Bang the Dumb Slowly
One of the cardinal sins of commentary writing is not to name-call or insult your readers with invectives. In this case, I am going to purposefully violate the rules, I am not sure how else to label the 126 Republican members of the United States House of Representatives and at last count one current and one Senator-elect, awaiting his swearing-in, who are publicly advocating for the destruction of America’s free and fair election process, as anything other than dumb. Couple that with a disgraced former Army Lt. General [Michael Flynn] who has called for the equivalent to a military-junta, to throw out the votes of 20 million Americans and redo the election under military control, it is hard to avoid the journalistic rules of engagement. What next, dipping my thumb into blue ink under military guard outside my polling station?
Backed by a conservative news media who have either completely abandoned sanity or so fear the black and browning of America, that they are willing to burn the Constitution in the public square, dumb seems an apt word. Recently, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie was asked a myriad of questions about the President’s erratic behavior and his public opposition. Although Christie felt the need to give the obligatory knee bow to Mr. Trump, he went on to say, “but it doesn’t mean that you give away your brain, you give away your mind and you give away your character.” He went on to say he still would not have voted for Hillary Clinton, but he curiously did not say he would not have voted for Donald Trump.
What is that classic definition of insanity?
After almost eight months of negotiations, the President does not seem to realize that direct help to the American people is separate from continuing to meet the government’s financial obligations. His chief objection, before signing the Covid Relief Bill, centered around the removal of Section 230 from the omnibus bill where he mistakenly connected it to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). To make a long story short, the Covid relief bill was a part of the overall package to fund the government, to which the President expressed no public objections for months. His supporters say this is his art of the deal negotiation trick. By tossing in a monkey wrench at the finish line thereby forcing the mechanics to push the car, he gets what he wants.
In this case, all he did was flood the engine, and leave the American people thumbing for a ride. Millions of Americans will miss a week's worth of unemployment checks because Mr. Trump signed his name two days late; while he golfed with Lindsey Graham, who told us years ago the President is a kook. “I think he's a kook. I think he's crazy. I think he's unfit for office,” said Graham in 2016. The litany of Republican luminaries running from reporters in the halls of Congress and conveniently wearing their masks when confronted by the press is a demonstration of their fear of being linked with Trump. The video and audio will forever be linked in posterity, identifying Republican House members, Senators, and the conservative media who insist on banging the dumb slowly.
Georgians, Vote for Change
