Sometimes I have this strange moment where something in the news annoys the hell out of me and then I open First Draft and there’s a post about it. Today, Adrastos brought up something that also annoyed the hell out of me: the media and elected officials treating Shelled Aquatic Reptile Mitch McConnell as if he were Jesus H. Christ Himself for doing the bare minimum, not voting for dangerously bad cabinet nominees.
It’s a very sad statement about the moment that we lionize a Republican for simply being an American, especially given McConnell was the final transition to Trumpism. More about why I said that in a second. First I want to go back to the days of Reagan.
Ronald Reagan’s legacy unfortunately has survived him by several decades. His legacy has helped create the environment that is enabling Trumpism. One example is garbage like this quote:
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
Reagan convinced Americans, not just Republicans, that government was inefficient, corrupt, and downright dangerous. There really are government bodies that work well, such as the National Weather Service, regulatory agencies like the EPA, the national parks system, etc. But Reagan did such a good job of demonizing them, the idea that all government employees are lazy incompetent bureaucrats stuck and became part of conventional (not so) wisdom.
So there are likely people out there right now not really paying much attention who think what Trump is doing is good. Or voted for him because of his talk of cutting “waste.” Even might be looking at what Elon is doing and not feeling alarmed because they think he’s fighting government waste and not just looting the federal coffers.
Another Reagan accomplishment was making people hate taxes, even taxes on the wealthy. Trump ran on cutting taxes as well, likely appealing to “centrists” who drank the Reagan Kool-Aid but would never consider themselves even to be conservatives.
Reagan also helped to turn the Republican Party into a racist organization. He started using coded language like “welfare queens” in the 1960s as a governor and even kicked off his post-GOP convention campaign in 1980 by giving a speech on states’ rights, a popular subject for racists, near the location where three civil rights workers were murdered by the KKK.
These seeds for Trumpism were planted then. We were sent on a path. There was Newt Gingerich’s Contract On, I mean, WITH, America; Pat Buchanan’s open fascism; the 2000 election and the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision that was the first blow against democracy; the ridiculous Iraq War and becoming a Nation That Tortures; Obama’s election and the rise of the proto-Trumpist Tea Party; and full circle, we come back to Mitch McConnell.
When McConnell refused to give Merrick Garland any hearing at the end of Obama’s second term, he didn’t break any rules. Well, didn’t break WRITTEN rules. But what he did was steamroll gentleperson’s agreements and mores. He opened the door to a dark place where respect and ethics no longer mattered, and Trump jumped right in.
So, the hosannas and love given to McConnell this week for voting against the crap he helped create is quite rich. He was one of the Republican figures who drove the party down the dark road to where it is now, taking us all along for one nightmare of a ride.
So, the tl;dr is fuck the Turtle.
The last word goes to Sturgell Simpson.
