How low can the GOP go?

Another day, another new low for today's Republican Party.

I have noticed a steady decline in civility since the beginning of the Tea Party's takeover of the GOP.

Make no mistake, we've always had our issues in politics, some even settled by a duel, and we've always had politicians distort the truth about their political opponents. Maybe it's the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, but today's rhetoric seems to have taken a turn for the worst.

It seems we wake up each day to read something about the GOP, either on the national or the local level, that trumps the news from the previous day, and not in a good way.

Maybe I'm just more sensitive about the news from yesterday because for the 1,844,322,913th time, I engaged in a discussion about folks kneeling for the National Anthem.

I won't share the years old, self-serving video of the white college basketball coach who called in a handful of veterans to use as props as he instructed his mostly African-American players how they should stand and place their arms during the National Anthem.

I'm hoping not to stray too far from the point of this post but it's shocking to me how people still choose sides on this National Anthem debate. Never mind we recently saw a video of Trump dancing like an idiot during the anthem at the Super Bowl or the fact that yesterday Military.com posted a story about the closure of several clinics that serve veterans or the fact almost 20 veterans each day blow their brains out or the fact veterans and active-duty military personnel will be affected by cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and even food stamps as over $60,000,000 in food stamps are used at military commissaries each year. 

Never mind how we actually treat our veterans, we've got people who just can't understand why some people wouldn't want to stand for a song whose history is rooted in racism. 

Here we are disrespecting veterans by spitting in their faces and cutting their healthcare and failing to meet their mental health needs when they come home from war, but by golly, we'd better stand for that anthem! It's disrespectful not to.

That debate is nothing more than partisan politics destroying what should be a civil discussion about race, respect, honor and dignity. Instead of solving the problems that exist, we'll continue to battle over whether one should be required to stand (or, in Trump's case, dance) during the playing of that anthem.

It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of the people I see arguing against those who kneel also vote Republican. 

It's a natural coincidence.

The political party with the least amount of diversity views kneeling for the flag as disrespectful for those who have fought and died for our freedoms, such as the freedom to kneel. The dueling philosophy is lost on those folks.

Now, I'm going to try to tie in the National Anthem to this other news affecting local politics here in Northeast Ohio.

The point is this, the people who are voting for the lawmakers who want to cut food stamps and Medicaid and Medicare and health clinics for our veterans are mostly the same people who feel disrespected when one refuses to stand for the National Anthem.

It's those same people who didn't blink when Donald Trump disrespected John McCain and other prisoners of war when he said, "I like the ones who didn't get caught."

These are the same people who didn't say a word when Trump attacked a Gold Star family. In case you didn't know, Gold Star families are those who have lost a family member in war.

These same people look the other way when the Republican Party, their Republican Party, attacks other veterans such as Hillary O'Connor-Mueri, who is running to unseat Dave Joyce in Ohio's 14th Congressional District.

The Republican Party accused O'Connor-Mueri of voting twice during the 2008 election. 

"The complaint states that Mueri, who received her law degree from the University of San Diego, was registered to vote in both states in 2008. It says she voted in California’s Democratic presidential primary in the San Diego area on February 5, 2008 and also cast an absentee ballot in Ohio’s March 4, 2008 presidential primary, citing a Concord Township residence."

O'Connor-Mueri, a combat veteran and Naval flight officer, had moved to San Diego with her husband, who was transferred by the Navy. 

The Lake County (Ohio) Board of Elections did in fact send O'Connor-Mueri an absentee ballot, but she didn't need it. She voted in San Diego. She did not return her absentee ballot.

That fact has been confirmed by the Board of Elections:

“On February 5, 2008, the Lake County Board of Elections mailed Hillary O’Connor Mueri an absentee ballot for the March 4, 2008, Presidential Primary Election to 1175 Mountain Rose Drive, Fernley, NV 89408. Ms. O’Connor-Mueri did not return the absentee ballot, and further, Ms. O’Connor Mueri did not vote in Lake County, Ohio at the March 4, 2008 Presidential Primary Election.”

The Lake County Board of Elections went on to explain why O’Connor-Mueri’s name appeared on its voter roll from 2008:

“At the time of the March 4, 2008, Presidential Primary Election, the policy of the Lake County Board of Elections was to grant voter history credit to all absentee voters who had submitted an application to vote absentee, irrespective of whether the voter returned the ballot or not.”

I'm a rational person.

I actually understand why the Republicans could have raised this issue. Nobody should vote twice.

It's not like they invented this controversy out of thin air. They cross-referenced voter rolls and O'Connor-Mueri's name did appear on two voter rolls.

They thought they had a smoking gun.

What's funny to me is the people who said Donald Trump didn't get a fair "trial" in the House of Representatives, didn't give O'Connor-Mueri a chance to explain herself. They didn't even contact the Lake County Board of Elections to confirm their suspicions.

No, they just ran with this smoking gun they thought could damage their political opponent.

Rob Secaur, the Executive Director of the Ohio Republican Party, sent a letter to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, also a Republican, with the details of O'Connor-Mueri's alleged crime.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, also a Republican, then provided this statement:

"'The strength of our democratic republic is the sacred right of every citizen to get registered and cast a vote, and law breakers who demonstrate this level of poor judgment devalue that right when they abuse the process,' said a statement from LaRose."

Elections Board Direcor R. Ross McDonald told Cleveland.com the board was never asked to research this issue...by anyone...until Friday after the story had broken.

O'Connor-Mueri provided a statement to Cleveland.com:

"I’ve served my country in combat as a Naval Flight Officer just so we can have the right to vote," said a statement from Mueri. "I take it seriously. The Ohio GOP is attacking me in order to distract from the partisan purging of voters in Ohio that disenfranchises the people in our state who most need their voices heard. I believe we must end Republican voter suppression in Ohio and throughout the country, and we shouldn’t be distracted by their sleight of hand tricks.”

The Republican complaint was shot down by the Board of Elections a day after it surfaced.

Did that stop Republicans from trying to smear a veteran?

Absolutely not.

LaRose, speaking to the Canton Repository on Wednesday, stood by his comments, saying he prefaced them by saying "if true."

Mr. LaRose, what do you mean "if true?" You were provided evidence by the Lake County Board of Elections proving the accusation is absolutely false.

But, see, that isn't the GOP way.

They found out through Donald Trump's campaign how effective it is to hurl accusation after accusation. They found out how effective it is to invent scandals.

The GOP discovered lying and smearing opponents is the key to victory. They certainly can't run on their own merits. By the way, where is that healthcare plan they promised us was better than the Affordable Care Act? 

And, yet here we are once again hearing from those people about how it's disrespectful to veterans not to stand for the National Anthem.

It's OK to lie and attack veterans for political gain. It's OK to cut funding for veterans' healthcare and it's OK to cut funding that provides our active-duty personnel and veterans with the food stamps that help keep them from going hungry.

All of that is OK, but you better not kneel during that song!

Well, I won't stand for that. I hope you won't either.