Hit the Road, Hawley - Resign!

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

A suicide bombing by a rebel ISIS group outside of of the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday evening killed thirteen US Marines and at least a hundred Afghans, a horrible and tragic event in an evacuation effort that has already airlifted more than 100,000 individuals to sanctuary abroad.   And while the overall evacuation effort has been a remarkable success, a group of Republican politicians were quick to paint the terrorist bombings as an indication of mission failure and to call for President Biden's resignation.

Two notable howlers in the chorus of jackals were United States Senators Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Josh Hawley of Missouri.  Tennessee can deal with Blackburn, but being a Missouri native and lifelong voter in the "show-me" state, I feel some personal responsibility for Hawley, a young man who claims to represent my state in the US Senate.

Hawley, an Arkansas native and Virginia resident who has no actual Missouri residence, began stepping out of Donald Trump's shadow last year - on December 30th - when he became the first member of the US Senate to announce that he would have challenges to the votes of the electoral college when Congress met on January 6th to certify the results.  Hawley wound up voting to reject the votes of two states, Arizona and Pennsylvania.  

But as if turning his back on American democracy wasn't enough, on that same fateful day - January 6th, 2021 - the day Trump extremists overran the US Capitol and people, including a Capitol policeman, died in the halls of Congress, Hawley also posed outside of the building with his fist in the air lending support to the terrorists.

Now that same sorry excuse for a Senator, a man who apparently had neither the time nor the inclination to serve his country in uniform, is calling on our Commander in Chief to resign because of another terrorist attack.

I am old enough to remember when Americans pulled together in time of crisis, a time when politicians knew better than to try and turn a tragedy to political advantage.  How sad it is that this crop of political opportunists, people like Josh Hawley, did not have the privilege of growing up in that same America.

Josh Hawley, you have now tried to use an attack on our nation - not once, but twice - to further your political ambitions.   That is despicable behavior and well below what should be expected or tolerated from a sitting United States Senator.  

It's time for you to do the honorable thing, Josh, and resign.   Your intolerance and authoritarian tendencies are out-of-step with American values and the basic tenets of democracy.  You have become a political joke and an on-going embarrassment - and Missouri deserves better.  

The United States of America deserves better.

Hit the road, Josh.  Resign!