The question is not whether Trump is a serious candidate.

The question is whether the GOP is a serious party?

By Helen Philpot 

I’ve been doing a lot of musing lately about things that just don’t add up in my head. Of course, at my age lots of things don’t add up anymore, like why I keep a shopping list but then forget to bring it with me when I shop. 

But lately it’s been about bigger things like guns, wars and the stupidity of the Republican Party.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, a document that gave me the right to call Sarah Palin a bitch (1st Amendment) and idiots the right to own guns (2nd Amendment).

And it’s hard for me to cherish my right to free speech while chastising others for reveling in their right to bear arms.

Of course, there’s just one little problem with that. There is supposed be a little something called a “well-regulated militia” bearing those arms.  

Instead what we’ve got is a bunch of unregulated bigots. In their delusional belief that guns make us all more safe, the NRA has succeeded in its self-fulfilling prophecy of creating a world filled with more guns. No one seems to ever consider the idea that a world with fewer guns might make for a world that needs fewer guns.  

And to prove my point, even Christmas has been turned into a war.  Honestly, is it really that offensive to just wish someone Happy Holidays?  

After all, Merry Christmas doesn’t exactly evoke images of the birth of Jesus as much as it does a fat man in a red suit with a bag of toys.  Realizing that counting down the number of shopping days to his birthday might be a little off-putting to Jesus, I think I’ll gladly stick with my Happy Holidays regardless of some haughty born-agains desire to hear Merry Christmas.

But what I find most confusing these days is the Republican Party’s constant insistence that banning Muslims and Mexicans is not a Republican value and that Donald Trump’s extreme views are not representative of the GOP.

Funny. Maybe in their efforts to roll back the Voting Rights Act,  Republicans have forgotten that votes actually mean something,  and currently the one Republican counting the most votes wants to ban Muslims and Mexicans.

Sometimes you might not like where you end up, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t actually there.  Like it or not, the place they have landed is a debate stage filled with angry politicians calling for more wars.  

And Trump is what you get when  card-carrying NRA members hell bent on wishing everyone a Merry Christmas are the largest voting bloc in your party. Nine of the GOP’s finest were debating on that stage but I swear there’s a tree stump in a Louisiana swamp with a higher IQ than all of them.

If you ask me, it’s time for a new party, but sadly nobody asked me. Happy Holidays everyone.  I mean it.  Really.