During my recent absence from this blog, I’ve been regularly asked why I haven’t weighed in on numerous issues. I do sincerely appreciate that others might be interested in my humble thoughts – and I hope that this long post doesn’t negate that interest.
While I am certainly capable of unadulterated rants, I do prefer to present well-constructed opinions that consider alternative points of view. I don’t claim to have all of the answers and I enjoy examining reasoned positions that are different from my own.
But here’s my problem. It has become nigh impossible for me to identify any sanity whatsoever within a cacophony of crap from Republican politicians who, presumably, represent a large majority of Republicans. There aren’t many alternative positions for me to consider; there are mostly manifestations of stupidity, bigotry, overreach, and ultra-partisanship.
If you think I’m over-reacting, consider the VERY abbreviated list below. Each of these topics are worthy of separate blog posts and, in fact, several started out as such. However, these paragraph summaries are hopefully a tad more readable than the series of individual rants that I’ve been drafting.
State Governments
Let’s start at the state level, where numerous GOP politicians are in heavy competition for Most Egregious Abandonment of Common Sense and Common Decency. There is so much to choose from that I’m forced to cherry-pick just a few examples from just a few states – all of whom are gleefully poaching idiotic ideas from each other.
Texas
After an Austin jury listened to 40 witnesses and deliberated for 15 hours, they unanimously voted to convict an Army sergeant of the murder of a Black Lives Matter protester. Less than one day later, without reviewing the trial transcripts, without consulting the family of the murder victim, and without even waiting for sentencing, Gov. Abbott (R-TX) announced that he would pardon the convicted killer “as swiftly as Texas law allows.” Had Abbott bothered to do just a wee bit of research, he would have found that the killer stated on social media prior to the event that “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work” – which is about as clear an indication of pre-meditation as is possible – and even predicted that he could get away with it by claiming self-defense. But Abbott wanted to stick it to the Democratic DA in Austin while pandering to his gun-happy GOP base. The law and due process be damned.
Fully supported by the GOP-controlled state legislature, Texas had the most attempts of any state last year to ban books in public schools and libraries – ‘cause, yeah, book bans are always a sign of a vibrant democracy. Go Texas!
While the Texas House has yet to weigh in on these bills, the Texas Senate has been quite busy this session passing legislation…
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- … requiring that the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in every public-school classroom and that time be set aside each day for students to pray and read the Bible (supplied with taxpayer money). Even Baptist organizations have objected, saying that parents, not public schools, should be responsible for the religious education of their children. But no. The Texas GOP knows best.
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- … imposing a $10,000 fine on business owners who host drag shows that children might attend. Legislating the boundaries of art is dangerous at best and is particularly impractical with respect to art that includes a cross-dressing component. A straight reading (pun intended) of this purposefully vague bill could reasonably ban stage productions of As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Movies such as Mrs. Doubtfire, Some Like It Hot, White Christmas, and South Pacific could be banned. Productions of Peter Pan with a female Peter (think Cathy Rigby, Sandy Duncan, & Mary Martin) could be banned. The Tony-award winning musicals La Cage Aux Folles and Hedwig and the Angry Inch would most certainly be banned. Pride parades could be largely illegal. For a political party that purports to champion parents’ rights, giving the government the power to randomly decide what instances of art are appropriate for their children is remarkably indefensible.
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- … requiring state universities to close their DEI offices – presumably because words like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are anathema to Republican politics.
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- … barring state universities from granting tenure to newly hired professors. This bill is in direct response to a group of professors at the University of Texas who publicly defended their academic freedom and their ability to teach such radical concepts as racial justice. While the faculty tenure system may have some flaws, there are already mechanisms in place that can hold tenured professors accountable for egregious conduct. An elimination of tenure will completely kneecap Texas universities in their efforts to attract top research talent. However, the Texas GOP is only interested in offering an education that reflects their own distorted worldview.
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Tennessee
In response to a school shooting in Nashville that left six people dead, three Democratic Representatives staged a small rally on the floor of the Tennessee House in support of stricter gun controls. The TN House, controlled by Republicans, had zero interest in that discussion and the three Representatives were indeed disruptive – implying that some punishment was likely appropriate. However, in a major over-reaction, Republicans voted along party lines to expel two of the three from the legislature – an action taken only twice since the Civil War and each time with overwhelming bipartisan support. Even more cringeworthy was the fact that the two expelled Representatives were young Black men; the one not expelled was an older White woman. The action left around 140,000 TN residents unrepresented in districts with overwhelmingly minority populations. Ouch. The GOP couldn’t have been more obvious if they’d been wearing sheets. Both men were fairly quickly restored to their jobs on a temporary basis by their local governments and both will most assuredly win the new elections that are now required by law. Thus, the GOP did nothing except embarrass themselves and cost TN taxpayers about $2.4M to conduct four elections (at about $600K each for two primary elections and two general elections). Nice job, guys!
Kansas
Kansas Republicans passed an extremely aggressive law banning transgender girls and women from any participation in kindergarten through college sports across the state. Enforcement of the law allows for “sports physicals” to be conducted, presumably to allow state-sanctioned genital inspections of children. While a grand total of three trans girls in Kansas have participated in school sports this year, the state legislature for some reason felt that this issue couldn’t be left in the hands of local school boards who could best assess individual cases within their own communities.
[As an aside, here’s a fun fact: The ACLU is currently tracking a whopping 469 anti-LGBTQ bills making their way through various state legislatures. While we can’t even talk about gun violence, we apparently have plenty of time to care about someone else’s sex life.]
Michigan
State Senate Republicans in Michigan recently voted against the repeal of a 1931 state law that bars an unmarried couple from living together. Pope Francis encourages marriage but doesn’t demand it; the MI GOP, however, knows exactly how everyone should choose to live.
The state’s GOP chair has still not conceded her 2022 election loss for Secretary of State (she lost by 14 points), has compared Democrats to Nazis for their gun control efforts, has accused the media of being Nazis for promoting the mass killing of Republicans, has equated LGBTQ acceptance with pedophilia, and has claimed that Beyoncé is secretly recruiting Black Americans to Paganism through her music. Just to repeat: This is the Republican party leader in Michigan.
Mississippi
The GOP-controlled Mississippi legislature just expanded the Capitol Complex Improvement District in Jackson and increased the state’s control over the district, creating its own police force and its own court system with judges and attorneys appointed by the Republican state chief justice. The problem is that the CCID is not just the Capitol grounds. It also includes Jackson State University, Millsaps College, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Mississippi School for the Deaf, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, LeFleur’s Bluff State Park, the downtown area, many surrounding neighborhoods, and busy shopping and entertainment areas. In short, it’s a rather large part of Jackson and, completely coincidentally, it’s where 85% of Jackson’s White population lives. It might also be worth noting that more than 80% of Jackson residents are Black and 25% of residents live below the poverty line. But, you know, the affluent White folks will be just fine now. So, we’re good. Right?
Florida
Not to be outdone by Texas, Gov. DeSantis (R-FL) not only announced similar wars on DEI programs and tenure at state universities, but also decided that it was his job to rewrite history itself. Claiming without explanation that it was inaccurate, DeSantis blocked an Advanced Placement history course on African American studies. The AP board caved and revised the course to suit DeSantis. DeSantis also went on a rampage against teaching critical race theory – a college-level concept that examines systemic racism in our legal systems and national policies – that no one was teaching. He also objected to math textbooks that he claimed taught “woke math”. You just can’t make this shit up. Instead, DeSantis wants Florida schools to teach white-washed American exceptionalism. Seems to me that if you have to teach someone that you’re exceptional, you’re probably not.
Despite the fact that the Disney Coproration is the largest taxpayer in Florida, DeSantis set out to punish the company after an executive voiced an objection to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. That bill banned anything that DeSantis considered “woke” – such as the mere mention of LGBTQ individuals – in Florida schools. DeSantis loudly claimed victory over Disney by taking control of the company’s self-governed municipal district – which provides standard services such as power, water, roads, emergency services, etc. However, the day before the associated law was passed by the Florida legislature, the district’s existing board publicly and quite legally transferred most their relevant powers to the Disney corporation for the next 30 years. In essence, DeSantis got played. However, he graciously accepted his defeat in stride. … Yeah, right. DeSantis immediately began plotting petty revenge – such as threatening to build a state prison next to DisneyWorld. His hand-appointed Board of Sycophants also tried to void the prior board’s actions which, in turn, forced Disney to sue DeSantis in federal court. This will be very messy and very expensive for FL taxpayers – all because a Disney exec said something that DeSantis didn’t like. My advice, Ron? Don’t Mess with the Mouse.
DeSantis signed legislation to allow Florida residents to carry a loaded concealed weapon without a permit. In a departure from his usual public fanfare, DeSantis signed this bill in a quiet, non-public event – likely to avoid the optics of decreasing gun regulations in the immediate wake of more school shootings. The major issue here is that this was a solution to a non-problem. Florida’s concealed weapons permit program was among the most successful in the nation. This was purely a political stunt to score points with the far-right to the detriment of common sense.
Federal Courts
Clarence Thomas
For decades, Justice Thomas and his wife have taken extended luxury vacations across the globe – including high-end lodging, gourmet food, and travel on superyachts and private planes – all at the expense of billionaire Harlan Crow, a major GOP donor. While all federal employees are required to report gifts worth more than $480, Thomas failed to disclose any of his trips – some of which were worth in excess of $500,000! Crow also overpaid to buy Thomas’ Georgia home – where Thomas’ mother still lives. Thomas didn’t disclose that transaction, either. While Thomas rightfully claims that there’s an exception for “personal hospitality” from friends, he’s also well aware that Crow’s largess is laughably beyond that threshold. He just doesn’t care. And the GOP – who would be out for blood if Thomas wasn’t “their” justice – also doesn’t care.
Mifepristone
In a case that was court-shopped from Arizona to a specific Republican judge in Amarillo, Texas (with a long anti-abortion record), FDA approval of the abortion drug Mifepristone was overruled after being safely available for 23 years. Even the Supreme Court recognized the massive issues of that particular ruling related to standing, merit, separation of powers, etc. and, by a 5-2 vote, stayed the lower-court’s order and punted the case to the conservative 5th Circuit for further review. This, however, is most likely a temporary win. Despite their claims that states should have control over abortion rights, the far-right majority on the Supreme Court dearly wants to find an excuse to ban abortions nationwide. And there’s very little that anyone can do to stop them. Remember when Republicans were apoplectic about activist judges?
The Orange Guy
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a paragraph on the de-facto leader of the Republican party. His possible legal issues include 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in NYC, sexual assault in NYC, business fraud in New York state, election tampering in Georgia, possession of classified documents and obstruction of the related federal investigation, witness tampering, inciting a crowd to riot, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and aiding an insurrection. The GOP reaction? Direct Congressional interference in the NYC criminal case and discussions about a law to shield former Presidents (okay, really just one former President) from all legal actions. It’s tough to believe that some of these people actually went to law school.
Congress
Debt Ceiling Demands
I already weighed in on the debt ceiling crisis, but the latest news is a laughable proposal by the Republican leadership in the House. If Biden doesn’t agree to just toss out the budget that was passed by Congress last year and give the GOP everything it wants, they’ll tank the U.S. economy by refusing to pay debts that we’ve already incurred. And, by the way, if Biden does give in, stay tuned for a brand-new set of demands at the end of the year when the ceiling needs to be raised again. This is insane. Our economy is being held hostage by a handful of GOP firebrands who don’t give a damn about anything other than their follower counts and their own fundraising numbers.
Bombing Mexico
A truly alarming number of senior Republicans in Congress are championing the unilateral use of the United States military in Mexico, without the permission of the Mexican government, to attack drug cartels. Regardless of intent or merit, a military attack on another country is called war. No, this isn’t an SNL skit. The GOP seriously wants to invade Mexico.
Defunding Government
The same Republican party whose 2022 platform largely focused on wrongfully claiming that Democrats wanted to defund the police, now wants to defund the IRS, the FBI, and the DOJ – ‘cause they’ve been mean. Seriously.
Hold on All Military Promotions
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who has never served a day in the military, has been single-handedly blocking all senior military promotions for months – with almost 200 blocks as of this writing. Such promotions legally require Congressional approval, but they have never before been subject to political grandstanding. It seems Tuberville objects to the Pentagon covering travel costs for service members to obtain abortions and, until the Pentagon relents, he’s going to paralyze the United States military and put a ton of military families’ lives on hold. Regardless of how one feels about the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling, it says that abortion is now a state issue. However, our military personnel have zero control over where they and their families are stationed, and they should not be at the mercy of state laws that deprive them of rights they would have if their commanders had stationed them elsewhere. It’s that simple. This is just a political stunt impacting our nation’s military readiness.
The Congressional Clown Car
George Santos lied about where he went to high school, where he went to college, where he worked, where he got his money, to whom he was married, and his religion. He falsely claimed that his mother’s death was related to 9/11, that his grandmother was a Holocaust victim, that he was a Broadway producer, and that he founded an animal charity. He swindled a disabled vet. He performed as a drag queen. And yet, Santos is still in Congress. McCarthy needs his vote, so screw any pretense of ethics.
Marjorie Taylor Greene claims Democrats are the “party of pedophiles”, called Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas a “liar” in a House committee hearing, falsely accused Rep. Swalwell (D-CA.) of having sex with a Chinese spy – again in a House committee hearing, called out the “Democrat Communist Party” for deciding against holding primary debates in 2024 (disregarding the fact that the GOP similarly didn’t hold primary debates in 2020 and likely won’t in 2024), praised the leaker of U.S. intelligence documents, proposed a “national divorce” where red and blue states would form separate countries, loudly claimed credit for the $2.5B expansion of a solar panel production company in her district — made possible by tax incentives included in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that she voted against, etc. And yet, Greene is still in Congress. McCarthy needs her vote, so screw any pretense of decorum.
Lauren Boebert went on an extended rant in a House committee hearing about the decriminalization of public urination in Washington, D.C. (despite it not being decriminalized), accused Biden of shutting down schools during the pandemic (actually, the Orange Guy did that), backed calls for Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) to be removed from the House Intelligence Committee, calling both “conspiracy theorists” (despite her own promotion of numerous QAnon conspiracies), presented a map of the U.S. as where she wants her taxes spent (using a “map” that excluded Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and parts of Michigan), and claims “they’re coming for all of us” (no, we’re not). And yet, Boebert is still in Congress. McCarthy needs her vote, so screw any pretense of sanity.
Matt Gaetz just can’t stop embarrassing himself. The man inadvertently invited a Holocaust denier to be his guest at a State of the Union address. He once tweeted “How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, under-loved millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats, and no Bumble matches?” I won’t even try to parse that sexist tirade… except to note that Gaetz somehow thinks that “over-educated” is an insult. His latest? In an attempt to embarrass Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Gaetz entered into the Congressional Record a supporting report from the Global Times. Kahl, however, recognized the Global Times as a Chinese government outlet and replied, “As a general matter, I don’t take Beijing’s propaganda at face value.” That had to hurt. And yet, Gaetz is still in Congress. McCarthy needs his vote, so screw any pretense of propriety.
There’s a whole lot of other clowns in Congress. But I’m tired.
Bottom Line
Individually, all of the above are patently outrageous and address none of the many real issues facing our country.
Taken together, all of the above seem clearly indicative of a once-proud political party that is now completely out of control and irreversibly out of touch.
While I generally try to avoid labeling my own political preferences, there is one label that I now quite happily claim:
Anti-Republican