Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, the traditional start of spring and the Christian day of 'rebirth'. In the US, folks are trying to leverage the holiday to pull themselves out of this pandemic-induced gloom, with: successful vaccine distributions, economic growth, a new baseball season. But America is still America and the bad news continues to pour over the internet, with more: attacks against Asian-Americans, mass shootings, deaths at the US Capitol.
America's 'horrible' knob is cranked to eleven and wingnut Republicans are pouring crazy glue – but, I'm not the accuser. In the wake of the Lincoln Project, the guy saying the quiet part loud is former House Speaker John Boehner (talking about newly-elected wingnut Republicans in 2010):
I had to explain how to actually get things done. A lot of that went straight through the ears of most of them, especially the ones who didn’t have brains that got in the way. Incrementalism? Compromise? That wasn’t their thing. A lot of them wanted to blow up Washington. That’s why they thought they were elected.Some of them, well, you could tell they weren’t paying attention because they were just thinking of how to fundraise off of outrage or how they could get on Hannity that night. Ronald Reagan used to say something to the effect that if I get 80 or 90 percent of what I want, that’s a win. These guys wanted 100 percent every time. In fact, I don’t think that would satisfy them, because they didn’t really want legislative victories. They wanted wedge issues and conspiracies and crusades.
Mehdi Hasan sums it up on MSNBC, and as an example, points to Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL, from the video embedded above):
The reason we are where we are today is because these 'old school Republicans' didn't stand up to the crazies. They embraced them, however uneasily. And now the crazies are ascendant. And John Boehner wants to be celebrated for calling them crazy.
Hasan explains the history and the formula. In Boehner's 'old school' days, the cynical idea was to stretch the truth, take the corporate hand-outs, and hold onto office; now the more cynical idea is to troll the opposition, scam everyone you can, and appear on Fox News. My interpretation of the current situation is this: say a bunch of insane and divisive stuff about Democrats, appear on Fox News, fund-raise on wedge issues, appear on Fox News, get elected, appear on Fox news, repeat. Wingnut Republicans are not concerned with governing, just 'performing'.
As for Rep Gaetz, he is known for being one of the greatest practitioners of this trolling method. He is also one of Trump's strongest supporters, going so far as to send an emoji-filled tweet regarding Tiffany's appearance (echoing Trump's own comments regarding Ivanka's appearance). Around the time of the most recent Impeachment, he rallied supporters in Florida to denounce Rep Charlie Crist (D-FL), and across the nation to denounce Rep Liz Cheney (R-WY).
In the past few days, and by way of conforming to 'type', Rep Gaetz is now being accused of, and investigated for sex-trafficking, having sex with a minor, paying women for sex, and taking illegal drugs.
So, trolling is an accepted political practice, and Fox News spins it into a commodity. That 'fact of political life' is now out in the open, and wingnut Republicans are fine with it. Even if Rep Gaetz resigns because of these investigations, the level has been set. The Republican Party will weather this exposure, the 'horrible' will go on, and the wingnuts will no longer feel any need to disguise their deceit.
After all we've been through since Trump took office, after all we've been through since January, what scale of event needs to take place in order to initiate positive cultural change?
Today, Portugal reports less than three hundred new cases of COVID-19 (280), and just seven deaths. Today's numbers are similar to last summer's baseline. After this Easter (Páscoa) weekend, Portugal will begin 'de-confinement'.
cases: 131,222,773 global • 31,362,933 USA • 823,142 Portugal
deaths: 2,855,315 global • 568,058 USA • 16,875 Portugal
UPDATE (Apr 5th): Happily surprised to see Lisbon's cafes and shops open during my mid-morning walk. Also this morning, Mehdi Hasan's 'formula' is echoed by Brian Stelter on CNN:
Found this terrific blog: Pressthink by Jay Rosen at NYU.
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