by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
It occurs to me that the Republican Party might want to rethink its mascot. While the enormous mammal, the elephant, has served the party well for over a century, and it was perhaps truly representative of the obese titans of business and industry who did much to foster the growth and success of the party during America's first gilded age, the elephant is a bit too docile and endearing to reflect the values of the individuals who run today's Republican Party.
This past holiday weekend, Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, displayed modern Republican values to the rest of the world by behaving like a royal potentate - and then lying about it. Governor Christie had closed all of New Jersey's state beaches as retaliation in a budget conflict that he was having with the state legislature, but then, in a dazzling display of arrogance and hubris, he flew off to one of those closed beaches where he and his family - and their friends - spent a nice weekend in the sun and surf. To add insult to injury, Christie flew there in a state-owned helicopter, thus avoiding traffic which he had been known to help intentionally snarl - for political payback - in the past.
The world was his oyster, and Chris Christie was a shining pearl.
When reporters asked the governor if he had gotten any sun over the holiday weekend, he went with his big gut instinct and lied, a fabrication which was soon ripped apart when some aerial photos of the governor and his spawn sprawled out on the largely vacant Atlantic beach made it into the press. The poor beleaguered governor apparently had no drones at his disposal to keep the air space over his beach safe from intruders.
It was so unfair.
Governor Christie, who like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, also a Republican, has undergone weight-loss surgery, is still a man of considerable girth - as measured by anyone's axe handle. And, to be completely fair, he was not the only rotund politician wallowing in highly exclusive privilege in New Jersey last weekend. Donald Trump and his entourage were holed up at Trump's private golf club in Bedminster, NJ, a trip funded at taxpayer expense and which also generated a tidy profit Donald Trump and his family. Thanks, suckers!
The elephant is obviously too sweet and lovable to represent these modern Republicans, and even though a beached whale would come closer to the mark, especially representative of Chris Christie, it too lacks the greed and avarice that are so characteristic of today's GOP. Perhaps the pig would be more suited to the task of symbolizing what the Republican Party has become - and not just any pig, but some angry 800-pound boar who wants to control and consume everything within its range of vision.
And it truly has to be a boar, because a GOP sow's place is in the sty feeding litter after litter of little piggies - just ask the boars who run the party.
Christie wallowing on a beach that he was able to empty, Trump playing golf and eating steak in a rarefied setting where he did not have to interact with the masses - and it's all paid for by the public. And closer to home there were GOP congressmen and senators avoiding holiday events so they didn't have to answer questions about why they are hellbent on destroying health care in America - those are the modern Republicans behaving like . . . well . . . pigs.
The appropriate mascot for the modern Republican Party is so obvious that it stinks.
Citizen Journalist
It occurs to me that the Republican Party might want to rethink its mascot. While the enormous mammal, the elephant, has served the party well for over a century, and it was perhaps truly representative of the obese titans of business and industry who did much to foster the growth and success of the party during America's first gilded age, the elephant is a bit too docile and endearing to reflect the values of the individuals who run today's Republican Party.
This past holiday weekend, Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, displayed modern Republican values to the rest of the world by behaving like a royal potentate - and then lying about it. Governor Christie had closed all of New Jersey's state beaches as retaliation in a budget conflict that he was having with the state legislature, but then, in a dazzling display of arrogance and hubris, he flew off to one of those closed beaches where he and his family - and their friends - spent a nice weekend in the sun and surf. To add insult to injury, Christie flew there in a state-owned helicopter, thus avoiding traffic which he had been known to help intentionally snarl - for political payback - in the past.
The world was his oyster, and Chris Christie was a shining pearl.
When reporters asked the governor if he had gotten any sun over the holiday weekend, he went with his big gut instinct and lied, a fabrication which was soon ripped apart when some aerial photos of the governor and his spawn sprawled out on the largely vacant Atlantic beach made it into the press. The poor beleaguered governor apparently had no drones at his disposal to keep the air space over his beach safe from intruders.
It was so unfair.
Governor Christie, who like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, also a Republican, has undergone weight-loss surgery, is still a man of considerable girth - as measured by anyone's axe handle. And, to be completely fair, he was not the only rotund politician wallowing in highly exclusive privilege in New Jersey last weekend. Donald Trump and his entourage were holed up at Trump's private golf club in Bedminster, NJ, a trip funded at taxpayer expense and which also generated a tidy profit Donald Trump and his family. Thanks, suckers!
The elephant is obviously too sweet and lovable to represent these modern Republicans, and even though a beached whale would come closer to the mark, especially representative of Chris Christie, it too lacks the greed and avarice that are so characteristic of today's GOP. Perhaps the pig would be more suited to the task of symbolizing what the Republican Party has become - and not just any pig, but some angry 800-pound boar who wants to control and consume everything within its range of vision.
And it truly has to be a boar, because a GOP sow's place is in the sty feeding litter after litter of little piggies - just ask the boars who run the party.
Christie wallowing on a beach that he was able to empty, Trump playing golf and eating steak in a rarefied setting where he did not have to interact with the masses - and it's all paid for by the public. And closer to home there were GOP congressmen and senators avoiding holiday events so they didn't have to answer questions about why they are hellbent on destroying health care in America - those are the modern Republicans behaving like . . . well . . . pigs.
The appropriate mascot for the modern Republican Party is so obvious that it stinks.
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