Two weeks ago the catholic hierarchy was being called radical, extreme and ‘out of touch” with the mainstream. Last week Maureen Dowd eviscerated Paul Ryan in her column quoting Tom Morello, of the metal rap band, Rage Against the Machine, who called Paul Ryan  a guy “who is filled with a whole lot of rage”; Rage against women and immigrants and the poor, and gays and even the environment.  Madame Dowd says that beyond the even keeled Ryan mien lurks full-tilt virulence. That’s pretty nasty, mean and virulent stuff Madame Dowd and it came from you, not Paul Ryan.

Then we have the Republican National Convention do its thing in Tampa. Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan and now a professor at Berkeley, has written that when Paul Ryan accepted the nomination as candidate for Vice-president he “knowingly lied to the American people”. She called Ryan’s acceptance speech “lie-larded”. No big deal, right? After all, its just politics. Apparently the phrase, “its just politics”, seems to be the justification to commit every type of slander know to human kind and to just say things because you have decided to hate people because they disagree with your point of view. I watched the RNC and the commentary coming from the Democratic pundits and news media slowly turned my stomach. The four main words I kept hearing were liars, extremists, radicals, and racists. Then (for me) came the coup-de-grace.

American Pie actor, Jason Biggs, decided that he needed to express his feelings about Paul Ryan and his wife Janna. So he posted the most vile and disgusting sexual references about them on Twitter. He then went on to Twitter about Ann Romney stuff even more vile. “Stick & Stones have now become “Clubs & Boulders”. If that had been done to Michelle Obama or the Biden’s–well, can you imagine the uproar.

I watched the RNC and  I know what I saw and heard. I heard some classy, professional people, people like , Mia Love, Marco Rubio, Condoleeza Rice, Suzanna Martinez and others give fine speeches never once calling any of their opponents names. Certainly, they gave their opposing view points but their was no vitriol. Clint Eastwood, an American icon, to me was hilarious. I have since heard him called disgusting and deplorable. Can anyone remember when we could poke fun at ourselves and love each other at the same time? What ever happened?

Well, I am a registered Independent. I  don’t adhere to any particular party line because I like to think of myself as open to all ideas and vote accordingly. Well, the garbage that has been spewed out by the opponents of Romney & Ryan has made this election for me a no-brainer. We deserve better and our kids and grandkids deserve a better example. Go Romney/Ryan.