By Count Friedrich von Olsen
I’m having a pretty rough go of it lately. While I am not an American by birth, it is most likely accurate to say that I have been an American citizen for a longer period of time than most readers of this column. Somehow, for me, Americanism is greatly intertwined with Republicanism. So many great Americans were Republicans, indeed they seem to flood over the North American landscape, obscuring for the most part the Democrats. Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, Earl Warren, Dwight Eisenhower, Robert Taft, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, Herbert Hoover, Charles Evans Hughes, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, James Garfield, Abraham Lincoln. Why even Richard Nixon was a Republican, and despite a few personality flaws, people, by golly, are coming around to seeing him as having been a pretty good president. Why even Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were Democratic Republicans, and that’s only half bad…
But as I said, it has been pretty tough lately. What was instilled in me at a young age – oh, alright, at a middle age – was the Eleventh Commandment. For those of you who do not know it, it reads: “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.” Just think about that! You can see what ails me…
Early on, in the primary season, we heard Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush saying some uncharitable things about Donald Trump. That didn’t get to me particularly, as it was the primary season and that sort of intra-party bashing is de rigueur. But it has gotten worse, much worse…
Senator Mitch McConnell; Michael Hayden, the former director of both the CIA and National Security Agency; Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security; John Negroponte, former director of national intelligence in the Bush Administration ; Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security director under George W. Bush as well as former governor of the battleground state of Pennsylvania; New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez; South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – Republicans all – are bashing the GOP nominee for president…
Gary R. Herbert Utah’s Republican governor, and Jason Chaffetz, the Republican congressman from Utah are bashing Mr. Trump like there is no tomorrow. I’m the Count, and I can count. I count the votes in the Electoral College, or the likely votes in the Electoral College and my math tells me that it is going to be very hard for our man, Mr. Trump, to find his way to a home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue without Utah remaining in the red column…
In recent months, weeks, and days, we have heard John McCain, the Arizona Republican Senator, a war hero and Republican Standard bearer in the 2008 election, say, again, and then again, and again, “There are no excuses for Donald Trump.” How can we win without Arizona?
Mitt Romney, our party’s nominee just four years ago, referred to Donald Trump as “vile and demeaning…”
Paul Ryan, the House Speaker and most senior elected Republican, called Mr. Trump’s comments “sickening” and banned him from a Republican campaign event in Wisconsin on last Saturday…
Even former president George Herbert Walker Bush has said he will vote for Hillary Clinton, the wife of the man who kept him from a second term…
Reince Preibus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is stomping on the Republican nominee for president…
I think I’m having a breakdown…