I have friends that are post-liberal, MAGA folks. It probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: I have a hard time agreeing with their assessment of our current President’s performance. As I was pondering why they seem to post defenses of the President so frequently, I think I discovered the reason: They are afraid and defensive because they really do see what we “normal” Republicans see: A deeply flawed man whose vulgarity and narcissism really can’t be defended. Nothing says “I want my money back” more than someone who constantly defends a purchase. It’s the classic marketing ploy. You launch a product that was *supposed* to be vetted and eagerly anticipated by the market, just to discover that your market research was wrong and now you are stuck with a product you have to unload. So you over-sell. Constantly promoting the product as SO much better than what people are saying. It’s “New Coke” all over again. That is why MAGA folks saturate their feeds with how great the President is. They are having “buyers remorse” in spades….
What I also find interesting is that all of the comparisons to previous Presidents and administrations are comparisons to Democrats. That is a rather low bar. If he really is the greatest President that ever lived, why not elevate his standing by comparing him to other Republican Presidents. Surely Nixon was worse (not by much)?
So, my heart goes out to you MAGA folks. You bought a 4 year subscription to economic ruin, the disassembly of democracy and a staff of incompetents that will eventually completely erode whatever version of America you thought you were getting. You get to experience some of the pain that normal Republicans are feeling. It is actually MAGA folks who have the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” so often attributed to us folks who see the man clearly. Welcome to our world….
Mean Girls
This has probably been noted before….how could you avoid commenting if you have ever watched a White House press conference, but isn’t Karoline Levitt the perfect press secretary for this Trump administration? She is SO perfect for it that I would suspect she was AI generated. But with the exception that she kinda looks like Lindsey Lohan, she apparently IS real, as indicated by her regular berating of the “fake news” reporters she hosts. An AI generated press secretary and a room filled with AI generated fake news reporters seems a little far fetched, although such a thing is probably not far off in the future. But, it all seems real and I haven’t seen any indication of 6-fingered hands, or three legs or even two heads when she is conducting her usual news-flogging sessions….
So, if all of these news outlets are fakes, why does she bother to even host the news conferences? One could assume she just enjoys the power-move of regularly dressing-down reporters and, there have been some doozies. I still watch with fascination though. It’s like Forrest Gump said: “You never know what you are going to get”. Will Glinda show up or the wicked witch of the west? It’s usually the latter but, you never know, that good “shoulder angel” could show up and convince her that kindness would be the better approach.
Pam Bondi seems to be cut from the same cloth. Just watching her face and listening to her during the recent hearing was both frightening and hilarious. Frightening because it is hard to believe that a professional in a very public and powerful position would speak so coarsely and unkindly to other professionals who represent the American public [kind of applies to most of this administration] but also hilarious because her responses were so ill-informed and inane. A decade ago, OK, maybe more than a decade, treatment like that would get you tossed out. These days the MAGA forces posting on social media say “You go girl!” – It ends up being depressing….
Your public face defines who you are (uh, DUH) and so the hardness and lack of charity that is displayed by this administration, particularly in very visible settings (press conferences, Senate hearings, etc) says everything about character. I wonder if Leavitt and Bondi are that mean in their family settings? I hope not (prison might be more fun). If it’s all an act, Lindsey Lohan has some real competition….
The problem with ICE
I am not talking about the immanent ice storm bearing down on this “great” state of Texas. It’s the enforcement of immigration laws where the problem lies. Stay with me here….
There are really two sets of immigrants that are in the US: Those that came unlawfully and those that didn’t. Yet, ICE is sweeping up both sets of immigrants without distinguishing between them, or even wanting to make the distinction. Before you think I am soft on illegal immigration, I am not. I understand that there are folks that are in a world where their daily existence is threatened by thugs and criminals. They are anxious to find a way out. Given the direction the US is headed, I wonder if I would like to find a more accommodating and more democratic place to live (Canada would be an alternative), but if I did decide to flee to Canada, it would be through whatever legal means that Canada provides. I have no interest in breaking the law in Canada to live there. But imagine that I did choose to go the legal route to permanently enter Canada. Did the paperwork, got scheduled for a hearing, was given temporary permission to enter while I waited for the process to grind through. I gave Canadian Immigration officials info on where I would temporarily live and I minded my P’s and Q’s while there. And then, Mark Carney goes off the rails and says “All immigrants OUT!” and I get dragged out of my temporary home and put into a detention center while waiting for deportation. I don’t know about you but if Canada had offered me refuge, processed my paperwork, given me permission to stay and then sent immigration thugs to throw me out, I would have felt betrayal and wondered just what kind of country goes back on it’s word. Why choose injustice when promised justice? I would label that as a lack of integrity and certainly an abrogation of established law. Mostly I’d be asking “What the …..?”
That is my objection to the current ICE raids on immigrants in this country. Whether you agreed with it or not, the Biden administration didn’t just “open the border” to immigrants. They put together a process, framed in due process, that allowed immigrants to come into the country and then await their day in court to sort out their status. They weren’t “illegal”. They had filled out the “paperwork” in an app, awaited their time to cross, came to the US sharing their information and where they were going e.g. “documented” and then waited as directed. Again, they followed a process lawfully that, behind the process was a promise: That they would be given a chance to make their case and stay. This was a promise by the US, not the Biden administration, not the Trump administration, but by the United States.
The breaking of that promise just shows how low this current administration will go to get it’s way. Having no regard for justice, or promises, and completely lacking integrity, this administration doesn’t care at all for past commitments. And THAT is what I object to most of all. We need secure borders. We need ways to determine who has come here without permission and send them back. But when WE invite and process folks so they can find some peace and possibility of staying here legally, we are obligated to carry through.
Breaking promises is simply something that an authoritarian country like Russia does, not the United States of America.