I stole today’s hed from one of my fave books, written by the dude pixed below. Sure, call me egotistical for thinking anything related to E. could possibly be applied to me but, remember, flamboyant egotism is usually a surefire sign that the crower in question really is — in his or her own mind — a schlub.
▼
Donnelly The Devil
Indiana Democratic US Senator Joe Donnelly has announced his support for President Gag’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Leaving aside the issue of how the Republicans fked the tearfully lamented B. Obama when he did his Constitutional duty by nominating a warm body to fill the Court vacancy that occurred during his, the ex-P’s, term, it seems the righteous Left is now madder at the likes of Sen. Donnelly than they are at the crass, repulsive greed monkey who won the November election on a technicality and then was able to nominate Gorsuch.
Our town’s own designated fk-ee, Dawn Johnsen (she was stymied by the GOP when BHO nom’ed her to be head of the Office of Legal Counsel back in 2009) has leapt to Donnelly’s defense and I applaud her for it.
A lot of the heated rhetoric in the wake of Donnelly’s announcement has to do with red-asses being so fed up with the Dems and “traitors” like the IN Sen. that they’re washing their hands of the party. Lot’s o’folks are jumping on the “Independent” bandwagon which is not a party but really just a foot-stomping.
Benedict Arn.., Er, Joe Donnelly
●
Johnsen cautions that heretofore Democrats cannot abandon Donnelly over this issue because the party just might have a shot at reclaiming the Senate in 2018 or 2020. The Maurer School of Law prof. points out that Donnelly usually votes along liberal or progressive (or how the hell ever you want to characterize my side of the fence) lines. Just because he’s backing this guy doesn’t mean y’all should throw out the baby with the Trump Vodka.
So here we go with the purity bullshit again. Dang, mang, I’d hate to be involved in an intimate relationship w/ some of these purists. One misstep and I’d be out on my ample post-side.
And, again, let’s look to the Republicans themselves to see how a pragmatic party works. Really, precious few GOP-ers actually like L’il Duce. Not now nor when he was running for their party’s nom. He agrees with the Right-ists maybe 75 percent of the time, if that. But once he got the nod, they fell in behind him like a bunch of privates and, mirabile dictu, look who’s president now and look who’s gutting social services, cultural initiatives, environmental protections, the State Dept., women’s sexual and reproductive options, and everything other goddamned thing we hold near and dear.
Personal to the purists: Stick your purity up your own post-sides, ample or otherwise.
▼
Scaredy-cats
The Right, the Republicans, the conservatives — they may not constitute a monolith as such but they have a lot in common w/ each other. A hell of a lot more than they have in common w/ me, thank the god I don’t believe in.
While it’s often unwise to paint people with broad brush strokes, such sploshing almost as often results in a pretty accurate picture. It’s no slander for me to assert that those on the Right harbor scads of fears: of the black hordes plotting to invade middle class suburbia, of the wild-eyed Muslims building atom bombs in their mosques, of trannies scheming to rape 13-year-old blondes in women’s rest rooms, of schoolteachers with their mind control techniques, of commie college profs, of, for chrissakes, everybody who is not, well, them.
Terrifying!
●
Fear drives them.
But don’t get cocky. Fear drives the Dems, the Left, the progressives, the sane, the good, the decent…, y’know, us, as well. We’re scared as bunnies of the opposition. It’s as though if we should happen to displease them, they’ll cut off our allowance, ground us, maybe even spank us. That’s because we really do see the Republicans and the Right as parents. Mean ones.
Look take for example the aforementioned Neil Gorsuch. He is championed by the GOP and assorted allies to the hilt. This despite the fact that he belongs to an awfully liberal church. In fact, Gorsuch’s pastor actually participated in the Women’s March on Washington back in January.
Imagine that!
Had it been revealed that Barack Obama’s pastor put on comfortable shoes and picked up a protest placard, his opposition would have screamed bloody murder and we — Obama included — would have panted, wrung our hands, and swore to high heaven that he and we would never, ever in a million years have anything to do with such a crazed terrorist.
Op/eds and wits and wags would have navel-gazed for weeks after the revelation, advising and counseling the party to disassociate itself from any future embarrassment of a similar nature. For pity’s sake, when John Kerry was libeled by the Swift Boaters, he cowered in a corner rather than appearing on national television, raising his trousers leg and rolling up his shirt sleeve, and pointing at the jagged scars caused by enemy shrapnel.
A Republican would have.
I like next to nothing about today’s Republican way of looking at things. I do like their go-to-hell attitude when they’re pushed against the wall, though.
▲