The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for August, 2022

It's been quite a year, hasn't it? I've presented 16 Ass Clown Awards so far this year (seven Right-Cheeks, seven Left-Cheeks, one On-Crack, and one Special Award), and there's still no shortage of "worthy" designees. In fact, it seems like the pool of potential awardees is increasing faster than the estimated number of galaxies in the universe as revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope. This, of course, doesn't make the job of selecting individual (or group) recipients, but it's the job I signed up for and so it's time to person up and execute my responsibility ... unlike the winner of today's award.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, I have decided to name as

The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for August, 2022

The Republican Party

According to my records, this is the tenth time I have presented this award to the GOP (sixteenth if you count six shared awards); in contrast, the Democratic Party has been the sole recipient once before (three times if you count two shared awards). 

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I was a staunch Republican from the time of my first political awakenings (during the presidency of Richard Nixon) until the end of the first administration of George W. Bush. Like many of you, I probably took my leanings from my parents, who were also Republicans, and I still retain some faint traces of my traditional Republican outlook ... I believe government should be as large as it needs to be but no larger, that the government should not unnecessarily intrude into the lives of the citizens, that taxes should be as low as possible consistent with what we want our government to do, and that the nation needs a strong defense against foreign aggression. 

But over time, GOP turned away from me and from the ideals of the Constitution it professes to worship but scarcely understands. I believe that the preamble to the Constitution is the best expression of the intent of the Founders for the direction of the nation: 

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I think that the words promote the general welfare are the ones most often overlooked by today's Republican party, which appears to define welfare only as "the wanton redistribution of wealth from those who earn it to those who don't." The government envisioned by the Founders and laid out in the Constitution promotes the general welfare by establishing a system of government which ensures that every citizen is able to live and prosper under a system of impartial justice, freedom of worship, and security from oppression. 

Today's Republican party is a ghastly parody of the Founders' intent. It openly advocates the primacy and imposition of Evangelical Christianity over all other religions, supports the interest of white Americans of European descent above all other citizens, favors tax laws which benefit corporate interests and the wealthy above those of average Americans, supports ending programs like Medicare and Medicaid which provide affordable health care for millions of Americans, and views justice as a commodity available to those best able to pay for it. It openly lies, ignores provable facts, denies scientific evidence, and prefers to engage in crude rhetoric rather than open and honest debate. It forcefully opposes anything proposed by the Democratic opposition, believing that "owning the libs" is more important than cooperating to pass  legislation which will promote the general welfare. Indeed, a whole decade ago Thomas E. Mann and Norm Ornstein of the Brookings Institute noted that 

“The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”

Today's Republican party lionizes 21st century fascists like Hungary's Viktor Orban, who has relentlessly carved away at the freedoms won by his country after it shook off postwar Soviet domination. It blindly continues to support a crude, deceitful, corrupt, bullying, narcissistic blowhard manifestly unfit to be reelected to the presidency, claiming a list of "accomplishments" that wither in the sunlight of those of his successor. It races to impose legislative restrictions on activities and groups it dislikes, regardless of fairness, scientific validity, and the popular will of the electorate.

And it advertises itself as the party of law and order, but only until the enforcement of the law comes calling on Der Furor, white-collar criminals, tax cheats, January 6th rioters, and other preferred darlings of the right. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the Right-Cheek Ass Clown for August, 2022 is the Republican Party ... once the party of Lincoln, now the party of petty tyrants and social and religious bigots. Choose wisely in November.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when Cartoon Saturday returns.

Bilbo

P.S. - my general policy is not to write these awards while I'm angry ... but I'm angry. Sue me.

B.