I don’t like this president.
I can’t say aloud the things I write in my journal or mutter or scream at the four walls when only the dog is around. I hope my neighbors can’t hear me, but I can’t say for sure.
I try never to write his name because his name is what he banks on. Taken in vain or not, it doesn’t matter to him. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, they say. He’s counting on laughing all the way to the bank when all is said and done. For better or for worse.
But my enmity toward him pales in comparison to my enmity toward those who have propped him up. And those who made him ‘possible’ to begin with. He is the symptom, not the disease. And, though I am happy to poke fun at some of his more clueless supporters, I am talking about the millions of conservatives who have generous IQs, stable incomes and ethics.
As another tired, modern-day expression goes, “I am old enough to remember when conservative politicians throughout the land mocked him.” As well they should. He steadily lowered the political bar with every campaign rally prior to the 2016 election. With every debate performance. With every public interview.
If he wasn’t castigating every immigrant and calling them bloodthirsty murderers and rapists, he was mocking a disabled journalist. If he wasn’t leading chants of “Lock her up!”, he was inciting his congregants to turn on the “lamestream” media.
I hold conservatism responsible for our having to deal with this incompetent jackass. This belligerent blowhard with logorrhea.
I am old enough to remember when he belittled Ted Cruz’s wife. I am even old enough to remember when Ted Cruz gave a speech at the Republican convention and refused to use the man’s name.
I am old enough to remember when Paul Ryan swore he would not support or vote for the man. This is Paul Ryan former Speaker of the House - before Nancy Pelosi - for those of you on the political margins. A conservative politician from Wisconsin with an inside track to an eventual White House run. (At least Paul Ryan had the good sense to cut-and-run after he lost the Speaker position, though I am not giving him any credit beyond that. He’s taken his grift to Fox News.)
This all made sense at the time. Real conservatives or, at least, conservatives who were willing to play ball on a level playing field, could never in good conscience support the demagoguery the man displayed at every campaign stop. You may not remember the summer of 2016 but there was good reason to think enough ‘thinking’ conservatives might stay home.
I am old enough to remember a phone call from my sister’s conservative ex-husband and listening to him agree with me that the man held no redeeming qualities. I mean, if you liked to align yourself with bellicosity, misogyny and white nationalism, well then, by all means, toot his horn. I remember that phone call giving me a glimmer of hope.
These are the people who, in the end, said, “Fuck it”. We want to win. We know this guy is psychotic but we want the reins to do anything we want whenever we want. Ransack the government. Repeal regulations. Appoint judges. Rollback time.
They decided a man who would lie about the dumbest of things, like the number of stories in a building, or who was fine promoting a scam, like an online university, might be a ticking time bomb, but it would be their ticking time bomb. And, in the meantime, America would be Open for Business like it has never been open for business.
Just a few weeks before the election in 2016, Speaker Ryan caved in and urged his legion of supporters to throw their weight behind the bombastic reality television personality with an Adderall addiction and a propensity for women other than his current wife. This may seem like a trite observation but Speaker Ryan was talking not just to his Wisconsin constituents, but to every conservative lawmaker in the House. He was saying it was okay to come out and support a man who kept the Obama ‘birther conspiracy’ aflame for nearly a decade.
Just today I saw an Op-Ed in the Washington Post by Jeff Flake, former conservative Senator from Arizona, who decent, thinking people praised for his - very occasional - speaking out against the insanity of the current administration. I didn’t read it but the title indicated it was a plea that this administration did not represent conservatism and that conservatism would rise again. Shed the stench of ignorance and belligerence and indifference that has been cultivated over the past four years.
I’m sorry. That ship has sailed. In fact, it is beyond the earth’s curvature and out of sight.
Every prominent conservative who holds political office in DC chose to follow the orange-faced windbag, who is now partially responsible for as many deaths as America had during the Vietnam War, due to his bungling of the federal response to the ongoing pandemic. Those conservative legislators - for whatever incomprehensible or inane or illegal reason - chose to follow him up this hill and, by god, if I have anything to do with it, they’re going to die on it.
That’s a figure of speech, by the way.
Not a call to arms.
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If you are a Twitter user - and I do not blame you if you are not - I highly recommend you follow @Teri_Kanefield
Her “threads” on historical perspectives are every bit as good as the daily briefings you get from Heather Cox Richardson. Highly recommended.
Also, a reminder not to forget to keep up with John Krasinski’s Some Good News news channel on YouTube. Breezy, self-deprecating and star-studded. I will not be surprised if this is what he will be remembered for when all is said and done.