Such is the label Liz Cheney ascribed to legislators of her own party voters send to Congress and state legislatures. Idiots. I extend that same label to the Republican voters who sent them there. Idiots. I add it also to some of the sorry crop of present Republican presidential candidates and will add two Democratic candidates to the list of idiots, namely Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of Bobby Kennedy who ran for president in 1968 until he was gunned down, and Marianne Williamson whose only motive is one of ego and advancing her brand. And of course, I will include, without doubt, the present murder of conservative crows on our Supreme Court, who are in the process of setting back our country some 100 years or so.
Only one candidate, though not perfect, stands out as decidedly not an idiot: Joe Biden, our current president who has done an admirable job in his first term, particularly given all the GOP obstruction. Biden has put our economy back on track, has realigned us with our allies, and has reasserted our dedication to democracy after Trump and his Republican puppets Putinized and Orbanized it.
Now the GOP, growing ever more desperate for independent voters are pushing a specious narrative that climate change is a hoax, perpetrated by the Democrats in order to advance Biden’s agenda. The only hoax is the Republican agenda itself, of which I go back to an old TV commercial and ask, “Where’s the beef?”
The idiots who comprise most of the Republican Party are prime examples of the Buddha’s characterization of what drives most unenlightened, aka unwoke, human beings: greed, hatred, and delusion. And I will add power to that witches brew. Their concerted campaign against LGBTQ people is despicable, as are their attacks on same sex marriage, a woman’s right to make decisions around her own body, the constitutionally guaranteed rights of trans-gender people, and the rights of government agencies to regulate practices that affect worker’s health, environmental integrity, and food and drug safety. The rights for all of us to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (including our children in classrooms). The present manifestation of the MAGA GOP, cares not for the welfare of our people, our economy, our health, and the health of our beautiful and fragile planet.
So what’s to be done about this idiocracy? Obviously we need to vote the idiots out. We need to donate campaign funds to candidates who care more about the country’s and the planet’s well being than their own portfolios of power. As for the Supreme Court, I suggest President Biden in his second term, assuming he is reelected and the Democrats keep control of the Senate and regain control of the House, add four more justices–all, without shame, dyed-in-the-wool liberals–bringing the total to 13.
All of the above will help right the ship. Without haste, Trump needs to be tried and convicted and jailed, removing this creepy clown from the political scene once and for all. The DOJ needs to declare white supremacy groups terrorist organizations. We need to enact common sense gun regulations. Ukraine even be more heavily armed in its brave battle with Russia and needs to be admitted to NATO, so NATO can enter into the war. If we had NATO in 1939, Germany would’ve have been stopped at its border with Poland, the Holocaust would never have happened, and the lives of countless soldiers (and civilians), who today would be bouncing their grandchildren on their knees, would have been spared.
And one more thing: With its racist history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, relatively recent lynchings, discriminatory practices, immigration injustices, and confiscation of indigenous lands, America needs to come to terms with the effects of this history on present day citizens and figure out how to compensate them for our blatant injustices and cruelties. We have people of great intelligence, great compassion, great understanding, and a great realization that “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” We also, to a person, regardless of color, creed, or content of character would agree with the ancient axiom to treat others as we would like to be treated. With the will and the way, we can determine what reparations mean in the 2020s.
Stay awake, woke, and alert, y’all. Don’t let the bastards and the idiots get you down. We can stop these cultists from taking over our great country.
As usual you are right target. Keep it going my dear brother.
Thank you, my dear brother. I will indeed, even if my voice is among the last, keep it going.
I respectfully submit that it is to our peril to dismiss all those on the craven right wing as idiots, leaders and followers alike.
Within any population group there has always been percentage of psychopaths, some commit murder, others are just generally terrible people, the narcissistic brand of psychopath is particularly successful in the corporate and political world. They have demonstrated they will say and do anything to get more money, power and adulation. They will never have enough. They cannot feel empathy, they’ve made it fashionable to be disdainful of the weak causing their worshipers to emulate them, creating a level of cruelty that gets woven into our politics and our economy.
Perhaps the people who follow the psychopathic narcissists that run the horrific right wing are not so much idiots as they are empty and angry. Ironically, when left to their own fears and prejudices they become the class of people that Stalin referred to as “useful idiots”, something no human is immune from becoming if left in a crowd of fearful people.
Yes, the term idiot does not come close to depicting the calumny these people represent. But I hesitate to use terms like psychopaths and psychotics since I worked for 35 or so years with such people who were diagnosed as such and found most to be decent people who were caught in a web of societal stigma and mistreatment. They, as opposed to this crop of right wing traitors, were not evil. Trump and his cronies are deeply evil human beings caring nothing about this country, only seeking power and wealth with their ends justifying any means. I used the word idiot because Liz Cheney used it and wanted to somehow back her and her valiant efforts to oppose those extremists on the right. But overall, I agree with you: the word doesn’t come close to describing the actions of these cretins.
Thanks for your astute comments.
Thanks for your reply Stephen. I will never want to denigrate those with mental illness that are trying to do their best with a terrible illness such as those you worked with. My use of the term psychopath is partly informed by the work of Jon Ronson in his book the Psychopath Test. Case in point is Ronson’s interview with retired Sunbeam CEO Al Dunlap. Another motivator for perhaps improperly using the term psychopath is wanting to not make light of how malevolent these people are, perhaps narcissistic sociopath is closer to the mark.
Anyway, interesting times we live in, lots of work ahead.
All the best.
Mike