, thinking human being. I believe there are still such people out there.
Perhaps Kennedy is one of them. Say what you want about Kennedy, I find his candor and willingness to stand up to the Democratic Party machinery refreshing, but his candor is precisely why Democrats are working hard to shut him up.
Kennedy is simply not partisan enough. He doesn’t play ball and never learned how to put the interests of the party ahead of the interests of the country.
Right now Biden and Trump are colluding to shut him out of the presidential debates.
Apparently, they are both afraid there are just too many people out there who don’t want to vote for either one of them, and if Kennedy receives too much exposure, these disaffected voters might actually conclude Kennedy is an acceptable alternative.
Keeping Kennedy off the debate stage is an important piece of their joint strategy to starve his campaign of oxygen.
Even if Kennedy does nothing more than exceed expectations, it will send shock waves through the political establishment, and it might be exactly what is necessary to loosen the grip both parties have on this country.
Which means a vote for Kennedy might actually be the vote that saves American democracy.
The Democratic or Republican parties do not have an exclusive claim on the White House — or anything else for that matter.
It’s time they were made to understand that. and I can’t think of a better way of sending them that message than refusing to vote for either party’s nominee.
It’s past time to try something new.
Chris Roemer is a retired banker and educator who resides in Finksburg. He can be contacted at chrisroemer1960@gmail.com.