The Republican Ministry of Silly Talk…
Silly Talk
John Cleese’s sketch depicting the inefficiencies and absurdity of bureaucracies was satire of low order that skewered followers of a certain type of British foppery. Cleese was known to protest redoing the skit because the “silly walks” were tiring and painful. And that was the point, the sketch was so funny that it hurt.
The current state of the Republican leadership is truly a ministry of silliness that similarly makes us laugh until we cry. For example, we all know what it is that animates those Republican voters who refuse to get vaccinated. These “FOV’s” (friends of the virus) are listening to the likes of their proudly unvaccinated, hypocritical, senate idiot, Ron Johnson. Ronny doesn’t believe in much that is real and certifiable (see his quote above regarding the Trump insurrectionists), but he sure can ask his listeners to believe his unenlightened bullshit:
“From my standpoint, because it’s not a fully approved vaccine, I think we probably should have limited the distribution to the vulnerable. To people that really aren’t, you know, for the very young, I see no reason to be pushing vaccines on people,”
The senator from Wisconsin has a BA from the University of Minnesota in business and accounting — not the usual credentialing for a guy who is dispensing information generally in the domain of epidemiologists and medical science professionals — -but he isn’t dumb. His is a demonstration of silliness that is painfully laughable unless one realizes the wages of this brand of silliness has taken an enormous toll on the U.S. and the world with so many ill and record numbers dying. Taking the advice of this Republican dandy is akin to taking tax advice from a Capone. If the advice doesn’t kill you, the advisor may.
Cheap talk
“One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration. I think the best way of looking at what this new administration is the President may have won the nomination, but Bernie Sanders won the argument about what the new administration should be like… — Mitch McConnell, May, 2021
The Senate Minority leader has reprised the scorched earth policies that he famously rolled out in 2010 when he promised his 100% effort at making Barack Obama a one-term president. The minority leader uses language like a blunt instrument that he wields in opposition to the normal operation of government. McConnell mistakes do-nothingism with governance. Obviously enamored with his well-earned sobriquet, the Grim Reaper acts as if the role of the minority leader is similar to that of a soccer goalie. Unlike goalies who love the game, the Reaper lives to stop it. History will record his legacy in the chapter reserved for racists, bigots, and losers. While in the majority, this leader won few battles of note, and in the minority, his cynicism is the better part of his charm. This empty vessel is the visible embodiment of Biden’s favorite G-rated insult for contempt — -malarkey.
Bash and Bully
The stupidity exhibited by those who would have us believe an alternative history of the past administration has gone mainstream in the party that has abandoned 25 of the 26 letters of the alphabet replacing Lincoln with “Q.” Kevin McCarthy. a silly-talker out of two sides of his mouth, berated the former guy for abandoning him on January 6 only to praise him days later when he took the long journey of shame to Mar-A-Lago to say this bit of silliness:
Is it possible that McCarthy even believes this garbage? Does anyone in his party believe, for instance, TFG’s rejection of John McCain’s heroism:
Silliness! And now, the Party of Q is poised to reject a conservative stalwart in the House of Representatives, Liz Cheney, while this past weekend a room filled with Utah Republicans at their annual convention booed their own senator and nearly voted to censure him for his audacity in speaking out against a lout whose hold on the party is tinged with treason and criminality. McCain’s widow is derided by her homies in Arizona because, like John, she has gone all mavericky on the party that has desecrated her husband’s memory and the common sense he espoused.
But then silly talk has become for them the coin of the realm. As they turn their anger and hatred on one another, the source of their dysfunction picks and chooses sides. Cheney, perhaps, has said it best in language both clear and sober:
“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
The little lies that support Cheney’s statement sadly include several told by her. In a classic retelling of Maurice Ogden’s “The Hangman”, Cheney’s record of voting the Trump agenda over 95% of the time hasn’t spared her the condemnation of her fellow Republicans:
”He who serves me best…
Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree.”
Her imminent demise seems now to be her repayment to her own dance with devils. Her fate is no better, no worse, than others before and after her who have basked in the half-life of TFG’s favor. In that universe, the silliest of words is loyalty.
Better Angels
In a political party that once was proudly represented by a founding- leader whose words were both wise and somber, these Republicans deserve Lincoln’s own sobriety in tone and temperament:
“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Better angels reside in a world of hope and enlightenment and so there are few available on the Republican side of town. That leaves it to us. Our better angels, however, are rather fed up with silly talkers and their assault on decency. They, too, are looking for a bit of recompense to put some fresh air beneath their wings. Polling suggests that Republican leadership has a greater responsibility to the nation than any it may perceive to have to its shrinking and morbidly crazy base. The “silly talk” is no longer just silly when it conjures up violence and hatreds that are born of racism and bigotry. There is nothing “silly” about the danger their saying the quiet thing out loud engenders — -nothing but evil. Those whom they chose to victimize with their talk, fall victim to their words which have been the proximate cause for the blood and evil that punctuated the Trump era on January 6. They are what promoted the death and wanton assaults on black lives and the rule of law.
If you turn down the noise and listen closely, you can hear them. It is the sound of men in hoods riding in the night, jackboots marching along to patriotic hymns appropriated from a storied past. They listen to the orders given by leaders who irresponsibly, in turn, listen only to them. In their world turned upside down, there are no leaders, just followers and fools who listen only to themselves.
Originally published at https://www.dailykos.com on May 6, 2021.
