It begins with direct responses to the lies and slander that some choose to wallow in

The world can be fixed. For awhile. It’ll probably get screwed up again. There are always greedy, self-serving, dishonest people around trying to screw the majority when things get more decent, respectful and calm. But amid another brutal war - something the 21st century’s had way too much of - the threats of the use of nukes, the bullying of our unprincipled domestic terrorists (indicted or not), and the absurd conspiracy theories plus a pandemic have many people on edge. We long for better answers.

And the remedial process begins with more direct speech defining the visible truth.

State Senator Mallory McMorrow from Michigan takes on the scurrilous and hateful remarks of her political opponent. Republicans seeking or holding office have become a broken record, mindlessly repeating the same old tired lines in every race in the country. It doesn’t matter if you’re running for a school board position or a planning commission gig, if you’re a Democrat, you must hate white people, you’re a pedophile or pro-pedophile, you’re teaching your children to be gay or transgender, you’re a socialist/communist, you’re planning to take away everyone’s guns and Bible and you hate America and God.

The trouble is there’s a distinct lack of evidence for these claims. I did a thorough search, following claims made by Republican sites. Sometimes I found a Republican instead of a Democrat. Sometimes they defined someone who committed a crime more than a decade after leaving office. In one case, they said that Virginia Democrats just elected a convicted pedophile, but they weren’t even close. The man began dating his 17 year old secretary. But the age of consent in Virginia at the time was younger than 17. He wasn’t charged with a sex crime at all. He pleaded guilty to ‘contributing to the delinquency of a minor’. Then the couple married, they have three kids now, and THEN Virginia Democrats voted him into office.

There is not a sudden spate of pedophilia going on with elected officials. If you want to sell that absurdity, do the research of the past 50 years of crime statistics to prove the point. Nobody sane is buying those lies.

But it’s pretty obvious that the facts don’t matter to people who think politics is a game. It’s unlikely that facts won’t change the mind of many Republicans. The target group remains the independent voters and Senator Morrow’s message definitely will resonate with them. Take a listen:

(also, you can skip the part of the video after the first 4 minutes 38 seconds. It’s that first part that comes in loud and clear from the outspoken Catholic.)

Most importantly, the lack of evidence is the smallest part of the offensive behavior. Suggesting anyone not hetero is a deviant and a criminal is way out of line. It’s not an attack on Democrats; it’s hateful, rude and morally repugnant. Democrats, Independents AND most Republicans know that. Those who remain determined to tear apart people for loving their peers simply can excuse themselves from the conversation. This is America. Haters can take their verbal torment to a country that’s into that - if they can find one.

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) claims 1 billion immigrants were apprehended at the Mexico border in the past year, and complained that President Biden’s policies caused that. Needless to say, it’s unlikely that 13% of the world’s population was involved in any way (she had three zeroes too many, as the number is closer to 1 million). Also, if they’re being apprehended, there doesn’t appear to be a problem of too many immigrants coming into the US at all.

This is just another reason why our public schools need upgrades, not math textbook bans. A little remedial math could do Lesko some good. I don’t care what party anyone belongs to but we all have a justifiable right to expect our representatives to be coherent and to correct themselves when they err. There are way too many currently that don’t.

The answer isn’t to break and reject all government. That way leads absolute destruction for any nation.

And I’ll be bringing more answers this week because common sense really isn’t that hard. Sure, there are people spewing nonsense and embracing violence and societal destruction. But the actual adults can accomplish much more by simply ignoring them, not broadening their platforms and increasing the volume on their bullshithorns.

Or, you can choose to follow the advice of media clowns like Tucker Carlson who thinks the problem is too many men with low testosterone and advises guys to fix that by tanning their testicles. But really, are you that drunk?