I have seen a lot of people recently talk about how various former officials from the Orange Menace's administration are so brave for speaking out against him after they leave office. Or you hear about how brave Republican lawmakers are who vote against what he wants. Neither is what I would consider brave.
If they were brave, they would be consistently resisting his usurpations and abuses of power. If they were brave, they would openly work against him while they were a part of his administration, not just talking about it after they leave. If they were brave, they would be willing to completely risk their jobs and power to prevent him from doing the truly awful things he does. If they were brave, they would fight tooth and nail to force him out of office.
But they don't. Instead, they issue tepid statements and belated "condemnations". Instead they wait until there is nothing that can be done and then blare their objections.
And I can't say the Democrats are much better, for the most part. There are some who are fighting back as hard as they can, but most are too enamored with their power to really fight like they should. I do understand their pragmatic instincts, but this is not a time for pragmatism. This is a time to fight and to resist with everything we have and to the extent we are able.
I know that I wish I could do more, but I literally can't afford to take time off of work to join protests. If I did, I wouldn't be able to pay my bills. I don't have health insurance, I don't have job security, and if I miss work, I don't get paid. So all I can do is write and encourage others who can afford to protest and do more.
All the same, I am mortally tired. I am tired of the emotional drain from this leech on our body politic. I am tired of having to justify my existence and my rights to people who believe that I am lesser merely because of my sexuality and gender identity. I am tired of seeing people spew vitriol at those who are already oppressed. I am tired of watching the Orange Menace get away with all sorts of shit because the Republican Party doesn't give a shit about the Constitution or the American people. I am tired of hearing people who claim to be Christians going against everything that Christ taught about supporting and upholding the poor, the widowed, the powerless, and the disenfranchised. I am just mortally tired.
I don't know how much more energy I have to keep on going. It's not that I don't care or am not outraged, it is that I am lacking the energy to express the outrage. And no amount of "me" time seems to help.
I am just tired.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Thursday, January 30, 2020
On the Impeachment of the Orange Menace and How We Got Here
I haven't written a lot about politics in the last year or so and that is on purpose. While I do love politics, I have found the last few years to be beyond depressing. The GOP, which claims to be a party that will defend liberty and the constitutional order, has turned into a political party that wants to control people's bodies, enshrine religious bigotry into law, and support one of the most lawless and corrupt men to occupy the Oval Office. They have supported bigotry, misogyny, racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and all manner of ills because they have gotten power.
I grew up as a Republican and was proud to be one for years. Around the time I came out, I also allowed myself to moderate politically. Before that, I had been one of the most conservative people I know. It was like coming out of the closet gave me permission to be who I truly was. Also, I started to realize that Catholic social teaching (I was Catholic then), led me to some more moderate, even liberal, conclusions.
In 2008, I seriously considered voting for Barack Obama and only didn't because of the issue of abortion. Fast forward to 2010 and the Tea Party. That is when the GOP took a hard right turn and left me. By that point, I hadn't changed that much. I was a slightly right of center moderate, and I watched in horror as the GOP started to morph into a horrific version of itself. Conservatives had taught me that my rights ended where someone else's began, now these same people were advocating for their rights to "religious liberty" trumping everyone else's rights. No less a conservative icon than Justice Antonin Scalia insisted that if there was a law that was generally applicable, it did not allow for exceptions based on religion. But now that Tea Party insisted that their rights to "religious liberty" could trump any law. The party that claimed it was for fiscal responsibility nearly drove the country off the cliff financially by refusing to compromise. The party that claimed to be for family values was fine with slashing and destroying programs that helped families and children survive. And they embraced some wacky and off the wall conspiracy theories to justify the vitriol they spewed at the first black president in US history.
Then came 2016 and the Orange Menace was selected to be the standard bearer for the GOP against the first woman to be nominated by a major political party for the presidency. Despite more and more news coming out about his manifest unfitness for office whether it was because of sexual assault, misogyny, racism, or any other multitude of sins, the GOP continued to stand by him. And the GOP politicians who initially opposed him fell into line like a bunch of lap dogs. Rather than make a principled stand, they couldn't lick his boot fast or long enough. And if they didn't, they were forced out of the party.
From the first day he occupied the Oval Office, the Orange Menace and his lackeys have lied repeatedly about any and every subject. Whether it was the size of the crowds coming out to see him or the so-called greatness of his picks for positions, there was no subject too small for them to lie about. He also blatantly violated the Constitution by refusing to divest from his holdings and financially benefiting foreign leaders staying in hotels with his name on them. The people around him were shown to be corrupt and many were thrown in prison. But the GOP refused to do anything to force him to follow even basic political rules and norms. They just sat back and invented reason after reason why this was ok.
Finally, in 2018, the Democrats won the House and started the investigations that should have been ongoing. The Republicans have never been able to refute a single thing that has been proven, instead they have continually changed the parameters for what is considered unacceptable. Everytime that the Orange Menace crosses the threshold of what they have deemed unacceptable, they come up with an excuse as to why that is actually ok and say that something worse is unacceptable. Every time he did something worse, people would keep on hoping that there would be some Republicans who would stand up to him, but that never happened. And whenever the Democrats would investigate and try and provide oversight, the Orange Menace and his minions would stall and refuse to cooperate, thwarting the Constitutional power of Congress.
So then came news that the Orange Menace conditioned aid to Ukraine, which was mandated by Congress, on their helping him investigate his political enemies and then the excuses kicked into high gear. The GOP claimed that what happened was perfectly normal and that there was no quid pro quo. Then this was proven wrong and they said that it was ok because it came to naught. They claimed that he was truly concerned about corruption so what he did was not a bad thing. But he was impeached anyway, so now the Senate is holding a "trial". I use quotes because the results are foreordained because the GOP senators are continuing to provide as much cover as they can.
The Orange Menace refused to let people who had worked for him testify in the impeachment hearings, and the GOP whines that the Democrats aren't allowing him to defend himself. The GOP senators refused to vote to allow witnesses in the initial rules and then complain that the Democrats aren't providing them with witnesses to testify. The Orange Menace's attorneys make up defenses out of whole cloth, claiming that if the person who occupies the Oval Office believes that the nation is best with them in charge, they can do what they want to stay there. Basically, they have argued that the interests of the nation are the same as the Orange Menace's, thus making him incapable of breaking the law. Or as Louis XIV said "L'etat c'est moi" or "The state is I."
At the base, this is all about power, not what is best for the nation. The GOP wants to enshrine fundamentalist "Christian" dogma as law and they will stop at nothing to do so. Whether it is voter suppression, controlling women's bodies, controlling the bodies of trans people, invading the bedrooms of queer people, or keeping out people of color, they have succumbed to the basest and worst impulses of humanity. I truly fear for the future of the country. I don't know what will happen next, but I do know that the GOP (as it currently exists) needs to be destroyed if we are ever to hope to regain sanity in this country. The GOP has truly become a truly regressive party that must be stopped. That is what I know with absolute certainty.
I grew up as a Republican and was proud to be one for years. Around the time I came out, I also allowed myself to moderate politically. Before that, I had been one of the most conservative people I know. It was like coming out of the closet gave me permission to be who I truly was. Also, I started to realize that Catholic social teaching (I was Catholic then), led me to some more moderate, even liberal, conclusions.
In 2008, I seriously considered voting for Barack Obama and only didn't because of the issue of abortion. Fast forward to 2010 and the Tea Party. That is when the GOP took a hard right turn and left me. By that point, I hadn't changed that much. I was a slightly right of center moderate, and I watched in horror as the GOP started to morph into a horrific version of itself. Conservatives had taught me that my rights ended where someone else's began, now these same people were advocating for their rights to "religious liberty" trumping everyone else's rights. No less a conservative icon than Justice Antonin Scalia insisted that if there was a law that was generally applicable, it did not allow for exceptions based on religion. But now that Tea Party insisted that their rights to "religious liberty" could trump any law. The party that claimed it was for fiscal responsibility nearly drove the country off the cliff financially by refusing to compromise. The party that claimed to be for family values was fine with slashing and destroying programs that helped families and children survive. And they embraced some wacky and off the wall conspiracy theories to justify the vitriol they spewed at the first black president in US history.
Then came 2016 and the Orange Menace was selected to be the standard bearer for the GOP against the first woman to be nominated by a major political party for the presidency. Despite more and more news coming out about his manifest unfitness for office whether it was because of sexual assault, misogyny, racism, or any other multitude of sins, the GOP continued to stand by him. And the GOP politicians who initially opposed him fell into line like a bunch of lap dogs. Rather than make a principled stand, they couldn't lick his boot fast or long enough. And if they didn't, they were forced out of the party.
From the first day he occupied the Oval Office, the Orange Menace and his lackeys have lied repeatedly about any and every subject. Whether it was the size of the crowds coming out to see him or the so-called greatness of his picks for positions, there was no subject too small for them to lie about. He also blatantly violated the Constitution by refusing to divest from his holdings and financially benefiting foreign leaders staying in hotels with his name on them. The people around him were shown to be corrupt and many were thrown in prison. But the GOP refused to do anything to force him to follow even basic political rules and norms. They just sat back and invented reason after reason why this was ok.
Finally, in 2018, the Democrats won the House and started the investigations that should have been ongoing. The Republicans have never been able to refute a single thing that has been proven, instead they have continually changed the parameters for what is considered unacceptable. Everytime that the Orange Menace crosses the threshold of what they have deemed unacceptable, they come up with an excuse as to why that is actually ok and say that something worse is unacceptable. Every time he did something worse, people would keep on hoping that there would be some Republicans who would stand up to him, but that never happened. And whenever the Democrats would investigate and try and provide oversight, the Orange Menace and his minions would stall and refuse to cooperate, thwarting the Constitutional power of Congress.
So then came news that the Orange Menace conditioned aid to Ukraine, which was mandated by Congress, on their helping him investigate his political enemies and then the excuses kicked into high gear. The GOP claimed that what happened was perfectly normal and that there was no quid pro quo. Then this was proven wrong and they said that it was ok because it came to naught. They claimed that he was truly concerned about corruption so what he did was not a bad thing. But he was impeached anyway, so now the Senate is holding a "trial". I use quotes because the results are foreordained because the GOP senators are continuing to provide as much cover as they can.
The Orange Menace refused to let people who had worked for him testify in the impeachment hearings, and the GOP whines that the Democrats aren't allowing him to defend himself. The GOP senators refused to vote to allow witnesses in the initial rules and then complain that the Democrats aren't providing them with witnesses to testify. The Orange Menace's attorneys make up defenses out of whole cloth, claiming that if the person who occupies the Oval Office believes that the nation is best with them in charge, they can do what they want to stay there. Basically, they have argued that the interests of the nation are the same as the Orange Menace's, thus making him incapable of breaking the law. Or as Louis XIV said "L'etat c'est moi" or "The state is I."
At the base, this is all about power, not what is best for the nation. The GOP wants to enshrine fundamentalist "Christian" dogma as law and they will stop at nothing to do so. Whether it is voter suppression, controlling women's bodies, controlling the bodies of trans people, invading the bedrooms of queer people, or keeping out people of color, they have succumbed to the basest and worst impulses of humanity. I truly fear for the future of the country. I don't know what will happen next, but I do know that the GOP (as it currently exists) needs to be destroyed if we are ever to hope to regain sanity in this country. The GOP has truly become a truly regressive party that must be stopped. That is what I know with absolute certainty.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)