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I always try to give our politicians the benefit of the doubt, even when they come from a party I don't like. Nothing a PM has said has left me as disgusted as what I just heard Theresa May say in front of a Republican party group.
She had just been talking about her principles of "liberty, work, nationhood, family, economic prudence, patriotism and putting power in the hands of the people". This is what followed:
"And your victory in these elections gives you the opportunity to put them at the heart of this new era of American renewal too. President Trump’s victory – achieved in defiance of all the pundits and the polls – and rooted not in the corridors of Washington, but in the hopes and aspirations of working men and women across this land. Your Party’s victory in both the Congress and the Senate where you swept all before you, secured with great effort, and achieved with an important message of national renewal. And because of this – because of what you have done together, because of that great victory you have won – America can be stronger, greater, and more confident in the years ahead."
She is out there representing our country to both America and the world, and her message in this paragraph is that America has done a taken a huge step forward by replacing the thoughtful, principled Barack Obama with the sociopath and self-confessed groper Donald Trump - and that we Brits are all for this. It's not even just about Trump - I've followed American politics for long enough to know that Trump is just the shit-encrusted tip of the iceberg. If the Republicans were a British party, many of their representatives would be considered far-right. They have too many horrifying policy positions to list, so here are just a few. Even after the Sandy Hook school shooting in which 20 six and seven year olds were killed, they blocked proposals that would have restricted the ability of people with mental illnesses to buy guns - indeed some states loosened gun laws. While publicly professing to never forget the heroism of the first responders who dealt with the immediate aftermath of 9/11, they heavily resisted a law introducing healthcare and compensation for those people, many of whom were literally dying of cancer due to the particles they breathed in. They have subverted democracy by gerrymandering voting districts and introducing laws that deliberately make it harder for blacks to vote. They refused to even consider Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court seat which became vacant following the death of Justice Scalia - an issue which may not be familiar to British readers but which could have repercussions (in their favour) for decades. The Republican party have spent years fostering the level of public discourse which led to Donald Trump. He and they are as much a threat to the world as Vladimir Putin - Putin is worse, but Trump and his friends have much more influence. These are the people Theresa May has just praised and given Britain's support to.
Some sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jon-stewart-sept-11-responders_us_567ab1e5e4b06fa6887f7bd8
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/north-carolina-voting-rights-law/493649/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland_Supreme_Court_nomination
She had just been talking about her principles of "liberty, work, nationhood, family, economic prudence, patriotism and putting power in the hands of the people". This is what followed:
"And your victory in these elections gives you the opportunity to put them at the heart of this new era of American renewal too. President Trump’s victory – achieved in defiance of all the pundits and the polls – and rooted not in the corridors of Washington, but in the hopes and aspirations of working men and women across this land. Your Party’s victory in both the Congress and the Senate where you swept all before you, secured with great effort, and achieved with an important message of national renewal. And because of this – because of what you have done together, because of that great victory you have won – America can be stronger, greater, and more confident in the years ahead."
She is out there representing our country to both America and the world, and her message in this paragraph is that America has done a taken a huge step forward by replacing the thoughtful, principled Barack Obama with the sociopath and self-confessed groper Donald Trump - and that we Brits are all for this. It's not even just about Trump - I've followed American politics for long enough to know that Trump is just the shit-encrusted tip of the iceberg. If the Republicans were a British party, many of their representatives would be considered far-right. They have too many horrifying policy positions to list, so here are just a few. Even after the Sandy Hook school shooting in which 20 six and seven year olds were killed, they blocked proposals that would have restricted the ability of people with mental illnesses to buy guns - indeed some states loosened gun laws. While publicly professing to never forget the heroism of the first responders who dealt with the immediate aftermath of 9/11, they heavily resisted a law introducing healthcare and compensation for those people, many of whom were literally dying of cancer due to the particles they breathed in. They have subverted democracy by gerrymandering voting districts and introducing laws that deliberately make it harder for blacks to vote. They refused to even consider Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court seat which became vacant following the death of Justice Scalia - an issue which may not be familiar to British readers but which could have repercussions (in their favour) for decades. The Republican party have spent years fostering the level of public discourse which led to Donald Trump. He and they are as much a threat to the world as Vladimir Putin - Putin is worse, but Trump and his friends have much more influence. These are the people Theresa May has just praised and given Britain's support to.
Some sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jon-stewart-sept-11-responders_us_567ab1e5e4b06fa6887f7bd8
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/north-carolina-voting-rights-law/493649/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland_Supreme_Court_nomination
