Photo from New York Magazine.
This is icing on top of the icing on top of the icing...
You get the idea. There is more icing here than the cake.
The current vintage of the former Party of Lincoln whether you want to call them MAGA-Trumpist Republicans or the White Nationalist Party or the White Christian Nationalist Party or the American Fascist/Nazi one never ceases to depress and nauseate the great majority of the American People.
Most of them in Arizona and across the country have spent the last several years advancing policies designed to create a Mussolini-Putin-styled fascist-autocratic-theocratic-Handmaids Tale order in this country based on promoting minority scapegoating, xenophobia, lies, disinformation, repression of women, and scientific/historical/cultural illiteracy.
Of course, the most glaring examples of this movement are the twice KKK endorsed, twice impeached, twice popular vote loser, twice indicted, sexually abusing, former Liar in Chief who despite being found to be liable for sexual assault and defamation of character, still wowed a friendly audience of brainwashed sycophants at a CNN townhall earlier this week.
Readers should ask which was more troubling. The former occupant of the Oval Office continued to spout off his big lies after big lies or the audience members who responded favorably to it without question.
Then there is the current governor of Florida whose war on history textbooks and Disneyworld because the Mouse dared to promote protections for the LGBTQ community.
Unfortunately for the country, there are almost daily examples of how out of the mainstream the former Party of Lincoln has become.
For example, take the recent comments on white nationalists in the military from Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, the individual holding up over 200 military promotions and assignments in the Senate (including the fifth fleet and N.A.T.O. command) because the leaders at the Pentagon support their personnel's rights to reproductive freedom.
On two occasions when asked about whether white nationalists should be in the military, the former college football coach replied to the question by stating:
“Well, they call them that. I call them Americans."
“You think a white nationalist is a Nazi? I don’t look at it like that. I look at a white nationalist as a Trump Republican. That’s what we’re called all the time, a MAGA person.”
So in Tuberville's worldview, white nationalism is not Nazism. It is normal and mainstream.
That is truly scary.
Commenting on Tuberville's remarks, Matt Grodsky from Matters of State Strategies, offered:
"I have ancestors who fought for the United States in the Revolutionary War, family who were marines in World War 1, and grandparents that served in World War Two. This rhetoric from the Senator is disgusting and a slap in the face to our servicemen and women who sacrifice everything to defend our country from threats abroad and within. We wouldn't let members of Al Qaeda into our military, so why would we let other violent extremists in? Aspiring domestic terrorists should not be allowed to serve in our armed forces. White nationalists and pro-insurrectionists don't represent the United States any more than Confederate soldiers did."
Then there is the theocratic-favoring Texas State Senate that just passed constitutionally questionable legislation requiring every school classroom to post the Ten Commandments.
The Senate has also passed a bill allowing students and staff to pray on public school grounds.
They also passed a measure that would allow schools to replace guidance counselors with chaplains if they want.
Will these chaplains represent all denominations or just Christians?
Should we call the Lone Star State the Holy Lone Star State?
Another recent example of the former Party of Lincoln going on off the right wing deep end is the war Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt is waging on Big Bird and other programming on the local PBS stations across the state by vetoing a funding bill that would subsidize the channel.
His reasoning.
Sesame Street and the other shows on PBS, he told Fox I just lost $800 million dollars News promotes “indoctrination and over-sexualization of our children...It doesn’t line up with Oklahoma values.”
That the PBS station is also the statewide media source for tornado and other disaster alerts did not factor into Stitt's political calculations.
Commenting on what leaders in Texas and Oklahoma are doing, Grodsky relayed:
"It is the reddest of meat for the radical right in both of these cases and it is intended to be a distraction. Democrats need to continue to articulate that they are the only serious governing party in the country. I will just add that Texas should remember commandment number 6 and focus on keeping their students from being shot in schools instead of inserting unnecessary theology into the classroom. Democrats would be wise to message on the juxtaposition of those two ideas."
Grodsky is right.
These MAGA-Trump-White Christian Nationalist-Fascist-Hand Maid Tale Fanatical Republicans are giving the people reasons practically every day in Arizona and across the country to not vote for them.
Democrats from the federal to state to local levels would be wise to continually pounce on that because despite what alternate reality delusions these fringe right-wingers have, the great majority of the people are not with them.
It is not too late to start voter registration efforts for 2023 and 2024 now and stress the importance of turning out to the polls.
The soul and Democratic-Republic state of the country is at stake.
No comments:
Post a Comment