Watching the ongoing humiliation of Kevin McCarthy leaves me struggling for the appropriate aphorism.
“There is no honor among thieves/grifters” certainly applies to Republicans in the House. Watching this bunch devour each other as George Santos sits in the corner with a shit-eating grin and Don Jr. hawks Bibles, well, shake the grift snow globe and see who pops up next.
“Without a vision the people/parties perish” seems apropos. Today McCarthy tried to convince us that he stands for the good of the country. How exactly? What governing vision has he offered “for the good of the country”? Even Matt Gaetz said McCarthy “doesn’t believe in anything. He has no ideology.” (To be fair, if your ideology is Trumpism, as is the case with Gaetz, it’s a significant step up to have none. But set that aside for now.)
Perhaps we should go with T. S. Eliot. “We are the hollow men/the stuffed men/codpiece filled with straw.” [Warning. A wee bit of poetic license there. But it seemed appropriate for McCarthy, and if it sends you back to the original, I’ll be gratified.]
McCarthy is the ultimate hollow man. Perhaps this is the lesson of his career. When you place position and power over principle, even your ostensible allies take note. Naked desire simply leaves you naked. One suspects even his “friends” despise Kevin’s spineless groveling. I rather hope he eventually takes the Speaker’s gavel. In the shadow of the near immortal Nancy Pelosi, he will fade to immateriality.
I have seen a number of pundits today predict “chaos” for the next two years with Republicans ruling the House. I think the word is overused. Chaos implies something out of the ordinary. But if we’ve learned anything with the advent of Trump, it is that dysfunction is simply another Tuesday within Republican ranks.
So, let’s save “chaos” for the unusual. The unpredictable. The extraordinary. Let’s call this what it is. Standard Operating Procedure when your governing ideology is simply self-promotion. The pursuit of grievance. The expansion of the grift …
Another Year
Last year around this time I was on a cruise, a vessel we affectionately dubbed The Plague Ship, listening, as midnight approached, to the band playing Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” 2021 felt like that at times. It seemed like a triumph to have made it through the year
As we looked forward to 2022, I suspect few of us thought we would end the year thinking “I Will Thrive.” But it has been a remarkably good year, and, although the forces arrayed against us are vast, we are making gains.
The giants on the world stage who wished us ill, from Putin to Trump, are much diminished. Indeed, we dare to mock them. And their followers, one by one, are enduring humiliation, and some, soon perhaps many, are learning to appreciate institutional food and wary showers. We have saved room in such state-sponsored inns for their masters.
Here are a few images I will remember from 2022.
The January 6 committee arrayed solemnly behind the dais. Especially Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, quietly demonstrating the only way to stop Republicans without honor is by Republicans with honor.
Cassidy Hutchinson raising her right hand, promising to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and with that promise helping to bring down a man for whom the very concept of truth-telling is foreign.
The tweet from the Republican Judiciary Committee: “Elon. Kanye. Trump.” Thereby forever linking the Republican Party to this Dance of Doofuses. This Band of Bigots. This Train of Traitors. And, hopefully, providing the go-to examples for why we will likely never again hear the line: “We need a businessman running the country.”
The image of Josh Hawley, he of the raised fist in solidarity with traitors, “I am Insurrection Man, hear me roar,” fleeing the rioters like a gigantic stick insect, or an advertisement for Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks. I am constantly amazed that such men ever show their face in public again. But if Trump has taught us anything, it is that shamelessness goes a long way in politics.
Kari Lake’s face slowly registering the knowledge that the career arc she envisioned, guvnah to vice president, had turned into loser to butt of jokes. Perhaps Fox will find a spot for her.
There were many more memorable images of course. Bolsonaro going down in Brazil. Alex Jones owing billions. Steve Bannon sentenced. The women of Iran rising up. Joe Biden accomplishing much more than we ever thought possible. The man is already, after only two years, ranked by historians 19th out of 45 presidents, one behind Ronald Reagan. Obama is just outside the top ten, at 11th. Meanwhile the man who refers to himself as “greater than Lincoln, greater than Washington” is firmly ensconced at 43rd. Only the president who fiddled while the nation drifted into Civil War and the president who let the white South rise again rank lower.
Other memorable moments. The Webb telescope pulling back the curtain on the origins of the universe. NASA either ruining or enhancing the plots of future disaster movies by diverting an asteroid. Fusion energy. I don’t know what it is, but it sounds promising. The Red Wave as the Red Ripple. Herschel Walker explaining climate change, well, explaining anything. Sarah Palin garnering the votes of her family and not much else. Does anybody even remember that she ran? That is as it should be. Trump compared to Norma Desmond in multiple articles at year’s end.
But my favorite memory of the year is of Roman Hrybov, Ukrainian border guard on Snake Island, responding to the powerful Russian missile cruiser Moskva, when the Moskva demanded his surrender, “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!”
Hrybov spoke for all of us in 2022 who put nation, family, friends before self-interest when facing the narcissistic madmen of our age.
And, for good measure, Ukraine sunk the Moskva.