A new month has begun, and with it comes new opportunities to recognize noteworthy (as opposed to praiseworthy) achievements in ass-clownery. The field of candidates is, as always, quite broad and deep, but this time the choice seems to me to be fairly obvious.
As we approach the end of the year and the promise ... or threat ... of the year to come, we present the award for
The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for November, 2021
to
The Democratic Party
The Democratic Party has received this award twice before, together with the Republican Party, in honor of the two parties' inability to work together for the benefit of the nation. This is the first time I have presented it to the Democrats on their own.
I think we all realize that both of our major parties have their own shortcomings and deserve their share of blame for the state of the nation. But where the Republicans have earned their awards by their complete lack of interest in programs and policies which benefit anyone but the wealthy and big business and their focus on the acquisition and retention of power through stacking the judiciary, suppressing the votes of those who might oppose them, and harping on imagined culture wars, the Democrats have earned this award for their utter ineptitude in using their control (however narrow) of the Presidency and Congress to advance their agenda.
The stupid and needless fighting between the Progressive and the Moderate wings of the Democratic Party have done nothing but dilute power of their winning message by allowing the GOP to seize control of the messaging and paint the Democrats as radical socialists not only unable to deliver on their promises but hell-bent on destroying the nation. The squabbling among Democrats has obscured the fact that they are actually trying to legislate ... to show that the government can deliver programs that benefit actual, ordinary Americans rather than big business and the top 1%. As best I can remember, the only actual legislation that Republicans have passed for years was the huge - and unpaid-for - tax cut that provided limited aid to real people while delivering a huge windfall to the GOP's big-money supporters.
The Democrats are doing the hard work of trying to legislate, but are doing it in the worst possible way. They are squandering their message of help for middle America by letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. The Republicans, for their part, are happy to sit back and let the Democrats take aim at their collective feet while they wait for their next opportunity to seize power and do ... well ... nothing. As former President Lyndon Johnson once said, "Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one."
The Democrats at least want to be good carpenters ... but are destroying their own barn through their inability to work together. They earn, in addition to this award, a score of 3,500 on the Gohmert Stupidity Scale ... reflective of the fact that they appear to be unable to recognize and correct the damage their stupidity is causing to themselves and the nation.
The Democrats have heroically saved defeat from the jaws of victory, allowing their self-destructive internal arguing to hand the GOP an undeserved win that many ... including many Republicans ... will soon come to regret. We are reentering the era of the Empowerment of the Crazy, with all that it implies.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the Right-Cheek Ass Clown for November, 2021, is the Democratic Party. Let us hope they can save their program of aid for the nation from their own political ineptitude.
Have a good day, and come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday. More thoughts then.
Bilbo
4 comments:
Unfortunately well deserved today.
Not sure if it's a Freudian slip, or if it's deliberate, but I like your use of "Right-Wing" instead of "Right-Cheek" in the next-to-last paragraph.
Mike - it hurt, but it was righteous.
Dave - your eagle eye has caught me again. Not sure how that slipped past my multiple proof-reads in the course of the week, but I fixed it.
Yes. It's unfortunate but deserved. You expressed it very well. A big part of their ineptness is with communication. I'm often amazed at how bad Democrats are at it.
I think much of the leadership expects the public to be paying close attention to what's going on and thus voting for them despite the infighting, legislative nuance and morass, as well as the flood of negative messaging about them.
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