The Republican Party at the national level is no longer a viable alternative: it is too corrupt, too weak, and too enamored of the trappings of power.
"Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) was challenged recently by a caller on the “Jay Thomas Show.” The caller asked Cramer to reveal the identity of the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed unarmed Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, on January 6. Cramer claimed he did not know the name of the officer, nor did he believe the public had any right to know that officer’s name because he had not been found guilty of any wrongdoing.
"Such pandering to the ruling class and its railroaded investigation is embarrassing enough, as the available evidence (to say nothing of the evidence that the government refuses to release) indicates that the officer recklessly—through the broken window of a locked door—shot an unarmed woman who posed no threat to anyone.
"But Cramer went further. The public has no right to know, he asserted, “because the person that [sic] shot her is a police officer shooting a criminal not complying with officers’ telling her ‘stop, don’t come through that window, we have guns drawn, don’t do it.’”
"Leave aside the fact that no evidence exists for Cramer’s version of events. When did it become the standard for elected officials to sanction the killing of unarmed persons whose only “crime” was the refusal to comply with orders given by law enforcement? Is not such a “policy” the raison d’être for the entire Black Lives Matter and “defund the police” movement? Are we now to stop deifying George Floyd for resisting arrest and refusing to comply? Must we now instead recognize Derek Chauvin as a hero? " . . .
Greg Smith