A few days ago, I posted Arnold Schwarzenegger’s video message to the Russian people, an example of thoughtful Republican rhetoric and action. Good to be reminded there are Arnold’s and Liz’s and Adam’s in the world. They are far too few. As we see below.
Today we return to the more typical universe of Republican thought. Something we might call Dispatches from Trumpworld.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, trying desperately to appear thoughtful and trying desperately to pretend she’s not Putin’s useful idiot: “There is no doubt that Putin’s actions in Ukraine are despicable and evil. We weep when we see images of men, women and children wounded or killed. If we truly care about suffering and death on our television screens, we cannot fund more of it by sending money and weaponry to Ukraine to fight a war they cannot possibly win. More arms and more money from America will only prolong the war and magnify human suffering. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be responsible for creating even more refugees and orphans in an already traumatized and dysfunctional world. It’s not our responsibility to give Zelensky and the Ukrainian people false hope about a war they cannot win.”
One only wishes Marjorie felt as guilty about creating more ignorant fools in an already traumatized and dysfunctional world.
Florida senator Rick Scott, one day after voting against a bill that provided 13.6 billion dollars aid to Ukraine: “President Biden needs to make a decision TODAY [to help Ukraine]. If President Biden does not do this NOW, President Biden will show himself to be absolutely heartless and ignorant of the deaths of innocent Ukrainian children and families.”
Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson, perhaps the most prominent example of ignorant partisanship on the Hill, and apparently deaf to the wooing of Lady Irony, when asked why he broke his promise to only serve two terms: “Maybe I can help heal and unify this nation.”
Herschel Walker, Republican candidate for the Senate in Georgia: “At one time, science said man came from apes, did it not? If that is true, why are there still apes? Think about it.”
We did. And our brains are embarrassed.
Mitch McConnell, killing Lady Irony with kindness: “One of the concerns that I have and many of us have is the integrity of the court itself. When I met with Judge Jackson, I tried to suggest to her in the nicest possible way that she might want to mirror the comments of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer in opposition to court-packing and to term limits for the Supreme Court. She decided not to take a position on that. I wish she had. I don’t think that signals anything at all about how she might rule in a particular case, but simply the integrity of the court itself.”
Family Research Council President and evangelical thought leader Tony Perkins: “This whole thing with LGBT is the zenith of man’s rebellion against God. Jesus made very clear there are two genders, not 52. We can never accommodate darkness.” While I don’t remember studying this in Sunday School, I’m sure it must be in there somewhere.
It occurs to me that “We can never accommodate darkness” might serve as the conservative mantra on multiple fronts.
Heidi St. John, Republican congressional candidate in Washington State: “COVID-19 vaccines are crimes against humanity. I hope we see the equivalent of the Nuremberg trials that will send proponents of the vaccine to prison for the rest of their lives.”
Those are long sentences with big words and historical references. Heidi would be better served with the Rule of Threes.
Lock him up. Build the wall. Drill baby drill.
Rachel Hamm, Republican candidate for CA sec of state: “When I was in preschool, the preschool was a coven that was run by witches, and really, the cover was that it was a preschool, but in reality, it was a coven where they were training children in Satanic rituals, and in all things Satanic, and how to be a Satanist. Literally.”
Although she could have been speaking figuratively about liberals.
Mississippi governor, Tate Reeves, signed a bill to keep Critical Race Theory from “running amok” in Mississippi classrooms. Governor Reeves: “Children are dragged to the front of the classroom and are coerced to declare themselves as oppressors, and that they should feel guilty because of the color of their skin, or that they are inherently a victim because of their race.”
The bill prohibits any school — including universities — from teaching that any “sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.”
Sadly, not the good governor nor any of his Republican allies could cite a single example of such teaching in any state classroom. At least not since their parents received such instruction in the 60s.
Nor could they define what CRT actually is. Ah well, one suspects that “outsiders” will soon be accused of spreading the heresy.
Republican senator Chuck Grassley, who had reached across the aisle to Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, to negotiate a plan to lower prescription drug costs, admitted during a committee hearing it would likely be hard to pass if his own party regained control of Congress. He called on Democrats to pass it now before Republicans take power.
Oh, wait. That’s a Republican actually saying something beyond a ridiculous talking point. Ain’t that a kick in the pants. A Republican speaking truth! If you want to get something good done for the country, do it before Republicans take power.
We may as well close with another Republican speaking truth to power. From a conservative who voted for Trump in 2020. Writing in the conservative National Review:
Donald Trump? In 2024? Why on earth would conservatives choose that guy?
I’m serious: Why? Why would we do that when we have a choice? The idea should be absurd, risible, farcical, outré. It should be a punchline, a mania, the preserve of the demented fringe. Politics matters. And because politics matters, it is a bad idea to allow politics to be held hostage by someone who, in his heart of hearts, doesn’t really care. Donald Trump is an extraordinarily selfish man, and he is only too happy to subordinate your interests to his own. Why let him? It is one thing to say, “Well, he may have been a fickle boor, but I liked some of what he did once he was in office”; it’s quite another to put yourself through four more years of the man when you don’t have to.
Whatever justification there may have been for picking the “lesser of two evils” in the 2016 or 2020 general election — a justification that was a great deal stronger before Trump refused to accept, and then tried to overturn, the results of the latter — it cannot obtain in 2022.
The man lost. He’s a loser. It’s time we picked a winner for a change.
I couldn’t agree more. Perhaps begin with Arnold or Liz or Adam …