Chasing the Mob from Behind
Burned out at the end of the Joy-Ann Reid hour on MSNBC, I am ready for mindless tv. By that time, my intellectual palette is dulled by the talk of the continuous meal foisted on me of tasteless conservative ambrosia. A nice, seared steak of the NBA playoffs or a good movie is a cleanser. Last night, I stuck a little longer (ok, ok, I could not find the remote) and watched the Chris Hayes show. In his opening segment, I said aloud, HE IS SO RIGHT! He talked about how Republican politicians have become such sycophantic cowards (my words not his) to their unhinged base. Hayes metaphorically pointed a finger and concluded that the so-called leaders of the GOP are not leading the mob they are chasing it.
The most obvious proof of his assertion was the GOP’s reaction in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection; who later rolled over on their backs waiting for a tummy scratch—from Trump—in the weeks and months following the riots. Doing the obvious and prudent, Mitch McConnell first told the public that Mr. Trump was ‘practically and morally responsible.’ Kevin McCarthy begged for help on January 6, only to be rebuffed by the White House. Even Senator Lindsey Graham who has put the ‘sick’ in sycophant the last four years stated he was out. “Count me out,” Graham (R- S.C.) said in a speech on the Senate floor. While still awaiting the Trump mob to catch on two days later, Graham went further saying, he’d “never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country” speaking in unmistakable exasperation over Trump’s handling of the insurrection.
Following these principled pronouncements, they coward in their offices waiting for their phone lines to light up with outraged old white guys tethered to the Fox News channel. Men, who at one time in their lives, revered their father’s ‘Greatest Generation, were now supporting the insurrection. McConnell, McCarthy, and Graham must have surely thought their words would carry the day, this was—after all—an insurrection. As the mob of supporters for the insurrectionists grew, they found their martyr, Ashli Babbitt. As the terrorists' voices get louder the more the GOP’s leadership knees buckle.
I can only imagine how their switchboards, emails, and tweets lit up with angry Trumpians calling for the heads of Mitch, Kevin, and Lindsey with the same frightening tones of HANG MIKE PENCE and the echoing chant of NANCY as the marauders roamed the hallways of the Capitol, with a noose waiting outside, just yards away. The chaos this invasion of American democracy has wrought are; bassackward audits, denials of the obvious, and the emergence of Fascism. Despite it all, Republicans soldier on, fighting hard to see who can be first to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
With all the turmoil, what scares me most is the retreat the country is making into blatant racism, buttressed by the return of Jim Crow voting laws. The best way to stop equity is to deny it. White southerners can no longer hide behind grandfather clauses or the counting of jelly beans in a jar, so why not just do it in the open. GOP legislators are going after the huge voting bloc of the black elderly, outlawing souls to the polls; denying food and water, and easier access for the working poor and the handicapped by restricting vote-by-mail. Eight million more Americans voted for Joe Biden in the last presidential election we need those souls in the streets to march on Congress. By the way, see you tonight Chris.
Continue to Vote for Change.
