Think of Trumpism as a poison, and the body politic as, well, a body.
I am feeling optimistic that the poison this body has taken won't kill us. That the body is slowly expelling the poison from its system.
Case in point: The 6th district Congressional race in Texas.
Another case in point: Mitch McConnell voting in favor of taking up the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
McConnell may want a nice new bridge in Kentucky with his name on it but, who cares? The point is solely that Trump put out a statement saying the Republicans should resist any infrastructure bill until after the 2022 elections, and McConnell defied him.
McConnell has been the embodiment of the remaining Trumpist poison in the system since his master's slinking departure on January 20th. Now he may be showing some independence of thought.
Heck, in a world in which Dick Cheney's little girl can sound like the Voice of Reason: bars are all set pretty low.
I read somewhere the suggestion that McConnell went along with the infrastructure bill in order to enable Manchin and Synema to continue to say that Democrats don't need to repeal the filibuster because, see, Republicans cooperate with us.
ReplyDeleteI probably don't need to add that McConnell will tell the Republicans not to cooperate with the voting rights bills or perhaps any other Democratic proposals before the 2022 elections. And, because of the infrastructure bill, that will be fine with Manchin and Synema.
DeleteWe took a draught of cyanide (Biden) to cure our tummy ache from eating food that was too spicy (Trump).
ReplyDeleteWe deserve what we're getting.
McConnell is a denizen of the swamp and was never on Trump's side. McConnell is on McConnell's side. Anything good we get out of him is just coincidence.
McConnell was definitely on Trump's side in terms of getting him as many Supreme Court appointments as possible. Professing up and down in 2016 that it was a sacred principle that the Senate should not EVEN hold hearings on a new appointee during a Presidential election year until the election was over, and ignoring that supposed principle four years later, when the vacancy occurred much closer to the election. This was not about principle. It was about giving Trump as many appointees as they could, simply because they had the power. (And yes, the world "kept the tape" as the Trumpets asked it to, so we all know the depth of the two-facedness.)
DeleteThe poison here is not spicy food. The poison is autocracy. Trump didn't believe and still doesn't believe in the legitimacy of any authority other than the voices in his own head. So long as that was also good for McConnell, McConnell went along. But the notion that electing a President is the election of a dictator for four years, someone who has no further restraint on his power, legislative, judicial, statutory, constitutional, or diplomatic -- THAT is the Trumpist poison.
I have no admiration for President Biden. And yes, the Hunter Biden situation sounds like an ugly case of crony capitalism -- a foreign power gave an American with no evident qualifications an important post simply to curry favor with an important American family. As if they were in the provinces of an Empire paying tribute to the imperial center. I'm against exacting such tributes. BUT, in this case I think the Hunter Biden nastiness is part of the cost of getting the much more catastrophic poison out of out system.
Oh yes, and the pillow guy seemed to think today was going to be restoration day. How's that going for him?