The Good, The Bad, and The Ugliest
Not since, Tuco, Blondie, and Angel Eyes formed a triangle, within a circle, has greed, corruption, and self-interest intersected so destructively. Politics in America, for nearly 250 years has boiled down to money, policy, and humanitarianism in that order. Now it is strictly a good, bad, or ugly proposition. In the ensuing days following the 9/11 attacks, Republicans and misguided Democrats followed former President George W. Bush into the abyss, save one, [Rep. Barbara Lee]. “We must be careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target,” Lee’s prescience was ignored. When three thousand people perished in the attacks on the Twin Towers, Democrats did a good thing and did not rush to microphones to call for the resignation or impeachment of the President.
They cheered Bush’s pitch to America and at a baseball game for strikes. Republicans celebrated a ‘Mission Accomplished’ moment and continued to defend Bush's bad policy despite the deaths of thousands of more soldiers. The current President, despite masterminding the most successful post-war evacuation (120,000 as of this writing) in American history and presiding over the returned remains of 13 service members while battling the ugliest right-wing, hackneyed lies, about not attending the return of their bodies from Afghanistan. Both Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden clumsily reversed themselves on their support of the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Senator Lindsey Graham whose commitment and loyalty to a friend [John McCain] and integrity resembles the wind-twisting weather vane on a barn, called for another former friend, President Joe Biden, to send more troops and resign or face impeachment, the ugliness continues.
Amazingly, the former President who directly presided over at least 550,000 dead with his mishandling and downright stupidity in his conduct amidst the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is a right-wing hero. Increasingly, in the GOP, the idea of humanitarianism has become a far-fetched notion, giving way to accusations of weakness or an invitation to brown and black invaders. I have watched the dry crocodile tears from the same GOP who on TV and in print say over and over, how can Biden abandon our Afghani partners, scare their voters every election season with warnings of beware of rape and murder committed by immigrants in “sanctuary cities.” Politics and power have so taken over the Republican party they rarely, if ever, listen to their own statements or answers to questions. In the quest to pull the wool over their voters accepting eyes and ears; contradiction has become the coin of the realm.
One example is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). McCarthy lambasted Mr. Biden for his management of the pullout from Afghanistan, ‘He turned his back on our own citizens stranded in Afghanistan, he's turned his back on our allies and partners, he's turned his back on his duties as a Commander-in-Chief.' Mr. McCarthy should have thought of that before he [McCarthy] repeatedly turned his back on the 140 or so injured and dead Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers who put themselves in harm’s way to defend his life and our democracy on January 6.
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