Is Irony Dead?

Congressman James Comer Jr. (R-KY) is the current ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. In January, when the 118^th Congress is seated, he is set to become the Chairman of the committee when Republicans take control of the House. The proposed new Chair of the Oversight Committee has already railed against corruption, tax evasion, and nepotism in the Biden administration. President Trump’s son-in-law and Secretary of Everything, Jared Kushner, retreated to 666 Park Avenue with two-billion dollars in Saudi money. His daughter and adviser Ivanka procured, at last count, 34 Chinese product patents for her businesses, to which Comer was silent but wants to go after Hunter Biden.

For the Thanksgiving holiday, former President Barack Obama has served meals to the homeless, veterans, and children on Thanksgiving(s). Current President Joe Biden and the First Lady helped serve meals to 350 members of the military and their families at the Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, near the North Carolina coast, last Monday. For his part—last week, former President Trump issued a self-serving statement about his mounting legal problems and enjoyed a meal with an anti-Semite, Ye, and raving racist, xenophobe, and white nationalist Nick Fuentes; but let us not let a little thing like racism or anti-Semitism sway evangelicals from supporting Trumpism.

Race has infected the evangelical movement

Writer Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove reported in 2018 that 82 % of white evangelicals supported Donald Trump. The gist of Mr. Hartgroves’s article was how for evangelicals, the “imperfect human” is the messenger of God. The message of the “imperfect” vessel was also used to excuse slavery and Jim Crow.

“Southern preachers told their people that God was redeeming them from Northern aggression and “Negro rule” when President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal troops from the South in 1877. By 1896, “separate but equal” was the law of the land. A celebrated preacher of the early 20th century, Thomas Dixon, wrote a bestselling novel glorifying the Ku Klux Klan as champions of morality,” wrote Hartgrove.

Franklin Graham[son and heir to Rev. Billy Graham] and Tony Perkins[President of the Family Research Council] questioned former President Obama’s bona-fides as a Christian. Franklin questioned Obama’s Christianity and asked, “You have to go by what a person says and how they live their life and where they go to church. Are they faithful church-goers? Or do they just go when the cameras are on them?” Without a bit of irony, he went on to endorse Donald Trump.

Rep. Comer told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd Sunday that more resources dedicated to mental health are needed to thwart mass shootings. Again, the dripping irony is that every  Republican, except Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), voted against funding school mental health services. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, currently vying to be the Speaker of the House, said after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting that there should be a funding influx “focusing on mental health” in response to the shooting. McCarthy then voted against the bill. If irony were a political party, it would be wearing a MAGA hat.

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