It's been a banner year for ass clownery, and we still have almost three months to go. The number of ass clowns and the superior quality (if you'll forgive me for expressing it that way) of their ass clownery is beyond amazing ... in place of the current Right-Cheek, Left-Cheek, and (in five-Friday months) On-Crack awards, I could probably announce AM and PM awards every day and still not keep up with the demand. It's what the military calls a "target-rich" environment (which itself is just a clever way of saying you're hopelessly outnumbered).
One option I have considered is that of presenting nothing but multiple or group awards in order to keep up. And that's what I've done this week, in which the obvious awardee is a group which has already received ten awards over the years ... plus two designations (in
2011 - the first year I presented an annual award - and
2017) as Ass Clown of the Year. Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, well-earned recognition as
The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for October, 2021
is bestowed - for the thirteenth time, including twice as Ass Clown of the Year - upon
The Republican Party
First, a disclaimer: my first vote for president was cast in 1972 for Richard Nixon, and I cast mostly party-line votes for Republicans until, in disgust at what the party had become, I voted for Democratic challenger John Kerry over George W. Bush in the 2004 election. I have voted exclusively for Democratic presidential candidates ever since, although in the past I occasionally voted for a Republican at the state or local level when I felt he or she was the better pick ... but it's been a long time since I was able to do that in good conscience.
Today's Republican party is an abomination and an affront to American values. While it likes to think of itself as "the party of Lincoln," it has become the party of Der Furor - petty, vindictive, self-important, and hungry for power at the expense of its dignity, honor, and sense of responsibility to the common welfare. As Thomas E. Mann and Norm Ornstein wrote in 2012,
“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.”
The evidence of this is easy to see. Unable to campaign on ideas and policies which benefit ordinary Americans, the party desperately stirs up its base with hysterical warnings about trumped-up* threats while ruthlessly gerrymandering congressional districts and opposing voting rights legislation to ensure it remains in power despite its inability to win at the ballot box. It not only refuses to denounce, but indeed it spreads and offers encouragement to the wildest of conspiracy theories. Despite a complete, total lack of evidence, the defeat of every lawsuit, and the ignominious collapse of the touted Arizona "fraudit," elected Republicans at every level continue to insist that a vast program of fraud on a world-wide scale** stole an allegedly overwhelming electoral victory from Der Furor. It strongly supports complete religious freedom, but only for evangelical "Christians." It opposes abortion rights, but also opposes all programs which help families with small children. Despite a staggering gun death toll each year, it opposes even the tiniest restrictions on ownership of firearms. Despite the deaths of more than 700,000 Americans from Covid-19, it refuses to endorse vaccination and opposes simple actions (like wearing masks) which can help control the pandemic. The entire program of the Republican Party - to the extent it has one - is tax cuts for the wealthy and big business and the elimination of all regulations on big business. If it has any other ideas that benefit average Americans, it has hidden them well. As Jonathan Cone has observed,
“The incentive structure in conservative politics ... reward(s) the ability to generate outrage rather than the ability to deliver changes in policy. Power (has) been shifting more and more to the party’s most extreme and incendiary voices, whose great skill (is) in landing appearances on Hannity, not providing for their constituents.”
As I write this, Republicans in Congress refuse to compromise or negotiate with Democrats on any legislation. Indeed, they are using every tool at their disposal to bring the government to a crashing halt rather than help pass infrastructure, social reform, climate, and voting rights legislation supported by Americans of all parties. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell - himself a nine-time Ass Clown award and winner of the Ass Clown of the Year award for the last three years) - shamelessly refused until the literal last minute to assist Congressional Democrats in raising the debt ceiling, threatening the collapse of the American economy, downgrading of the nation's credit standing, and economic devastation for millions of Americans. And when he did "cooperate," it was only to the extent of grudgingly stepping back from total procedural opposition*** to allow the breaking of a filibuster which did not solve the debt crisis problem, but simply kicked the political can two months down the road to spoil Christmas rather than Halloween.
Today's Republican party is perhaps best summed up in this famous line from the film "The Dark Knight" ...
“Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
Sadly, we have no Batman to oppose the chaotic anarchy of the GOP Joker.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the Republican Party is named as the Right-Cheek Ass Clown for October, 2012. Heaven help us.
Have a good day, and think wisely about how you vote in the coming elections.
More thoughts tomorrow, when we meet up with Frankenstein's monster in the second week of our annual Cartoon Saturday salute to Halloween.
Bilbo
* Sorry.
*** As opposed to cooperation on actually solving the underlying problem.
